The Sixth Sunday of Easter [A] Acts 8:5-8,14-17 + 1 Peter 3:15-18 + John 14:15-21 May 21, 2017
“‘And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate.’”
This morning’s Gospel passage is set at the Last Supper. Although Jesus’ disciples only dimly know at this point what’s ahead for Him, the Lord Himself knows completely. Jesus was fully God all the days that He walked this earth. He had divine knowledge, and fore-knowledge. So what He said at the Last Supper was part of a plan.
“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate.” In speaking these words, Jesus is looking beyond His death, beyond His resurrection, and beyond His ascension. Jesus is looking to the day of Pentecost.
Now it’s true: we shouldn’t forget that on the evening of His resurrection, Jesus said to His Apostles, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive and forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”[1] The Holy Spirit works in the Sacrament of Confession to forgive and heal. But when—to use a different sort of example—you go to your physician to be healed of sickness or disease, your aim is full health, so you can live your life again. Something similar is at work in the spiritual life. When we go to Confession to be healed of spiritual sickness, our aim is full health, so we can live our spiritual life again. Continue reading →
“When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me.”
Today Jesus—still addressing us from the Cenacle, at the Last Supper—prophesies the coming of the Holy Spirit. We note from Jesus’ words that—as we profess in the Church’s Creed—the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the God the Father and God the Son. Jesus Himself describes God the Holy Spirit as the One “whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father”.Continue reading →
“‘…the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot accept….’”
As the weeks of the Easter Season draw on, we hear more and more in our Scriptures about God the Holy Spirit. We hear less and less about Jesus, or so it might seem.
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, for them to talk with face-to-face.
Yet the Holy Spirit makes Jesus Christ present in a new way. This new way is through the Church. We hear about this 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 concretely prays about this, saying: “… 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 goal is what the Easter Season leads us towards. This goal is the heart of the mystery of Pentecost.Continue reading →
In this Easter season, we continue to hear in the First Reading about the flurry of apostolic activity that spread through the world following the first Christian Pentecost. But what of Mary, the lowly Virgin, mother of the child who grew in this world in order to offer His life in sacrifice for our sins. What about the mother of Him who is the Good News spread by the apostles throughout the world? Where is Mary at Pentecost? Continue reading →
“‘This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.’”
Today’s Gospel passage is often chosen for Nuptial Masses. It speaks to the reality of love. It gives some concrete form to love, which is needed when one lives—as you and I do—in a culture which equates love with warm, fuzzy feelings. Continue reading →
“‘If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love….’”
The long discourse of Jesus at the Last Supper, recorded in chapters 13-17 of John, has several themes which Jesus touches upon over and over again. Jesus weaves these themes together, as if his words on this solemn night formed a tapestry of the Good News. Continue reading →
“‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.’”
The powerful metaphor that Jesus proclaims today—the Vinegrower, the Vine, and the branches with their fruit—is, like so many of the passages from John proclaimed by the Church during the Easter Season, a powerful exposition of the relationship between God the Father and God the Son. Within this relationship we see our own place, as members of the Mystical Body of Christ. Continue reading →
CCC 551, 761-766: the Church prefigured in Old Testament community CCC 783-786: the Church a priestly, prophetic, royal people CCC 849-865: the apostolic mission of the Church
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In our Scripture readings today, we hear two things: first, how much our heavenly Father cares for us; and second, the way in which He shows us that care.
In the First Reading from the Book of Exodus, we hear God promise the Israelites that if they listened to His word and kept their covenant with Him, He would look upon them as His “special possession, dearer to [Him] than all other people ….”His people would “be to [Him] a kingdom of priests.”
This is as true of the Church today, as it was of the Israelites four thousand years ago. The Church—of which you are a member—is “a kingdom of priests.” This is the way in which God wants to show the world His care: through your life, as one member of the Church. God wants to show the world His care through the lives of His priestly people. That’s why it’s important to remember that in the Church, there are two types of priests: there are those who are ordained priests, and then there is the type of priesthood that every baptized Christian belongs to. Ordained priests offer sacrifice at the altar. Those who are priests through their baptism, having been strengthened by the Eucharistic sacrifice, offer their sacrifices in the world.
Saint Paul in the Second Reading reminds us of the source of both types of Christian priesthood. Christ Jesus, our High Priest, made the ultimate sacrifice for us on the Cross. St. Paul reminds us how much the Lord cares for us: that while it’s only with difficulty that someone dies for a just person, God proves His love for us in that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Christ is our High Priest. He is not like the priests of the Old Testament who offered goats and bulls as sacrifices. Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice, as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”In imitation of our Lord, every baptized Christian offers spiritual sacrifices, which are sacrifices of the self.
To find inspiration for her works of sacrifice, the Church looks first to the example that Jesus Christ gave us on the Cross. This is Jesus’ definitive sacrifice. Yet in fact, the entire life of our Lord reveals to us—in example after example—the care He has for us. In the Gospel Reading, we hear that Jesus was not willing to let any need go untended. Jesus couldn’t stand to see the unclean spirits, the sicknesses and diseases of every kind. So He gave the twelve apostles a share in His own power.
In our turn, each one of us is sent forth from Mass in order to care for the needs of others. We have been commanded to undertake the corporal works of mercy: to go and feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty, to visit the sick and imprisoned, to clothe the naked, to shelter the homeless, and to bury the dead.
Parents have the opportunity to carry out all of these in the home. Likewise, all of us have many opportunities to exercise the corporal and spiritual works of mercy in our neighborhoods. Whether it’s something we organize ourselves, or whether we “plug into” apostolates like The Lord’s Diner, or the Guadalupe Clinic, all of them are sacrifices of our time and talent by which we can grow in faith.
When we care for others with the grace that comes from God, we recognize that we are small. We exist and live in this world only to serve others, by seeing the Image of God in them. The gift that we have received, we are to give as a gift. That gift is our Lord, Jesus Christ.
“‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.’”
Is peace a daily goal that I focus on? What form do I expect peace to take? All of us would like to have peace in our lives, but maybe we think of peace merely as a “bonus” that God might give us if we live right. However, Jesus proclaims today that peace is at the very heart of what it means to be His disciple. We should fix our attention on this peace, then, and cultivate our lives so as to accept this gift from Jesus. Continue reading →
Reflections on the Sacred Liturgy 