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

First Reading – Acts 1:15-17,20-26 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 102(103):1-2,11-12,19-20

Second Reading – 1 John 4:11-16 ©

Gospel Acclamation – John 14:18

The Gospel According to John – 17:11 – 17 ©

 

(NAB)

 

Listen!

The Book of Acts was written decades, nearly a century after Jesus was killed, it was written by men who never met Jesus, who were themselves the followers of a man who never met Jesus.

It is likely that the authors of Acts had some contact with Peter and some of the other Disciples, but that contact was limited, and much of what is written in Acts concerning those encounters is hearsay. 

Understand.

David does not foretell the future, we know this because God, the creator of the universe, God created us in freedom; the future is not written.

There was no divine compulsion at work when the disciples named a person to take the place of Judas among them. It was their idea, one they instantiated for their own reasons. This is a reflection of the reality that the structure of the church is a human construction. The church was formed the way it is, with its orders, and hierarchies to suit the purposes of human beings, not God.

Drawing of lots is a superstitious practice, one that never has and never could reveal the will of God, who would never have intervened in such a matter in the first place.

This is propaganda. The fate of the church was not left to a game of chance. This narrative should be rejected on its face; it is full of falsehoods, fabrications and errors of reasoning, giving it no place in the sacred text, other than to serve as a reminder that the early church was busy after the fact, writing justifications for its management of the nascent movement.

 Consider the wisdom of the psalms.

 Give thanks to God. Give thanks for life, the freedom of self-determination, and every other aspect of our being that accommodates our personhood. Give thanks to those who are loving, to the peacemakers…bless them as you are able.

 Bless all of God’s children, as God does, love them all, both the good and the bad, the helpful and the harmful, the just and the unjust.

 Be mindful.

 God is known through us, through the love we bear toward all human beings, toward all of God’s children who carry within themselves a spark of the divine, a seed of the Word, the divine spirit.

 God resides in everyone, but not everyone acts as if this is true. It requires faith to love and to love fully, even your friends and family. It requires a much greater level of faith to extend that love to a stranger, and even more to love your enemy.

 The faithful do not require proof that God’s spirit resides in them or in anyone; the faithful know that dwells in all people. This cannot be proven with the recitation of a creed; neither can it be undone by any deed.

 We manifest our love for God by the love we share with our family and friends, even more when we exercise the divine compassion for those we do not know, to those we fear, or to those who have done us harm.

 God will not abandon anyone. God will leave no orphans, not one of God’s children will be abandon in the wasteland of sin; none shall be lost.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today, it is replete with confusion.

 Set aside for a moment the fixation on names in today’s text, they are meaningless. It is not the name of the nameless God, that has or confers power. Neither is the name of the man from Nazareth, whose name was not Jesus, that has power. There is no power in a name, names are accidental features of our identity.

 Nevertheless, the notion that names have power in and of themselves was a popular superstition at the time the gospels were written. Concern for the power of names was especially important to other groups of Christians who were later prosecuted for heresy, such as the so-called Gnostics and Jewish practitioners of the Kabbalah.

 When the Gospel writers suggested that Jesus had kept all of the disciples except one, Judas Iscariot, true to the mission, they are engaged in a cover up. This suggestion  completely over looks how all of the disciples abandoned Jesus when he was arrested.

 They ran away and hid.

 It may be true that Judas acted alone when he sold Jesus out, but the rest of them failed to stand by Jesus, including Peter who explicitly denied Jesus three times on the night he was arrested; only his mother and his female followers understood what was going on and stayed with him.

 Today’s reading also puts forward the contradictory claim that when Judas betrayed Jesus, and therefore God, did so in fulfillment of scripture.

Was Judas acting freely, or was he compelled? The narrative is very murky.

 Remember.

 God is present in the world, God is everywhere. We exist within the divine being. God is the sole creator, all things come to be in and through God, God who sustains us all. The church has rejected all forms of dualism in theory, it has rejected dualism in its philosophy, but not liturgically or in its spiritual practice.

 As followers of the way we are called on to finish that that work, to strip dualism from the sacred rites, and every other place where it persists.

 

First Reading – Acts 1:15-17,20-26 ©

'Let Someone Else Take His Office'

One day Peter stood up to speak to the brothers – there were about a hundred and twenty persons in the congregation: ‘Brothers, the passage of scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit, speaking through David, foretells the fate of Judas, who offered himself as a guide to the men who arrested Jesus – after having been one of our number and actually sharing this ministry of ours. Now in the Book of Psalms it says:

Let someone else take his office.

‘We must therefore choose someone who has been with us the whole time that the Lord Jesus was travelling round with us, someone who was with us right from the time when John was baptising until the day when he was taken up from us – and he can act with us as a witness to his resurrection.’

  Having nominated two candidates, Joseph known as Barsabbas, whose surname was Justus, and Matthias, they prayed, ‘Lord, you can read everyone’s heart; show us therefore which of these two you have chosen to take over this ministry and apostolate, which Judas abandoned to go to his proper place.’ They then drew lots for them, and as the lot fell to Matthias, he was listed as one of the twelve apostles.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 102(103):1-2,11-12,19-20

Praise of the Compassionate Lord

 My soul, give thanks to the Lord, and never forget all his blessings. Alleluia.

 My soul, bless the Lord!

  All that is in me, bless his holy name.

My soul, bless the Lord!

  Never forget all he has done for you.

The Lord, who forgives your wrongdoing,

  who heals all your weaknesses.

The Lord, who redeems your life from destruction,

  who crowns you with kindness and compassion.

The Lord, who fills your age with good things,

  who renews your youth like an eagle’s.

The Lord, who gives fair judgements,

  who gives judgement in favour of the oppressed.

As a father has compassion on his sons, the Lord has pity on those who fear him.

The Lord is compassion and kindness,

  full of patience, full of mercy.

He will not fight against you for ever:

  he will not always be angry.

He does not treat us as our sins deserve;

  he does not pay us back for our wrongdoing.

As high as the sky above the earth,

  so great is his kindness to those who fear him.

As far as east is from west,

  so far he has put our wrongdoing from us.

As a father cares for his children,

  so the Lord cares for those who fear him.

For he knows how we are made,

  he remembers we are nothing but dust.

Man – his life is like grass,

  he blossoms and withers like flowers of the field.

The wind blows and carries him away:

  no trace of him remains.

The Lord has been kind from the beginning;

  to those who fear him his kindness lasts for ever.

His justice is for their children’s children,

  for those who keep his covenant,

  for those who remember his commandments

  and try to perform them.

The Lord’s throne is high in the heavens

  and his rule shall extend over all.

Bless the Lord, all his angels,

  strong in your strength, doers of his command,

  bless him as you hear his words.

Bless the Lord, all his powers,

  his servants who do his will.

Bless the Lord, all he has created,

  in every place that he rules.

My soul, bless the Lord!

 

Second Reading – 1 John 4:11-16 ©

Anyone Who Lives in Love Lives in God, and God Lives in Him

My dear people, since God has loved us so much, we too should love one another.

No one has ever seen God; but as long as we love one another God will live in us

and his love will be complete in us.

We can know that we are living in him and he is living in us because he lets us share his Spirit.

We ourselves saw and we testify that the Father sent his Son as saviour of the world.

If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him, and he in God.

We ourselves have known and put our faith in God’s love towards ourselves.

God is love and anyone who lives in love lives in God, and God lives in him.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 14:18

Alleluia, alleluia!

I will not leave you orphans, says the Lord; I will come back to you, and your hearts will be full of joy.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to John – 17:11 – 17 ©

Father, Keep Those You Have Given Me True to Your Name

 Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said:

 ‘Holy Father, keep those you have given me true to your name, so that they may be one like us.

While I was with them, I kept those you had given me true to your name.

I have watched over them and not one is lost except the one who chose to be lost, and this was to fulfil the scriptures.

But now I am coming to you and while still in the world I say these things to share my joy with them to the full.

I passed your word on to them, and the world hated them, because they belong to the world

no more than I belong to the world.

I am not asking you to remove them from the world, but to protect them from the evil one.

They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world.

Consecrate them in the truth; your word is truth.

As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world, and for their sake I consecrate myself so that they too may be consecrated in truth.’

 

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

A Homily – Feast of the Ascension (Year B), a Holy Day of Obligation

First Reading – Acts 1:1-11 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 46(47):2-3,6-9

Second Reading – Ephesians 4:1-13 ©

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 28:19,20

The Gospel According to Mark 16:15-20 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 Consider the mindset of Jesus’ disciples as they gave witness to the ascension while still clinging to the hope that Jesus would establish a messianic kingdom in Judea, or that they could establish one in his name. The disciples successfully transmitted their hope to the next generation of apostles, as to the authors of the gospels and the Book of Acts, though the content of their hopes, their rationale and the belief system which supported it had begun to deviate from the source, sometimes in significant ways, as the years and decades mounted.

 Consider how Jesus in his final moments with his companions, directs their attention to the world beyond Judea, beyond Israel and Samaria, beyond the Ptolemy’s and Seleucid’s, beyond Egypt and Roman Palestine, beyond the power of empires and out toward the broader world…and then he left.

 Consider the words of the psalmist.

 It is right to praise God, the creator of the Universe, but it is not right to assume that God favors one people over another, or that God makes one nation the subject of another, do not believe that walks over people, puts them underfoot, or the foot of any other.

 God, the true God, the God of love and mercy; our God is a liberator who shuns war and violence.

 The true God is not a king, rather God comes to us as a parent, as God a friend. In the psalm God sorrows over Jacob, is saddened by Israel, and is mournful for the church. Do not look for God on a throne; if you seek the face of God look to your neighbor.

 Consider the teaching of the apostle when he calls us to selflessness, to openheartedness and love, and to the recognition that Gods spirit animates all things, that God is the God of all beings, and that no one is beyond the scope of God’s grace.

Know this.

 The “Great Commission,” is a piece of propaganda. The event itself never happened, but the authors of Matthew’s Gospel, writing over one hundred years after Jesus was killed, they thought it was necessary to set a few lines into the sacred text regarding their authority to speak and act in Jesus’ name (exclusively).

 These were the same people who sold him to the Sanhedrin, abandoned and denied him.  

 Nevertheless, the message itself is reasonable, it articulates the basic mission of the church, to teach the way to all people of all nations, to teach them to be seekers of justice and servants of truth, people who care for the stranger, the widow and the orphan.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today.

 Proclaim the good news:

 Death is not the end. God loves you, you are saved…you are saved already!

 You are not saved by ritual magic and blood rites. We are not Gnostics, your salvation is not a matter of your possessing the correct belief. We are saved out of the super-abundance of divine grace, we are saved because God loves us.

 God love’s everyone and loses no-one, that is the good news.

 Therefore, pay no attention to preachers who come at you like carnival barkers with their tricks and gimmicks, trying to shake you down.

 Grace is free and it has no limit.

 

First Reading – Acts 1:1-11 ©

Jesus Was Lifted Up While They Looked On

In my earlier work, Theophilus, I dealt with everything Jesus had done and taught from the beginning until the day he gave his instructions to the apostles he had chosen through the Holy Spirit, and was taken up to heaven. He had shown himself alive to them after his Passion by many demonstrations: for forty days he had continued to appear to them and tell them about the kingdom of God. When he had been at table with them, he had told them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for what the Father had promised. ‘It is’ he had said ‘what you have heard me speak about: John baptised with water but you, not many days from now, will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.’

  Now having met together, they asked him, ‘Lord, has the time come? Are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He replied, ‘It is not for you to know times or dates that the Father has decided by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and then you will be my witnesses not only in Jerusalem but throughout Judaea and Samaria, and indeed to the ends of the earth.’

  As he said this he was lifted up while they looked on, and a cloud took him from their sight. They were still staring into the sky when suddenly two men in white were standing near them and they said, ‘Why are you men from Galilee standing here looking into the sky? Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven, this same Jesus will come back in the same way as you have seen him go there.’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 46(47):2-3,6-9

The Lord is King

Cry to God with shouts of joy.

All nations, clap your hands;

  cry out to God in exultation,

for the Lord, the Most High, is greatly to be feared,

  and King over all the earth.

He has made whole peoples our subjects,

  put nations beneath our feet.

He has chosen our inheritance for us,

  the pride of Jacob, whom he loved.

God ascends amid rejoicing,

  the Lord goes up with trumpet blast.

Sing to God, sing praise.

  Sing to our king, sing praise.

God is king over the whole earth:

  sing to him with all your skill.

God reigns over the nations;

  God sits on his holy throne.

The nobles of the peoples join together

  with the people of the God of Abraham,

for to God belong the armies of the earth;

  he is high above all things.

 

Second Reading – Ephesians 4:1-13 ©

We are All to Come to Unity, Fully Mature in the Knowledge of the Son of God

I, the prisoner in the Lord, implore you to lead a life worthy of your vocation. Bear with one another charitably, in complete selflessness, gentleness and patience. Do all you can to preserve the unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together. There is one Body, one Spirit, just as you were all called into one and the same hope when you were called. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God who is Father of all, over all, through all and within all.

  Each one of us, however, has been given his own share of grace, given as Christ allotted it. It was said that he would:

When he ascended to the height, he captured prisoners,

he gave gifts to men.

When it says, ‘he ascended’, what can it mean if not that he descended right down to the lower regions of the earth? The one who rose higher than all the heavens to fill all things is none other than the one who descended. And to some, his gift was that they should be apostles; to some, prophets; to some, evangelists; to some, pastors and teachers; so that the saints together make a unity in the work of service, building up the body of Christ. In this way we are all to come to unity in our faith and in our knowledge of the Son of God, until we become the perfect Man, fully mature with the fullness of Christ himself.

 

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 28:19,20

Alleluia, alleluia!

Go, make disciples of all the nations.

I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Mark 16:15-20 ©

Go Out to the Whole World; Proclaim the Good News

Jesus showed himself to the Eleven and said to them:

  ‘Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News to all creation. He who believes and is baptised will be saved; he who does not believe will be condemned. These are the signs that will be associated with believers: in my name they will cast out devils; they will have the gift of tongues; they will pick up snakes in their hands, and be unharmed should they drink deadly poison; they will lay their hands on the sick, who will recover.’

  And so the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven: there at the right hand of God he took his place, while they, going out, preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word by the signs that accompanied it.

 

Feast of the Ascension, a Holy Day of Obligation, Year B

Mary Stewart – Author and Mythologist, Arthurian, Hero

I read my first book by Mary Stewart in the summer between the fifth and sixth grades: The Crystal Cave, the first book in her famous Merlin Trilogy.

 Her novel opened my eyes to many things, to the notion that an author could build a credible mythological narrative based on actual historical antecedents for Camelot and King Arthur, subjects that at the age of eleven I was already fascinated with. Though, until I read Mary Stewart I thought of the Knights of the Roundtable as belonging to the world of make-believe, like Hercules, or Sinbad, I thought of them as fantastical, not pure fantasy like Gandalf and Bilbo Baggins, but nearer to them than they were to Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar or Genghis Khan.

 Mary Stewart wrote her trilogy (and then a fourth book) from the perspective of Merlin; she set the timeline in the fifth century CE, when Roman influence was waning in the British Isles, her books linked the rise of the Arthurian kingdom to a Roman dynasty, a ruling elite that had adopted the local customs and had become syncretized to their cultural norms, a group of so-called Gallo Romans who lived among Celtic and Brithonic people among whom were the Welsh, the Scots and the Picts.

 She wrote about the Roman Army, thereby introducing me to the Cult of Mithras, Sol Invictus; in writing about these Celts, otherwise known as the Gaul, she wrote about an ancient culture whose sphere of influence included Ireland and the British Isles, all of France and Spain. She wrote about this Indo-European culture that once covered the continents of Eurasia from the Iceland to Sri Lanka…and she wrote about the Druids, she wrote about their myths and legends. She peeled away the most fantastical elements associated with their place in Celtic culture, leaving me to wonder if what was left, even the magic might be real.

 The figures in her stories, Uther Pendragon, Merlin, Igraine and Arthur were presented with a kind of grittiness that made me believe in them as if they were real people. They were already mythic figures in my imagination, but through her narrative they became tangible and my connection to them grew.

 Through Mary Stewart’s presentation of Mithraism, because of its connections to the early Christian movement, I came to be interested in the real history of Church, I became a researcher, and I began to question everything that I had been told.

 I cannot thank her enough for this.

 Mary Stewart had an oversized influence on my life, though I did go further in her body of work than the Merlin Trilogy. At that time in my life and for years to come I read everything I could get my hands on concerning King Arthur, including Mallory’s, the La Morte de Artur, and all of the variations of that text which flowed from it.

 All of those readings were conditioned by Mary Stewart’s historicity.

 From Mary Stewart I learned about many other things:

 I discovered the real presence of Arthurian myth in European culture, serving as a force major, as a beacon of hope, providing my forebears with a set or mores and a code of conduct that initiated and fostered the chivalric ideal, while becoming a vehicle for the subversion of any state that did not live up to the ideal.

 Arthurian myth provided a foundation for the Albigensian and Waldensian Herseies, and other counter cultural movements around the turn of the tenth century. Such movements were supported by the agency of people known as troubadours, travelling poets and minstrels who seemed to be cast in the mode of the bardic-druid.

 My early exposure to Mary Stewart gave me a proper frame of reference to comprehend Joseph Campbell’s discussion of Arthurian Myth, which then became an entry point for my understanding of the hero’s journey and to mythology in general, providing me with a frame of reference by which to study the literature, history and philosophies of the church.

 If I had not read Mary Stewart I may never have become a theologian, if my interest in those things had not been piqued by her authorship, I would not be the person I am today…she is a hero of mine.

Observation - May 9th, 2024, Thursday

there is a jet taking off

a car horn honks…once

a bus pulls away from the stop

it rolls past my window

 

there is a steady beep

the alarm from a heavy vehicle 

down the street

work crews on Bryant Avenue

 

a jet now is landing

my windows are open

 

there are birds talking

bird voices rising and falling

between the whining waves

of mechanical chatter

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

First Reading – Acts 10:25-26,34-35,44-48 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 97(98):1-4

Second Reading – 1 John 4:7-10 ©

Gospel Acclamation – John 14:23

The Gospel According to John – 15:9 – 17 ©

 

(NAB)

 

Listen!

 God, the creator of the universe, God does not interfere with the created order or intervene in the free choices of human beings.

 Knowing that God does not intercede in our affairs or interject the divine will into the flow of human history, knowing this it is not proper to see the sonship of Jesus as a status conveyed by divine anointing. God did not anoint Jesus; rather, Jesus took the mantle, he accepted the role and responsibility that all children of God are called to. Jesus was anointed by his followers in recognition of his service and the burden it entailed, even to his torture and death on the cross.

 Jesus was free to reject the ministry that was presented to him, but he did not. He was faithful to the end, setting an example to us all.

 Few are called to serve in the capacity that Jesus served; to be tortured and executed for the sake of what is right and good. Few of us have the capacity to love justice so much that they could humbly endure what Jesus endured, and that is why we call him Christ.

 Follow Jesus along the way, do good. Love justice and be merciful; be a source of healing in the world. This is the way, do the best you can, not for the sake of your salvation, but for the good of your sisters and brothers, for the good of all women and men.

 Know this.

 It is right and good to praise God, because the created order is miraculous thing, and beyond the scope of human comprehension.

 Remember.

 God does not grant victory two one party or another in conflict or combat. God has no enemies, and in God, within whom all things and beings exist…in God there is no conflict.

 It is never God’s justice at work in human courts and human governments, human laws represent human interests, human justice, which is only good insofar as it approximates the divine…the work of human beings is always-only-ever an approximation.

 Be mindful.

 God is kind and faithful to all people; equally.

 God’s power is everywhere, God’s spirit animates the voices that give God praise.

 If you have accepted a role to serve as an instrument of justice, remember to judge fairly, judge kindly and remember the love God bears for all.

 Consider the wisdom of John when he exhorts us to love one another:

 A failure to love is a failure to live up to the hope that God has for us…for God desires that we love one another, and though it is true that all human beings fail to love perfectly, it is also true that every human being has loved truly.

 The knowledge of God is a wonderful thing, especially the knowledge of God as love; what we must always be mindful of is that God knows us, God loves us, God loves the whole of us.

 Be mindful.

 Jesus did not die on the cross as a propitiatory sacrifice for sin. His death was not a ransom, his blood was not shed to cover our debts. He was killed because of sin, his death was a political murder and has no intrinsic significance to the cosmos.

 We are each of responsible for our own sins…to forgive those who have done us harm, and to accept the forgiveness of those we have harmed when it is offered. We are responsible for sharing the good news; God has forgiven us already.

 Know this.

 The grace of God is not transactional. Love fosters love, and there is always love for God is always with you.

 Consider the gospel reading for today:

 The greatest commandment is love, love is the whole of the law.

 There is no greater gift than the gift of love, to love one another, to give of one’s self to another there is no greater gift. The love that we are called to is not the love we call desire, though to desire and be desired is an experience of great joy.

 We are called to move past the love we have for family and friends, because that mode of love is only a short extension of the love we have for ourselves, because we see ourselves in the faces of our mothers and fathers, our sisters and brothers, because we see our own spirit reflected in the eyes of our children, and our own ambitions as tied to the ambitions of our friends…we are called to love more than this.

We are called to love to the point of selflessness, to love even those who are against us, to love our enemies, to forgive those who have hurt us and done us harm, to feed the stranger and protect them…we are called to do so out of love.

 This is the way.

 

First Reading – Acts 10:25-26,34-35,44-48 ©

The Pagans Have Received the Holy Spirit Just as Much as We Have

As Peter reached the house Cornelius went out to meet him, knelt at his feet and prostrated himself. But Peter helped him up. ‘Stand up,’ he said ‘I am only a man after all!’

  Then Peter addressed them: ‘The truth I have now come to realise’ he said ‘is that God does not have favourites, but that anybody of any nationality who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to him.’

  While Peter was still speaking the Holy Spirit came down on all the listeners. Jewish believers who had accompanied Peter were all astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit should be poured out on the pagans too, since they could hear them speaking strange languages and proclaiming the greatness of God. Peter himself then said, ‘Could anyone refuse the water of baptism to these people, now they have received the Holy Spirit just as much as we have?’ He then gave orders for them to be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ. Afterwards they begged him to stay on for some days.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 97(98):1-4

The Lord Has Brought Salvation

Acclaim the King, the Lord.

Sing a new song to the Lord,

  for he has worked wonders.

His right hand, his holy arm,

  have brought him victory.

The Lord has shown his saving power,

  and before all nations he has shown his justice.

He has remembered to show his kindness

  and his faithfulness to the house of Israel.

The farthest ends of the earth

  have seen the saving power of our God.

Rejoice in God, all the earth.

  Break forth in triumph and song!

Sing to the Lord on the lyre,

  with the lyre and with music.

With trumpets and the sound of the horn,

  sound jubilation to the Lord, our king.

Let the sea resound in its fullness,

  all the earth and all its inhabitants.

The rivers will clap their hands,

  and the mountains will exult at the presence of the Lord,

  for he comes to judge the earth.

He will judge all the world in justice,

  and the peoples with fairness.

Acclaim the King, the Lord.

 

Second Reading – 1 John 4:7-10 ©

Let Us Love One Another, Since Love Comes From God

My dear people, let us love one another since love comes from God and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.

Anyone who fails to love can never have known God, because God is love.

God’s love for us was revealed when God sent into the world his only Son so that we could have life through him; this is the love I mean:

 

Not our love for God, but God’s love for us when he sent his Son to be the sacrifice that takes our sins away.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 14:23

Alleluia, alleluia!

Jesus said: ‘If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him.’

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to John – 15:9 – 17 ©

You Are My Friends if You Do What I Command You

Jesus said to his disciples:

"As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love.

"I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy might be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another."

 

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