Homily: 6th Sunday in Easter – Cycle B
Friends,
one of the often-overlooked characteristics of the Easter season is that it is,
like Lent, a time of preparation. Lent
is a time in which we prepare to remember solemnly the paschal mystery—that is,
the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus, which has won salvation for us. Lent, therefore, is also a time in which we
prepare to be renewed in baptismal grace—the baptismal grace by which we
received the salvation that Jesus won for us.
We do this by examining ourselves to identify sin and its sources in our
lives and then by doing penance and confessing our sins so as to remove sin and
its sources from our lives. In doing so,
we prepare ourselves to enter fully into the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection
and of our participation in it. For five
full weeks now the Church been celebrating and I hope that you continue to celebrate
with us!
Although
the Easter season is about celebrating, it is also about preparing. For what are we to be preparing in
Easter? We are to be preparing for
Pentecost. One of the mistakes that we
can make is to see Pentecost as the “end of the Easter party”, after which we
all go home and go back to our daily lives.
Pentecost, however, as it was for the first Christians, is a missionary
moment. For 40 days after his
Resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples in various places and in various
ways in order 1) to demonstrate his resurrection and 2) to explain to them how
his death and resurrection was the true fulfillment of the covenant promises
that God had made with his chosen people for the salvation of the world. This was to prepare the disciples for when he
would commission them to proclaim this Good News to the whole world before he
would ascend into heaven and send the Holy Spirit upon them to equip them for
this mission.
Over
these weeks of Easter we have spent time reminding ourselves of the overwhelmingly
astonishing nature of the resurrection of Jesus and have listened to stories of
how the first Christians boldly proclaimed this astonishing news not only to
the Jews—the people with whom God had made his covenant—but also to the
Gentiles (those not of Jewish origin), thus beginning to fulfill the commission
to make disciples of all people.
Hopefully, we have been inspired both by their witness and by the
evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit that guided and empowered them in
their mission.
Most
recently, we have also been hearing from the “farewell discourse” of Jesus in
John’s Gospel, in which Jesus prepares his disciples not only for his passion,
death, and resurrection, but also for his ascension into heaven. In other words, Jesus is preparing them for
the time when he will leave them so that they can begin the mission that he
will give them. These readings are
instructional for us, too, as we prepare to celebrate Pentecost and so to be
recommissioned to proclaim the Good News to the whole world.
Two
weeks ago, we heard Jesus describe himself as the “Good Shepherd”, thus
reminding us that his will is that there will be “one shepherd and one flock”. This means that we can proclaim no other
savior except Jesus Christ and no other flock except the one Church that he
established. Last week, Jesus declared
himself to be “the vine” and we “the branches”.
Here he wants us to remember that he is the source of all life and that,
thus, we must remain connected to him if we wish to have life and to produce
the fruit that his life produces in us (that is, the fruit of making disciples
of all people).
This
week, Jesus continues to instruct us to “remain” in him and that the way to
remain in him is to remain in his love: which we do when we love one another as
he has loved us. How does Jesus love
us? Jesus loves us by making a complete
offering of himself so that we might be saved from the eternal suffering that
is separation from God. Therefore, in
commanding his disciples to love one another as he has loved us, Jesus is
commanding us to be “other Christs”: that is, men and women who will make a complete
offering of ourselves so as to bring others into union with Christ and thus
save them from the eternal suffering that is separation from God. This, of course, is a God-like task that we
could hardly succeed in accomplishing by our own human power alone. Thus, Jesus will soon instruct his disciples
that he will not leave them alone in this task, but rather that he will give
them an “advocate” who will empower them to fulfill this commission. This Advocate, as we know, is the Holy Spirit
who will descend upon them on Pentecost.
Friends,
this is the preparation proper to the Easter season: that, renewed in baptismal
grace, we prepare to be recommissioned to be “other Christs” in the world who,
by the power of the Holy Spirit in us, will make a complete gift of ourselves
so that others may be brought into union with Christ and, thus, be saved from
the eternal suffering that is separation from God. Perhaps this sounds complicated and difficult. I don’t think that it needs to be complicated
and difficult, however, and I think that our secular celebration of Mother’s
Day can provide an example of how this work of making a complete gift of
ourselves is something more familiar to us than we may think.
Mother’s
Day is a day to honor our mothers and motherhood. This is because motherhood calls women to
make a complete gift of themselves for the good of their children. Now, no mother (except perhaps the Blessed
Mother) has ever done this perfectly, but it doesn’t change the fact that
motherhood calls women to make a complete gift of themselves. Every woman who has embraced this call is
worthy of honor because even the imperfect sacrifices that mothers make for
their children are still very significant sacrifices! With a little reflection, we can see how this
type of self-gift is what we as Christian disciples are called to make of ourselves. Thus, as we remember the sacrifices that our
own mothers have made for our good—sacrifices that they made out of love for us—we
ought to find inspiration to make sacrifices in our own lives for the good of
bringing others to Christ and his Church.
Friends,
as the members of the Body of Christ, we are each “other Christs” in the
world. And, although we must each work
individually to bring others to Christ, we never truly work alone: for the Body
of Christ is One. Therefore, as we
continue to prepare to celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit that has come to
us—and, thus, our recommissioning to proclaim the Good News—I invite you to
reflect on the unique way that God has called you to make a complete gift of
yourself for others: a gift that demonstrates God’s love for them and that
leads them to union with Christ and his Church.
Having reflected on this, I invite you to pray over these next two weeks
for a renewal of the power of the Holy Spirit in you (the novena to the Holy
Spirit begins on Friday of this week).
In this way, you will be best prepared to receive that gift of renewal;
and God’s kingdom, by your action in the world, will grow and flourish among
us.
Strengthened
by this Eucharist, let us take up this good work for the glory of God and for
the good of those around us.
Given in Spanish at St. Patrick Parish: Kokomo, IN – May 9th,
2021
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