Homily:
6th Sunday of Easter – Cycle B
Friends,
today our Gospel reading presents us with a contrast of contexts, so to speak. The text is taken from Jesus’ beautiful Last
Supper discourse in John’s Gospel. Next
to the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel, the Last Supper discourse is
the longest continual sermon recorded in all of the four Gospels. In the context of the Last Supper, these
words serve as a “farewell speech”, of sorts, to his disciples on the night
before he was going to be betrayed, tortured, and killed (that is, the day in
which all of his disciples would “have their faith in him shaken”). We, however, are hearing these words in the
context of our continuing celebration of Easter. Therefore, while they still express for us
Jesus’ deep affection for us, his disciples (as they expressed to his disciples
at the Last Supper), they nonetheless don’t have the same “dark gravity” for us
that they did for the Apostles, given that we are no longer anticipating Christ’s
Passion, but rather celebrating his victory over death.
Nonetheless,
in each context, the message that comes to us is similar: Christ is giving his
disciples the most important things for them to remember before he leaves them
on their own. For the disciples at the Last
Supper, these words would be critical in the days and weeks that followed: not
just as they dealt with the intense events of Christ’s Passion, Death, and
Resurrection, but also as they tried to make sense of Jesus’ commission to take
the Gospel to the ends of the world.
Those were tumultuous times when the prophesies that Jesus proclaimed
began to become true: when father would be turned against son, and son against
father; and mother against daughter, and daughter against mother. In other words, when friends became enemies
and enemies became friends. How else
could they have survived as a community unless they held fast to Jesus’
commandment: “Love one another as I have loved you”?
For
us here today, these words are also critical: and for much the same
reason. The Gospel is still a thing that
creates division: both in our society (for example: pro-life v. pro-choice, sanctity
of marriage v. same-sex unions, etc.) and in our personal lives (like when
children rebel against their religious upbringing, or choose to take up
religion in spite of their parents’ lack of religious practice). In order for us to survive as a community, we
too must hold fast to Jesus’ commandment to “love one another as he has loved us”.
Still
more, and I wonder if this isn’t something that we overlook each year as we
celebrate the Easter season, these words are critical for us because we ought
to be preparing to be re-sent out on mission.
As I’ve said in a number of different contexts this Easter season, too
often, we Christians look at this time of Easter as a time of celebration only. It is a time of celebration, don’t get me
wrong; but it is also a time of preparation.
“Oh, Father, aren’t you confused?
Lent is a time a preparation: not Easter.” Technically speaking, you’re correct; but I’d
like you each to consider Easter as time of celebration and preparation. And here’s
why.
In
a couple of weeks, we are going to celebrate Pentecost—the birthday of the
Church—in which the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles to empower them for
their mission to take the Gospel to the ends of the world. The days between Jesus’ Resurrection and
Ascension (a.k.a. the original “Easter season”) were days of preparation to
begin this great mission. Therefore, if
our celebration of Easter is going to be anything more than an excuse to eat
our favorite foods that we gave up for Lent, and if our celebration of
Pentecost is going to be anything more than a brief flash of red at church
before going back to the green of Ordinary Time, then we, too, should be preparing
to renew our efforts to fulfill this great mission to proclaim the Gospel.
And
so, we return to the scene of the Last Supper and listen once again to Jesus’
beautiful words: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. I no longer call you slaves… I have called
you friends.” This, so that we can be
comforted in our times of trial (especially when those trials are the result of
our friendship with Jesus) and strengthened to fulfill his command: “Love one
another as I have loved you.” In order
to prepare ourselves to fulfill this command, let us reflect briefly on what “loving
as Christ has loved us” looks like.
Loving
one another as Christ has loved us means that we must give of ourselves for the
benefit of others. And so, we have to
ask ourselves, “What is the very best thing that I can do for someone?” There are, of course, many good things that
we can do for others: giving food and clothing to those in need, giving
education to the ignorant, and comfort to the sick and dying… These are what the
Church traditionally calls the “works of mercy”. But are any of these the best thing? Not really. Rather, the best thing that we can do for
another person is to lead them to friendship with Christ. This is what our first reading shows to us
today.
In
that reading, we heard how Saint Peter brought the Good News of Jesus Christ to
Cornelius, a high-ranking official in the Roman army, and to his family and
friends who had gathered in his house with him that day. This was, of course, remarkable in that
Cornelius was not a Jew, and so was completely unfamiliar with the history of creation,
the fall, and the plan for salvation.
Nonetheless, he was impressed by the Apostles and open to receiving the
truth. Peter, seeing that Cornelius was
a Gentile, remembered Christ’s command, loved Cornelius as Jesus had loved him,
and led Cornelius to friendship with Christ, which was confirmed through the gift
of the Holy Spirit.
Friends,
as the great solemnity of Pentecost approaches, we must prepare ourselves to
overcome our prejudices of others, like Saint Peter did, by remembering the
generous outpouring of love that Christ has made for us so that we might find
the courage to love everyone we meet with that same love: always striving to
lead each one to friendship with Christ.
We do this first with our loving actions (that is, with the works of
mercy), but then also with our words that invite them know Christ and to allow
him to love them as he has loved us. My
friends, this is the greatest good that we can do for others. Let us, then, spend this remaining time in
Easter preparing ourselves well to take up this good work; and, therefore, to
experience, once again, the complete joy that comes with being friends of
Christ.
Given at All Saints Parish: Logansport, IN – May 6th,
2018
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