The Sixth Sunday of Easter [A]
Acts 8:5-8,14-17  +  1 Peter 3:15-18  +  John 14:15-21

“… the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot accept ….”

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references to the Catechism of the Catholic Church cited for this Sunday by the Vatican’s Homiletic Directory:

CCC 2746-2751: Christ’s prayer at the Last Supper
CCC 243, 388, 692, 729, 1433, 1848: the Holy Spirit as Advocate/Consoler
CCC 1083, 2670-2672: invoking the Holy Spirit

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As the weeks of the Easter Season draw on, we hear more and more in the Scriptures at Holy Mass about God the Holy Spirit. We hear less and less about Jesus, or so it seems.

In the forty days between His Resurrection and His Ascension to Heaven, Jesus is—so to speak—weaning His disciples.  He’s helping them realize that He’s not going to be with them in the same way anymore.  He will be with them:  He’ll be with them always, “unto the end of the age.”  But He will not be with them physically as He was during the three years of His public ministry.  He will not be at their sides to point the way or for them to talk with face-to-face.

Yet God the Holy Spirit will make Jesus Christ present in a new way.  In a sense, that’s what the Easter Season is designed by God to lead us to.  Pentecost Sunday is not just the fiftieth of fifty days celebrating Jesus’ Resurrection.  Pentecost is the culmination of the Season of Easter.  As such, Pentecost is the celebraton of God the Holy Spirit making Jesus present in this world in a new way:  that is, the Church.

We hear about this new way in the midst of the Third Eucharistic Prayer at Holy Mass.  Almost the whole second half of the Eucharistic Prayer—following the consecration—is about the Church.  The priest prays one petition after another on behalf of the Church.  In the Third Eucharistic Prayer, in the second petition following the consecration, the priest prays:  “… grant that we, who are nourished by the Body and Blood of your Son, and filled with his Holy Spirit, may become one body, one spirit in Christ.”  This unity in Christ is what the Easter Season leads us towards, and is the heart of the mystery of Pentecost.

This is one reason why the Church calls all of us—her children—together on the Lord’s Day:  not only to be united with God through Holy Communion, but also to be united more strongly with each other.  The Mass—like the whole Christian life—is not just about me and Jesus.  Coming together through the Mass is the greatest way that God has to unite us poor, fallen sinners into the one body of the Church.  The Holy Spirit is the One who helps us see why and how this is.

The Holy Spirit, like the ligaments that hold parts of our physical bodies together, binds us together to make us one body in Christ.  Even when we are separated from our loved ones by great distances, or even by death itself, the Holy Spirit sustains our relationships.  The Body of Christ cannot be diminished or destroyed by distance or death.  Indeed, the Church is not limited to those among her children living on earth (called the Church Militant).  She is also made up of those in Purgatory (the Church Suffering) and in Heaven (the Church Triumphant).

Even more challenging than the barriers of distance and death is that of division.  The Holy Spirit helps us love others even when it is difficult to do so.  The Power of the Holy Spirit helps us love others as God the Father loves them, part of which love is beckoning them into His embrace in Heaven.  If you were to die, only to find your worst enemy at the Pearly Gates as the welcoming committee, would you refuse to enter?  Is your lack of love for your enemy stronger than your love to be with God?

Likewise, the Power of the Holy Spirit helps us love others as God the Son loves them.  More specifically, the Holy Spirit helps us love others as the Son loved them on Good Friday during those hours when He was fixed by nails to the Cross.  In His divine intellect, Jesus at the hour of His death could see every human sinner in history, the future, and that solemn hour.  Not only could Jesus see them, however.  He loved them by offering His life for theirs.

Everyone around us is an important part of our spiritual life, whether we want them to be or not.  Everyone plays a part in our journey on the Way of Christ Jesus.  Sometimes that Way is narrow.  Sometimes it demands reconciliation.  The Holy Spirit is not interested in “cheap love”.  The Holy Spirit leads us into the sort of love that led Jesus to Calvary:  the sort of love which allowed Christ to embrace the Cross as His Father’s gift.

Friday of the Fifth Week of Easter
Acts 15:22-31  +  John 15:12-17
May 15, 2020

“This is my commandment:  love one another as I love you.”

Today’s Gospel passage is often proclaimed at Nuptial Masses.  It speaks to the reality of love.  It gives some concrete form to love.  This concreteness is necessary when one lives—as you and I do—in a culture which equates love with warm, fuzzy feelings.

Today’s Gospel passage was written by St. John the Evangelist, who in one of his epistles tells us that “God is love” [1 John 4:8].  Today John quotes Jesus so as to give shape to the definition of God as love.  In terms of the divine Person of Jesus, John quotes Christ Himself.  The evangelist explains that “no one has greater love than… to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”  The setting of today’s Gospel passage is the Last Supper.  As He spoke these words, Jesus knew that He would give the ultimate example of such love the next day.

But the Church proclaims today’s Gospel passage during the midst of Easter.  The reason for this is that Christ doesn’t want His disciples simply to admire His sacrifice, but to enter into it.  To do what our Savior commands, we need the power of the Holy Spirit, whom the Father and Son will send at Pentecost.  In the Spirit of the Father and the Son, you can find the strength to love your neighbor as Jesus has loved you.

St. Matthias, Apostle
Acts 1:15-17,20-26  +  John 15:9-17
May 14, 2020

So they proposed two, Joseph … and Matthias.

Saint Matthias is mentioned by name only once in the Scriptures, on the occasion of his election to the office of apostle.  By this we see how important this ministry is to the on-going nature of the Church.

It’s fitting that the Church usually celebrates this feast of Saint Matthias during the Season of Easter.  Throughout the first weeks of the Easter season, we hear accounts of Jesus speaking to the apostles.  These words are the Lord’s preparation for His Ascension, and for the Holy Spirit’s descent.  These words are His preparation for the new life of the Church.  His words reveal to us the nature of the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ.

Hearing about the election of Matthias to fill the vacancy left by Judas Iscariot, we recognize that God the Holy Spirit works through the acts of the apostles and their successors.  Both the apostles’ human selection of two candidates, and the Holy Spirit’s election of Matthias to the apostolic office, are the means by which this vocation is given to Matthias.  Both divine grace and human works work together in the life of the Church, and in the life of each Christian, to continue the saving work of the Lord Jesus.

Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Easter
Acts 15:1-6  +  John 15:1-8
May 13, 2020

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.”

Jesus today proclaims a powerful metaphor.  He captures the relationships among the Vinegrower, the Vine, and the branches with their fruit.  This metaphor expresses powerfully the relationship between God the Father and God the Son.  Within this relationship we see our place as members of the Mystical Body of Christ.

John’s account of the Gospel is the most mystical and sublime of the four Gospel accounts.  Therefore it’s also the most difficult to reach into and meditate upon.  Today’s metaphor opens a window into the sacred Teaching of the Beloved Disciple.

Begin with a simple question:  What is God the Father like as a Vinegrower?  This is a very simple, earthly and earthy image.  If you know anyone who is a gardener (or even more specifically, a vintner), you can picture some of the qualities that this image evokes.  The tenderness, patience, perseverance, and dedication that flow from this image teach us about the Love of the Father for His Son, and for us who are members of His Son’s Body.

Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Easter
Acts 14:19-28  +  John 14:27-31
May 12, 2020

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.”

One of the blessings of the priesthood is ministering to someone laying on his deathbed.  Its certainly true that there’s often grief—sometimes dramatic grief—on the faces of loved ones surrounding the dearly departing.  Yet it’s rare to see someone who is dying cry.

Why would this be?  It’s not likely that the dying person loves those surrounding him less than they love him.  But his focus is different than the focus of those around him.  Their focus in upon him:  or, more specifically, losing him.  His focus, on the other hand, is the mystery of death, and the many questions posed by that mystery:  “Where am I going?”  “What and whom will I see there?”  “What has my life up to now amounted to?”

In the face of all those questions that fill the mind and heart of a dying person, that person usually experiences one of two things:  either anguish, or peace.  No doubt, you can find many different people to give you many different definitions of peace.  But the peace of the Christian who is dying in Christ is one of Our Lord’s greatest gifts.  Of course, we don’t have to wait until our deathbed to experience this peace.

Jesus speaks about this peace today.  Helpfully, Jesus clarifies what this peace is not:  “not as the world gives do I give it to you.”  The peace that the world seeks is fleeting and based on compromise.  The peace of Jesus, on the contrary, does not need to engage in compromise because it consists in what is truly best for each and all.  As such, it is abiding, as we are called to abide in Christ, and as He wishes to abide within each of us.

Do we believe that this sort of peace is truly possible in this world?  Through the power of the Holy Spirit, it is possible to fix our lives on this gift, and to abide in it throughout our lives.  However, to do so takes a lot of cultivation of our souls through works of sacrifice and the virtues.  The goal of all this is formation in the natural and supernatural virtues, that within each of us, God’s grace can take root and flower abundantly.

Monday of the Fifth Week of Easter
Acts 14:5-18  +  John 14:21-26
May 11, 2020

“… He will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.”

At the Last Supper, Jesus speaks about the role that the Holy Spirit will play in the lives of the disciples after Jesus’ Ascension.  Although Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the “Advocate”—a legal term sometimes translated “Counselor”—it’s in terms of teaching that Jesus here describes the Holy Spirit’s mission.  “The Advocate… will teach you everything”.

The Holy Spirit teaching Jesus’ disciples is important because not only individuals, but mankind itself, learns only gradually.  Indeed, mankind learns only gradually over the course of human history.

Jesus did not reveal all truth.  Why not?  Jesus didn’t choose not to reveal the fullness of truth because of some defect in His teaching ability.  Rather, He chose not to reveal all truth because of the limits of human nature.  Jesus is Himself “Truth”, and since He is God, Jesus is infinite Truth.  Therefore, for a finite creature such as a disciple, the learning process must be both continual and everlasting.

Yet every Christian disciple is also called to be a teacher, sharing in Jesus’ teaching mission.  We learn not merely to learn how to get ourselves to Heaven, but also to teach others the Way.  But among the many truths that we learn through the Power of the Holy Spirit, perhaps the most fundamental is simply to turn the whole of our lives over to God:  that is, the truth that in commending our spirit into the Hands of the Father, our lives grow in goodness and peace.

The Fifth Sunday of Easter [A]
Acts 6:1-7  +  1 Peter 2:4-9  +  John 14:1-12

“… whoever believes in me will do the works I do ….”

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references to the Catechism of the Catholic Church cited for this Sunday by the Vatican’s Homiletic Directory:

CCC 2746-2751: Christ’s prayer at the Last Supper
CCC 661, 1025-1026, 2795: Christ opens for us the way to heaven
CCC 151, 1698, 2614, 2466: believing in Jesus
CCC 1569-1571: the order of deacons
CCC 782, 803, 1141, 1174, 1269, 1322: “a chosen race, a royal priesthood”

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“I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”  When Jesus speaks these words at the Last Supper, two disciples speak out.  Maybe you can relate to each of them in turn.

The first is the Apostle Thomas, often called “Doubting Thomas”.  This unflattering name is usually connected to Thomas doubting his fellow apostles when they tell him that they’ve seen the Risen Lord [John 20:24-25].

Yet this Sunday we hear Thomas express doubt, not about his fellow apostles, but about his Lord.  He does this in two ways.  First, he doubts Jesus when he complains that “we do not know where you are going”.  He’s expressing doubt about Jesus as a leader, for Jesus does not seem to be sharing knowledge about what their goal is.

Second, he expresses doubt about the means by which to reach the goal.  “How can we know the way?”  You have to admit that this objection bears a certain logic:  if you do not know where you’re headed, how can you know how to get there?  If you’ve read Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, you remember the nonsensical exchange between Alice and the Cheshire Cat.  Alice asks the Cat, “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”  “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.  “I don’t much care where—” said Alice.  “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.  [Alice added as an explanation:] “—so long as I get somewhere”.  “Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”

Many people in our culture feel like a hamster on a wheel.  Earthly goals after many decades don’t seem to produce the accomplishment they had hoped for, and the goal of Heaven on earth never seems to materialize.  So, the doubter asks, what is the connection between earth and Heaven?  As far as reaching the goal of Heaven, is our time on earth just simple waiting, hoping we don’t commit the mortal sin that will close the doors of Heaven against us?  This is a very negative view of the spiritual life:  that following Jesus is defined by what we don’t do.

We need to put ourselves in the shoes of the apostle Philip.  Philip makes a simple request:  “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.”  But if Philip thought that he was being humble in asking this, Jesus has other ideas.  “Have I been with you for so long… and you still do not know me, Philip? … How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?  Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?”  You can almost imagine Philip wide-eyed at Jesus’ response, thinking that he’d asked for very little.

Jesus expands on what He means by explaining that His own words and works are not, in fact, done on His own.  The Father and the Son are one.  They are one to such perfection that their words and works are one.  This is a profound point, but it’s not Jesus’ final point—or even His strongest point—in today’s Gospel passage.

“Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father.”  The Easter Season is not only about Jesus rising from the dead.  The Easter Season is also about Jesus rising to the Right Hand of the Father.  The sacred event of Jesus’ Ascension is what makes it possible for those ‘greater works’ to be worked by Jesus’ followers.  Whether it’s the work of one’s vocation to Holy Matrimony or consecrated life or Holy Orders, or whether it’s dedication in old age to an intense life of prayer and the acceptance of suffering, each and every Christian finds strength for the journey in the person of Jesus Christ.  Jesus is the only Way that leads to the embrace of God the Father.

Saturday of the Fourth Week of Easter
Acts 13:44-52  +  John 14:7-14

“The Father who dwells in Me is doing His works.”

At weekday Mass during the middle of the Easter Season, we are hearing Jesus’ words from the Last Supper.  John’s is the loftiest of the four Gospel accounts, but the Last Supper discourses offer the loftiest of the loftiest words spoken by Christ in John.  Much of what He says at the Last Supper concerns the unity of the Holy Trinity, and specifically of the Father and the Son.

“Words” and “works” flow from the relationship of the Father and the Son.  Jesus mentions both “words” and “works” in today’s Gospel passage, but focus here on the “works” He refers to: “The Father who dwells in me is doing His works.”  Jesus says this as the Only-Begotten Son of the Father.  Nonetheless, you and I, as the Father’s adopted children in Christ, may speak these words truthfully inasmuch as we root our lives in Christ.  This in fact is our vocation as Christians.

As a night-time examination of conscience, then, we might ask the Holy Spirit to guide us in answering these questions:  “How many of the words I spoke today were not the Father’s words?  How many of the works that I did today were not the Father’s works?”

Friday of the Fourth Week of Easter
Acts 13:26-33  +  John 14:1-6
May 8, 2020

“I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Within the Gospel account of St. John, there are two conversations between Jesus and Thomas.  The more famous exchange we hear on the Second Sunday of Easter, where Thomas doubts what his fellow apostles tell him about the Resurrection.  A week later he’s confronted by the Risen Jesus Himself.  But today, on a weekday during the middle of Easter, we hear another form of doubt from Thomas.

Thomas expresses doubt in two ways.  First, he expresses doubt about Jesus as a leader.  A good leader makes sure that his followers know their goal.  So when Thomas claims that “we” do not know where Jesus is going, he’s expressing doubt about Jesus.

The second expression of doubt concerns the way towards the goal.  Thomas’ words hold a certain logic:  it would seem foolish to set out on a journey without knowing the goal.  If the pilgrim doesn’t know his goal, then each and every step is as likely to take him farther away from his goal as it is to take him closer towards it.

However, this second expression of doubt is also a doubt about Jesus as a leader.  If we trust Jesus to lead us, then why do we have to know the goal?  The leader is the way to stay on track:  staying close to Him ensures progress towards the goal.  We pray with St. John Henry Newman:  “Lead Thou me on! / Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see / The distant scene; one step enough for me”.