Homily - 6th Sunday of Easter
Sixth Sunday of Easter [A] – May 17, 2020 “I will not leave you orphaned”
Now that we are in mid-May and approaching June, this is often a time of transition. Lots of graduations happening – transitions from high school or college into the work world, young people looking for new jobs, perhaps making the transition from childhood to adulthood, from dependence to a newfound independence. This year of course adds a level of confusion to that transition, and some disappointments, with all the fear and uncertainty about the health pandemic, including cancellations of cherished graduation ceremonies. But the transition happens just the same. Since I have a big family, I have some of those transitions going on with my own nieces and nephews.
It’s a little bit like that in the Gospel. Jesus is preparing His Apostles for the biggest transition of their lives. They have spent three years with Him – with the living Son of God, the Word Who made the universe. In the flesh. As they travel with Jesus on His mission to reveal the love of God the Father, they walk with Him, talk with Him, eat with Him, sleep by Him, and watch and witness almost His every move. Maybe they think it is going to continue on this way for a long time. As they have come to follow Him, they have also come to love Him.
But they don’t yet understand what He has to do: to die on the Cross and then ascend back to His Father in Heaven. They don’t yet understand what they will have to do: to build His Church on earth, to face unbelievable trials and hardship and sacrifice. In fact, they will be called to give the whole of their lives that His mission may be accomplished and His Kingdom come.
So Our Lord, in perfect union with His Father, does not want them to be shocked and disappointed. He is preparing them for that transition, much the same way that good parents prepare their children to leave the nest. I had good parents who taught me to be self-sufficient: Well before college years, my Mom taught me to be able to cook, do my own laundry, balance my own checkbook and so on. My Dad taught me to stand up for myself, to follow the truth, to meet my responsibilities and commitments and so on. But still, the day I left our house at age 18, with a station wagon full of possessions and excitement about being on my own, I knew that their love and support would not be flipped off like a switch. I knew that their love would go with me, the love and discipline they had showered upon me for those first 18 years would be a part of me, “dwell within me,” so to speak. I knew that I would not be orphaned just because I was now on my own. The love and the strength they had instilled in me would carry me through all sorts of challenges and trials.
So it is with Our Lord Jesus Christ, except in a much, much more powerful way. Our Blessed Savior knew that He would be leaving His Apostles in bodily form – they would no longer walk with Him or talk with Him face to face. But in order that they be strengthened to go forth to teach all the nations, He would send His Spirit to dwell within them. The Spirit of the Son and the Father would infuse them with many special gifts to empower them to lay down their lives for Jesus Christ, just as He laid down His life on the Cross for us for the forgiveness of sins.
This Holy Spirit would convince them of the truth and the love of God that was now mostly invisible, so that through their witness to Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life, the whole world could come to know Him. Not only that, but the Holy Spirit He gave them was not just a feeling or an emotion – no, He was and is God in Person. He would entrust to them the power of the holy sacraments, through which the grace of God the Father – invisible but real – more real than the physical world we can see with our own eyes – would flow out into the world in a torrent of love and grace The grace of forgiveness, the grace of knowing the love of God the Father from the inside out.
We’ll talk a lot more about this at Pentecost in just a couple of weeks – and thanks be to God, I will be able to see some of you in person then, as we finally will be allowed to celebrate public Masses again that day!
Just a little bit about how the Holy Spirit works in our lives. Because the same Holy Spirit that Jesus promised to the Disciples, He promises to us, in our sacraments of initiation, baptism, the Eucharist and especially confirmation.
Not only does He open our consciences to the truths of Christ and His Church, but He helps us to love the commandments of Christ. Jesus is pretty plain about that: if we are not interested in following His commandments, that means we don’t know Him well enough to love Him.
The great saints and Church Fathers remind us that the Holy Spirit kindles in those who are open to His love the desire of things invisible. Worldly people love only visible things, so they can’t really receive the Holy Spirit.
Once we receive the Holy Spirit at confirmation, that is just the beginning, not the end of our spiritual life. We have to continue to invite the Holy Spirit to transform in us, to let Him dwell in us. To long for Communion with Christ in Heaven which we can’t yet see. Some parents want to shower every good material gift on their children. Give them a nice home, maybe even a car, take them out to eat and so on. Nothing wrong with that. That is a sign of love. But if it stops there – with just the visible things, we can get trapped in the Spirit of the world. Far better to teach your children to pray. To long for Heaven. To teach them that just might have to give up some of the good visible things … watching television and entertainment and so on – for the invisible things: learning to know God through the reading of Scripture. Learning to love God in His presence at the Holy Mass, which is barely visible, and so on.
The Lord has promised that He won’t leave us fatherless. Won’t leave us orphans. Because we too have the Holy Spirit. We have visible signs of that truth. Yesterday, I was privileged to go to the Cathedral for the ordination of three new priests for Cincinnati. Three young men who gave their lives to Christ as they lay face down before the altar of God and allowed the Archbishop to impose hands on them so that the Holy Spirit would transform them from the inside out. Stamp a priestly character into their very souls. At the end of their earthly lives, they will have very, very little materially to show for it: no possessions, no family to carry on their name, no great career accomplishments. And yet, they are living proof that the Father will not leave us orphans – because they have become Alteri Christi –other Christs – to bring His very Body and Blood and the forgiveness of sins to His people. And to teach them to see with the eyes of faith Who Jesus is so they can one day be with God the Father in Heaven when they finally see Our Lord face to face in the great beatific vision. Please pray for them!
Sixth Sunday of Easter
Lectionary: 55
Reading 1 Acts 8:5-8, 14-17
Philip went down to the city of Samaria
and proclaimed the Christ to them.
With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip
when they heard it and saw the signs he was doing.
For unclean spirits, crying out in a loud voice,
came out of many possessed people,
and many paralyzed or crippled people were cured.
There was great joy in that city.
Now when the apostles in Jerusalem
heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God,
they sent them Peter and John,
who went down and prayed for them,
that they might receive the Holy Spirit,
for it had not yet fallen upon any of them;
they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Then they laid hands on them
and they received the Holy Spirit.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 66:1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16, 20
R. (1) Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
Shout joyfully to God, all the earth,
sing praise to the glory of his name;
proclaim his glorious praise.
Say to God, “How tremendous are your deeds!” …
Reading 2 1 Pt 3:15-18
Beloved:
Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts.
Always be ready to give an explanation
to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope,
but do it with gentleness and reverence,
keeping your conscience clear,
so that, when you are maligned,
those who defame your good conduct in Christ
may themselves be put to shame.
For it is better to suffer for doing good,
if that be the will of God, than for doing evil.
For Christ also suffered for sins once,
the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous,
that he might lead you to God.
Put to death in the flesh,
he was brought to life in the Spirit.
Alleluia Jn 14:23
Whoever loves me will keep my word, says the Lord,
and my Father will love him and we will come to him.
Gospel Jn 14:15-21
Jesus said to his disciples:
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
And I will ask the Father,
and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always,
the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept,
because it neither sees nor knows him.
But you know him, because he remains with you,
and will be in you.
I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
In a little while the world will no longer see me,
but you will see me, because I live and you will live.
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father
and you are in me and I in you.
Whoever has my commandments and observes them
is the one who loves me.
And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father,
and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”
