Homily: 5th Sunday in Easter – Cycle B
Dear
Sisters, I have to admit that once I read this week’s Gospel reading and began
to consider what the Lord might be asking me to say in this homily, my first
thought was, “Really? ‘Remain in me, as
I remain in you’… This is like, your life!
Easy enough for me to preach to our friends in the parishes about the
need to ‘remain’ in Christ, since their involvement with the world can so
easily pull them away from it. But you,
you all have stepped out of the world with the specific intention to ‘remain in
Christ’ always. What am I going to say
to you about this that you don’t already know?”
My
solution is that I’m NOT going to say anything specific about this
passage. I imagine that you refer to
this regularly as you consider your contemplative life and that these words of
Christ are a regular “centering” exercise for you to ensure that you do not
lose focus on the primary work of your life in the cloister. Rather, I believe the Lord has moved me to
speak about another line from our Scriptures today—one that, perhaps, is easily
overlooked—that can be fruitful for reflection in this Easter season.
At
the end of today’s first reading, after hearing about Saul/Paul’s return to
Jerusalem as a follower of Christ (and the drama that, thus, ensued), Luke
wrote that “the church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria was at peace…
and with the consolation of the Holy Spirit it grew in numbers.” This phrase, “with the consolation of the
Holy Spirit”, stood out to me and I wondered, “What might this be referring to?”
and “What might this consolation look like?”
I set myself to find answers to these questions.
I
found an answer in an article by author Jeannie Ewing, in which she highlighted
four “consolations of the Holy Spirit” that she extracted from Archbishop LuisMartinez’ book, True Devotion to the Holy
Spirit. I found that each of these
four “consolations” have something to say to describe the life of the early
church (and why it “grew in numbers” through them) as well as to the life of
the church, here and now. These consolations
are: the Consolation of Freedom, the Consolation of Union, the Consolation of
Hope, and the Consolation of Pain. And
so, let’s take a look at each of these.
The
Consolation of Freedom. It certainly
seems to me that, in the early church, this consolation was a driving force of
its growth. Having heard the good news
of Jesus Christ, the men and women who came to believe no longer felt shackled:
neither by fear of their Roman occupiers nor fear of the religious elite. Rather, having embraced the truth of Christ
and his redemption, they were set free and boldly proclaimed the name of Jesus
everywhere: even going so far as to sell their property and live communally so
as to experience the full freedom of living in Christ. This consolation of the Spirit attracted many
to them who wished to experience the same freedom.
For
us, this consolation is necessary to live fully our lives as Christians and the
vocations to which we have been called.
Freedom is essential to living our vocation. If we lose this consolation—that is, if we
start to feel shackled by the vocation that we once freely chose—we will lose
the fruitfulness of our witness—which is joy.
Without this fruitfulness, others who are seeking the consolation of
freedom will believe that it cannot be found in a life dedicated to God and so
turn to seek it elsewhere. Thus, the
consolation of freedom is manifest in radical trust in God as we live each
vocation: a trust that demonstrates that salvation in Christ is the only thing
worth holding onto in the world.
The
Consolation of Union. In the early
church, this consolation was another factor that drew people to them. For members, the consolation of union was a sign
of security: the unity of believers was a refuge from the tribulations of the
world and a source of strength within them.
It was also a further sign of divine grace. Believers and those who converted were
attracted to the fact that there were no divisions among them (like with the
Pharisees and Sadducees, for example). Thus,
the consolation of union strengthened the believers, even as it attracted
others to the faith.
For
us today, I can’t think of a consolation that might be needed more. In the world, polarization and disunion seem
to be the mode of the day. Yet, fundamentally,
the human heart longs to be seen, known, and accepted. Thus, where disunion marks the day, the
consolation of union is needed to restore to the human heart what it most truly
needs. Therefore, when we seek to
receive and live in the consolation of union, not only will we give witness to
God, who is union itself, but we will be as sign and a source to others of the
union that their hearts desire.
The
Consolation of Hope. In the early
church, this consolation gave them strength to persevere through the many
trials that would come to them. This is
because true hope—that is, supernatural hope—is so much more than a “good
feeling” about the future, but rather a conviction that what is longed for will
be realized. Thus, even when the Gospel was
rejected and persecutions broke out—just think about the martyrdom of Stephen—the
consolation of hope strengthened the early church to persevere. That perseverance was a witness to others
that there was something different and authentic about their hope as well as
the object of their hope.
For
us today, this consolation of hope has the same role. When we allow this consolation of the Spirit
to infuse us, we are strengthened to persevere in striving to build the kingdom
of heaven—the object of our hope—in spite of the fact that the world seems more
and more intent on tearing it down.
Jesus’ victory over death in the Resurrection is the reason for our
hope. The consolation of hope is our
strength to live in this hope.
The
Consolation of Pain. In the early
church, we see that the disciples found great spiritual consolation in suffering
for the name of Jesus. This, of course,
sounds absurd to most, but, having witnessed that it was precisely through
suffering that our Lord Jesus brought forth salvation, the church realized that
following the way of the Lord would lead to suffering and that their suffering
would be a participation in the redeeming work of Christ’s sufferings. Thus, they found consolation in their pain
and, in witnessing to it, drew others to them.
For
us today, giving witness to this consolation is paramount. Grief is an inevitable part of life. In other words, pain/suffering is quite
literally the most common human experience.
The consolation of pain, therefore, (that is, the consolation of knowing
that our pain is a participation in the redemptive pain of Christ on the Cross)
is a necessary witness to others that (contrary to the modern myth) pain is not
to be avoided at all costs, but rather embraced patiently (when it cannot be
avoided) so as to continue Christ’s redemptive work in the world. This is the meaning in pain that everyone who
is experiencing it is looking to find.
When we embrace the consolation of pain, we allow others to glimpse the
consolation for which their hearts are longing.
My
dear Sisters and friends, the “consolation of the Holy Spirit” remains with us
today. As we look more intently towards
Pentecost and the celebration of the full manifestation of the Spirit in the
church, let us seek to embrace these four consolations of the Holy Spirit—freedom,
union, hope, and pain—according to our vocation, so that we might enjoy the
same peace that the early church experienced and be made ready to enter fully
into the kingdom of heaven when our Lord—whom we encounter in this Eucharist—returns
in glory.
Given at the Monastery of the Poor Clares: Kokomo, IN – April
28th, 2024
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