A Homily – The Fifth Sunday of Easter (Year B)

First Reading - Acts 9:26-31 ©

Responsorial Psalm - Psalm 21(22):26-28,30-32

Second Reading - 1 John 3:18-24 ©

Gospel Acclamation – John 15: 4, 5

The Gospel According to John – 15:1 – 8 ©

 

(NAB)

 

Listen!

 These stories from The Book of Acts are the stories of the first Christians. They are illuminating, if not exactly true, nevertheless they tell us something of what Christians wanted other people to believe about them, to control the narrative…so to speak, concerning what was being said about them.

 These readings are like records that reveal the work of the early church and its progress in the world, as well as the matters that divided them from one another.

 Be mindful.

 God hears you; the creator of the universe knows your innermost thoughts. God knows you as you know yourself, God understands all that you are and all that you struggle with. God feels your experience in the world as you feel it. God is with you; your struggles are God’s own.

 Know this.

 God has given you the power to save yourself, the power to surrender, to agonize or be at peace, but God will not rescue you from your dilemma; God will never intervene on your behalf.

 Remember.

 God’s love reaches everyone, even the wealthy and the greedy, as much as to the poor and the needy. When the wealthy refuse to give to those in need, it is not because God ‘s love is not alive in them, but because they are dead to God’s love.

 Be assured, God’s love is present and trying to break through. Do not abandon them, just as we would wish that they not abandon those in need, stay with them and remembrance of Jesus who showed us the way, who taught us to  “love our enemy,” and “pray for those who persecute us.”

 Love is its own reward, do not seek anything else in return for love, save love itself.

 Understand this.

 Nothing good or useful comes from believing in a name, whatever that means; it is only in loving, in the act of caring that good things come through us and to us.

 God is alive in all people, no one is excluded from the love of God. If you are a servant of God, you will honor this. You will honor it, not because it has been proven to you and the way is now beyond doubt, you will honor it because you trust God, and your faith informs you

 Be on the lookout for false prophets, look to everyone around you, especially those who claim to be “true believers.”

 Look to yourself.

 We are imperfect, all of us. We have false understandings of who God is, each of us. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, this is the human condition. No matter how quickly we may apprehend the truth, or how swiftly comprehension comes to us, we all confound our understanding of it by the admixture of our fears, hopes and desires for ourselves, our friends and families…it cant be helped.

 Therefor we are called on to trust God, to trust the image of God that was present in Jesus, not the God of categorical propositions, idioms and dogma. The teaching of the church is meant to foster belief in God, to nurture faith, trust and understanding.

 We are called on to trust God, to forgive and to accept forgiveness, to love and be loved.

 Be mindful.

 God dwells within the obedient and the disobedient, the faithful and the unfaithful, God does not hold back the divine love from anyone.

 God lives in all people, God knows you, and God knows them, God knows us, even as we know ourselves.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today, it comes from a place of division and fear, a theme that is often repeated in the early church facing persecutions from without, and divisions from within.

 It is right and good to say that Jesus is the vine, and God the vine dresser, understanding that the vinedresser takes care of the whole plant; from root to branch, pruning, binding and bringing to flower all the fruit that is productive of the good wine. The vine dresser cares for the vine and all its shoots, the vine dresser does not seek to kill it.

 Know this.

 God is the creator of all that is; everything that is comes to be through the vine, as the introduction to John’s Gospel attests:

 In the beginning was the word and all things came to be through him, all things are in him, and not one thing exists without him.

 The vine weaves through all creation, it touches every person, it sustains every living thing and undergirds the created order.

 Everyone is within the vine, Christian and non-Christian alike…the good, the bad and the ugly.

 Be mindful.

 When the writers of John’s Gospel were writing today’s verse, they were concerned with the faithfulness of their members. They drafted warning for those they thought would betray them, and provided a rationale for excluding those whom they thought had done so.

 This is not the way.

 Remember Jesus, who forgave the men who murdered him, even while he was dying on the cross. Remember Peter, who denied him, and Paul who persecuted Christians. They were all in the vine, before they ever knew the name of Jesus they were there, each and every one of them; they were in the vine with Judas Iscariot and Pontius Pilate, and all those members of the Sanhedrin, the Herodians and other run of the mill villains. They were all there in the vine, both in their faithfulness and in their most faithful moments.

 

First Reading - Acts 9:26-31 ©

Barnabas Explained How the Lord Had Appeared to Saul on His Journey

When Saul got to Jerusalem he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him: they could not believe he was really a disciple. Barnabas, however, took charge of him, introduced him to the apostles, and explained how the Lord had appeared to Saul and spoken to him on his journey, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. Saul now started to go round with them in Jerusalem, preaching fearlessly in the name of the Lord. But after he had spoken to the Hellenists, and argued with them, they became determined to kill him. When the brothers knew, they took him to Caesarea, and sent him off from there to Tarsus.

  The churches throughout Judaea, Galilee and Samaria were now left in peace, building themselves up, living in the fear of the Lord, and filled with the consolation of the Holy Spirit.

 

Responsorial Psalm - Psalm 21(22):26-28,30-32

The Just Man Suffers; the Lord Hears Him

This is the time of repentance for us to atone for our sins and seek salvation.

God, my God, why have you abandoned me?

  The words that I groan do not reach my saviour.

My God, I call by day and you do not listen.

  I call to you by night, but no rest comes.

But still you are holy,

  the one whom Israel praises.

Our fathers put their hope in you;

  they gave you their trust and you freed them.

They called on you and they were saved,

  they trusted and were not disappointed.

But I am a worm and no man,

  despised by mankind and rejected by the people.

All who see me deride me,

  they make faces and toss their heads:

“He trusted in the Lord, so let the Lord rescue him:

  let him save him, if he truly delights in him!”

Indeed, you drew me from my mother’s womb,

  you set me to suck at her breasts.

I have depended on you since before I was born,

  from my mother’s womb you have been my God.

Do not be far from me now,

  for my tribulation is close at hand,

  for there is no-one who will help.

I am surrounded by many cattle,

  the bulls of Bashan hem me in.

Their mouths open wide before me,

  like a fierce and roaring lion.

I have flowed away like water,

  and all my bones come apart.

My heart has turned to wax,

  it melts away within me.

My mouth is dry as burnt clay,

  my tongue sticks in my throat:

  you have laid me in the dust of death.

I am surrounded by many dogs,

  my enemies unite and hem me in.

They have pierced my hands and my feet:

  I can count all my bones.

They gaze on me, they inspect me.

They have divided my clothing between them,

  they have cast lots for my garment.

So you, Lord, do not stay away:

  Lord, my strength, hurry to my help.

Rescue my soul from the sword,

  my only child from the teeth of the dogs.

Save me from the lion’s mouth,

  from the wild oxen’s horns that brought me low.

I will tell of your glory to my brethren;

  I will praise you in the midst of the assembly.

Praise the Lord, you who fear him!

  Give him glory, all the seed of Jacob.

Let Israel tremble before him,

  for he does not spurn the poor or ignore their plight.

He does not turn his face away –

  whoever calls on him, he listens.

I shall cry out your praise in the great assembly,

  I shall fulfil my vows before all those who fear you.

The poor will eat and be filled,

  those who seek the Lord will praise him.

  “Let their hearts live for ever!”

All the ends of the earth will remember the Lord:

  they will turn to him.

All the families of nations will worship before him.

For the Lord’s is the kingdom,

  it is he who will rule all the nations.

Him alone will they praise, those who sleep in the earth;

  they will worship before him, who go down into the dust.

But my soul will be alive to him,

  and my seed shall serve him.

They shall tell of the Lord to the next generation,

  they shall proclaim his righteousness to a people yet to be born.

  “Hear what the Lord has done!”

 

Second Reading - 1 John 3:18-24 ©

The Commandment of Faith and Love

My children, our love is not to be just words or mere talk, but something real and active; only by this can we be certain that we are children of the truth and be able to quieten our conscience in his presence, whatever accusations it may raise against us, because God is greater than our conscience and he knows everything.

 My dear people, if we cannot be condemned by our own conscience, we need not be afraid in God’s presence, and whatever we ask him, we shall receive, because we keep his ommandments and live the kind of life that he wants.

 His commandments are these:

 That we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and that we love one another as he told us to.

 Whoever keeps his commandments lives in God and God lives in him.

 We know that he lives in us by the Spirit that he has given us.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 15: 4, 5

Alleluia, alleluia!

Make your home in me, as I make mine in you.

Whoever remains in me bears fruit in plenty.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to John – 15:1 – 8 ©

I Am the Vine, You Are the Branches

Jesus said to his disciples:

‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.

Every branch in me that bears no fruit he cuts away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes to make it bear even more.

You are pruned already, by means of the word that I have spoken to you.

Make your home in me, as I make mine in you.

As a branch cannot bear fruit all by itself, but must remain part of the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me.

I am the vine, you are the branches.

Whoever remains in me, with me in him, bears fruit in plenty; for cut off from me you can do nothing.

Anyone who does not remain in me is like a branch that has been thrown away – he withers; these branches are collected and thrown on the fire, and they are burnt.

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask what you will and you shall get it.

It is to the glory of my Father that you should bear much fruit, and then you will be my disciples.’

 

The Fifth Sunday of Easter (Year B)