One-page summary: Easter VI [C] (May 26) Homily Jn 14:23-29 (L/19)
Introduction: Today’s readings show us the effects of the abiding presence of God in His Church and of His indwelling in each one of us. Scripture lessons: The first reading, taken from the Acts of the Apostles, tells us how the Holy Spirit, indwelling in the Church, helped the apostles to solve a major doctrinal problem about the Gentiles becoming Christians, which shook the very foundation of the early Church. The Responsorial Psalm (Ps 67) prays that all the nations on the earth may recognize their God and praise Him. The second reading, taken from the Book of Revelation, describes the Church as the Heavenly Jerusalem which replaces the holy presence of God in the Holy of Holies in the Temple in Jerusalem. This New Jerusalem is a city united in love, with the victorious Jesus residing in it and in each of its members. The Gospel passage reminds us that the Holy Spirit, abiding within us, is our Teacher, Advocate and the Source of peace and joy. The passage offers a vision of hope as well. Jesus promises his followers that the Holy Spirit will come and instruct them in everything they need to know.
Life messages: 1) Let us be aware of the abiding presence of God within us: We live in the New Covenant of Jesus, daily facing uncertainty, conflict, and temptations. It is the abiding presence of God within us that enables us to face the future with undying hope and true Christian courage. The Holy Spirit Whom the risen Lord asked His Father to send upon His Church prompts us to turn to His Holy Scriptures for support and encouragement, enables us to learn the Divine truths, and grants us His peace at all times. However, to be able to receive these gifts, it is necessary for us to spend a little time each day in personal prayer, talking to God and listening to Him. We must deepen our relationship with Jesus, learn to get in touch with him, and sincerely love him. When we listen to the Holy Spirit, we will know His plan for our life and His solutions to whatever problems we face. We will be able to love our fellow human beings, and there will be a core of peace within us. The Holy Spirit teaches us through the Scriptures and preaching during the Holy Mass. Jesus loves us and comes to us in Communion. When the Mass is ended, we go forth in the peace of Christ -- all this under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
2) We need to have the conviction that we are not alone: One of the great social and ethical problems of our time is isolation. Today approximately 25% of all adults live alone. Spouses, parents and children often live as virtual strangers to one another. This is unfortunate because we never need to be alone. Jesus can always be present to us. He shares his joy with us and replaces the burden of our guilt with the freedom of forgiveness. He takes our grief and turns it into joy. We need only allow Jesus into our lives to be rid of this loneliness. Oneness with Jesus is the greatest gift we can give our children, our friends, or those who see no purpose in life. We can help to bring people to unity with Jesus, a unity that will change their lives. As we celebrate this Eucharistic meal, our Mass, let us celebrate in a special way the price Jesus paid for our redemption. May this Eucharistic celebration empower us to lead a true Life of the Spirit!
Easter VI (May 26): Acts 15:1-2, 22-29; Rv 21:10-14, 22-23; Jn 14:23-29
Anecdote: # 1: Temples of the Triune God: St. Francis of Assisi was an ardent advocate of the doctrine of the indwelling of God in man. It enabled him to love everyone equally whatever his status in life. One day he met a fellow who had no love for God. As they walked along, they met a man who was blind and paralyzed. St. Francis asked the sightless cripple: “Tell me if I were to restore your eyesight and the use of your limbs, would you love me?” “Ah,” replied the beggar, “I would not only love you, but I would be your slave for the rest of my life.” “See,” said Francis to the man who maintained that he could not love God, “this man would love me if I gave him his sight and his health. Why don’t you love God who created you with eyesight and strong limbs?” That is what Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel. If we love Jesus because of the countless blessings he has given us, and so keep his word as the center of our life, he will start dwelling within us in the company of his Father and the Holy Spirit, making us the temples of the Triune God. (Msgr. Arthur Tonne). (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
# 2: Helen Keller’s indwelling God? The story is told that after Helen Keller’s teacher, Annie Sullivan, had given her the names of physical objects in sign language, Miss Sullivan attempted to explain God and tapped out the symbols for the name "God." Much to Miss Sullivan’s surprise, Helen spelled back, "Thank you for telling me God’s name, Teacher, for He has touched me many times before." How could Helen Keller have known about God? Although she was blind and deaf, Helen Keller knew God, for God had shown Himself to her. That is the “revelation” of an indwelling God about whom today’s Scripture readings speak. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
# 3: “The most unpromising boy in my class:" A schoolmaster in France was discouraged with one of his students. He wrote in his roll book concerning this student: "He is the smallest, the meekest, the most unpromising boy in my class." Half a century later, an election was held in France to select the greatest Frenchman. By popular vote, that meekest, smallest, most unpromising boy was chosen. His name? Louis Pasteur, the founder of modern medicine. When he was seventy-three, a national holiday was declared in his honor. He was too weak to attend the ceremony in Paris, so he sent a message to be read by his son. The message read: "The future belongs not to the conquerors but to the saviors of the world" [Edward Chinn, Wonder of Words (Lima, Ohio: C.S.S. Publishing Co., Inc., 1987), p. 18.] Louis Pasteur was driven by a great purpose. Your name and my name may never be a household word like Pasteur's, but we, too, can be driven by a great purpose. Christ can give us that purpose. But there is one thing more Christ gives us. He gives us the presence of the Holy Spirit as promised in today’s Gospel. A healthy sense of identity and a driving purpose are not enough in themselves. One thing more is needed. It is the in-dwelling Spirit of the living God. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
Introduction: Today’s readings show us the effects of the abiding presence of God in His Church and of His indwelling in each one of us. The first reading, taken from the Acts of the Apostles, tells us how the Holy Spirit, dwelling in the Church, helped the apostles to solve a major doctrinal problem, which shook the very foundation of the early Church. The Responsorial Psalm (Ps 67) prays that all the nations on the earth, not just Israel, may recognize their God and praise Him. The second reading, taken from the Book of Revelation describes the Church as the Heavenly Jerusalem, a city united in love, with the victorious Jesus residing in it and in each of its members replacing the holy presence of God in the Holy of Holies of the Temple in Jerusalem. The Gospel passage reminds us that the Holy Spirit abiding within us is our teacher and the Source of all peace. The passage offers a vision of hope. Jesus promises his followers that the Holy Spirit will come and instruct them in everything they need to know.
The first reading: Acts 15:1-2, 22-29, explained: The first major controversy in the infant Church was about "what one should do to be saved." For the first 15 to 20 years of the Christian era, all Jesus’ followers were Jewish. During that period, any Gentiles who wanted to become Jesus’ disciples were expected first to become Jews. They had to attend Sabbath synagogue services and keep the 613 Torah laws. This situation began to change when a few “liberal” Christian communities like the newly founded Church of the Gentiles in Antioch, began to admit Gentiles into their number without demanding that they first be converted to Judaism. Some of the Judeo-Christians from Judea and Jerusalem argued that the new Gentile converts must observe the Mosaic Law of circumcision, dietary regulations, purification rituals, etc. The issue couldn't be settled on a local level, although Paul and Barnabas tried that at first. Hence, they had to go to Jerusalem to consult the apostles. The apostles convened the first synod at Jerusalem and, with the clear leading of the Holy Spirit, decided that the Gentiles need not become Jews first, to be saved as Christians. The decision was momentous for two reasons. First, it marked a significant break of Christianity with Judaism. Second, it put the burden of salvation on God rather than on man. In other words, it is God’s love and His gift to us of Faith in Jesus that save us when we receive it and live it out. Our prayers, sacrifices or keeping of the Law, are only expressions of our gratitude to God, which foster our Faith. We see Saint Paul wrestling with this question, first in Galatians, then, in a more polished way, in Romans.
The second reading, Revelation 21:10-14, 22-23, explained: The Book of Revelation was written to bolster the Faith of the persecuted early Christians. Everything John described via symbols, signs, numbers, etc. has already happened except, of course for the second advent of Jesus in glory John’s vision of a new Jerusalem should be understood as a description of the Church, rooted initially in time and space, but growing and evolving toward an eschatological future. It describes the Church as the Heavenly Jerusalem, a city united in love, with the victorious Jesus residing in it. While the earthly Temple was often thought of as a reflection of the Heavenly Temple, there will be no Temple in the New Jerusalem because the Almighty and the Lamb will be the Temple. They will provide all the light that is necessary, so there will be no need for the sun or the moon. Ancient Jerusalem had long been for the Jews a token of God's presence with them. God had aided them in capturing and holding it, in making it their capital, in building the Temple there, and in returning to it after their exile in Babylon. Within the holiest chamber of the Jerusalem Temple, they kept the stone tablets of the Law, given by God, in an enthroned chest known as the Ark of the Covenant. God dwelt in a particular way in the space above the ark. This is, in the end, a metaphor for the Church, which is called to reveal to the human race God's presence among us.
Gospel exegesis: John (Chapter 14) continues to recount Jesus’ farewell discourse after the Last Supper. Today's Gospel passage explains the doctrine of the indwelling of the Holy Trinity in the human soul, and the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
1) The abiding presence of God in the human soul: The promise of God's abiding presence must have been of great comfort to John's community who knew that the Temple in Jerusalem -- the symbol of God's presence with His people -- had been destroyed by the Roman army. In today's Gospel passage, Jesus tells us that the one thing in life which we can always trust is God’s presence. God inhabits our hearts so deeply and intimately that we become the visible dwelling place of God. His living and life-affirming Presence is always with us, yet '"hidden" in the very things we so often take for granted. Thus, we are invited to look for and encounter -- "God-with-us," yet "hidden" -- in the person sitting next to us, in the words we speak, and in the songs we sing at worship.
2) Condition for the indwelling of the Holy Trinity: Jesus teaches us the condition for this indwelling of the Holy Trinity, namely, we have to show our love of God by keeping his word. And this keeping of his word will be facilitated by the Holy Spirit, God's Holy Breath.
3) The role of the Holy Spirit is twofold: a) to "teach" the disciples and b) to “remind" them of what Jesus has already taught them” (v. 26). “At work since creation, having previously ‘spoken through the prophets,’ the Spirit will now be with and in the disciples, to teach them and guide them ‘into all the truth’” (CCC #243). Jesus affirms that even though He will no longer be visibly with them, he will continue to be present among them through the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of truth will continue teaching them and helping them to understand and to build on what Jesus has already taught them. The Advocate will bring no new revelation because God has already revealed Himself in Jesus. But the Advocate will deepen their understanding of the revelation given by Jesus.
4) Jesus gives his followers four gifts: First, he gives them his love, which will enable them to keep his word. Next, he gives them the Holy Spirit, who will teach them everything they need to know. The Holy Spirit is the abiding love of God available to us, enabling us to accept the friendship of Jesus, while imitating Him, the Master. Third, he gives them His peace to strengthen them against fear in the face of trouble. Here "peace" is not just the absence of conflict, but also the far wider concept of shalom, the total well-being of the person and community. The promise of the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, will bring a peace that will quell their fears of the unfolding darkness ahead. “In Johannine language, peace, truth, light, life and joy are figurative terms reflecting different facets of the great gift that Jesus has brought from God to the world. 'Peace is my gift to you,' is another way of saying, 'I give them eternal life' (Jn 10:28) (Raymond E. Brown). The Holy Spirit is available as Comforter and Guide to those who believe in Jesus and follow in his way. The One God -- the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit – is pure Love. This Love, the Triune God, comes and lives in us, takes up residence in us and lives in our body. When God’s love lives in us, and we live in Him, there is much more peace in our families, our Churches, our offices. Fourth, Jesus rewards them with the assurance of his second coming.
Life messages: 1) Let us be aware of the abiding presence of God within us: We live in the New Covenant of Jesus, daily facing uncertainty, conflict, and temptations. It is the abiding presence of God within us that enables us to face the future with undying hope and true Christian courage. The Holy Spirit, sent upon the Church by the Father at the request of the risen Lord, prompts us to turn to His Holy Scriptures for support and encouragement, enables us to learn the Divine truths, and grants us His peace at all times. However, to be able to receive these gifts, it is necessary for us to spend a little time each day in personal prayer, talking to God and listening to Him. We must deepen our relationship with Jesus, learn to get in touch with him, and sincerely love him. When we listen to the Holy Spirit, we will know His plan for our life and His solutions for whatever problems we face. We will be able to love our fellow human beings, and there will be a core of peace within us. The Holy Spirit teaches us through the Scriptures and preaching during the Holy Mass as well as in our prayer and our private reading of Scripture. Jesus loves us and comes to us in Communion. When the Mass is ended, we go forth in the peace of Christ -- all this under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
2) We are not alone: One of the great social and ethical problems of our time is isolation. Today approximately 25% of all adults live alone. Spouses, parents and children often live as virtual strangers to one another. This is unfortunate because we never need to be alone. Jesus can always be present to us. He shares with us his joy and replaces the burden of our guilt with the freedom of forgiveness. He takes our grief and turns it into joy. We need only allow Jesus into our lives to be rid of this loneliness. Oneness with Jesus is the greatest gift we can give our children, our friends, or those who see no purpose in life. We can help to bring people to unity with Jesus, a unity that will change their lives. As we celebrate this Eucharistic meal, our Mass, let us celebrate in a special way the price Jesus paid for our redemption. May this Eucharistic celebration empower us to lead a true Life in the Spirit.
JOKE OF THE WEEK
1) Here is an Irish lyric: "Paddy Murphy went to Mass, never missed a Sunday. But Paddy Murphy went to hell, for what he did on Monday."
2) Don’t lose your mental peace: The Sunday school children had all been photographed with pastor sitting in their center. The pastor was trying to persuade the children to buy a copy of the group photo. "Just think how nice it will be to look at it when you are all grown up and say, 'There's Jennifer; she's a lawyer,' or 'That's Michael; he's a doctor.' A small voice at the back of the room rang out, "And there's our pastor; he's dead."
3) Peace and Relaxation: Did you know that.....If you can start the day without caffeine, if you can get going without pep pills, if you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains, if you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles, if you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it, if you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time, if you can take criticism without resentment, if you can ignore a friend's limited education and never correct him, if you can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor friend, if you can conquer tension without medical help, if you can relax without liquor, if you can sleep without the aid of drugs, ...Then you are probably the family dog!
19 Additional anecdotes 1) The ‘Butterfly Effect’ “Today’s real borders are not between nations, but between powerful and powerless, free and fettered, privileged and humiliated. Today no walls can separate humanitarian or human rights crises in one part of the world from national security crises in another. Scientists tell us that the world is so small and interdependent that a butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon forest can generate a storm on the other side of the earth. The principle is known as the ‘Butterfly Effect.’ Today we realize more than ever, that the world of human activity also has its own ‘Butterfly Effect’ for better or for worse. The classical example is the history-making growth of Christianity in the first century by the Spirit-transformed lives of the apostles and early Christians. (Kofi Annan –“Excerpts from Nobel Prize acceptance speech”) (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
2) Two loves in our lives: Jimmy Carter, in his book, Sources of Strength, tells about interviewing Eloy Cruz, an admirable Cuban pastor, who had tremendous rapport with poor immigrants from Puerto Rico. “What is the secret to your success?” asked Carter. Pastor Cruz replied, “Señor Jimmy, we need to have only two loves for our lives, love for God and love for the person who happens to be in front of us at any time.” (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
3) "You were walking with Mary Susanna Brown, a child of God": Retired Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes was walking down a street one day. A little girl joined him. When the girl started to turn back home, the famed jurist said, "When your mother asks you where you've been, tell her you've been walking with Oliver Wendell Holmes." To which the little girl replied confidently, "And when your folks ask you where you've been, tell them you were walking with Mary Susanna Brown, a child of God." There's a little girl with a healthy sense of who she is! Psychologists tell us that a healthy sense of identity is one of the most valuable gifts we can give our children. We are God’s children and our God is an indwelling God. First, however, we need that gift ourselves. And if we did not receive it from our parents, we will need to look to God. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
4) Head and tail fight of bulldog ants: The philosopher Schopenhauer once compared us to a Bulldog Ant. If we cut a Bulldog Ant in half, the front and rear segments will enter into a savage fight. The head will seize the tail with its teeth, while the tail will sting the head with fury. The fight might last for hours. That is the way some of us are on the inside. There is part of us that wants to move ahead and a part that wants to stand absolutely still. There is a part of us that wants success and recognition. There is another part that wants to sit on the river bank and while away the hours. There is a part of us that wants to serve Christ. There is another part that says, "No, I've enough to do right now. Let someone else take their turn." There is a fierce battle going on within many of us. Few of us know what it is to live lives of contentment and peace. Jesus said to his disciples, "I am leaving you with a gift -- peace of mind and heart! And the peace I give isn't fragile like the peace the world gives. So don't be troubled or afraid." What a promise! What a gift! Peace of mind and heart. He can give it to us. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
5) Love as Jesus loved: Jesus said, "I love you just as the Father loves me; remain in my love." (John 13:9). During World War II, a prisoner escaped from a labor detail in Auschwitz, a Nazi concentration camp in Poland. The camp commander announced that if he were not found in 24 hours, 10 of the 600 men in Block 14 would be picked at random to starve to death. Next morning the prisoners were lined up and stood all day in the burning heat of the sun. At 6 pm, 10 were selected at random. One was the father of a family. As they were being marched off, a Franciscan priest among the prisoners, St. Maximilian Kolbe, offered to take his place. The Nazi officer in charge was stunned, but he regained his composure and said, "Accepted." The priest's heroic act of love for a fellow prisoner is a faint reflection of Jesus' love for us--and of the Father's love for Jesus. Can I recall a time when I went out of my way and offered to help someone in need? The greatest love a person can have for his friends is to give his life for them. (John 15:13). (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
6) "Are we shot down?" A commercial airline pilot on one occasion made a particularly bad landing. The wheels of the big jet hit the runway with a jarring thud. Afterward, the airline had a policy, which required that the pilot stand at the door while the passengers exited. He was to give each of them a smile and say, "Thanks for flying with us today." In light of his bad landing, he had a hard time looking the passengers in the eye, thinking that someone would have a smart comment, but no one seemed annoyed. Finally everyone had gotten off except for one little old lady walking with a cane. She approached the pilot and asked, "Sonny, mind if I ask you a question?" "Why, no, Ma'am, what is it?" said the pilot bravely. "Did we land," she asked, "or were we shot down?" -- Maybe you've had days like that, days when it felt like you were shot down. Even worse, maybe things are going quite well for you, really. Your friends and your family tell you how fortunate you are. But you don't feel fortunate. In fact, your life is somewhat tortured by a nagging fear that you cannot even define. It is at those moments that God wants us to turn to Him. He is our Peace, always. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
7) "Mommy, are you there?": I recall the story of a little girl who, when trains were popular transportation, was taking her first train ride with her parents. As night descended, the mother took the girl, who was clearly quite anxious, and placed her on the upper bunk of the sleeper. She told her little one that up there she would be nearer to God and that God would watch over her. As silence enveloped the young lady she became afraid and called softly, "Mommy, are you there?" "Yes dear," came the response. A little later, in a louder voice, the child called, "Daddy, are you there, too?" "Yes dear," was the reply. After this had been repeated several times one of the passengers sharing their sleeper car finally lost his patience and shouted loudly, "Yes, we're all here, your father, your mother, your brother, and all your aunts and cousins; now settle down and go to sleep!" There was a moment of silence and then, in hushed tones a little voice asked, "Mommy, was that God?" Jesus, in offering peace, does not say, "I'm here, the Holy Spirit's here and God is here, now be at peace!" The peace that Jesus offers cannot be had simply by desiring it. The peace of God is a gift; it can only be received as a by-product of Faith. That's why the world is largely a stranger to it. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
8) Brendan Behan, an Irish playwright, virtually drank himself to death. His biographer attributes it to an unrelenting sense of guilt. Behan went to England on a mission for the I.R.A. One day he planted a bomb set to go off during rush hour. It exploded as a young woman with her baby was passing by. Both died in the blast! Brendan Behan was overwhelmed with guilt for killing that innocent woman and her baby. And as time went on he increasingly tried to drown his memories and silence his conscience in a bottle, without success! Guilt is a terrible thing. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we had a guide in life a guide that will help us avoid those things that we know are wrong, those things that fill us with regret? Christ has promised us such a guide. That guide is the Holy Spirit. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
9) Loving grandpa and the naughty grandchild: Grandpa walked into the family room and found his little grandson, Jeffy, standing up in his playpen, crying. He looked so pitiful, standing there in his little baseball T-shirt and diaper. His face was red and tear-stained from crying. When Jeffy saw his grandpa, his face lit up in a way that smote the old man’s heart. He immediately reached up his chubby little hands in supplication. “Take me out, Papa, out!” What grandpa could resist such a plea? Not this one! He walked over to the playpen and reached down to lift his little buddy out of captivity and distress. Just then, however, Law and Order stepped into the room. Jeffy’s mother walked out of the kitchen with a dishtowel in her hand and spoke sternly. “No, Jeffy! You are being punished. You have to stay in bed! Leave him right there, Dad.” Oh, fine. Now what’s a grandpa to do? His grandson’s tears and reaching little hands tugged mightily at his heart – but he didn’t want to interfere with a mother’s discipline either. What could he do? Love found a way. Since Grandpa couldn’t take Jeffy out of the playpen, he climbed in with him. “If you’re in the playpen, Buddy, I’m in the playpen. What’s your sentence? How long are you in for?” And finding a big, jolly grandpa suddenly filling his little prison cell, the little boy found comfort even in his captivity. Today’s readings explain God’s indwelling in the Church and in the believers in terms of God’s love for His children. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
10) The Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky regarded by many as one of the greatest literary geniuses of all time. His books are classics. The Brothers Karamazov is regarded by many as the greatest novel ever written. His stories all have a similar theme, that our redemption is to be found through suffering, not simply physical suffering, but in the anguish of our selfhood. We become fully human, Dostoyevsky believed, by being tested and being strengthened through it [Pulpit Resource, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Logos Art Productions, Inver Grove, Minnesota) pp. 14-15.] The peace which Jesus gave to the disciples involved very little contentment. They had to endure persecutions, misunderstanding and hardships of every kind. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
11) “But Papa, I love him; he loves me.” In the Broadway play and movie of the same name, Fiddler on the Roof, the chief protagonist is Tevye, a poor Russian Jew struggling to make a life for himself and his family. Economically and politically strapped by the harsh conditions of life prior to and during the Russian Revolution (ca. 1917), Tevye the milkman can hold onto little else except his traditions. However, even these began to crumble when his eldest daughter refuses to acquiesce to an arranged marriage and opts for love amid poverty rather than wealth without love. Further shaken by the marriage of his second daughter to a Russian who favors the revolution, Tevye seems unable to bear anything more. But the final blow comes when his youngest daughter chooses to marry Christian. When Tevye argues with his daughters in favor of the centuries’ old traditions of their people, they counter him on every point with the simple explanation, “But Papa, I love him; he loves me.” Love proved to be a force powerful enough to overcome separatism and the distrust of others and their ways on the grounds that they did not share the same roots, background and beliefs. In Tevye's family, love began to establish new traditions, though not easily or rapidly. The family which was the early Church also struggled with the tasks of surrendering old ways (as described in the first reading) and of learning and establishing new ones as it grew and developed. Based on love and founded in peace, the Church’s new traditions were inspired, supported and guided by none other than the Holy Spirit. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
12) Conversion: Joshua, a young Jew, fell in love with Mary, a devout Catholic. When Joshua proposed to Mary, she sought counsel from her parents, each of whom advised her differently. “Convert him to Catholicism!” commanded Mary’s dad, but her mum said, “Love him tenderly and God’s Spirit will work wonders!” Mary’s dad wouldn’t give in and ordered her to work hard at converting Joshua to Catholicism. Mary obeyed and Joshua was duly converted. Weeks later Joshua called off the marriage. “What’s up?” asked Mary’s dad. Mary sobbed: “Joshua wants to be a priest!” (Francis Gonsalves in Sunday Seeds for daily Deeds). (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
13) The little mediator, Wee Willie Winkie: John Ford's superb family action adventure film, Wee Willie Winkie (1937), is loosely based on Rudyard Kipling's popular story from his Tales of British India. The setting of this movie is 19th century British-occupied India. Little Priscilla Williams and her widowed mother travel to India to live with their relative, Colonel Williams. The colonel ruled his British Army base in India with an iron fist making of it an oppressive place. Priscilla is a very curious, precocious child, who gains the nickname of "Private Wee Willie Winkie.” The little girl quickly charms everyone around her, including a tough Scots Sergeant. After a series of adventures, she wins the hearts of everyone by challenging the prejudicial assumptions of both friends and enemies. Her innocent, yet challenging questions are instrumental in helping Colonel Williams and Islamic freedom fighter, Khoda Khan, to see the senselessness of violence. This leads them to a negotiated peace. Today’s Gospel assures us that it is the abiding presence of God the Father and God the Holy Spirit within us, with the Risen Lord, which gives us lasting peace. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
14) A New Advocate When the heartbroken Nathaniel Hawthorne went home to tell his wife that he had been a failure and had been fired from his job in a customhouse, she surprised him with an exclamation of joy. “Now,” she said triumphantly, “you can write your book!” “Yes,” replied Nathaniel, “and what shall we live on while I am writing it?” To his amazement, she opened a drawer and pulled out a substantial sum of money. “Where on earth did you get that?” he exclaimed. “I have always known you were a man of genius,” she told him. “I knew that someday you would write a masterpiece. So every week out of the housekeeping money you gave me I saved a little. So here is enough to last us a whole year!” From her confidence and encouragement came one of the greatest novels of United States literature, The Scarlet Letter. – As a farewell gift Jesus spoke of the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate he would give us. On the Divine level, deeper experiences of God do not make Christians immune to human problems and pain, but Jesus showed that his peace can be present even in the midst of insults, persecution, and approaching death. (Harold Buetow in God Still Speaks: Listen!) (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
15) "Padre, padrecito," he exclaimed, "I knew you would come." It happened that a missionary priest was visiting his extensive parish, high in the Andes Mountains. The best way to reach certain parts of the parish was on horseback. Once, toward sunset, the priest got disoriented and could not find the way back to his base camp. Rather than risk exposure at such an altitude, he decided to give his horse free rein and hope to find shelter. After a couple of hours of wandering, he saw a welcome sight. In the distance a lamp burned in a hut. This was unusual because the native people went to bed shortly after dark in order to get up at an early hour. When the priest got near the hut, a man ran out, "Padre, padrecito," he exclaimed, "I knew you would come." Surprised, the priest asked how he knew that. The man said, "My mother has been praying all day that a priest would come. She is dying." The priest went inside, heard the woman's confession, then gave her Holy Anointing and Holy Communion. The woman softly spoke these final words, "Taita Dios heard me." Taita Dios is not easy to translate. Dios of course means God, but Taita is hard to translate. It is an intimate, affectionate way of addressing one's father. Taita is like "daddy," except that a grown-up man could say it with no embarrassment. Taita Dios, my dear Father, has heard me. In today's Gospel, Jesus tells us that if someone keeps Jesus' word, "the Father will love him." He then describes an intimacy impossible for us to imagine. He tells us that he and the Father will dwell within us - by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Phil Bloom). (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
16) "I would obey the commandments of God." When Jimmy Carter was running for President of the United States, one of the more vivid moments in the campaign passed by almost unnoticed. One Sunday morning, candidate Carter had been worshipping at the Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia. When the service was over, he exited the church into the swarm of press encamped on the church's front lawn. Cameras whirring, video lights glaring, microphones thrust forward, the media mavens moved in for interviews, pushing themselves to think of clever questions to ask a presidential candidate on the way out of a Southern Baptist Church. Suddenly, a reporter, probably in a stroke of luck, shouted out a question that genuinely mattered: "Mr. Carter, suppose when you are President, you get into a situation where the laws of the United States are in conflict with what you understand to be the will of God. Which will you follow, the laws of the state or the commandments of God?" Carter stopped, looked up, and blinked into the bright Georgia sun, obviously turning the question over in his mind. Then, perhaps still "in the Spirit on the Lord's Day," perhaps with the Spirit gently whispering the lyrics of the Gospel into his ears, he turned toward the reporter and replied, "I would obey the commandments of God." Alert aides, alarmed by this candor, unnerved by their candidate's near-treasonous remark, hurriedly whisked him away from the press and into a waiting car. Carter the politician should have avoided the question, or hewed closely to the law of the land, but Carter the Christian had the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ whispering in his ear, "Do you love me? The world cannot see or know me, but do you love me? Do you keep my commandments?" The reason we need the Holy Spirit murmuring the Gospel in our ears, of course, is that we are notoriously forgetful. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
17) True peace Christ brings us according to St. Francis Assisi: The Little Flowers of St. Francis , composed at the end of the 14th century by a Tuscan is based on Actus beati Francisci et sociorum eius in divided into 53 short chapters. Here is a gripping story told in the book. “Walking one day in the bitter cold with Brother Leo, St Francis began to teach him about perfect joy and perfect peace. He called to Brother Leo, who was walking on before him, and said to him: 'If we monks were great holy men who edified all those around us, this would not be perfect joy.' A little further St. Francis called to Brother Leo again: 'O Brother Leo, if we monks were to make the lame to walk, if we should make straight the crooked, chase away demons, give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the dumb, and, what is even a far greater work, if we should raise the dead after four days, write that this would not be perfect joy.' ….After some two miles of this Brother Leo finally spoke up and said: 'Father Francis, I pray thee teach me wherein is perfect joy.' Francis then teaches him this: 'If, when we shall arrive at St Mary of the Angels, all drenched with rain and trembling with cold, all covered with mud and exhausted from hunger; if, when we knock at the convent-gate, the porter should come angrily and ask us who we are; if, after we have told him, "We are two of the brethren," he should answer angrily, "What ye say is not the truth; ye are but two impostors going about to deceive the world, and take away the alms of the poor; begone, I say"; if then he refuse to open to us, and leave us outside, exposed to the snow and rain, suffering from cold and hunger till nightfall - then, if we accept such injustice, such cruelty and such contempt with patience, without being ruffled and without murmuring, believing with humility and charity that the porter really knows us, and that it is God who maketh him to speak thus against us, write down, O Brother Leo, that this is perfect joy. And if we knock again, and the porter come out in anger to drive us away with oaths and blows, as if we were vile impostors, saying, "Begone, miserable robbers! To the hospital, for here you shall neither eat nor sleep!" - and if we accept all this with patience, with joy, and with charity, O Brother Leo, write that this indeed is perfect joy. And if, urged by cold and hunger, we knock again, calling to the porter and entreating him with many tears to open to us and give us shelter, for the love of God, and if he come out more angry than before, exclaiming, "These are but importunate rascals, I will deal with them as they deserve'; and taking a knotted stick, he seize us by the hood, throwing us on the ground, rolling us in the snow, and shall beat and wound us with the knots in the stick - if we bear all these injuries with patience and joy, thinking of the sufferings of our Blessed Lord, which we would share out of love for him, write, O Brother Leo, that here, finally, is perfect joy."'" ….I believe that what St Francis was saying to Brother Leo was that the Peace of Christ comes through our acts of obedience especially obedience in times of suffering. We will do well if we remember that true peace is the assurance that one day our Brother Jesus will return to take us back, back to our Father's house. So, do not let your hearts be troubled neither let them be afraid. Amen. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
18) Peanut in our pocket: It's like a story that someone tells about a young lady named Sally. Sally was growing up, becoming a woman preparing to go off to college. Her mother had struggled to provide for her education, an especially difficult task since her father had died several years earlier. Her mother made every effort within her power to raise Sally right. Now she would be on her own, an exciting and frightening time. Sally had strong reservations about leaving her mother alone to mind the farm and do the chores. She was also nervous about having to find her own way without her mother's guidance. As she prepared to meet the bus, bags packed and ready, her mother took her arm and said to her, "You're gonna see things an' do things you ain't never heard of, and you won't know which way to turn sometimes. You 'member how you used to tug on my apron string when you wanted something and I'd see to what you was after? You 'member how when you was too close to the road and I'd holler to you to tell you to get away from there'?" her mother gently reminded her. "Well, I'm gonna be there with you in your heart, but it'll be up to you to listen to what I told you. I can't kiss your hurts when you fall down an' skin your knee or quiet you when the big storms come rollin' through. But, I'll be close as a peanut in your pocket when you need me. If you're afraid, I'll stand with you. And if you are hurting, you can feel me close, and if you do wrong, I'll whisper the truth to ya so you won't do it no more." The tears came to both their eyes. Her mother opened the dresser drawer and took out a neatly folded handkerchief and placed it in the pocket of Sally's dress. Upon leaving, Sally felt completely alone. As she fought back the tears, she reached into her dress pocket to take out the handkerchief her mother had placed there. Then she noticed a knot in one corner just like her mother used to tie her milk money in her handkerchief. Upon untying the knot, she found a single peanut. She knew that her dear mother would always be with her in her heart (3. Parables submitted by Ron Alberston). The Good News is that God wants to dwell in our lives. God wants to take up residence in our hearts. God wants to be with us always, as close as a peanut in our pocket. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
19) "Watch Jimmie in chapel:" In his book, The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat, Oliver Sacks tells the story of Jimmie, a former sailor, now a patient in a nursing home, whose severe neurological disorder had left him with a profound and permanent amnesia. He simply had no memory of anything from 1945 on. Having no ability to retrieve the past and no ability to construct a meaningful present, Jimmie lacked the continuity that makes for a sense of the self. He was, wrote Sacks, a person who "wore a look of infinite sadness and resignation." However, when Sacks asked the Sisters who ran the nursing home whether Jimmie had lost his soul, the Sisters were outraged by the question. "Watch Jimmie in chapel," they said, "and judge for yourself." So Sacks did watch Jimmie in chapel, and there he observed an astounding transformation. He saw an intensity and steadiness in Jimmie that he had not observed before. As he received the Sacrament, there was "perfect alignment of his spirit with the spirit of the Mass." There in worship, Jimmie was no longer at the mercy of a faulty and fallible memory. "He was wholly held, absorbed ...." He whose mind was broken was given in worship, "a continuity and unity so seamless it could not permit any break." Jimmie in his own way is like all of us. In the final analysis, none of us is able to construct a self. We must all be given a story and a continuity not of our own making. Where we have no faithful memory, God remembers, and by the grace of God, the Spirit whispers the lyrics of the saving Gospel in our ears. (The story, from Oliver Sacks, The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat, is reported in Craig Dykstra, "Memory and Truth," Theology Today, XLIV/2, p. 162). (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ ) L/19
“Scriptural Homilies” Cycle C (No. 29) by Fr. Tony: akadavil@gmail.com
Visit my website: By clicking on http://frtonyshomilies.com/ for missed or previous Cycle C homilies, 141 Year of Faith “Adult Faith Formation Lessons” (useful for RCIA classes too) & 197 “Question of the Week.” Contact me only at akadavil@gmail.com. Visit http://www.vaticannews.va/en/church.html for the Vatican version of this homily and https://www.catholicsermons.com/homilies/sunday_homilies under CBCI or in the CBCI website https://cbci.in/SundayReflectionsNew.aspx?&id=cG2JDo4P6qU=&type=text .
Fr. Anthony Kadavil, Chaplain, Sacred Heart Residence of the Little Sisters of the Poor, 1655 McGill Ave, Mobile, AL 36604.
One-page summary: Easter VI [C] (May 26) Homily Jn 14:23-29 (L/19)
One-page summary: Easter VI [C] (May 26) Homily Jn 14:23-29 (L/19)
Introduction: Today’s readings show us the effects of the abiding presence of God in His Church and of His indwelling in each one of us. Scripture lessons: The first reading, taken from the Acts of the Apostles, tells us how the Holy Spirit, indwelling in the Church, helped the apostles to solve a major doctrinal problem about the Gentiles becoming Christians, which shook the very foundation of the early Church. The Responsorial Psalm (Ps 67) prays that all the nations on the earth may recognize their God and praise Him. The second reading, taken from the Book of Revelation, describes the Church as the Heavenly Jerusalem which replaces the holy presence of God in the Holy of Holies in the Temple in Jerusalem. This New Jerusalem is a city united in love, with the victorious Jesus residing in it and in each of its members. The Gospel passage reminds us that the Holy Spirit, abiding within us, is our Teacher, Advocate and the Source of peace and joy. The passage offers a vision of hope as well. Jesus promises his followers that the Holy Spirit will come and instruct them in everything they need to know.
Life messages: 1) Let us be aware of the abiding presence of God within us: We live in the New Covenant of Jesus, daily facing uncertainty, conflict, and temptations. It is the abiding presence of God within us that enables us to face the future with undying hope and true Christian courage. The Holy Spirit Whom the risen Lord asked His Father to send upon His Church prompts us to turn to His Holy Scriptures for support and encouragement, enables us to learn the Divine truths, and grants us His peace at all times. However, to be able to receive these gifts, it is necessary for us to spend a little time each day in personal prayer, talking to God and listening to Him. We must deepen our relationship with Jesus, learn to get in touch with him, and sincerely love him. When we listen to the Holy Spirit, we will know His plan for our life and His solutions to whatever problems we face. We will be able to love our fellow human beings, and there will be a core of peace within us. The Holy Spirit teaches us through the Scriptures and preaching during the Holy Mass. Jesus loves us and comes to us in Communion. When the Mass is ended, we go forth in the peace of Christ -- all this under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
2) We need to have the conviction that we are not alone: One of the great social and ethical problems of our time is isolation. Today approximately 25% of all adults live alone. Spouses, parents and children often live as virtual strangers to one another. This is unfortunate because we never need to be alone. Jesus can always be present to us. He shares his joy with us and replaces the burden of our guilt with the freedom of forgiveness. He takes our grief and turns it into joy. We need only allow Jesus into our lives to be rid of this loneliness. Oneness with Jesus is the greatest gift we can give our children, our friends, or those who see no purpose in life. We can help to bring people to unity with Jesus, a unity that will change their lives. As we celebrate this Eucharistic meal, our Mass, let us celebrate in a special way the price Jesus paid for our redemption. May this Eucharistic celebration empower us to lead a true Life of the Spirit!
Easter VI (May 26): Acts 15:1-2, 22-29; Rv 21:10-14, 22-23; Jn 14:23-29
Anecdote: # 1: Temples of the Triune God: St. Francis of Assisi was an ardent advocate of the doctrine of the indwelling of God in man. It enabled him to love everyone equally whatever his status in life. One day he met a fellow who had no love for God. As they walked along, they met a man who was blind and paralyzed. St. Francis asked the sightless cripple: “Tell me if I were to restore your eyesight and the use of your limbs, would you love me?” “Ah,” replied the beggar, “I would not only love you, but I would be your slave for the rest of my life.” “See,” said Francis to the man who maintained that he could not love God, “this man would love me if I gave him his sight and his health. Why don’t you love God who created you with eyesight and strong limbs?” That is what Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel. If we love Jesus because of the countless blessings he has given us, and so keep his word as the center of our life, he will start dwelling within us in the company of his Father and the Holy Spirit, making us the temples of the Triune God. (Msgr. Arthur Tonne). (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
# 2: Helen Keller’s indwelling God? The story is told that after Helen Keller’s teacher, Annie Sullivan, had given her the names of physical objects in sign language, Miss Sullivan attempted to explain God and tapped out the symbols for the name "God." Much to Miss Sullivan’s surprise, Helen spelled back, "Thank you for telling me God’s name, Teacher, for He has touched me many times before." How could Helen Keller have known about God? Although she was blind and deaf, Helen Keller knew God, for God had shown Himself to her. That is the “revelation” of an indwelling God about whom today’s Scripture readings speak. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
# 3: “The most unpromising boy in my class:" A schoolmaster in France was discouraged with one of his students. He wrote in his roll book concerning this student: "He is the smallest, the meekest, the most unpromising boy in my class." Half a century later, an election was held in France to select the greatest Frenchman. By popular vote, that meekest, smallest, most unpromising boy was chosen. His name? Louis Pasteur, the founder of modern medicine. When he was seventy-three, a national holiday was declared in his honor. He was too weak to attend the ceremony in Paris, so he sent a message to be read by his son. The message read: "The future belongs not to the conquerors but to the saviors of the world" [Edward Chinn, Wonder of Words (Lima, Ohio: C.S.S. Publishing Co., Inc., 1987), p. 18.] Louis Pasteur was driven by a great purpose. Your name and my name may never be a household word like Pasteur's, but we, too, can be driven by a great purpose. Christ can give us that purpose. But there is one thing more Christ gives us. He gives us the presence of the Holy Spirit as promised in today’s Gospel. A healthy sense of identity and a driving purpose are not enough in themselves. One thing more is needed. It is the in-dwelling Spirit of the living God. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
Introduction: Today’s readings show us the effects of the abiding presence of God in His Church and of His indwelling in each one of us. The first reading, taken from the Acts of the Apostles, tells us how the Holy Spirit, dwelling in the Church, helped the apostles to solve a major doctrinal problem, which shook the very foundation of the early Church. The Responsorial Psalm (Ps 67) prays that all the nations on the earth, not just Israel, may recognize their God and praise Him. The second reading, taken from the Book of Revelation describes the Church as the Heavenly Jerusalem, a city united in love, with the victorious Jesus residing in it and in each of its members replacing the holy presence of God in the Holy of Holies of the Temple in Jerusalem. The Gospel passage reminds us that the Holy Spirit abiding within us is our teacher and the Source of all peace. The passage offers a vision of hope. Jesus promises his followers that the Holy Spirit will come and instruct them in everything they need to know.
The first reading: Acts 15:1-2, 22-29, explained: The first major controversy in the infant Church was about "what one should do to be saved." For the first 15 to 20 years of the Christian era, all Jesus’ followers were Jewish. During that period, any Gentiles who wanted to become Jesus’ disciples were expected first to become Jews. They had to attend Sabbath synagogue services and keep the 613 Torah laws. This situation began to change when a few “liberal” Christian communities like the newly founded Church of the Gentiles in Antioch, began to admit Gentiles into their number without demanding that they first be converted to Judaism. Some of the Judeo-Christians from Judea and Jerusalem argued that the new Gentile converts must observe the Mosaic Law of circumcision, dietary regulations, purification rituals, etc. The issue couldn't be settled on a local level, although Paul and Barnabas tried that at first. Hence, they had to go to Jerusalem to consult the apostles. The apostles convened the first synod at Jerusalem and, with the clear leading of the Holy Spirit, decided that the Gentiles need not become Jews first, to be saved as Christians. The decision was momentous for two reasons. First, it marked a significant break of Christianity with Judaism. Second, it put the burden of salvation on God rather than on man. In other words, it is God’s love and His gift to us of Faith in Jesus that save us when we receive it and live it out. Our prayers, sacrifices or keeping of the Law, are only expressions of our gratitude to God, which foster our Faith. We see Saint Paul wrestling with this question, first in Galatians, then, in a more polished way, in Romans.
The second reading, Revelation 21:10-14, 22-23, explained: The Book of Revelation was written to bolster the Faith of the persecuted early Christians. Everything John described via symbols, signs, numbers, etc. has already happened except, of course for the second advent of Jesus in glory John’s vision of a new Jerusalem should be understood as a description of the Church, rooted initially in time and space, but growing and evolving toward an eschatological future. It describes the Church as the Heavenly Jerusalem, a city united in love, with the victorious Jesus residing in it. While the earthly Temple was often thought of as a reflection of the Heavenly Temple, there will be no Temple in the New Jerusalem because the Almighty and the Lamb will be the Temple. They will provide all the light that is necessary, so there will be no need for the sun or the moon. Ancient Jerusalem had long been for the Jews a token of God's presence with them. God had aided them in capturing and holding it, in making it their capital, in building the Temple there, and in returning to it after their exile in Babylon. Within the holiest chamber of the Jerusalem Temple, they kept the stone tablets of the Law, given by God, in an enthroned chest known as the Ark of the Covenant. God dwelt in a particular way in the space above the ark. This is, in the end, a metaphor for the Church, which is called to reveal to the human race God's presence among us.
Gospel exegesis: John (Chapter 14) continues to recount Jesus’ farewell discourse after the Last Supper. Today's Gospel passage explains the doctrine of the indwelling of the Holy Trinity in the human soul, and the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
1) The abiding presence of God in the human soul: The promise of God's abiding presence must have been of great comfort to John's community who knew that the Temple in Jerusalem -- the symbol of God's presence with His people -- had been destroyed by the Roman army. In today's Gospel passage, Jesus tells us that the one thing in life which we can always trust is God’s presence. God inhabits our hearts so deeply and intimately that we become the visible dwelling place of God. His living and life-affirming Presence is always with us, yet '"hidden" in the very things we so often take for granted. Thus, we are invited to look for and encounter -- "God-with-us," yet "hidden" -- in the person sitting next to us, in the words we speak, and in the songs we sing at worship.
2) Condition for the indwelling of the Holy Trinity: Jesus teaches us the condition for this indwelling of the Holy Trinity, namely, we have to show our love of God by keeping his word. And this keeping of his word will be facilitated by the Holy Spirit, God's Holy Breath.
3) The role of the Holy Spirit is twofold: a) to "teach" the disciples and b) to “remind" them of what Jesus has already taught them” (v. 26). “At work since creation, having previously ‘spoken through the prophets,’ the Spirit will now be with and in the disciples, to teach them and guide them ‘into all the truth’” (CCC #243). Jesus affirms that even though He will no longer be visibly with them, he will continue to be present among them through the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of truth will continue teaching them and helping them to understand and to build on what Jesus has already taught them. The Advocate will bring no new revelation because God has already revealed Himself in Jesus. But the Advocate will deepen their understanding of the revelation given by Jesus.
4) Jesus gives his followers four gifts: First, he gives them his love, which will enable them to keep his word. Next, he gives them the Holy Spirit, who will teach them everything they need to know. The Holy Spirit is the abiding love of God available to us, enabling us to accept the friendship of Jesus, while imitating Him, the Master. Third, he gives them His peace to strengthen them against fear in the face of trouble. Here "peace" is not just the absence of conflict, but also the far wider concept of shalom, the total well-being of the person and community. The promise of the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, will bring a peace that will quell their fears of the unfolding darkness ahead. “In Johannine language, peace, truth, light, life and joy are figurative terms reflecting different facets of the great gift that Jesus has brought from God to the world. 'Peace is my gift to you,' is another way of saying, 'I give them eternal life' (Jn 10:28) (Raymond E. Brown). The Holy Spirit is available as Comforter and Guide to those who believe in Jesus and follow in his way. The One God -- the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit – is pure Love. This Love, the Triune God, comes and lives in us, takes up residence in us and lives in our body. When God’s love lives in us, and we live in Him, there is much more peace in our families, our Churches, our offices. Fourth, Jesus rewards them with the assurance of his second coming.
Life messages: 1) Let us be aware of the abiding presence of God within us: We live in the New Covenant of Jesus, daily facing uncertainty, conflict, and temptations. It is the abiding presence of God within us that enables us to face the future with undying hope and true Christian courage. The Holy Spirit, sent upon the Church by the Father at the request of the risen Lord, prompts us to turn to His Holy Scriptures for support and encouragement, enables us to learn the Divine truths, and grants us His peace at all times. However, to be able to receive these gifts, it is necessary for us to spend a little time each day in personal prayer, talking to God and listening to Him. We must deepen our relationship with Jesus, learn to get in touch with him, and sincerely love him. When we listen to the Holy Spirit, we will know His plan for our life and His solutions for whatever problems we face. We will be able to love our fellow human beings, and there will be a core of peace within us. The Holy Spirit teaches us through the Scriptures and preaching during the Holy Mass as well as in our prayer and our private reading of Scripture. Jesus loves us and comes to us in Communion. When the Mass is ended, we go forth in the peace of Christ -- all this under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
2) We are not alone: One of the great social and ethical problems of our time is isolation. Today approximately 25% of all adults live alone. Spouses, parents and children often live as virtual strangers to one another. This is unfortunate because we never need to be alone. Jesus can always be present to us. He shares with us his joy and replaces the burden of our guilt with the freedom of forgiveness. He takes our grief and turns it into joy. We need only allow Jesus into our lives to be rid of this loneliness. Oneness with Jesus is the greatest gift we can give our children, our friends, or those who see no purpose in life. We can help to bring people to unity with Jesus, a unity that will change their lives. As we celebrate this Eucharistic meal, our Mass, let us celebrate in a special way the price Jesus paid for our redemption. May this Eucharistic celebration empower us to lead a true Life in the Spirit.
JOKE OF THE WEEK
1) Here is an Irish lyric: "Paddy Murphy went to Mass, never missed a Sunday. But Paddy Murphy went to hell, for what he did on Monday."
2) Don’t lose your mental peace: The Sunday school children had all been photographed with pastor sitting in their center. The pastor was trying to persuade the children to buy a copy of the group photo. "Just think how nice it will be to look at it when you are all grown up and say, 'There's Jennifer; she's a lawyer,' or 'That's Michael; he's a doctor.' A small voice at the back of the room rang out, "And there's our pastor; he's dead."
3) Peace and Relaxation: Did you know that.....If you can start the day without caffeine, if you can get going without pep pills, if you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains, if you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles, if you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it, if you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time, if you can take criticism without resentment, if you can ignore a friend's limited education and never correct him, if you can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor friend, if you can conquer tension without medical help, if you can relax without liquor, if you can sleep without the aid of drugs, ...Then you are probably the family dog!
19 Additional anecdotes 1) The ‘Butterfly Effect’ “Today’s real borders are not between nations, but between powerful and powerless, free and fettered, privileged and humiliated. Today no walls can separate humanitarian or human rights crises in one part of the world from national security crises in another. Scientists tell us that the world is so small and interdependent that a butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon forest can generate a storm on the other side of the earth. The principle is known as the ‘Butterfly Effect.’ Today we realize more than ever, that the world of human activity also has its own ‘Butterfly Effect’ for better or for worse. The classical example is the history-making growth of Christianity in the first century by the Spirit-transformed lives of the apostles and early Christians. (Kofi Annan –“Excerpts from Nobel Prize acceptance speech”) (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
2) Two loves in our lives: Jimmy Carter, in his book, Sources of Strength, tells about interviewing Eloy Cruz, an admirable Cuban pastor, who had tremendous rapport with poor immigrants from Puerto Rico. “What is the secret to your success?” asked Carter. Pastor Cruz replied, “Señor Jimmy, we need to have only two loves for our lives, love for God and love for the person who happens to be in front of us at any time.” (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
3) "You were walking with Mary Susanna Brown, a child of God": Retired Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes was walking down a street one day. A little girl joined him. When the girl started to turn back home, the famed jurist said, "When your mother asks you where you've been, tell her you've been walking with Oliver Wendell Holmes." To which the little girl replied confidently, "And when your folks ask you where you've been, tell them you were walking with Mary Susanna Brown, a child of God." There's a little girl with a healthy sense of who she is! Psychologists tell us that a healthy sense of identity is one of the most valuable gifts we can give our children. We are God’s children and our God is an indwelling God. First, however, we need that gift ourselves. And if we did not receive it from our parents, we will need to look to God. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
4) Head and tail fight of bulldog ants: The philosopher Schopenhauer once compared us to a Bulldog Ant. If we cut a Bulldog Ant in half, the front and rear segments will enter into a savage fight. The head will seize the tail with its teeth, while the tail will sting the head with fury. The fight might last for hours. That is the way some of us are on the inside. There is part of us that wants to move ahead and a part that wants to stand absolutely still. There is a part of us that wants success and recognition. There is another part that wants to sit on the river bank and while away the hours. There is a part of us that wants to serve Christ. There is another part that says, "No, I've enough to do right now. Let someone else take their turn." There is a fierce battle going on within many of us. Few of us know what it is to live lives of contentment and peace. Jesus said to his disciples, "I am leaving you with a gift -- peace of mind and heart! And the peace I give isn't fragile like the peace the world gives. So don't be troubled or afraid." What a promise! What a gift! Peace of mind and heart. He can give it to us. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
5) Love as Jesus loved: Jesus said, "I love you just as the Father loves me; remain in my love." (John 13:9). During World War II, a prisoner escaped from a labor detail in Auschwitz, a Nazi concentration camp in Poland. The camp commander announced that if he were not found in 24 hours, 10 of the 600 men in Block 14 would be picked at random to starve to death. Next morning the prisoners were lined up and stood all day in the burning heat of the sun. At 6 pm, 10 were selected at random. One was the father of a family. As they were being marched off, a Franciscan priest among the prisoners, St. Maximilian Kolbe, offered to take his place. The Nazi officer in charge was stunned, but he regained his composure and said, "Accepted." The priest's heroic act of love for a fellow prisoner is a faint reflection of Jesus' love for us--and of the Father's love for Jesus. Can I recall a time when I went out of my way and offered to help someone in need? The greatest love a person can have for his friends is to give his life for them. (John 15:13). (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
6) "Are we shot down?" A commercial airline pilot on one occasion made a particularly bad landing. The wheels of the big jet hit the runway with a jarring thud. Afterward, the airline had a policy, which required that the pilot stand at the door while the passengers exited. He was to give each of them a smile and say, "Thanks for flying with us today." In light of his bad landing, he had a hard time looking the passengers in the eye, thinking that someone would have a smart comment, but no one seemed annoyed. Finally everyone had gotten off except for one little old lady walking with a cane. She approached the pilot and asked, "Sonny, mind if I ask you a question?" "Why, no, Ma'am, what is it?" said the pilot bravely. "Did we land," she asked, "or were we shot down?" -- Maybe you've had days like that, days when it felt like you were shot down. Even worse, maybe things are going quite well for you, really. Your friends and your family tell you how fortunate you are. But you don't feel fortunate. In fact, your life is somewhat tortured by a nagging fear that you cannot even define. It is at those moments that God wants us to turn to Him. He is our Peace, always. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
7) "Mommy, are you there?": I recall the story of a little girl who, when trains were popular transportation, was taking her first train ride with her parents. As night descended, the mother took the girl, who was clearly quite anxious, and placed her on the upper bunk of the sleeper. She told her little one that up there she would be nearer to God and that God would watch over her. As silence enveloped the young lady she became afraid and called softly, "Mommy, are you there?" "Yes dear," came the response. A little later, in a louder voice, the child called, "Daddy, are you there, too?" "Yes dear," was the reply. After this had been repeated several times one of the passengers sharing their sleeper car finally lost his patience and shouted loudly, "Yes, we're all here, your father, your mother, your brother, and all your aunts and cousins; now settle down and go to sleep!" There was a moment of silence and then, in hushed tones a little voice asked, "Mommy, was that God?" Jesus, in offering peace, does not say, "I'm here, the Holy Spirit's here and God is here, now be at peace!" The peace that Jesus offers cannot be had simply by desiring it. The peace of God is a gift; it can only be received as a by-product of Faith. That's why the world is largely a stranger to it. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
8) Brendan Behan, an Irish playwright, virtually drank himself to death. His biographer attributes it to an unrelenting sense of guilt. Behan went to England on a mission for the I.R.A. One day he planted a bomb set to go off during rush hour. It exploded as a young woman with her baby was passing by. Both died in the blast! Brendan Behan was overwhelmed with guilt for killing that innocent woman and her baby. And as time went on he increasingly tried to drown his memories and silence his conscience in a bottle, without success! Guilt is a terrible thing. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we had a guide in life a guide that will help us avoid those things that we know are wrong, those things that fill us with regret? Christ has promised us such a guide. That guide is the Holy Spirit. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
9) Loving grandpa and the naughty grandchild: Grandpa walked into the family room and found his little grandson, Jeffy, standing up in his playpen, crying. He looked so pitiful, standing there in his little baseball T-shirt and diaper. His face was red and tear-stained from crying. When Jeffy saw his grandpa, his face lit up in a way that smote the old man’s heart. He immediately reached up his chubby little hands in supplication. “Take me out, Papa, out!” What grandpa could resist such a plea? Not this one! He walked over to the playpen and reached down to lift his little buddy out of captivity and distress. Just then, however, Law and Order stepped into the room. Jeffy’s mother walked out of the kitchen with a dishtowel in her hand and spoke sternly. “No, Jeffy! You are being punished. You have to stay in bed! Leave him right there, Dad.” Oh, fine. Now what’s a grandpa to do? His grandson’s tears and reaching little hands tugged mightily at his heart – but he didn’t want to interfere with a mother’s discipline either. What could he do? Love found a way. Since Grandpa couldn’t take Jeffy out of the playpen, he climbed in with him. “If you’re in the playpen, Buddy, I’m in the playpen. What’s your sentence? How long are you in for?” And finding a big, jolly grandpa suddenly filling his little prison cell, the little boy found comfort even in his captivity. Today’s readings explain God’s indwelling in the Church and in the believers in terms of God’s love for His children. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
10) The Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky regarded by many as one of the greatest literary geniuses of all time. His books are classics. The Brothers Karamazov is regarded by many as the greatest novel ever written. His stories all have a similar theme, that our redemption is to be found through suffering, not simply physical suffering, but in the anguish of our selfhood. We become fully human, Dostoyevsky believed, by being tested and being strengthened through it [Pulpit Resource, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Logos Art Productions, Inver Grove, Minnesota) pp. 14-15.] The peace which Jesus gave to the disciples involved very little contentment. They had to endure persecutions, misunderstanding and hardships of every kind. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
11) “But Papa, I love him; he loves me.” In the Broadway play and movie of the same name, Fiddler on the Roof, the chief protagonist is Tevye, a poor Russian Jew struggling to make a life for himself and his family. Economically and politically strapped by the harsh conditions of life prior to and during the Russian Revolution (ca. 1917), Tevye the milkman can hold onto little else except his traditions. However, even these began to crumble when his eldest daughter refuses to acquiesce to an arranged marriage and opts for love amid poverty rather than wealth without love. Further shaken by the marriage of his second daughter to a Russian who favors the revolution, Tevye seems unable to bear anything more. But the final blow comes when his youngest daughter chooses to marry Christian. When Tevye argues with his daughters in favor of the centuries’ old traditions of their people, they counter him on every point with the simple explanation, “But Papa, I love him; he loves me.” Love proved to be a force powerful enough to overcome separatism and the distrust of others and their ways on the grounds that they did not share the same roots, background and beliefs. In Tevye's family, love began to establish new traditions, though not easily or rapidly. The family which was the early Church also struggled with the tasks of surrendering old ways (as described in the first reading) and of learning and establishing new ones as it grew and developed. Based on love and founded in peace, the Church’s new traditions were inspired, supported and guided by none other than the Holy Spirit. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
12) Conversion: Joshua, a young Jew, fell in love with Mary, a devout Catholic. When Joshua proposed to Mary, she sought counsel from her parents, each of whom advised her differently. “Convert him to Catholicism!” commanded Mary’s dad, but her mum said, “Love him tenderly and God’s Spirit will work wonders!” Mary’s dad wouldn’t give in and ordered her to work hard at converting Joshua to Catholicism. Mary obeyed and Joshua was duly converted. Weeks later Joshua called off the marriage. “What’s up?” asked Mary’s dad. Mary sobbed: “Joshua wants to be a priest!” (Francis Gonsalves in Sunday Seeds for daily Deeds). (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
13) The little mediator, Wee Willie Winkie: John Ford's superb family action adventure film, Wee Willie Winkie (1937), is loosely based on Rudyard Kipling's popular story from his Tales of British India. The setting of this movie is 19th century British-occupied India. Little Priscilla Williams and her widowed mother travel to India to live with their relative, Colonel Williams. The colonel ruled his British Army base in India with an iron fist making of it an oppressive place. Priscilla is a very curious, precocious child, who gains the nickname of "Private Wee Willie Winkie.” The little girl quickly charms everyone around her, including a tough Scots Sergeant. After a series of adventures, she wins the hearts of everyone by challenging the prejudicial assumptions of both friends and enemies. Her innocent, yet challenging questions are instrumental in helping Colonel Williams and Islamic freedom fighter, Khoda Khan, to see the senselessness of violence. This leads them to a negotiated peace. Today’s Gospel assures us that it is the abiding presence of God the Father and God the Holy Spirit within us, with the Risen Lord, which gives us lasting peace. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
14) A New Advocate When the heartbroken Nathaniel Hawthorne went home to tell his wife that he had been a failure and had been fired from his job in a customhouse, she surprised him with an exclamation of joy. “Now,” she said triumphantly, “you can write your book!” “Yes,” replied Nathaniel, “and what shall we live on while I am writing it?” To his amazement, she opened a drawer and pulled out a substantial sum of money. “Where on earth did you get that?” he exclaimed. “I have always known you were a man of genius,” she told him. “I knew that someday you would write a masterpiece. So every week out of the housekeeping money you gave me I saved a little. So here is enough to last us a whole year!” From her confidence and encouragement came one of the greatest novels of United States literature, The Scarlet Letter. – As a farewell gift Jesus spoke of the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate he would give us. On the Divine level, deeper experiences of God do not make Christians immune to human problems and pain, but Jesus showed that his peace can be present even in the midst of insults, persecution, and approaching death. (Harold Buetow in God Still Speaks: Listen!) (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
15) "Padre, padrecito," he exclaimed, "I knew you would come." It happened that a missionary priest was visiting his extensive parish, high in the Andes Mountains. The best way to reach certain parts of the parish was on horseback. Once, toward sunset, the priest got disoriented and could not find the way back to his base camp. Rather than risk exposure at such an altitude, he decided to give his horse free rein and hope to find shelter. After a couple of hours of wandering, he saw a welcome sight. In the distance a lamp burned in a hut. This was unusual because the native people went to bed shortly after dark in order to get up at an early hour. When the priest got near the hut, a man ran out, "Padre, padrecito," he exclaimed, "I knew you would come." Surprised, the priest asked how he knew that. The man said, "My mother has been praying all day that a priest would come. She is dying." The priest went inside, heard the woman's confession, then gave her Holy Anointing and Holy Communion. The woman softly spoke these final words, "Taita Dios heard me." Taita Dios is not easy to translate. Dios of course means God, but Taita is hard to translate. It is an intimate, affectionate way of addressing one's father. Taita is like "daddy," except that a grown-up man could say it with no embarrassment. Taita Dios, my dear Father, has heard me. In today's Gospel, Jesus tells us that if someone keeps Jesus' word, "the Father will love him." He then describes an intimacy impossible for us to imagine. He tells us that he and the Father will dwell within us - by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Phil Bloom). (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
16) "I would obey the commandments of God." When Jimmy Carter was running for President of the United States, one of the more vivid moments in the campaign passed by almost unnoticed. One Sunday morning, candidate Carter had been worshipping at the Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia. When the service was over, he exited the church into the swarm of press encamped on the church's front lawn. Cameras whirring, video lights glaring, microphones thrust forward, the media mavens moved in for interviews, pushing themselves to think of clever questions to ask a presidential candidate on the way out of a Southern Baptist Church. Suddenly, a reporter, probably in a stroke of luck, shouted out a question that genuinely mattered: "Mr. Carter, suppose when you are President, you get into a situation where the laws of the United States are in conflict with what you understand to be the will of God. Which will you follow, the laws of the state or the commandments of God?" Carter stopped, looked up, and blinked into the bright Georgia sun, obviously turning the question over in his mind. Then, perhaps still "in the Spirit on the Lord's Day," perhaps with the Spirit gently whispering the lyrics of the Gospel into his ears, he turned toward the reporter and replied, "I would obey the commandments of God." Alert aides, alarmed by this candor, unnerved by their candidate's near-treasonous remark, hurriedly whisked him away from the press and into a waiting car. Carter the politician should have avoided the question, or hewed closely to the law of the land, but Carter the Christian had the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ whispering in his ear, "Do you love me? The world cannot see or know me, but do you love me? Do you keep my commandments?" The reason we need the Holy Spirit murmuring the Gospel in our ears, of course, is that we are notoriously forgetful. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
17) True peace Christ brings us according to St. Francis Assisi: The Little Flowers of St. Francis , composed at the end of the 14th century by a Tuscan is based on Actus beati Francisci et sociorum eius in divided into 53 short chapters. Here is a gripping story told in the book. “Walking one day in the bitter cold with Brother Leo, St Francis began to teach him about perfect joy and perfect peace. He called to Brother Leo, who was walking on before him, and said to him: 'If we monks were great holy men who edified all those around us, this would not be perfect joy.' A little further St. Francis called to Brother Leo again: 'O Brother Leo, if we monks were to make the lame to walk, if we should make straight the crooked, chase away demons, give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the dumb, and, what is even a far greater work, if we should raise the dead after four days, write that this would not be perfect joy.' ….After some two miles of this Brother Leo finally spoke up and said: 'Father Francis, I pray thee teach me wherein is perfect joy.' Francis then teaches him this: 'If, when we shall arrive at St Mary of the Angels, all drenched with rain and trembling with cold, all covered with mud and exhausted from hunger; if, when we knock at the convent-gate, the porter should come angrily and ask us who we are; if, after we have told him, "We are two of the brethren," he should answer angrily, "What ye say is not the truth; ye are but two impostors going about to deceive the world, and take away the alms of the poor; begone, I say"; if then he refuse to open to us, and leave us outside, exposed to the snow and rain, suffering from cold and hunger till nightfall - then, if we accept such injustice, such cruelty and such contempt with patience, without being ruffled and without murmuring, believing with humility and charity that the porter really knows us, and that it is God who maketh him to speak thus against us, write down, O Brother Leo, that this is perfect joy. And if we knock again, and the porter come out in anger to drive us away with oaths and blows, as if we were vile impostors, saying, "Begone, miserable robbers! To the hospital, for here you shall neither eat nor sleep!" - and if we accept all this with patience, with joy, and with charity, O Brother Leo, write that this indeed is perfect joy. And if, urged by cold and hunger, we knock again, calling to the porter and entreating him with many tears to open to us and give us shelter, for the love of God, and if he come out more angry than before, exclaiming, "These are but importunate rascals, I will deal with them as they deserve'; and taking a knotted stick, he seize us by the hood, throwing us on the ground, rolling us in the snow, and shall beat and wound us with the knots in the stick - if we bear all these injuries with patience and joy, thinking of the sufferings of our Blessed Lord, which we would share out of love for him, write, O Brother Leo, that here, finally, is perfect joy."'" ….I believe that what St Francis was saying to Brother Leo was that the Peace of Christ comes through our acts of obedience especially obedience in times of suffering. We will do well if we remember that true peace is the assurance that one day our Brother Jesus will return to take us back, back to our Father's house. So, do not let your hearts be troubled neither let them be afraid. Amen. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
18) Peanut in our pocket: It's like a story that someone tells about a young lady named Sally. Sally was growing up, becoming a woman preparing to go off to college. Her mother had struggled to provide for her education, an especially difficult task since her father had died several years earlier. Her mother made every effort within her power to raise Sally right. Now she would be on her own, an exciting and frightening time. Sally had strong reservations about leaving her mother alone to mind the farm and do the chores. She was also nervous about having to find her own way without her mother's guidance. As she prepared to meet the bus, bags packed and ready, her mother took her arm and said to her, "You're gonna see things an' do things you ain't never heard of, and you won't know which way to turn sometimes. You 'member how you used to tug on my apron string when you wanted something and I'd see to what you was after? You 'member how when you was too close to the road and I'd holler to you to tell you to get away from there'?" her mother gently reminded her. "Well, I'm gonna be there with you in your heart, but it'll be up to you to listen to what I told you. I can't kiss your hurts when you fall down an' skin your knee or quiet you when the big storms come rollin' through. But, I'll be close as a peanut in your pocket when you need me. If you're afraid, I'll stand with you. And if you are hurting, you can feel me close, and if you do wrong, I'll whisper the truth to ya so you won't do it no more." The tears came to both their eyes. Her mother opened the dresser drawer and took out a neatly folded handkerchief and placed it in the pocket of Sally's dress. Upon leaving, Sally felt completely alone. As she fought back the tears, she reached into her dress pocket to take out the handkerchief her mother had placed there. Then she noticed a knot in one corner just like her mother used to tie her milk money in her handkerchief. Upon untying the knot, she found a single peanut. She knew that her dear mother would always be with her in her heart (3. Parables submitted by Ron Alberston). The Good News is that God wants to dwell in our lives. God wants to take up residence in our hearts. God wants to be with us always, as close as a peanut in our pocket. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
19) "Watch Jimmie in chapel:" In his book, The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat, Oliver Sacks tells the story of Jimmie, a former sailor, now a patient in a nursing home, whose severe neurological disorder had left him with a profound and permanent amnesia. He simply had no memory of anything from 1945 on. Having no ability to retrieve the past and no ability to construct a meaningful present, Jimmie lacked the continuity that makes for a sense of the self. He was, wrote Sacks, a person who "wore a look of infinite sadness and resignation." However, when Sacks asked the Sisters who ran the nursing home whether Jimmie had lost his soul, the Sisters were outraged by the question. "Watch Jimmie in chapel," they said, "and judge for yourself." So Sacks did watch Jimmie in chapel, and there he observed an astounding transformation. He saw an intensity and steadiness in Jimmie that he had not observed before. As he received the Sacrament, there was "perfect alignment of his spirit with the spirit of the Mass." There in worship, Jimmie was no longer at the mercy of a faulty and fallible memory. "He was wholly held, absorbed ...." He whose mind was broken was given in worship, "a continuity and unity so seamless it could not permit any break." Jimmie in his own way is like all of us. In the final analysis, none of us is able to construct a self. We must all be given a story and a continuity not of our own making. Where we have no faithful memory, God remembers, and by the grace of God, the Spirit whispers the lyrics of the saving Gospel in our ears. (The story, from Oliver Sacks, The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat, is reported in Craig Dykstra, "Memory and Truth," Theology Today, XLIV/2, p. 162). (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ ) L/19
“Scriptural Homilies” Cycle C (No. 29) by Fr. Tony: akadavil@gmail.com
Visit my website: By clicking on http://frtonyshomilies.com/ for missed or previous Cycle C homilies, 141 Year of Faith “Adult Faith Formation Lessons” (useful for RCIA classes too) & 197 “Question of the Week.” Contact me only at akadavil@gmail.com. Visit http://www.vaticannews.va/en/church.html for the Vatican version of this homily and https://www.catholicsermons.com/homilies/sunday_homilies under CBCI or in the CBCI website https://cbci.in/SundayReflectionsNew.aspx?&id=cG2JDo4P6qU=&type=text .
Fr. Anthony Kadavil, Chaplain, Sacred Heart Residence of the Little Sisters of the Poor, 1655 McGill Ave, Mobile, AL 36604.
Easter V (May 19) Homily (one-page summary) (Jn 13:31-35) (L-19)
Introduction: Today’s readings are about renewal and new things: The New Jerusalem, a new Heaven and a new earth, and a new commandment. Scripture lessons: The first reading, taken from the Acts of the Apostles, describes how the small Christian communities helped the work of renewal in their members by their agápe love, imitating the agápe love of Paul and Barnabas. The second reading, from the Book of Revelation, explains how God renews His Church, the New Jerusalem, by being present in her members and in their parish communities and liturgical celebrations. "See, I am making all things new." Today’s Gospel passage gives us the secret of Christian renewal as the faithful practice of Jesus’ new commandment: “Love one another as I have loved you” (John 13:35). Jesus has added a new element to the Old Testament command of love by teaching us that the true test of discipleship is to love other people in the same way that he has loved us, with sacrificial, unconditional, agápe love. Hence, the renewal of Christian life means a radical change of vision and a reordering of our priorities in life. Such a renewal brings us to embrace new attitudes, new values and new standards of relating to God, to other people and, indeed, to our whole environment.
Life messages: 1) Let us learn to love ourselves so that we may learn to love each other. The old commandment (Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18) says: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” We cannot learn to cherish others and care for them if we have never learned to do the same for ourselves. We live in a world that denies our basic human worth. How do we reclaim our basic worth? We can become whole and holy only when we learn to love ourselves properly, acknowledging the fact that we are children of God and that the Triune God resides in our souls, making our bodies the “temple of the Holy Spirit.”
2) Let us love others in our daily lives: We are asked to love as Jesus loved, in the ordinary course of our lives. We love others by responding to their everyday needs with love and compassion. We love others by comforting and protecting those who have experienced loss. We love others by serving others in every possible way no matter how small, seeing the face of Jesus in them. We love others by forgiving rather than condemning, by challenging rather than condoning. Finally, we love others by sacrificially sharing our time, talents and blessings with them.
3) Let us demonstrate our love for others in our gatherings and parish assemblies: When we are assembled as a religious or social community, we have an opportunity to demonstrate our love for one another. People must see Christians as people who interact with a love and concern for one another that reveals their strong love and appreciation for each other. They should see in us a quickness to appreciate and readiness to forgive, even as Christ has forgiven us.
Easter V [C] (May 19): Acts 14:21-27; Rv 21:1-5a; Jn 13:31-35
Anecdote # 1: “Little children love one another:” St. Jerome relates of the apostle John that when he became old, he used to be carried to the assembled Churches, everywhere repeating the words, “Little children, love one another.” His disciples, wearied by the constant repetition, asked him why he always said this. “Because,” he replied, “it is the Lord’s commandment, and if it only be fulfilled, it is enough.” John knew that the greatest truth was most apt to be forgotten because it was taken for granted. This is one of the greatest calamities in the Christian Church and the one that causes divisions. http://frtonyshomilies.com/
# 2: “I wouldn’t do that for a million dollars.” One day, as St. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa, 1910-1997) and her Missionaries of Charity were tending to the poorest of the poor on the streets of Calcutta, they happened across a man lying in the gutter, very near death. He was filthy, dressed in little more than a rag and flies swarmed around his body. Immediately, Mother Teresa embraced him, spoke to him softly and began to pick out the maggots that were nesting in his flesh. A passerby was repulsed by the sight of the man and exclaimed to Mother Teresa, “I wouldn’t do that for a million dollars.” Her response was immediate, “Neither would I!” Obviously, monetary gain did not motivate the diminutive woman known as the Saint of Calcutta; love did. In her writings, Mother Teresa frequently affirmed the motivating power of love. Quoting Jesus in today’s Gospel, she wrote, “Jesus said, ‘Love one another. Such as my love has been for you, so must your love be for each other.’” She continued, “We must grow in love, and to do this we must go on loving and loving and giving and giving until it hurts - the way Jesus did. Do ordinary things with extraordinary love: little things, like caring for the sick and the homeless, the lonely and the unwanted, washing and cleaning for them.” Elsewhere, Mother Teresa remarked that the greatest disease in the West today is not tuberculosis, leprosy or even A.I.D.S.; it is being unwanted, uncared for, unloved. That she did her part in trying to “cure” this disease was attested in everything she did and in every word she said. (Sanchez Files) http://frtonyshomilies.com/
# 3: Catherine Lawes who transformed a notorious prison with love: In 1921, Lewis Lawes became the warden at Sing Sing Prison in New York state. No prison was tougher than Sing Sing during that time. But when Warden Lawes retired some 20 years later, that prison had become a humanitarian institution. Those who studied the system said credit for the change belonged to Lawes. But when he was asked about the transformation, here's what he said: "I owe it all to my wonderful wife, Catherine, who is buried outside the prison walls." Catherine Lawes was a young mother with three small children when her husband became the warden. Everybody warned her from the beginning that she should never set foot inside the prison walls, but that didn't stop Catherine! When the first prison basketball game was held, she went ... walking into the gym with her three beautiful kids, and she sat in the stands with the inmates. Her attitude was: "My husband and I are going to take care of these men and I believe they will take care of me! I don't have to worry." She insisted on getting acquainted with them and their records. She discovered one convicted murderer was blind so she paid him a visit. Holding his hand in hers she said, "Do you read Braille?" "What's Braille?" he asked. Then she taught him how to read. Years later he would weep in love for her. Later, Catherine found a deaf-mute in prison. She went to school to learn how to use sign language. Many said that Catherine Lawes was the body of Jesus that came alive again in Sing Sing from 1921 to 1937. Then, she was killed in a car accident. The next morning Lewis Lawes didn't come to work, so the acting warden took his place. It seemed almost instantly that the prison knew something was wrong. The following day, her body was resting in a casket in her home, three-quarters of a mile from the prison. As the acting warden took his early morning walk he was shocked to see a large crowd of the toughest, hardest-looking criminals gathered like a herd of animals at the main gate. He came closer and noted tears of grief and sadness. He knew how much they loved Catherine. He turned and faced the men, "All right, men, you can go. Just be sure and check in tonight!" Then he opened the gate and a parade of criminals walked, without a guard, the three-quarters of a mile to stand in line to pay their final respects to Catherine Lawes. And every one of them checked back in. Everyone! They learned the commandment of love as practiced by Catherine. [Stories for the Heart compiled by Alice Gray (Portland: Multnomah Press, 1996), pp. 54-55.] http://frtonyshomilies.com/
Introduction: Today’s readings are about new things: the New Jerusalem, a new Heaven and a new earth, and a new commandment. In the reading taken from the Book of Revelation, God tells us that His saving and healing work in the world is ongoing: "See, I am making all things new" (Revelation 21:5a). The first reading, taken from the Acts of the Apostles, describes how the small Christian communities helped the work of renewal in their members by their agápe love, imitating the agápe love of Paul and Barnabas. The Responsorial Psalm (Ps 145) prays that “Your faithful ones” may “make known Your might to the children of Adam,” not just to Israel. The second reading, taken from the Book of Revelation, explains how God renews His Church by being present in her members and in their parish communities and liturgical celebrations. Today’s Gospel passage gives us the secret of Christian renewal as the faithful practice of Jesus’ new commandment: “Love one another as I have loved you” (John 13:35). Jesus has added a new element to the Old Testament command of love by telling us that the true test of discipleship is to love other people in the same way that He has loved us. Hence, the renewal of Christian life means a radical change of vision and a reordering of our priorities in life. Such a renewal brings us to embrace new attitudes, new values and new standards of relating to God, to other people and, indeed, to our whole environment. For most of us, “renewal" is something that comes at different stages in our lives, each time bringing us to a deeper understanding, insight and commitment.
First reading: Acts 14:21-27, explained: Each Jewish synagogue served the Faith community year-round as a) a House of Prayer (b) a House of Study and (c) a House of Assembly or Socialization. When Jesus came, acting as a Teacher, a rabbi, he gathered around him a talmudim -- a small group of twelve men to travel with him, to share prayer, ministry, Faith and values. Jesus promised his followers that wherever two or three would gather in his name, he would be present among them. After his death and Resurrection, Jesus’ disciples tried to establish small Christian communities wherever they found a welcome. Paul and Barnabas knew that evangelization and Baptism were but the first steps in a lifelong process of turning to, and being transformed by, Christ. Hence, in their subsequent visits to Christian communities, they continued to instruct their converts. Already in the first Christian century, believers understood that catechesis is a cradle-to-grave endeavor. Paul and Barnabas also considered their mission an extension of the small community’s outreach to the world. Because of this they were accountable to the Christian community that had sent them. Therefore, they returned to relate all that they had done, careful to credit their success and the increasingly universal character of the Church to God, who had “opened the door of the Faith to the Gentiles” (v. 27). It is a welcome sight to see modern Christian communities, which are criticized for too much structural set-up, returning to their first century roots by establishing congregations that are a network of individual Christians, bound together in prayer, Faith, mutual support, service, missionary outreach and accountability. We may not be called to the same kind of missionary activity as were Paul and Barnabas, but we must be as unselfish in our service of others as were these early Christians.
Second Reading, Revelation 21:1-5, explained: The Book of Revelation was written to bolster the Faith of persecuted early Christians. Today's passage begins the final section of the book. The scene is really a vision of the new age of eschatological fulfillment inaugurated by the death and Resurrection of Jesus. The ancient city of Jerusalem had long been for the Jews a token of God's presence with them. God had aided them in capturing and holding it, in making it their capital, in building His Temple there, and in returning to it to rebuild it after its destruction by their captors and their consequent exile in Babylon. Within the holiest chamber of the Jerusalem Temple, they kept the stone tablets of the Law given to Moses in a chest known as the Ark of the Covenant. God dwelt in a particular way above this chamber. These details give richness to the image of the “New Jerusalem" spoken of in Revelation. The image is also a metaphor for the Church, which is always called to reveal God's presence among us. Today’s passage from the Book of Revelation (21:3) gives us the assurance that “God’s dwelling is with the human race." It affirms the fact that God is present at every moment of human history, even those most desperate and threatening. Jesus' death and Resurrection have created a state in which a once-distant God is now present to every person and in every situation. Moreover, Jesus has given us the insight and power to transform everything in our lives by practicing agápe love in our interactions with people. It is through this constant love-centered interaction among us that the "new earth, the new Heaven and the new Jerusalem" can begin to come into existence - not at some unknown future time and in some other place, but here and now. In this second reading, taken from Revelation, John shares a vision of nuptial love. When all the former things have passed away and sin and evil are completely overcome, God will welcome the redeemed as a husband welcomes a bride. The love and life that they will share will preclude tears, pain, crying out, mourning and death.
Gospel exegesis: Today's Gospel reading comes from Chapters 13:1--17:26 of St. John's Gospel, known as "The Last Discourse," which took place at the Last Supper, on the night before Jesus went to the Cross. In these chapters, Jesus has left urgent messages for his Apostles and for us – things that he wanted to tell us before he went away. This farewell discourse is a powerful and intimate part of Jesus' teaching on the Christian concepts of glory and love.
The Christian concept of glory: The glorification mentioned in today’s passage refers, above all, “to the glory which Christ will receive once he is raised up on the cross (John 3:14; 12:32). St. John stresses that Christ's death is the beginning of his victory: his very crucifixion can be considered the first step in his Ascension to his Father. At the same time, it is glorification of the Father, because Christ, by voluntarily accepting death out of love, as a supreme act of obedience to the Will of God, performs the greatest sacrifice man can offer for the glorification of God. The Father will respond to this glorification which Christ offers Him by glorifying Christ as Son of Man, that is, in his holy human nature, through his Resurrection and Ascension to God's right hand. Thus, the glory which the Son gives the Father is at the same time glory for the Son.” (The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries). As Christ's disciples, we also will find our highest motivation and glory by identifying ourselves with Christ's obedience in our daily lives, especially by keeping his new commandment of sacrificial, unconditional and forgiving agápe love.
The new commandment: In the second part of the farewell discourse, Jesus gives his followers a new commandment: they must love one another as he has loved them. They would be known, not by the sign of the fish or even of the cross, but by their mutual love, the fruit of their conversion. Just as Solomon, in the story of the disputed child, was able to discern the identity of the true mother by her love, so will the world be able to identify the true disciples of Jesus by their love for one another. The command of Jesus is both new and old. It repeats the precept of Lv 19:18 to love one’s neighbor as one’s self. What is new is that this love characterizes the new life inaugurated by Jesus and is proof of one’s love for God (1 Jn. 4:7). Jesus’ new commandment calls for love without limits, conditions, or prerequisites. This love opens our eyes to facts that we might otherwise overlook that the poor in the world belong to our family; that those who live in despair may be saved by our care of them; that peace can come to the world through our efforts
The nature of Christian love: Jesus speaks of agápe, a love that requires total commitment and trust. It is the kind of love with which God loves us, a love that should be the model of the love we have for others. This love should be more than just a warm feeling toward others; it should be a compassionate gift of ourselves to meet the spiritual and bodily needs of our brothers and sisters. Agápe implies a reaching out to others in a caring attitude for their wellbeing without expecting any favor in return. It is strong, positive, difficult, determined action. Jesus repeats the command to love one another three times, first explaining what it is ("a new commandment"), how it is to be applied ("as I have loved you"), and finally noting that this love would stand as the trademark of his disciples. Not only is this a new commandment, but also, Jesus teaches, it is the greatest. To love, in fact, is to know God—"Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love" (1 John 4:7-8). The early Christians practiced this love literally. That is why Tertullian stated that the heathens held the Christian congregations in high regard: "See, how these Christians love one another!" The fact is that Jesus' death and Resurrection served, not just as an example of how to love, but as the agent that actually freed us from our selfish love through His indwelling presence. It was this new kind of love which was manifested by the first disciples of Jesus in Jerusalem (Acts 2:44-45), and in the Churches in Macedonia (2 Cor 8:1-5). It was a love that was attentive to the poor and the needy. During his life on earth, Jesus Himself was lovingly present to those who were not at all lovable. He allowed himself to be moved with pity and compassion when he encountered those in need, and he was moved to tears in the midst of sadness. He openly shed tears at the tomb of Lazarus. He shed tears also over the city of Jerusalem. Even the anger that Jesus displayed in the Temple was rooted in love -- the love for His Father and for His Father's house. Jesus loved by serving others, by helping them and by healing others. His was a love that healed and built up, that challenged and inspired people. It was a deeply forgiving and sacrificial love. “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends" (15: 13).
Life messages: 1) Let us learn to love ourselves so that we may learn to love each other. The old commandment (Lv 19:1-2, 9-18), says: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” How do we learn to cherish others and care for them if we have never learned to do the same for ourselves? We live in a culture that devalues life and worships death—a culture in which people drug themselves into oblivion. Women and girls are willing to starve themselves to fit some unrealistic media image of beauty and worth. People and relationships are sacrificed on the altar of “workaholism.” How are we to love ourselves when we are told over and over again that we are unlovable? How do we reclaim our basic worth? We can become whole and holy only when we learn to love ourselves properly, acknowledging the presence of the Triune God in our souls, making our bodies the “temple of the Holy Spirit.” Only those persons who are fully convinced that they are themselves lovable because God has loved them and so brought them into being can reach out comfortably and unconditionally to love those who themselves cannot love but can only hurt and hate and destroy. It is through constant love-centered interaction with God and each other that the "new earth, the new Heaven and the new Jerusalem" can begin to come into existence.
2) Let us love others in our daily lives: We are asked to love as Jesus loved, in the ordinary course of our lives. This means that we should love others by allowing ourselves to be moved with pity for them. We love others by responding to their everyday needs. We can show love by materially sharing with those who have less. We love others by comforting and protecting those who have experienced loss. We love others by serving others in every possible way no matter how small. We love others by forgiving rather than condemning, by challenging rather than condoning. We love others by responding to the call of God in our lives and by walking in the footsteps of Jesus. We love others by making sacrifices for them. This is how the world will know that we are the Disciples of Christ.
3) Let us demonstrate our love for others: When we are assembled and have guests, we have an opportunity to demonstrate our love for one another. They must see Christians as people who are glad to see one another, who are willing to take the time to visit with each other and who know each other's names. Our assemblies may be the only time some guests have the opportunity to see Christians interact with love and concern for one another, an interaction that reveals the strong love and appreciation for one another which the members have. Christians will often sin against one another and offend one another. But others should see in us a quickness to forgive, even as Christ has forgiven us.
Joke of the Week: One Sunday a priest was finishing up a series on marriage. At the end of the service he was giving out small wooden crosses to each married couple. He said, "Place this cross in the room in which you fight the most and you will be reminded of Jesus’ new commandment and you won’t argue as much." One woman came up after the service and said: “You’d better give me five crosses.”
USEFUL WEBSITES OF THE WEEK
1) http://www.columbia.edu/cu/augustine/a/faq-cc.html: (Catholic FAQ =Catholic answers to frequently asked questions) & http://www.catholic.com/
2) USCCB Daily reflections videos: http://www.usccb.org/bible/reflections/
15-Additional anecdotes: 1) The bomber and the victim: Two World War II veterans, a German and an American, were attending a three-day seminar. As they were washing dishes one evening after dinner, they exchanged stories about the war. The American told of the horror he felt as a young pilot during the particularly savage bombing of a city in Germany. He had orders to bomb a hospital, which he would know by the huge Red Cross painted on the roof. The German -- somewhat shocked by the story -- revealed that his wife had been giving birth to their baby in that very hospital when it was being bombed, resulting in the death of the mother and the baby. After a few minutes of silence, the two men fell into each other’s arms weeping. Imagine being in Heaven, at the end of the world, where we fall weeping upon one another, waves of reconciliation breaking upon us as we adjust ourselves to this dimension of pure love which Jesus demands from his followers in today’s Gospel passage. http://frtonyshomilies.com/
2) Quest for Fire: In the early 1980s, an unusual film was playing in movie theatres across the nation. It was called Quest for Fire. Its French producer said it fulfilled a lifelong dream. He’d always dreamed of celebrating, in film, the discovery of fire. For it was the discovery of fire 80,000 years ago that saved people on the planet Earth from total extinction. It was the discovery of fire that made it possible for them to make tools for survival and to protect themselves against the cold. Today, people on planet earth are beginning to worry again that we are teetering on the brink of global disaster. This time the danger comes not from something basic like the lack of fire but from something even more basic – the lack of human love, the kind of love Jesus preached. This makes us wonder. It makes us ask ourselves a question, a frightening question: ‘Do we love? Have we learned to love?’
(Mark Link in Sunday Homilies; quoted by Fr. Botelho). http://frtonyshomilies.com/
3) Love is the Christian uniform: The renowned French artist Paul Gustave Dore once lost his passport while traveling in another country in Europe. When he came to a border crossing, he explained his predicament to one of the guards. Giving his name to the official, Dore hoped he would be recognized and allowed to pass. The guard, however, said that many people attempted to cross the border by claiming to be persons they were not. Dore insisted that he was the man he claimed to be. "All right," said the official, "we'll give you a test, and if you pass it we'll allow you to go through." Handing him a pencil and a sheet of paper, he told the artist to sketch several peasants standing nearby. Dore did it so quickly and skillfully that the guard was convinced he was indeed who he claimed to be. Dore's action confirmed his identity. In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives us the mark of Christian identity: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13:34-5). Love is the Christian identity. Love is the Christian uniform. Love is the Christian habit. If you are wearing the habit of love, you are in. If you are not wearing love as a habit, you are out. (Fr. Essau). Let us remember the words of Shakespeare in Measure for Measure (Act V: Scene 1, l. 263): "Cucullus non facit monachum" [a cowl does not make a monk]. A Christian name or a cross on a chain will not make us Christians, unless we practice Jesus’ new commandment of love given in today’s Gospel. http://frtonyshomilies.com/
4) "This is an Arab bus": The Reverend Timothy J. Kennedy tells of traveling by bus throughout Israel one summer. On one part of the journey, the bus driver placed a big white sign by the passenger side windshield. Since it was in Arabic, Kennedy asked their guide to translate. The sign said, "This is an Arab bus, owned and operated by Arabs. Please do not throw stones." When they got close to Tel Aviv, the driver pulled another sign from behind his seat, and replaced the first sign in the windshield. Since it was in Hebrew, Kennedy asked their guide to translate again. The new sign said, "This is a Jewish bus, owned and operated by Israelis. Please do not throw stones." How do you tell the difference between an Arab bus and a Jewish bus? A big plastic sign in the windshield. But back to our primary question, how do you identify a Christian? I guess we could wear plastic signs. But would that really do the trick? (1. http://grace-lutheran-church.com/sermons/2006/03/1). http://frtonyshomilies.com/
5) "I missed!": President Reagan told a humorous story during the last days of his administration. It was about Alexander Dumas. It seems that Dumas and a friend had a severe argument. The matter got so out of hand that one challenged the other to a duel. Both Dumas and his friend were superb marksmen. Fearing that both men might fall in such a duel, they resolved to draw straws instead. Whoever drew the shorter straw would then be pledged to shoot himself. Dumas was the unlucky one. He drew the short straw. With a heavy sigh, he picked up his pistol and trudged into the library and closed the door, leaving the company of friends who had gathered to witness the non-duel outside. In a few moments a solitary shot was fired. All the curious pressed into the library. They found Dumas standing with his pistol still smoking. "An amazing thing just happened," said Dumas. "I missed!" I am amazed how many Christians have been in the Church all their lives and still have missed the Gospel of Jesus’ new commandment. http://frtonyshomilies.com/
6) Christian love in action: Comedian Jerry Clower tells a story about Christian love in action. Two Christian businessmen were having lunch in a downtown restaurant. The waitress serving their table dumped a bowl of hot soup right over one of these businessmen. Everybody gasped and stared. As Clower tells it, "They just couldn’t wait for the manager to run out and fire this lady. They just couldn’t wait for this man, standing there, dripping, with his suit ruined, to cuss this waitress out, but the fellow looked at that waitress and said, 'Young lady, I am so sorry this happened to you. I know it embarrasses you." How would you have handled that situation? Can you love as the Master would have us love? Can any of us do that? How? [Jerry Clower, Life Ever Laughter (Nashville, Tennessee: Rutledge Hill Press, 1988.] http://frtonyshomilies.com/
7) Mother Teresa’s love: One day, as St. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa) and her Missionaries of Charity were tending to the poorest of the poor on the streets of Calcutta, they happened across a man lying in the gutter, very near death. He was filthy, dressed in little more than a rag and flies swarmed around his body. Immediately, Mother Teresa lovingly lifted him up him, cleaned his body, spoke to him softly and laid him comfortably in her ambulance. A passerby was repulsed by the sight of the man and exclaimed to Mother Teresa, “I wouldn’t do that for a million dollars.” Her response was immediate, “Neither would I!” She demonstrated the type of love that Jesus wants from Christians. http://frtonyshomilies.com/
8) "Grandma, please": In Chicago there is a unique telephone service called "Grandma, Please" that is geared to latch-key kids. "Grandma, Please" provides free number kids can call if they are home alone and need someone to talk to. Senior citizens volunteer their time to answer telephones and talk to kids who are lonely or scared and need a little adult company. The "Grandma, Please" switchboard gets about 800 calls per month. Many of the children want to share the news of their school day with someone. Some will call because they heard a noise outside and got scared. Most call simply for the chance to connect with another human being. They are so lonely. One volunteer reports that her phone calls often end with the child saying, "I love you, Grandma. What is your name?" http://frtonyshomilies.com/
9) Christian love of a coach: Author James Moore tells about K.C. Jones, the former coach of the Boston Celtics basketball team. Jones became famous for his unique ability to give his players some unforgettable words of encouragement when they needed it most. If a player scored 50 points or made the game-winning basket, Jones would not say much more than, "Nice game!" But when a player was down and really struggling, Coach Jones would be there to comfort and help and inspire. All-star forward Kevin McHale asked Coach Jones about this one day, and K.C. Jones answered: "Kevin, after you've made the winning basket, you've got 15,000 people cheering for you, TV commentators come rushing toward you, and everybody is giving you high fives. You don't need me then. When you need a friend, most is when nobody is cheering." (Collected Sermons, King Duncan, Dynamic Preaching, 2005, 0-000-0000-20) http://frtonyshomilies.com/
10) The dreadful accident on the battleship USS Iowa: Do you remember the tale of the dreadful accident on the battleship USS Iowa? It occurred in the spring of 1989. Forty-seven young men were killed in a still unexplained explosion in a gun turret. The investigation showed that the explosion was the result of a significant overrun of the powder bags into the already-loaded guns. There is much tragedy in the sad story. But also, one can find strong threads of glory. The storyteller reminds us the glory belongs, paradoxically perhaps, not to the survivors but to the casualties. The heroes were not the men who may have kept the battleship afloat after the accident. Rather, the heroes were the sailors who died. They shall ever be numbered among the Navy's honored dead. Writes the poet, "They shall not grow old...At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them." As it was for these young men, so it was for Jesus. That is why you will find the word glory mentioned an extraordinary five times in the opening two sentences of today's Gospel. So can it be for you and me – if, of course, we have spiritual courage and discipline. (Fr. James Gilhooley) . http://frtonyshomilies.com/
11) Love changes everything: In 1976 a car accident tore open the head of a 21-year-old Chicago boy named Peter. His brain was damaged, and he was thrown into a deep coma. Doctors told Peter’s family and friends that he probably wouldn’t survive. Even if he did, he’d always be in a comatose state. One of the people who heard that frightening news was Linda, the girl Peter planned to marry. In the sad days ahead, Linda spent all her spare time in the hospital. Night after night, she’d sit at Peter’s bedside, pat his check, rub his brow, and talk to him. “It was like we were on a normal date,” she said. All the while Peter remained in a coma, unresponsive to Linda’s loving presence. Night after night, for three and a half months, Linda sat at Peter’s bedside, speaking words of encouragement to him, even though he gave no sign that he heard her. Then one-night Linda saw Peter’s toe move. A few nights later she saw his eyelash flutter. This was all she needed. Against the advice of the doctors, she quit her job and became his constant companion. She spent hours massaging his arms and legs. Eventually she arranged to take him home. She spent all her savings on a swimming pool, hoping that the sun and the water would restore life to Peter’s motionless limbs. Then came the day when Peter spoke his first word since the accident. It was only a grunt, but Linda understood it. Gradually, with Linda’s help, those grunts turned into words -- clear words. Finally, the day came when Peter was able to ask Linda’s father if he could marry her. Linda’s father said, “When you can walk down the aisle, Peter, she’ll be yours.” Two years later Peter walked down the aisle of Our Lady of Pompeii Church in Chicago. He had to use a walker, but he was walking. Every television station in Chicago covered that wedding. Newspapers across the country carried pictures of Linda & Peter. Celebrities phoned to congratulate them. Families with loved ones in comas called to ask their advice. Today, Peter living a normal life. He talks slowly, but clearly. He walks slowly, but without a walker. He and Linda even have a lovely child. Today’s Gospel message is to love others as Jesus did. (Mark Link in Sunday Homilies; quoted by Fr. Botelho). http://frtonyshomilies.com/
12) "Boy! I would like to be that kind of brother.” In the lovely book, Chicken Soup for the Soul, there's a story about a man who came out of his office one Christmas morning and found a little boy from a nearby project looking with great admiration at the man’s new vehicle. The little boy asked, "Does this car belong to you?" And the man said, "Yes. In fact, my brother gave it to me for Christmas. I've just gotten it." With that, the little boy's eyes widened. He said, "You mean to say that somebody gave it to you? And you didn't have to pay anything for it?" And the man said, "That's right. My brother gave it to me as a gift." With that the little boy let out a long sigh and said, "Boy, I would really like..." And the man fully expected the boy to say, "I would like to have a brother like that, who would give me such a beautiful car," but instead the man was amazed when the little boy said, "Boy! I would like to be that kind of brother. I wish I could give that kind of car to my little brother." Somehow that child understood the secret of the “new commandment” of love, which Jesus gave to his apostles during his last discourse, as described in today’s Gospel: “Love one another as I have loved you.” True love consists, not in "getting" something from the lover, but in "giving" something to the loved one. The most familiar example of this type of love is a mother’s love for her child. http://frtonyshomilies.com/
13) The humble lady: There is a beautiful legend about a king who decided to set aside a special day to honor his greatest subject. When the big day arrived, there was a large gathering in the palace courtyard. Four finalists were brought forward, and from these four, the king would select the winner. The first person presented was a wealthy philanthropist. The king was told that this man was highly deserving of the honor because of his humanitarian efforts. He had given much of his wealth to the poor. The second person was a celebrated physician. The king was told that this doctor was highly deserving of the honor because he had rendered faithful and dedicated service to the sick for many years. The third person was a distinguished judge. The king was told that the judge was worthy because he was noted for his wisdom, his fairness, and his brilliant decisions. The fourth person presented was an elderly woman. Everyone was quite surprised to see her there, because her manner was quite humble, as was her dress. She hardly looked as the greatest subject in the kingdom. What chance could she possibly have, when compared to the other three, who had accomplished so much? Even so, there was something about her the look of love in her face, the understanding in her eyes, her quiet confidence. The king was intrigued, to say the least, and somewhat puzzled by her presence. He asked who she was. The answer came: “You see the philanthropist, the doctor, and the judge? Well, she was their teacher!” That woman had no wealth, no fortune, and no title, but she had unselfishly given her life to produce great. She practiced love as Jesus instructs). http://frtonyshomilies.com/
14) The leader who led the army from the front: In 1336 BC Alexander the great began his conquest of the world. It was his dream to conquer India, the land of legends. With his army he marched towards India and reached the city of Multan. Alexander saw that the city was well fortified. He was not ready to give up. He led the assault against the city of Multan. He climbed the fortress and ascended on the top of the city walls. Below he saw a large army aiming their poisoned arrows at him. He did not wait. He jumped into their midst. Two of his soldiers followed him. The great leader of war led from the front and his soldiers followed him. History presents a few examples of such heroic men who led from the front and others followed him. We do not see any leader other than Jesus admonishing his followers to imitate him. Jesus told his apostles, “love one another as I have loved you.” (Fr. Bobby Jose). http://frtonyshomilies.com/
15) Emperor who abdicated his throne for the realization of his love. Edwards VIII ascended the throne of the British Empire after the death of his father. But his proposal to marry Wallis Simpson, a divorced American Socialite, led to a constitutional crisis in British Empire. Religious, legal, political and moral objections were raised. Mrs. Simpson was perceived to be an unsuitable consort to him. But king Edward was not ready to give up his love for the throne. The conservative leaders and people were unwilling for any compromise. Edward abdicated his throne for the realization of his love. Jesus came down from his heavenly glory and lived like one of us to teach demonstrate how God loves mankind and gave us his new commandment: “Love one another as I have loved you” (John 13: 35). (Fr. Bobby Jose). http://frtonyshomilies.com/ L/19
“Scriptural Homilies” Cycle C (No. 28) by Fr. Tony: akadavil@gmail.com
Visit my website: By clicking on http://frtonyshomilies.com/ for missed or previous Cycle B homilies, 141 Year of Faith “Adult Faith Formation Lessons” (useful for RCIA classes too) & 197 “Question of the Week.” Contact me only at akadavil@gmail.com. Visit http://www.vaticannews.va/en/church.html for the Vatican version of this homily and https://www.catholicsermons.com/homilies/sunday_homilies under CBCI or in the CBCI website https://cbci.in/SundayReflectionsNew.aspx?&id=cG2JDo4P6qU=&type=text .
Fr. Anthony Kadavil, Chaplain, Sacred Heart Residence of the Little Sisters of the Poor, 1655 McGill Ave, Mobile, AL 36604.
One-page summary: Easter IV [C] Sunday (May 12) Homily (L-19)
Introduction: The fourth Sunday of Easter, known as Good Shepherd Sunday, is also the “World Day of Prayer for Vocations.” The Scripture lessons for this day concern the role of the shepherds of God’s flock in the Church. Each year on this Sunday, we reflect on the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd who devotedly and kindly takes care of his flock. The title "pastor" means shepherd. A shepherd leads, feeds, nurtures, comforts, corrects, and protects his flock—responsibilities that belong to every Church leader. The earliest Christians saw Jesus as the fulfillment of the ancient Jewish dream of the Good Shepherd who also wished to include the Gentiles as part of God’s flock.
Scripture lessons summarized: Today's first reading describes how Paul and Barnabas opted to listen to the voice of Jesus the Good Shepherd and follow him, and how, like their Master, they were rebuffed and rejected when they tried to share the good news of salvation. It also suggests that the sympathy of the early Christians for the Gentiles caused a rupture with Judaism. The second reading, taken from the book of Revelation, depicts Jesus as both the glorified Lamb and the Shepherd. John's vision encourages his readers with the assurance that every person who has ever followed Christ and led others to him will share everlasting life with him. The Gospel text offers us both comfort and great challenge. The comforting message is that no one can snatch the sheep out of his Father’s hands. The challenge is that pastors and lay people alike should be good shepherds to those entrusted to their care.
Life Messages: Let us become good shepherds and good sheep, good leaders and good followers.
(1) Let us become good shepherds: Everyone who is entrusted with the care of others is a shepherd. Hence pastors, parents, teachers, doctors, nurses, government officials, etc. are all shepherds. We become good shepherds by loving those entrusted to us, praying for them, spending our time and talents for their welfare, and guarding them from physical and spiritual dangers.
(2) Let us be good sheep in the fold of Jesus, the Good Shepherd: Our local parish is our sheepfold, and our pastors are our shepherds. Hence, as the good sheep of the parish, parishioners are expected to a) hear and follow the voice of their shepherds through their homilies, Bible classes, counseling and advice; b) receive the spiritual food their pastors provide by regular participation in the Holy Mass, by frequenting the Sacraments and by attending prayer services, renewal programs and missions; c) cooperate with their pastors by giving them positive suggestions for the welfare of the parish, by encouraging them in their duties, by lovingly offering them constructive criticism when they are found misbehaving or failing in their duties and by praying for them; and d) cooperate in the activities of various councils, ministries and parish associations. (3) Let us pray for vocations to priestly and religious life so that we may have more good shepherds to lead, feed and protect the Catholic community.
EASTER IV [C] (May 12): Acts 13:14, 43-52; Rv 7:9, 14b-17; Jn 10:27-30
Homily starter anecdote #I: “I know the Psalm, but he knows the Shepherd:” Years ago the great actor Richard Burton was given a grand reception in his childhood parish. While replying to the complimentary speeches in the parish auditorium he asked if there was anything, they specially wanted to hear from him. After a minute's pause his old pastor asked him if he could recite the Good Shepherd Psalm (Psalm 23), which he had taught Burton in his Sunday school. A strange look came over the actor's face. He paused for a moment, and then said, "I will, on one condition—that after I have recited it, you, my pastor and teacher will do the same." “I,” said the old, retired pastor, “am not an actor, but, if you wish it, I shall do so.” Impressively the actor began the Psalm. His voice and intonation were perfect. He held his audience spellbound, and, as he finished, a great burst of applause broke from the audience. As it died away, the old pastor rose from his wheelchair and began to recite the same Psalm. His voice was feeble and shivering and his tone was not faultless. But, when he finished, there was not a dry eye in the room. The actor rose and his voice quivered as he said, '"Ladies and gentlemen, I reached your eyes and ears, but my old pastor has reached your hearts. The difference is just this: I know the Psalm, but he knows the Shepherd." This Good Shepherd Sunday, Jesus wants us to know him by experiencing him and to become good shepherds to those entrusted to our care.
#2: "Who's running the Church, you or the Holy Spirit?" Here is an anecdote that perfectly conveys the humble spirit of Pope St. John XXIII as a good shepherd. On the evening when he announced the opening of the Second Vatican Council -- the first one since 1870 -- he couldn't sleep. Finally, he called himself to order: "Angelo, why aren't you sleeping? Who's running the Church, you or the Holy Spirit? So sleep." And he did. Prior to his being elected Pope, Angelo Roncalli had served as a clerical diplomat in Bulgaria, Turkey, and Greece; as Papal Nuncio in Paris; and as Patriarch of Venice. All this training helped him deal with social problems in society and in the Church. While still an Archbishop, he noted: "Wherever I go, I pay more attention to what we have in common than to what separates us." Pope St. John XXIII began his mission by promising to be "a good shepherd." He brought a real revolution to the Apostolic Palace by getting rid of the three prescribed genuflections in private audiences and by his impromptu conversations with workers and gardeners on the streets of Vatican City. He was the first Pope in history "to pay tribute to the part played by women in public life and to the growing awareness of their human dignity." Best of all, by convening the Second Vatican Council, Pope St. John XXIII, led by the Holy Spirit, set in motion a spirit of reform that continues to our day. In September of 2000, this son of Italian peasants was beatified by Pope St. John Paul II; he was canonized by Pope Francis on April 27, 2014.
# 3: “LEAD, FOLLOW OR GET OUT OF THE WAY.” On a recent highway trip, one bumper sticker in particular grabbed my eye and caused me to consider its frank command: “LEAD, FOLLOW OR GET OUT OF THE WAY.” In a sense, the Scripture readings for today, Good Shepherd Sunday, proffer the same challenge to believers. Christianity admits of no mediocrity; the decision of Faith which discipleship demands requires a daily deliberateness and a constantly renewed certainty. Either Jesus and his way of life are accepted and followed, or they are rejected. There is no middle path; to live otherwise is to become an obstacle in the way of others. As Christians, each of us is called to be both a leader and a follower. Ultimately, as John points out in the Gospel, our leader is Jesus, the loving shepherd who calls us away from sin and self to union with him and one another. (Sanchez Files)
Introduction: The fourth Sunday of Easter, known as Good Shepherd Sunday, is also the “World Day of Prayer for Vocations.” The Scripture lessons for this day concern the role of the shepherds of God’s flock in the Church. Each year on this Sunday, we reflect on the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd who devotedly and kindly takes care of his flock. One pastor recently made the joking remark that some people think that their pastor works only on Sundays! This is obviously untrue. Exactly what responsibilities does God give a pastor and what does God expect of him besides saying Mass and preaching? The answer to the question lies in the title "pastor," which means shepherd. A shepherd leads, feeds, nurtures, comforts, corrects, and protects his flock—responsibilities that belong to every Church leader. The earliest Christians saw Jesus as the fulfillment of the ancient Jewish dream of the Good Shepherd, Who also wished to include the Gentiles as part of God’s flock. Today's first reading describes how Paul and Barnabas opted to listen to the voice of Jesus the Good Shepherd and follow him, and how, like their Master, they were rebuffed and rejected when they tried to share the Good News of salvation. It also suggests that the sympathy of the early Christians for the Gentiles caused a rupture with Judaism. Today’s Responsorial Psalm (Ps 100) reminds us that “…the Lord is God: He made us, His we are – His people, the flock He tends.” The second reading, taken from the book of Revelation, depicts Jesus as both the glorified Lamb and the Shepherd. John's vision encourages his readers with the assurance that every person who has ever followed Christ and led others to him and who has suffered rejection and persecution will also know the unending joy of victory and have a share in everlasting life. The Gospel text offers us both comfort and great challenge. The comforting message is that no one can snatch the sheep out of Jesus’ Father’s hands. The challenge is that pastors and lay people alike should be good shepherds to those entrusted to their care.
The first reading: Acts 13:14, 43-52, explained: Paul and Barnabas were on their first missionary journey to Asia Minor (present day Turkey). On the Sabbath, Paul and Barnabas entered the synagogue at Antioch in Pisidia where they were invited to give a word of exhortation to the people. They explained that since Christ had been rejected by the Jews, Christians were obliged to preach the Gospel to all the nations, thus emphasizing the universal mission of Christianity. In other words, since the Jews had rejected the word of God, it was being offered to the Gentiles. But those Jews in Antioch who opposed the idea of preaching to the Gentiles got enough of a following to expel the apostles from their territory. Nevertheless, Paul and Barnabas remained faithful to the Gospel that Jesus had revealed. They “were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit” and continued to preach to the Gentiles who welcomed them with delight (v. 48). The mission of the Church is indeed a continuation of the ministry of salvation begun by Jesus. Is the seed of the Gospel still being sown to the ends of the earth? Are the poor, the blind, the deaf, the lame, the hungry, the thirsty, the lost and the imprisoned still the primary focus of our service?
The second reading: Rev 7:9, 14-17, explained: The book of Revelation, written for the encouragement of the persecuted Christians, depicts Jesus as both the slain and glorified Lamb and the Good Shepherd. In the latter role, he protects and refreshes his flock when they suffer persecution. John has a vision of all the sheep, representing the universal Church -- people “from every nation, race, people, and tongue” -- rescued by the Good Shepherd. The Lamb will shepherd and shelter those who, with his help, win through. He will feed them well and will wipe “away every tear from their eyes." The essence of the vision is that Christ in his glorified humanity will have the chief place in Heaven, and that all rational creatures will sing his praises forever. John’s visions promised his readers that Jesus, the Passover Lamb, would shepherd them, providing them with shelter, protection and safe passage to the life-giving waters of eternity (Psalms 23; 80; 35:10; Isaiah 40:11; Ezekiel 34:23; Jeremiah 2:13).
Gospel exegesis: The context: It was December, wintertime, probably the time of the Jewish Hanukkah feast (the Feast of Dedication), which commemorated the triumph of the Jewish commander Judas Maccabaeus over the Syrian leader Antiochus IV Epiphanes in 165 B. C. Jesus was walking in the Temple on the east side, which offered protection against the cold winds from the desert. The Jews had gathered around him. They were not sure whether or not he was the promised Messiah because there were many such wandering preachers and healers in those days. Hence, they asked him directly whether he was the Christ. Instead of giving them an equally direct answer, Jesus claimed that he was the Good Shepherd and explained to them his role.
Shepherds in the Old Testament: In the Old Testament, the image of the Shepherd is often applied to God as well as to the leaders of the people. The book of Exodus represents Yahweh several times as a Shepherd. The prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel compare Yahweh’s care and protection of His people to that of a shepherd. “He is like a shepherd feeding his flock, gathering lambs in his arms, holding them against His breast and leading the mother ewes to their rest” (Is 40:11). Ezekiel represents God as a loving Shepherd who searches diligently for the lost sheep. Psalm 23 is David’s famous picture of God as The Good Shepherd: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters; He restores my soul” (RSV, 2nd Catholic Edition). The prophets often used harsh words to scold the selfish and insincere shepherds (or leaders) of their day. Jer 23:1: “Doom for the shepherds who allow the flock of My pasture to be destroyed and scattered." Ez 34:2: “Trouble for the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Shepherds ought to feed their flock.”
The Good Shepherd in the New Testament: Introducing himself as the Good Shepherd of his flock, Jesus makes three claims in today’s Gospel.
1) He knows his sheep and his sheep hear his voice: Just as the Palestinian shepherds knew each sheep of their flock by name, and the sheep knew their shepherd and his voice, so Jesus knows each one of us, our needs, our merits and our faults. He loves us as we are, with all our limitations, and he expects us to return his love by keeping his words. He speaks to us at every Mass, through the Bible, through our pastors, through our parents, through our friends and through the events of our lives. "God whispers to us in our pleasures, He speaks to us in our consciences, and He shouts to us in our pain!" (C.S. Lewis). 2) He gives eternal life to us, his sheep by receiving us into his sheepfold and giving us Faith through Baptism, and then he strengthens that Faith in Confirmation. He supplies food for our souls in the Holy Eucharist and in the Divine words of the Holy Bible. He makes our society holy by the Sacraments of Matrimony and the priesthood (Holy Orders. 3) He protects his sheep by placing them in the loving hands of his Almighty Father. Without him to guide us and protect us, we are an easy prey for the spiritual wolves of this world, including Satan and his minions.
In chapter ten of John’s Gospel, Jesus adds two more roles to those of the Good Shepherd. He goes in search of stray lambs and heals the sick ones. Jesus heals the wounds of our souls through the Sacrament of Reconciliation and strengthens us in illness and old age with the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. Jesus dies for his sheep: Just as the shepherds of ancient days protected their sheep from wild animals and thieves by risking their own lives, so Jesus died in expiation for the sins of all people.
Through today’s Gospel, Jesus teaches one of the central aspects of the ministerial priesthood: the priest as shepherd. It means that a priest is one who, by his consecration, lives for others. The title, “Father”, like the title, “Shepherd," expresses a relation of loving service to others in everything, from the most sacred ministries to the most trivial chores.
Life Messages: Let us become good shepherds and good sheep, good leaders and good followers.
1) Let us become good shepherds: Everyone who is entrusted with the care of others is a shepherd. Hence, pastors, parents, teachers, doctors, nurses, government officials, etc. are all shepherds. We become good shepherds by loving those entrusted to us, praying for them, spending our time and talents for their welfare, and guarding them from physical and spiritual dangers. Parents must be especially careful of their duties, thus giving their children good example through the way they live their Christian lives.
2) Let us be good sheep in the fold of Jesus, the Good Shepherd: Our local parish is our sheepfold, and our pastors are our shepherds. Jesus is the High Priest, the bishops are the successors of the apostles, the pastors are their helpers and the parishioners are the sheep. Hence, as the good sheep of the parish, parishioners are expected to a) hear and follow the voice of their shepherds through their homilies, Bible classes, counseling and advice; b) receive the spiritual food our pastors provide by regular participation in the Holy Mass, by frequenting the Sacraments, and by attending prayer services, renewal programs, and missions; c) cooperate with our pastors by giving them positive suggestions for the welfare of the parish, by encouraging them in their duties, by lovingly offering them constructive criticism when they are found misbehaving or failing in their duties, and by praying for them; and d) cooperate with our fellow-parishioners in the activities of various councils, ministries and parish associations.
3) Let us pray for vocations to the priesthood the diaconate, the mission fields and the consecrated life so that we may have more good shepherds to lead, feed and protect the Catholic community. Let us remember that the duty of fostering vocations is the concern of the whole believing community, and we discharge that responsibility primarily by living exemplary Christian lives. Parents foster vocations by creating a climate in homes based on solid Christian values. They should pray with their children for vocations during the family prayer time and speak encouraging words about their pastors, the missionaries, and the religious, instead of criticizing these servants of God. Such an atmosphere in the family will definitely foster vocations from such families. Financial support of seminarians is also a positive contribution to promoting vocations.
JOKE OF THE WEEK
#1: The young pastor was teaching the 23rd Psalm to the Sunday school children. He told them that they were sheep who needed guidance. Then the priest asked, "If you are the sheep, then who is the shepherd?"-- obviously indicating himself. A silence of a few seconds followed. Then a young boy said, "Jesus. Jesus is the Shepherd." The young priest, obviously caught by surprise, said to the boy, "Well then, who am I?" The boy frowned thoughtfully and then said, "I guess you must be a sheep dog."
#2: A man in an Armani suit, Ferragamo shoes, the latest Polarized sunglasses and a tightly knotted power tie emerges from his shiny silver BMW, approaches a shepherd guarding his flock, and proposes a wager: "Will you give me one of your sheep, if I can tell you the exact number in this flock?" The shepherd accepts. "973," says the man. The shepherd, astonished at the accuracy, says, "I'm a man of my word; take the sheep you have won." The man picks a sheep and begins to walk away. "Wait," cries the shepherd, "Let me have a chance to get even. Will you return my animal if I tell what your job is?” "Sure," replies the man. "You are an economist for a government think-tank," says the shepherd. "Amazing!" responds the man, "How did you deduce that?” "Well," says the shepherd, “you drove into my field uninvited. You asked me to pay you for information I already know, answered questions I haven’t asked, and you know nothing about my business. Now put down my dog; it is not a sheep!”
USEFUL WEBSITES OF THE WEEK
1) Catholic questions& answers: Once Catholic.org,
2) Catholic answers for teenagers: EveryStudent.com,
3) The Catholic News Service:http://www.catholicnews.com
4) Doctrinal Concordance: http://www.infpage.com/concordance/
USCCB gospel video reflections: http://www.usccb.org/bible/reflections/
22- Additional anecdotes 1) St. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa)’s Good Shepherd prayer: During her visit to the United Nations several years ago, Mother Theresa was approached by a diplomat who said, “I am not a Catholic, Mother. But I want to know: how should I pray.” The frail little nun took his burly hands in hers and spread out five of his fingers on one hand. “When you pray,” she said, “Think about the many blessings you have received; then, at the end of the day, count out on each finger the words spoken to you by Jesus: You.. did.. this.. for.. me.” The diplomat left holding up his hand as though it were a trophy and saying: “You did this for me.” In this simple prayer, Mother Theresa made the Resurrection seem real. What she meant was that the love and peace of the Good Shepherd is present to us in the many moments of compassion that bless our lives: in kind words, in the listening ear, in generous actions. Jesus is also present in the blessings we extend to others. The Good Shepherd of today’s Gospel guides us every day in our journey to eternal life.
2) "Whatever happens, don't let go." There is a wonderful scene towards the end of the movie, Titanic. As the ship is preparing to take its final plunge into the cold waters of the Atlantic, Jack Dawson and Rose are hanging straight onto the edge of the ship. Jack turns to Rose and tells her: "Don't let go. Whatever happens, don't let go." There is something profound in knowing that there is someone who wants us to hold on -- no matter how difficult the situation. As children, we hold on to our parents for guidance and protection. When we are adults, we hope to find a spouse or close friend who will hold us when we are hurt and carry us when we stumble. In today's Gospel, we hear the profound revelation from Jesus that God intends to "hold us" through every storm and every difficulty of life. Jesus, as our Good Shepherd, offers us double protection. He assures us that we are in his hands and nothing will ever take us from him. He further assures us that we are also in the Father's hands. Nothing can ultimately hurt us.
3) 
“I have a dream:” https://youtu.be/_IB0i6bJIjw During the Civil Rights struggles of the 1960s, Martin Luther King Jr. kept alive the hopes of victims of race discrimination by sharing his dreams. On August 28, 1963, standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, he told the audience of nearly 250,000 those who had joined the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, (Wikipedia) “I have a dream . . . a dream that one day the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. . . that this desert state sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.” King’s dream awakened a nation and challenged its people and its legislators to face the inequities being perpetrated against some of its citizens. King’s dream offered consolation, inspired courage and strengthened the committed. Twenty centuries before King, the seer, John, similarly served his contemporaries with his visions. Like King, John shared his visions with the struggling. During the reign of the Roman emperor Domitian (AD 81-96), Christians were being persecuted for their Faith. Denied the right to worship as they wished, they were judged guilty of treason for refusing to venerate Domitian as god. So condemned, they became the prey of one of the fiercest persecutions ever launched against the Church. A contemporary of John’s, Clement of Rome, described the injustices suffered by those early followers of Christ as “sudden and repeated misfortunes and calamities.” Nevertheless, the Church was not without hope. John’s vision of a glorious future in the eternal presence of God and the victorious Lamb of God (Jesus) strengthened his contemporaries in their resolve to remain firm in their Faith, undeterred in their baptismal commitment. St. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa)’s Good Shepherd prayer: During her visit to the United Nations several years ago, Mother Theresa was approached by a diplomat who said, “I am not a Catholic, Mother. But I want to know: how should I pray.” The frail little nun took his burly hands in hers and spread out five of his fingers on one hand. “When you pray,” she said, “Think about the many blessings you have received; then, at the end of the day, count out on each finger the words spoken to you by Jesus: You.. did.. this.. for.. me.” The diplomat left holding up his hand as though it were a trophy and saying: “You did this for me.” In this simple prayer, Mother Theresa made the Resurrection seem real. What she meant was that the love and peace of the Good Shepherd is present to us in the many moments of compassion that bless our lives: in kind words, in the listening ear, in generous actions. Jesus is also present in the blessings we extend to others. The Good Shepherd of today’s Gospel guides us every day in our journey to eternal life. (Sanchez Files)
4) A sergeant’s good shepherd’s story: There was a sergeant in the Marines who was the senior enlisted man in his platoon. One day his outfit was ambushed and pinned down by enemy fire. The lieutenant in command was badly wounded as were many of the men. The sergeant took over and extricated the men from the trap, though he himself was wounded twice. He went back by himself to carry out the wounded commanding officer. Miraculously every man in the platoon survived, even the wounded lieutenant. Later the men said that if it were not for the incredible bravery of the sergeant, they all would have been killed. “He was like a father to us,” they said. He was recommended for the Medal of Honor but did not receive it. However, he did receive the DFC. He never wore the medal because he said the lives of his men were more important than any medal. Later when he had children of his own, he loved them devotedly. His wife said that during the war he had learned to be tender.
5) Jesus knows his sheep by name: There have always been people with a good memory for names: Napoleon, "who knew thousands of his soldiers by name . . .” or James A. Farley, "who claimed he knew 50,000 people by their first name . . .” or Charles Schwab, "who knew the names of all 8,000 of his employees at Homestead Mill . . .” or Charles W. Eliot, "who, during his forty years as president of Harvard, earned the reputation of knowing all the students by name each year . . .” or Harry Lorayne, "who used to amaze his audiences by being introduced to hundreds of people, one after another, then giving the name of any person who stood up and requested it.” But can you imagine Christ knowing all his sheep by name? That's millions and millions of people over 2,000 years. No wonder we call him Master, Lord, Savior – watching over his flock, calling each by name!
6) “I only know them by name." Tony Campolo loves to tell the story of a particular census taker who went to the home of a rather poor family in the mountains of West Virginia to gather information. He asked the mother how many dependents she had. She began, "Well, there is Rosie, and Billy, and Lewella, Susie, Harry, and Jeffrey. There's Johnny, and Harvey, and our dog, Willie." It was then that the census taker interrupted her aid said: "No, ma'am, that's not necessary. I only need the humans." "Ah," she said. "Well, there is Rosie, and Billy, and Lewella, Susie, Harry, and Jeffrey, Johnny, and Harvey, and...." But there once again, the census taker interrupted her. Slightly exasperated, he said, "No, ma'am, you don't seem to understand. I don't need their names; I just need the numbers." To which the old woman replied, "But I don't know them by numbers. I only know them by name." In today’s Gospel Jesus the Good Shepherd says that he knows his sheep by name.
7) “I'd like to preserve my integrity and credibility." About 4 years ago, Mark Cuban, owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, offered WGN Chicago Radio sports-talk host David Kaplan $50,000 to change his name legally to "Dallas Maverick." When Kaplan politely declined, Cuban sweetened the offer. Cuban would pay Kaplan $100,000 and donate $100,000 to Kaplan's favorite charity if he took the name for one year. After some soul searching and being bombarded by e-mails from listeners who said he was crazy to turn down the money, Kaplan held firm and told Cuban no. Kaplan explained: "I'd be saying I'd do anything for money, and that bothers me. My name is my birthright. I'd like to preserve my integrity and credibility." [Skip Bayless, Chicago Tribune (1/10/01), Leadership Summer 2001)] The name "Christian" is our birthright. From the moment of our Baptism and our birth into the Kingdom of God, we are the sheep of the Good Shepherd who promises to lead us to green pastures and beside the still waters. The Voice of the Shepherd protects us.
8) "May I see your driver's license?" Everyone, it seems, is interested in my numbers. I go to the grocery store to buy some groceries. After the checkout woman rings up my bill, I pull out my checkbook and write out the check. She takes it from me. She looks at the information. Numbers tell her where I live. Numbers tell her how to reach me on the telephone. "Is this information correct?" she asks. "Yes, it is," I reply. "May I see your driver's license?" she asks. She looks at my driver's license and writes some more numbers on my check. Finally, I am approved. The numbers are all there. I can eat for another week. One could wish it were a bit more human and personal. So the IRS knows me by my tax number. My state knows me by my driver's license number. My bank knows me by my bank account number. My employer knows me by my social security number. On and on it goes for you, for me, for everybody. Everybody knows my numbers. I am not sure that anyone knows me! The numbers game that is played in our culture is one symptom of loneliness and alienation that surrounds us today. "All the lonely people, where do they all come from?" That is a line from the song Eleanor Rigby by the Beatles. Loneliness. Isolation. Alienation. These are the realities of contemporary civilized life. "I am the Good Shepherd." These are Jesus' words in our reading from John's Gospel text for this sermon. "I am the Good Shepherd; I know my own and my own know me ..." Today’s Gospel tells us that Jesus knows us personally and loves us.
9) 
His Master’s Voice: Have you ever seen the painting done in the 1930s of a dog, looking with a cocked head, at an old gramophone? The name of the painting is His Master's Voice, and it's a symbol of what Jesus is saying to us. "The sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out."
10) “Then we FLEECE them!” Two television evangelists were talking. One was explaining how he was seeking to be the ideal shepherd to his television flock. “There are three ways I seek to do that,” he said. “What three ways do you mean?” asked the other evangelist. “Well” he explained, “First, we FIND them. Every year we find new stations to carry our ministry. Then we FEED them. I give them the plain unvarnished word of God.” “But what’s the third thing?” asked the second evangelist. “Well,” he answered, “Once we’ve found them and fed them, then we FLEECE them!” Some TV evangelists have become quite proficient at fleecing their flock. I hope you understand that nothing could be farther from the example of Christ. Jesus said, “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep . . .” Fleecing the flock is a long way from laying down your life for them.
11) “But I never jumped.” A paratrooper who had recently resigned from the military was asked how many times he had jumped out of an airplane. He said, “None.” A friend of his asked, “What do you mean, ‘none,’ I thought you were a paratrooper?” He said, “I was, but I never jumped. I was pushed several times . . . but I never jumped.” The hired hand never jumps. He has to be pushed. Churches often have hired hands in them. Not our Church, of course! But other Churches are full of people who have to be pushed to do what they know they ought to do. Jesus did not have to be pushed.
12) “I give my life for my sheep”: We applaud when a man or woman gives his or her life for another. Such instances do come along from time to time. Murfreesboro, Tennessee. May 28, 1989: "Former NFL football player Jerry Anderson," read the newspaper account, "died Saturday after pulling two young boys out of a rain-swollen river about 40 miles southeast of Nashville. Witnesses said Anderson saw two boys, thought to be 11 or 12 years old, attempting to cross a dam spanning the river. One or both boys fell into the water. According to Officer Bill Todd, ‘Mr. Anderson jumped in the water and managed to get the little boys out, but witnesses said he went under two or three times and about the fourth time, he didn't come back up.’" He gave his life to rescue two small boys.
Of course, you don't have to be an American or a football player for such heroic actions. In a Middle school in the Ukrainian village of Ivanichi, a young teacher died sometime back. He absorbed the blast of a hand grenade to protect his pupils. What was a grenade doing in a middle school? According to the London Times, the teacher, a graduate of the KGB border guard college, had been delivering the military instruction that is a compulsory part of the curriculum for Soviet children. He was teaching them how to handle what should have been an unarmed grenade. When he pulled the pin a wisp of smoke showed that a live grenade had become mixed in with demonstration grenades, and he fell on the grenade, giving his life to save the children.
You don't have to be a man to perform such heroics. Many years ago a woman carrying a baby through the hills of South Wales, England, was overtaken by a blizzard. Searchers found her later frozen to death in the snow. Amazed that she had on no outer garments, they searched further and found her baby. She had wrapped them around the child, who was still alive and well. He grew up to be David Lloyd George, the Prime Minister of Great Britain in World War I.
13) Big Brother is watching us: Ever since George Orwell's 1984 hit the bookstores, people concerned about individual privacy and freedom have looked for signs that Big Brother is becoming a reality in our society. And it is true that more and more of our urban landscape is being observed by security cameras. But that is only one way our privacy is being invaded. There was a news report several years ago that Israeli scientists are now marketing a microchip that, implanted under the skin, will protect film stars and millionaires from kidnappers. The chip emits a signal detectable by satellite to help rescuers determine a victim’s approximate location. Originally the chip was developed to track Israeli secret-service agents abroad. The $5,000 chip doesn’t even require batteries. It runs solely on the neurophysiological energy generated within the human body. The firm which developed it, Gen-Etics, won’t reveal where the chip is inserted but said that, at that time, 43 people had had it implanted. Since this report was published there has been an explosion of interest in this technology. Farmers keep tabs on the health and safety of their cows and other livestock with such chips. But the use of such devices to monitor human beings is almost limitless. Already there is a monitoring bracelet for Alzheimer patients, so that families can use GPS systems to help find loved ones who might have wandered off. Would it be inconceivable that loving parents might want to monitor the whereabouts of their children via satellite? Why not have a chip implanted? Pet owners are already using such technology. Some cynics have suggested that some wives might want to monitor their husbands. Soon we will see signs, “Big Brother is watching.” Here’s what’s amusing to me. There are people who have no difficulty believing that one day the government will keep track of us all, but who cannot conceive that an all-knowing God can take a personal interest in each of His children, hear each of our prayers, and be responsive to each of our individual needs.
14) Images are highly influential. They become emblazoned on the wall of our minds, and they evoke a wide range of responses. Millions of people will remember the fireman carrying the baby out of the ruins of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. World War II veterans, particularly the ones who served in the South Pacific, will always remember Mount Surabachi and the Marines who raised an American flag at its summit, as well as the image of General MacArthur returning to the Philippines. Neil Armstrong taking that first step on the moon in the early '70s is frozen in many memories, too. If you were old enough to watch and understand television in l963, you probably remember young John F. Kennedy, Jr., at the casket of his father Jack. Much closer to our own time, many of us will long retain the image of students running out of Columbine High School with their hands over their heads. Some images are immensely powerful and have a tenacity that is tireless and timeless. If there is one image associated with the Christian Faith which, more than any other, has found an enduring place within the collective life of the Christian church, it is the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd.
15) 
Hannah and her Sisters: A movie by Woody Allen, titled, Hannah and Her Sisters, deals precisely with that theme. It is about Hannah and her sisters and how family life gives some sense of stability to life in a fractured world. The part played by Woody Allen in the movie is that of a man who is constantly afraid that he will get some terrible disease. He is what we call a hypochondriac. As he comes into the movie, we see him on his way to the doctor. The doctor assures him that nothing seems to be terribly wrong, though some additional tests need to be made. Woody cannot calm himself over these additional tests. He is sure they will find something terrible. "What are you afraid of," one of his friends asks him, "cancer?" "Don't say that," Woody responds with a look of terror. More tests are performed. A CAT scan is prescribed for his head. He is sure they will find a brain tumor. But his fears are unfounded. The doctor announces to him that all is well. In the next scene we see Woody coming out of the hospital, kicking up his heels, and running joyfully down the street. He is celebrating. But suddenly he stops. We know instinctively why he stops. He tells us in the next scene. "All this means," he says, "is that I am all right this time. Next time it will probably be serious.” Our lives are lived in constant danger. Woody Allen's character overplays the danger. But the danger is there. There are all kinds of realities that imperil our lives nearly every day. Accidents might befall us. Natural disasters strike. Oppressive structures of life weigh us down. Disease stalks us and death awaits. That is the way life is. We live our lives in constant peril. Woody Allen might have exaggerated a bit, but he is right. Human life is an endangered species. Death calls a halt to every human life. "I am the Good Shepherd," Jesus says. "The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."
16) 
The Bismarck: In the beginning of World War II, the Nazis commissioned a massive battleship named the Bismarck. It was the biggest fighting vessel the world had seen up to that time. With the Bismarck, the Germans had the opportunity to dominate the seas. Very soon after it was commissioned, the Bismarck sank tons of Allied shipping and allied aircraft. Its massive armor plating resulted in the boast that the Bismarck was unsinkable. But the Bismarck was sunk. And it was sunk due to one lone torpedo. A torpedo hit the Bismarck in the rudder. As a result, the battleship zig-zagged through the sea, unable to reach harbor. It was only a short while before the British navy was able to overtake and destroy it. No matter how large the battleship may be, it is doomed without a rudder to direct it. Floundering on the waters of chaos without a rudder, the Bismarck is a modern-day image of a world without the direction of Jesus the Good Shepherd. Without the Lord, the world is headed toward chaos. But with the Lord there is guidance, direction and purpose in life.
17) Alexander, the shepherd of soldiers. When the emperor Alexander the Great was crossing the Makran Desert on his way to Persia, his army ran out of water. The soldiers were dying of thirst as they advanced under the burning sun. A couple of Alexander's lieutenants managed to capture some water from a passing caravan. They brought some to him in a helmet. He asked, "Is there enough for both me and my men?" "Only you, sir," they replied. Alexander then lifted up the helmet as the soldiers watched. Instead of drinking, he tipped it over and poured the water on the ground. The men let up a great shout of admiration. They knew their general would not allow them to suffer anything he was unwilling to suffer himself.
18) “It will kill you if you move.” A soldier dying on a Korean battlefield asked for a priest. The Medic could not find one. A wounded man lying nearby heard the request and said, “I am a priest.” The Medic turned to the speaker and saw his condition, which was as bad as that of the other. “It will kill you if you move,” he warned. But the wounded chaplain replied. “The life of a man’s soul is worth more than a few hours of my life.” He then crawled to the dying soldier, heard his confession, gave him absolution and the two died hand in hand.
19) Four clergymen, taking a short break from their heavy schedules, were on a park bench, chatting and enjoying an early spring day. “You know, since all of us are such good friends,” said one, “this might be a good time to discuss personal problems.” They all agreed. “Well, I would like to share with you the fact that I drink to excess,” said one. There was a gasp from the other three. Then another spoke up. “Since you were so honest, I’d like to say that my big problem is gambling. It’s terrible, I know, but I can’t quit. I’ve even been tempted to take money from the collection plate.” Another gasp was heard, and the third clergyman spoke. “I’m really troubled, brothers, because I’m growing fond of a woman in my church — a married woman.” More gasps. But the fourth remained silent. After a few minutes the others coaxed him to open up. “The fact is,” he said, “I just don’t know how to tell you about my problem.” “It’s all right, brother. Your secret is safe with us,” said the others. “Well, it’s this way,” he said. “You see, I’m an incurable gossip.” Jokes like this have shaped our views of priests as if there is no difference between the life and work of a priest and that of other Christians. Today’s Gospel tells us that priests are expected to be Good Shepherds as the picture given by Jesus. (Fr. Munacci).
20) WHO IS YOUR SHEPHERD?
The TV is my shepherd; I shall not want.
It makes me to lie down on the sofa.
It leads me away from the Faith.
It destroys my soul.
It leads me to the path of sex and violence for the advertiser’s sake.
Even though I walk in the shadow of Christian responsibilities,
There will be no interruption, for the TV is with me.
Its cable and remote control, they comfort me.
It prepares a commercial for me in the midst of my worldliness
And anoints my head with secular humanism and consumerism.
My covetousness runs over.
Surely ignorance and laziness shall follow me all the days of my life,
And I shall dwell in the house of wretchedness watching TV forever. (Broadcast on EWTN on March 18, 2002)
21) “I prayed and prayed, and I thought you were going to save me!” A Christian humorist once told a story about a man who had climbed onto the roof of his home to escape rising flood waters from torrential rains. He prayed to God to act quickly to save him. After a short while, a search and rescue team came and shouted for the man to jump and swim to their boat. He refused, saying that God would take care of him. Later, a helicopter pilot lowered a ladder and beckoned to him to climb up to safety. Again, he refused, affirming his reliance on God. Hours passed and, as the sky grew dark and the air cold, the man cried out his distress to God, “I prayed and prayed, and I thought you were going to save me!” After a moment of silence, the rooftop refugee heard a voice, “I sent you a team with a boat and a pilot with a helicopter. . . what more do you want?” Because aid did not come in the manner he expected, the man didn’t recognize his divine rescuer. Many of Jesus’ contemporaries appear to have had a similar experience. He was not the type of Savior they had anticipated; therefore, they did not recognize him as such, nor did they respond to his voice by following him. However, as the fourth evangelist points out in today’s Gospel, those who did hear his voice were promised the gift of eternal life. (Sanchez Files).
22) Jewish dream for a new Judas Maccabeus: An eight day festival of lights held each Chislev (December), Hanukkah memorialized the successful Maccabean revolt against the Seleucids (a Greek dynasty) in 164 B.C.E. Three years earlier, in 167 B.C., Antiochus Epiphanes IV had desecrated the Jerusalem temple by placing a statue and altar of Zeus on the altar of burnt offerings, Daniel’s “the abomination of desolation in the Holy Place” (Daniel 8:13). Antiochus ordered the people to worship the idol and to sacrifice swine on Zeus’s altar to worship that god. [(Josephus, The Jewish War). See www. Penelope.uchicago.edu —Encyclopaedia Romana, Notae, Miscellanea, Trivia Questions, Question #11: Which three kings of Orient old were like no man’s adversary?) After routing their oppressors and destroying their idols, the Jews, led by Judas Maccabeus built a new altar and reconsecrated the Temple. Thereafter Hanukkah became a feast which celebrated not only the restoration of the Temple and its liturgy but also the national heroes of Judah. There is little wonder that this feast also occasioned public excitement and desire for a new Judas Maccabeus to rise up from among them and lead them to victory over the Romans. Jesus, however, was a hero of another ilk. He would, indeed, lead a revolt and emerge victorious, but it would be a revolt against the forces of evil and a victory over death. Those wishing a share in his victory need only listen to Jesus’ voice and follow his lead.
“Scriptural Homilies” Cycle C (No. 27) by Fr. Tony: akadavil@gmail.com
Visit my website: By clicking on http://frtonyshomilies.com/ for missed or previous Cycle C homilies, 141 Year of Faith “Adult Faith Formation Lessons” (useful for RCIA classes too) & 197 “Question of the Week.” Contact me only at akadavil@gmail.com. Visit http://www.vaticannews.va/en/church.html for the Vatican version of this homily and https://www.catholicsermons.com/homilies/sunday_homilies under CBCI.
Fr. Anthony Kadavil, Chaplain, Sacred Heart Residence of the Little Sisters of the Poor, 1655 McGill Ave, Mobile, AL 36604.
Click on http://frtonyshomilies.com/ for missed homilies
Easter III (May 5, 2019) Sunday Homily- One-page summary (L-19)
Introduction: Today’s Gospel narrative shows us the rehabilitation of Peter, who denied Jesus three times in the courtyard of Caiaphas, repented, and then received Primacy in the Church from Jesus. The Gospel also shows us God in search of man, even when man tries to evade Him.
Scripture lessons: The first reading, taken from the Acts of the Apostles, tells us how the Holy Spirit transformed Peter, whom Jesus had appointed head of his Church, from a man fearful of powerful men into a brave witness to the Resurrection. Peter stands before the Jewish Supreme Court – the Sanhedrin -- boldly announcing that he and the others must obey God rather than men. The second reading, taken from Revelation (the Apocalypse), presents John’s vision of the Risen Lord as the glorified “Lamb of God,” enthroned in Heaven. The whole of Revelation is an expression of Christian hope in the Risen Lord. Today’s Gospel tells the post-Resurrection story of our merciful Savior Who goes in search of His band of disappointed and dejected disciples. The incident proves that Jesus’ post-Resurrection appearances were not mere hallucinations. In the first part of today’s Gospel, the risen Jesus appears to His disciples and gives them a symbol of their mission in a miraculous catch of fish followed by a grilled fish breakfast prepared by Jesus himself. The second part is a dialogue between Jesus and Simon where Simon is asked three times whether he loves Jesus, and he answers that he does, as if in reparation for his triple denial of Jesus. The two metaphors used in the story, namely fishing and shepherding, are the duties of the Church in her missionary work. Peter, as a forgiven sinner, is chosen for the quality of his love to serve as leader in a community of brothers and sisters. As his primary mission, Peter is given the care of the vulnerable lambs and sheep, and he is told that fidelity to this mission will lead him to martyrdom.
Life messages: We need to open our eyes, ears and hearts wide to see, hear, and experience the Risen Lord coming into our lives in various forms, circumstances and events: 1) The Risen Lord blesses us with success and achievements. We often fail to acknowledge the presence of the Risen Lord behind our unexpected successes, great achievements, promotions at work, miraculous healings, and success in relationships. He is right there in our parties, celebrations and occasions of rejoicing. 2) The Risen Lord is present in our pains and suffering: Acts 9:1-13 tells us how the Risen Lord transformed the life of Saul by pushing him down onto the Damascus road and making him temporarily blind. The same Jesus often visits us in the form of accidents, illnesses, the loss of dear ones, pain and suffering, and problems in relationships. 3) The Risen Lord visits us through our friends and well-wishers: He is present in those who visit us and encourage us in our sad and desperate moments. The Risen Lord visits us in the form of unexpected help from the least expected persons in our dire needs.
4) The Risen Lord is present in our Christian worship: He is present on our altars during the Holy Mass to share His life with us; He is present in the words of Holy Scripture; He is there in the Sacraments and He is there where two or three are gathered in his name (Matthew 18: 20).
EASTER III [C] (Acts 5:27-32, 40b-41; Rv 5:11-14; Jn 21:1-19)
Homily starter anecdote # 1: Do you love me? Fiddler on the Roof is a musical by Sheldon Harnick which had 3000 Broadway performances. It is based on the book Tevye and his Daughters by Joseph Stein, set in Tsarist Russia in 1905. The story centers on Tevye, the father of five daughters who owned a milk business, and his attempts to maintain his family and Jewish religious traditions while outside influences encroach upon their lives. Finally, he had to move out of his village because of the edict of the reigning Tsar who evicted the Jews from their village. There is a very tender and moving scene in the play, Fiddler on the Roof. Tevye and his wife Golda are being forced to move from their home in Russia. One day Tevye comes into the house and asks his wife, "Golda, do you love me?" "Do I what?" "Do you love me?" Golda looks at him and then responds: "Do I love you? With our daughters getting married and this trouble in the town, you're upset, you're worn out, go inside, go lie down, maybe it's indigestion." Tevye interrupts and asks the question, "Golda, do you love me?" Golda sighs as she looked at him and says, "Do I love you? For 25 years I've washed your clothes, cooked your meals, cleaned your house, given you children, milked the cows. After 25 years, why talk of love right now?" Tevye answers by saying, "Golda, the first time I met you was on our wedding day. I was scared, I was shy, I was nervous." "So was I," said Golda. "But my father and my mother said we'd learn to love each other,” Tevye continued, “and now I'm asking, Golda, do you love me?" "Do I love him?" Golda sighs. "For 25 years I've lived with him, fought with him, 25 years my bed is his! If that's not love, what is?" "Then you love me?" Tevye asks. "I suppose I do!" she says. "And I suppose I love you too!" he says. "It doesn't change a thing, but after 25 years it's nice to know." "Do you love me?" is the same question Jesus is asking Peter in the closing scene of the Gospel of John.
# 2: Interview for telegraph operator: Fr. Mark Link S.J. once told an incident that happened during the great depression (AD 1929-1939). Jobs were scarce, and when an opening was announced, dozens of applicants applied. On this particular occasion, they crowded into a waiting room, eager to be interviewed for the position of telegraph operator. But the noise of their conversation competed against a steady background of dots and dashes. Suddenly, the door opened and yet another applicant entered the room. After standing there quietly for a moment listening attentively to the dots and dashes, he walked to a door marked “Private” and knocked. The personnel director opened the door and announced to the others, “You may all go now; this applicant has the job.” Furious and frustrated, the others demanded an explanation. At that, the director said, “Listen!” When the room became quiet, all heard the dots and dashes, repeating over and over the same message, “If you hear this, come in; the job is yours.” This story reminds us that God is constantly speaking to us, but, like the crowd of applicants, we are not always listening. Today’s Gospel describes how the Risen Lord reveals himself to his listening and observant apostles through a miraculous catch of fish and then confers on Peter Primacy in the Church.
# 3: The value of a $20 bill: A well-known speaker began a seminar by holding up a $20 bill. He asked the audience, “Who would like to have this $20 bill?" Hands started going up. He then said, “I am going to give this $20 to one of you, but first, let me do this.” He proceeded to crumple the dollar bill up. He then asked, “Who still wants it?” The hands remained in the air. "Well,” he added, “What if I do this?” He dropped it to the floor and proceeded to grind it with his shoe. He picked it up, crumpled and dirty. "Now who still wants it?” Still a few hands were raised because the bill had not decreased in value. It was still worth $20. Many times, in our lives, we feel crumpled and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless. No matter what has happened to us, however, we never lose our value in God’s eyes. The worth of our lives comes not in what we do or who we are, but from Him to whom we belong! We are special – let us never forget it! This is the lesson of today’s Gospel, which tells us how Jesus chose Peter to be the leader of his Church, even though Peter had denied him three times.
Introduction: Today’s Gospel narrative shows us the rehabilitation of Peter, who denied Jesus three times in the courtyard of Caiaphas, repented, and then received Primacy in the Church from Jesus. The Gospel also shows us God in search of man, even when man tries to evade Him. This theme prompted Francis Thompson to write his famous mystic poem, “The Hound of Heaven." The first reading, taken from the Acts of the Apostles, tells us how the Holy Spirit transformed Peter, whom Jesus had appointed head of his Church, from a man fearful of powerful men into a brave witness to the Resurrection. Today’s Responsorial Psalm, (Ps 30) reminds us that it is God Who rescues us from our troubles and that it is because of Him that, for us as well as for our Risen Lord, “at nightfall weeping enters in, but with the dawn, rejoicing.” The second reading, taken from Revelation (the Apocalypse), presents John’s vision of the Risen Lord as the glorified “Lamb of God” enthroned in heaven. Using rich imagery, John explains that Jesus has done something unprecedented and has given us more than we deserve. Hence, the angels sing praises around God's throne. The book of Revelation is an expression of Christian hope in the Risen Lord. The Gospel tells the post-Resurrection story of our merciful Savior who goes in search of His band of disappointed and dejected disciples. John presents this as the third of Jesus’ post-Resurrection apparitions. The incident proves that Jesus’ post-Resurrection appearances were not mere hallucinations. In the first part of today’s Gospel, the risen Jesus appears to His disciples and gives them a symbol of their mission in a miraculous catch of fish followed by a grilled fish breakfast prepared by Jesus. The second part is a dialogue between Jesus and Simon. Three times, Jesus asks Simon Peter, "Do you love Me?" and Peter responds that he does, as if in reparation for his triple denial of Jesus. The two metaphors used in the story, namely fishing and shepherding, are duties of the Church referring to her missionary work. Peter, as a forgiven sinner, is chosen as a leader in a community of brothers and sisters for the quality of his love. As his primary mission, he is given the care of the vulnerable lambs and sheep, and he is told that his fidelity to this mission will lead him to martyrdom.
First reading (Acts 5:27-32, 40-41), explained: This reading describes how the post -Pentecost Apostles reacted when the Jewish leaders tried to stop them from preaching about Jesus. The Apostles were brought before the Sanhedrin and ordered to stop teaching in the name of Jesus. This was the second time they had been arrested by the Sanhedrin -- the Jewish Supreme Court. When the High Priest demanded that Peter and his companions listen to him and obey his orders, Peter replied, “We must obey God rather than men.” Then they testified to God’s raising of Jesus as Savior “to grant Israel repentance and forgiveness of sins.” Although they were flogged and given strict order not to repeat the “crime,” the Apostles went away “rejoicing that they had been found worthy to suffer for the sake of Jesus’ name.”
Second reading (Rv 5:11-14), explained: This is John's description of the vision given him of the praise offered to the risen Jesus by all those in Heaven, on earth, under the earth and in the sea. In Heaven, angels and other spiritual beings sing praises around God's throne. In God's hand is a sealed scroll. A voice asks, “Who is worthy to receive the scroll and open its seals?" Then the risen Jesus is pictured as a slain Lamb who stands before the throne of God in Heaven. Those in Heaven praise him by saying, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches, wisdom and strength, honor and glory and blessing.” Like the suffering, innocent lamb of Isaiah, Jesus is vindicated by God. This passage gave the early Christians the message that the only lord worthy of worship is the risen “Lord Jesus Christ” (and not the Roman emperor). Jesus’ once-and-for-all-sacrifice as the ultimate Passover Lamb has made it possible for every forgiven sinner and faithful believer to pass from death to life. At every Eucharistic celebration, the worthy and victorious Lamb of God is invoked three times as the gathered assembly admits its need for forgiveness: “Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. . . grant us peace.”
Gospel exegesis: The risen Jesus in Galilee: The primary purposes in recounting this appearance of the Risen Christ to his Apostles were to rehabilitate Peter who had denied Jesus three times, but then had repented, and to stress the actual conferring of Primacy in the Church on Peter. In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus appears to the women saying, "Go tell my brethren that they must leave for Galilee; they will see me there." It seems that the risen Christ had a specific purpose in seeing His apostles in Galilee. It was there that He had begun his own mission and recruited His Apostles. It was His purpose to confer the Apostolic mission on Peter and the apostles in Galilee. We realize that the risen Jesus was the One who planned and directed the missionary activities of the early Church. We can be certain that the Risen Lord Himself leads and directs his Church today, through the encouragement, guidance and protection of the Holy Spirit, as He did for the Apostles and has done for their successors, down through the ages in their missionary endeavors. [Scholars disagree on whether the author responsible for the first twenty chapters of John also wrote Chapter 21. The fourth Gospel may have originally ended with chapter 20. If so, Chapter 21 was added later to clear up some ambiguities about the roles that Peter and John were to exercise in their first-century Christian communities.]
Back to the sea for fishing: Chapter 21 of John’s Gospel shows Peter returning to his old way of life, trying, perhaps, to forget the disastrous events of the crucifixion of his master. Six other apostles join him: Thomas the doubter, the two hotheaded sons of Zebedee, the faithful and loyal Nathaniel, and two others who are not named. Although John mentions that “it was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead" (v. 14), this is actually the fourth appearance. The first was to Mary of Magdala (20:11-17). The second was to the disciples without Thomas (20:19-23). The third was to Thomas and the disciples (20:26-29). This post-Resurrection appearance of Jesus reminds us of an earlier incident in his ministry, namely the call of Peter and the other disciples after their night of fishing in the Sea of Galilee. (Fishermen often worked at night in order to be able to sell the freshest possible fish at the market in the morning). In both instances, Jesus asks the disciples to cast their nets into the sea a second time. In both cases they catch a large number of fish, and in both incidents Jesus invites Peter to follow him. “The Fathers and Doctors of the Church have often dwelt on the mystical meaning of this episode: the boat is the Church, whose unity is symbolized by the net which is not torn; the sea is the world, Peter in the boat stands for supreme authority of the Church, and the number of fish signifies the number of the elect (The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries).
Eucharistic meal with the Risen Lord: The return of the apostles to their old occupation sets up the next stage of their conversion. Eventually, they come to understand that the stranger on the shore directing them to a tremendous catch of fish actually is “the Lord.” They recognize him while they are doing what they have always done. Immediately afterwards, the disciples eat a meal with Jesus. Though later followers of Jesus narrowed the Eucharist into a formal ritual in which everyone shares a small piece of consecrated Bread and a sip of consecrated Wine, his first disciples celebrated his resurrected presence with a complete meal. Jesus authenticated their work by adding to the meal some of the fish they had caught. It was at this point that they realized that their “Lord” was among them, imparting to them the experience of his glorified presence. In John’s Gospel, Jesus opens his ministry with a miracle of abundance at Cana (2:1-11), and closes his ministry with another miracle of abundance on the Sea of Tiberius (21:4-6). "Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them and did the same with the fish" (21: 13). This wording has Eucharistic overtones, but there is no mention of the blessing or breaking of bread, both of which are part of the usual Eucharistic formula. This is also reminiscent of the earlier feeding of the five thousand on the shores of this same sea (6:1-15). Jesus is sensitive both to people's physical and to their spiritual needs. Since then, the Church has followed Jesus' example by feeding, clothing, housing, and educating people. Our concern for people's physical needs not only relieves human suffering, but also constitutes a powerful spiritual witness.
The triple confession and commissioning of Peter: One of the features of the stories about the appearances of Jesus after his Resurrection is that they nearly always end up with Jesus commissioning someone. Jesus appears for a purpose. The presence of Jesus is strongly linked with the sense of calling. Peter denied Jesus three times on the night of Jesus' arrest (18:17, 25, 27), and repented; now, Jesus is offering him three chances to redeem himself. Jesus first dealt with Peter’s sin and then commissioned him to work on His behalf. Jesus asks twice if Peter loves him with the deeper, stronger, and more sacrificial kind of agape love and not mere phileo love involving brotherly love or friendship. In any event, "the one thing about which Jesus questioned Peter prior to commissioning him to tend the flock, was love. This is the basic qualification for Christian service. Other qualities may be desirable, but love is completely indispensable (cf. 1 Cor. 13:1-3).” (Paul Avent, Study John's Gospel, Volume II). By this triple confession, Peter is restored to the leadership position from which he had fallen by his triple denial. Furthermore, it is proclaimed that Peter is indeed a pastor, who is to show his love for Christ in feeding Christ’s sheep, a recycling of denial into affirmation. Peter’s rehabilitation is a celebration of Divine Grace. As the shepherd appointed by the True Shepherd, to do as He did, to care for the sheep, Peter also symbolizes leadership. “Feed My lambs,” will continue to be the agenda of the post-Resurrection Church until the risen Lord appears in glory.
Peter’s martyrdom foretold: Finally, Jesus says that Peter will glorify God by his death just as Jesus has glorified God by his (v. 19; see also 7:39; 12:16; 13:31-32; 14:13; 17:1-5). "Stretch out your hands" sounds like crucifixion, and by the time of the writing of this Gospel Peter had been martyred, probably by crucifixion in Rome. Legend has it that he asked to be crucified upside down because he felt unworthy to emulate his Lord, although evidence for this legend is weak.
Apostles’ experience and our experience: Just as Peter recognizes the risen Lord and leaps into the waters, so Christians profess their Faith in the risen Jesus and are baptized in water and the Spirit. Just as the first disciples share a meal with the risen Jesus, so we now regularly share the Eucharist with Him. And just as the risen Jesus commissions Peter to undertake a pastoral mission on his behalf, so the natural consequence of Baptism and the Eucharist for us is to share ourselves and our Faith with others.
Life messages:1) We need to open our eyes, ears and hearts wide to see, hear and experience the Risen Lord coming to our life in various forms, circumstances and events.
A) The Risen Lord gives us success and achievements: We often fail to acknowledge the presence of the risen Jesus behind our unexpected victories, great achievements, job promotions, miraculous healings and success in relationships. Let us not foolishly attribute a success in our career only to hard work; our good health only to daily exercise coupled with moderation in food and drink; and our sound financial position only to frugal spending habit and good management of money. Let us remember the Divine warnings, “Without Me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5); and “If the Lord does not build the house, the work of the builders is useless” (Ps.127: 1).
B) The Risen Lord is present in our pain and suffering: Acts 9:1-13 tells us how the Risen Lord transformed the life of Saul by pushing him down onto the Damascus road and making him temporarily blind. The same Jesus often visits us in the form of accidents, illnesses, the loss of dear ones, pain and suffering, and problems in relationships. When Cardinal Bernadine was hospitalized for the surgical removal of his gall bladder and one of his kidneys to arrest the growth of pancreatic cancer, he said: “Cancer augmented my Faith in the presence of the Risen Jesus as actively involved in my life. I could experience Him in the hospital room more than any time in my busy pastoral life” Bishop Desmond Tutu who was losing the battle against prostate cancer, spoke of how the disease had given him new ears and new eyes to see things and hear things he had so taken for granted – the love of one’s spouse, the Beethoven symphony, the dew on the rose, the laughter on the face of a grandchild.
C) The Risen Lord is visiting us in our friends and well-wishers: He is present in those who visit us and encourage us in our sad and desperate moments. The Risen Lord visits us in the form of unexpected help from the least expected persons in our dire needs. He is right there in our parties and celebrations and occasions of rejoicing.
D) The Risen Lord is present in our Christian worship. He is present on our altars during the Holy Mass to share his life with us; he is present in the words of Holy Scripture; he is there in the Sacraments and he is there where two or three are gathered in his name (Matthew 18:20).
2) We need to work with the Risen Lord and plan all our activities with his blessing, after consulting him in prayer and receiving his instruction. Let us pray that we may be a Church that continues in that Gospel lifestyle of fishing for people, of tending the sheep and feeding them with the word of life.
3) Let us compensate for our moments of weakness by genuine acts of love, compassion and service. Peter was called upon to prove his love: "If you love me, feed my sheep." The same Risen Lord reminds us: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments" (John 14:15). What do our present actions and activities say about our love for Christ? The Risen Jesus accepts our apology, dismisses the charges against us, exonerates us of guilt, and forgives all our weaknesses. He continues to challenge us to demonstrate our love for him by faithfully, freely, feeding his sheep entrusted to our care.
JOKE OF THE WEEK
Feeding lambs of the Secret Service: The pastor grabbed the young man by the hand as he came out of the Church after the Easter Sunday Mass, and pulled him aside. "Young man," he said to him, "You need to join the Army of the Lord!" The young man replied, "I'm already in the army of the Lord, Father." The pastor questioned, "How come I don't see you except as a Christmas Poinsettia and an Easter Lily?" He whispered back, "It’s because I'm in the Secret Service of Jesus."
“Feed my lambs,” in the attorney’s office: A priest settled into a chair in a lawyer’s office. “Is it true,” said the priest, “that your firm does not charge the members of the clergy?” “I am afraid you are misinformed,” stated the lawyer. “People in your profession can look forward to a reward in the next world, but we lawyers have to take ours in this one.”
Websites of the week
1. Ways of Reading the Bible (Fr. Felix Just, S.J): http://catholic-resources.org/Bible/Reading-Bible.htm
2.Methods of Praying with the Scriptures (Fr. Felix Just, S.J): http://catholic-resources.org/Bible/Prayer-Methods.htm
3.Bible Study, Catholic Style: http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/bible_study_catholic_style/
4. Lectio Divina a) Ignatian style: http://www.ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-prayer/the-what-how-why-of-prayer/praying-with-scripture b) Carmelite style:
5. http://ocarm.org/en/content/lectio/what-lectio-divina
6. Text week on John 21. 1-19: http://www.textweek.com/mkjnacts/jn21.htm
19- Additional anecdotes:
1) The Obelisk in St Peter's Square: In St. Peter's Square, in Rome, there stands an ancient Egyptian obelisk that illustrates this truth. It is a single block of marble almost 100 feet high. It is in the shape of the Washington Monument and weighs 330 tons. Originally, it was erected as a monument to the Pharaoh around the year 1850 B.C., and it watched over two thousand years of the history of Egypt's Empire. It stood there when Abraham heard his call, when Joseph was viceroy of Egypt, when Moses led his people out of Egypt. At the time of Christ, the Roman Emperor Caligula brought it to Rome as a sign of Rome's superiority to Egypt. There it stood for four more centuries, a symbol of the Roman Empire, one of the largest empires in human history. A golden urn with Julius Caesar's ashes was placed on top of it. It stood in the arena where St Peter himself was martyred, crucified upside down, as Christ predicted in today's Gospel passage, and where hundreds of other Christians were martyred through centuries of persecution. Then the barbarians sacked Rome, and the obelisk fell. Ivy grew around it. It was half-buried near the old basilica. But the Church converted the barbarians, and when Christian Europe flourished, and St. Peter's Basilica was rebuilt and expanded, Pope Sixtus V erected the obelisk in the center of the square. No longer is it a reminder of the long-perished empires of Egypt and Rome and the barbarian hordes. Now it stands as a symbol of the universal Kingdom that has outlasted them all and that will continue to outlast those of the future, the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, embodied in his Church. Now it is topped with a bronze cross, and inside that bronze cross is a small fragment of the true cross, the cross on which Christ was crucified - the throne from which Jesus continues to reign, and will continue to reign, until he comes again and his Vicar hauls the bulging net to the shores of eternity. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
2) "We're Texans, and we're going to have a barbecue." An old Reader's Digest story tells about a family who moved to Seattle from Texas. The whole family was missing Texas, especially when Christmas was just around the corner and the whole place was covered in snow. We like snow on Christmas morning or Christmas Eve, just as long as it's all gone by the time we get on the road to go to visit our families, right? Well anyway, this woman said when she went to pick up her first-grade son from school, his teacher told her about a conversation she overheard as the kids were talking about Christmas break. One boy said, "We're Catholics, and we are going to Christmas Mass." Another little boy said, "We're Jewish, and we're going to have a Hanukkah celebration." Her little boy chimed in and said, "We're Texans, and we're going to have a barbecue." (Reader's Digest, Dec. 1999, p. 141.). Today’s Gospel describes a charcoal fire of forgiveness the Risen Lord prepared for Peter who denied him thrice and repented, and the delicious breakfast of fish grilled on that fire that He prepared for all of them. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
3) A school of herring that sank a 63-foot boat: The Associated Press carried a good fish story from Oslo, Norway some time back that turns out to be true. The story was about a school of herring that sank a 63-foot boat. The herring were caught in the fishermen's net and refused to give up without a fight. When the crew tried to haul in the net, the entire school of herring swam for the bottom. This actually capsized the ship. The skipper of the ship was quoted as saying, "I have been fishing since I was 14 and I have never seen anything like it." Crew members tried to cut loose the net but were forced to abandon the capsized ship, which sank in 10 minutes. No one was hurt and the six fishermen were rescued by another trawler. It was not clear whether the fish escaped the net or not. (http://www.motherflash.com/sermons/sermonsc8/epiphany3.html). Today’s Gospel describes how the risen Jesus ordered a miraculous catch of fish for his Apostles, headed by Peter. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ ).
4) The Pope as Chauffeur: After getting the former athlete Pope John Paul’s luggage loaded into the limo, the driver notices the Pope still standing on the curb. "Excuse me, Your Holiness," says the driver," Would you please take your seat so we can leave?" "Well, to tell you the truth," says the Pope, "they never let me drive at the Vatican when I was a cardinal, and now that I'm Pope, I'd really like to drive today." Reluctantly, the driver gets in the back as the Pope climbs in behind the wheel. The driver quickly regrets his decision when, after exiting the airport, the Pontiff floors it, accelerating the limo to 105 mph. "Please slow down, Your Holiness!" pleads the worried driver, but the Pope keeps the pedal to the metal until they hear sirens. "Oh, dear God, I'm gonna lose my license -- and my job!" moans the driver. The Pope pulls over and rolls down the window as the cop approaches, but the cop takes one look at him, goes back to his motorcycle, and gets on the radio. "I need to talk to the Chief," he says to the dispatcher. The Chief gets on the radio and the cop tells him that he's stopped a limo going a hundred and five. "So bust him," says the Chief. "I don't think we want to do that, he's really big," said the cop. The Chief exclaimed, "All the more reason!" "No, I mean really important," said the cop with a bit of persistence. The Chief then asked, "Who ya got there, the Mayor?" Cop: "Bigger." Chief: "The Governor?" Cop: "Bigger." Chief: "The President?" Cop: "Bigger." "Well," said the Chief, "Who is it?" Cop: "I think it's God!" The Chief is stumped, " You been drinking, John?" Cop: "No, Sir." Chief: "Then what makes you think it's God?" Cop: "He's got the Pope as a chauffeur." Imagine the surprise to Peter and the other disciples in today’s Gospel episode when they finally realized it was the really Big One--the Risen Lord Jesus himself who had come to see them. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
5) "Rest in peace."' Two children, a four-year-old and a six-year-old, gave their mother a houseplant for Mother's Day. They had used their own money, and she was thrilled. The older child said with a sad face, "There was a bouquet at the flower shop that we wanted to give you, but it was too expensive. It had a ribbon on it that said, 'Rest in peace."' A parent, particularly a mother, gets little chance to rest in peace this side of Heaven. Parenting is intensive leadership, 24 hours per day. The Bible describes parental leadership as follows: "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it." Our Scripture for today is about leadership. In John's Gospel, chapter 21, the risen Christ meets the disciples on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. He cooks breakfast for them. Afterward, he turns to Simon Peter and asks him the same question three times: "Simon, Son of John, do you love me...?" Each time, Simon Peter answers yes. Then three times Jesus commands him to shepherd the sheep of his flock; that is, the people of the infant Church. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
6)How to Live to Be 100… or More. One of the most beloved entertainers of all time was the comedian George Burns. He died in Beverly Hills on March 9, 1996. He was 100 years old. When he was in his nineties he wrote a book entitled How to Live to Be 100… or More. In the book he has a chapter with the heading, “Stay Away from Funerals, Especially Yours.” George Burns said, “If you look in the obituary column in the morning, and your name isn’t there, go ahead and have breakfast.” He said that if he ever looked in the obituary column and found his name was there, he would go ahead and have breakfast anyway because he said, “I’m not leaving on an empty stomach.” Now, that kind of sense of humor kept George Burns young at heart for all of his 100 years. But the fact is that we are all going to die… and even more painful is the fact that people we love are going to die… and that can fill us with despair. Today’s Gospel describes how the Risen Lord transforms the despair of his apostles into hopes and dreams. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ ) .
7) “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” There’s a beautiful story (likely an urban legend), that speaks to this. According to the legend, Ignace Paderewski who rose to prominence as Poland’s most famous pianist and Prime Minister, once scheduled a concert in a small out-of-the-way village in hopes of cultivating the arts in rural Poland. A young mother, wishing to encourage her son’s progress at the piano, bought tickets for the Paderewski performance. When the night arrived, they found their seats near the front of the concert hall and eyed the majestic Steinway waiting on stage. Without thinking, the mother found a friend and began visiting, and in the excitement of the evening the little boy slipped out of sight! When eight o’clock arrived, the house lights came down, the spotlights came up, the audience quieted… and only then did anyone notice the little ten-year-old boy seated at the concert piano, innocently picking out “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” His mother gasped, the stagehands started out to grab the boy, but suddenly Paderewski appeared on stage and waved them away. Paderewski quickly moved to the piano… and standing behind the little boy, whispered into his ear: “Don’t quit. Keep playing! Don’t stop!” Leaning over, Paderewski reached down with his left hand and began filling in a bass part. Soon his right arm reached around the other side of the boy, encircling the child, to add a running obligato. Together, the old master and the young novice held the crowd mesmerized with great music in a magic moment. Nothing transforms life more than having the strong voice of the Master, who forever… surrounds us with His love, whisper in our ear time and again, “Don’t quit! Don’t stop! Keep on playing!” That is what Peter and his friends experienced on the shore of Tiberius as described in today’s Gospel. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
8) The love confessed, and the love expressed: Three little boys were debating whose mom was the most loving. The first little boy said: "My mommy loves me because I gave her a quarter, but she gave it back, saying 'Go and buy a piece of candy.'" The second little boy argued that his mother loved him more because "If I give her a quarter, she gives me back two quarters for two pieces of candy." The third little boy, seeing the direction of the debate, scratched his head and said, "Well, my mom loves me more because she would keep the quarter and then tell me how much that quarter will help her pay the bills." The love confessed and the love expressed can take many different forms and not all of them are pleasant. Today’s Gospel passage describes a triple confession of love by Peter rewarded by the Risen Lord. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ ).
9) What fish? A young man in Tennessee was fishing on one of the TVA lakes. He was stopped by a game warden as he was leaving the lake with two large buckets of fish. The game warden asked, “Do you have a license to catch those fish?” “Nope,” the young man replied. “These are my pet fish.” “Pet fish?” the warden asked. “What do you mean, pet fish?” “Well,” said the young man, “Every night, I take these fish down to the lake and let 'em swim around for awhile. Then, I whistle, and they jump right back into my ice chests and I take 'em home.” “That’s a bunch of hooey!” said the warden. “Fish can’t do that.” The young man looked at the game warden for a moment, and then said, “Here, I’ll show you. It really works.” “I’ve got to see this!” said the warden. The young man poured the fish into the lake and stood and waited. After several minutes, the warden says, “Well?” “Well, what?” says the young man. The warden says, “When are you going to whistle and call 'em back?” “Call who back?” asked the young man with a grin on his face. “The FISH,” replied the warden! “What fish?” asked the young man. Fishermen are famous for their creativity. Someone has said the only question about the veracity of Jesus’ disciples is that at least four of them were fishermen. Our lesson for the day takes place after the Resurrection. It is another example of how the disciples struggled with the news that Christ had risen from the dead. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ ).
10) A teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket: During a visit to the mental asylum, a visitor asked the Director, "How do you determine whether or not a patient should be institutionalized?" "Well," said the Director, "we fill up a bathtub, then we offer a teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the patient and ask him or her to empty the bathtub." "Oh, I understand," said the visitor. "A normal person would use the bucket because it's bigger than the spoon or the teacup." "No," said the Director. "A normal person would pull the plug. Do you want a bed near the window?" The Apostle Peter was not a normal person. He hadn't been normal from the day Jesus entered his life. That didn't mean he was going to get a bed by the window in a mental institution. No, what it meant for Peter is that God had big plans for him. But in order to fulfill those plans, Peter had to let go of some things, one of which was the heart-rending heavy burden of his denial of Christ. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ ).
11) "I want the band to play 'Dixie’" : Those who visit Washington, DC make a tour of all the traditional sites like the White House, the Smithsonian, the halls of Congress and the Lincoln Memorial. There is something about standing in the Lincoln Memorial and reading the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural Address which gives you goosebumps. One line in the Second Inaugural reminds you what a caring and compassionate man Lincoln was. He was speaking about the coming end of the War and he said: "With malice toward none; With charity for all." Lincoln put this idea into practice on the day that news arrived in Washington that the war was over. A crowd gathered at the White House and a military band was playing some festive music. Lincoln stood on the balcony of the White House and spoke. Instead of lashing out against the South, he spoke of the horrors of war being over. He spoke of families getting back together. He spoke of a time of peace. Then he said, "In a few moments I want the band to play and I'm going to tell them what I want them to play." Of course, the band started getting the "Battle Hymn of The Republic" ready to play. This had been the theme song of the North throughout the Civil War. But Lincoln crossed them up. He stood there and said: "The band will now play the theme song of the people we have called our enemy. They are not our enemies anymore! We are one people again. I want the band to play 'Dixie.'" Historians say there was a long, awkward pause. The band didn't have the music for "Dixie," but they finally got together and played "Dixie." Lincoln knew that the South was not only hurting because of the horrors of the war, but also because of the shame which accompanies defeat. Lincoln was sending a clear signal to the South. Lincoln was telling everyone that there would be no punishment upon the South. Lincoln was saying that the South would be treated with love and compassion. When you love after the patterns of Jesus, caring and compassion become the cornerstone of your love. Love is not vicious or hostile. Love does not try to compound the guilt. Love doesn't try to rub salt in the wounds of shame. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ ).
12) “Sometimes I can even sense him sitting there beside me." An old man became gravely ill, and when the pastor came to visit, the pastor noticed a chair beside the man's bed. "Oh, goodness," the pastor said, "you've already had a visitor today." "Oh, no," the man replied, "let me tell you about that chair. Years ago, I told a friend that when I prayed at night, I frequently fell asleep right in the middle of my prayers. And my friend suggested that I put a chair beside my bed and imagine that Jesus is sitting there with me, because after all, he really is. So I started doing that, and you know what? It really helped. Sometimes I can even sense him sitting there beside me." After talking with the man a while longer, the pastor went home, and later that night he got a call from the man's daughter. She said, "Pastor, my dad just died. Can you come over?" So the pastor went to see her. The daughter said, "You know I was in the room and everything was fine. He wasn't struggling or anything. He was just lying there peacefully. So I left the room for a moment. When I came back, he had passed away. But what's strange is that when I came back in the room, I noticed that the chair was pulled back up beside his bed. Somehow he had managed to roll over on his side and stretch out his arm to the chair beside him." Real solutions to real problems -- that's what the Resurrection of Jesus can mean to us: God's power and love flowing into our lives; the forgiveness and newness that can be ours in Jesus; the assurance of his presence with us always. Jesus calls to us today to drop down our nets. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ ).
13) “I've never seen a newborn baby," he said, "that weighed fifty pounds!" Fishermen have such a reputation for, exaggeration. Someone said that the difference between a hunter and a fisherman is that the hunter lies and waits and the fisherman waits and lies. One fisherman I heard about got tired of people doubting his veracity. He bought a scale and took it with him to his favorite hole. He insisted on weighing every fish he caught, just to prove that he didn't exaggerate. Months later his wife had a baby. The doctor borrowed the man's fishing scale to weigh the baby. The doctor gasped, "I've never seen a newborn baby," he said, "that weighed fifty pounds!" Today’s Gospel describes a true fish story about a miraculous catch of fish. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ ).
14) “Say father, say, if yet my task is done” : In 1748 during the battle of Nile aboard the French Ship Orient, there took place a great and heroic event of trust. Commander Louis de Casabianca asked his young son Giocante to wait for his order to leave the deck. The boy stood on the deck waiting for his father’s orders. The ship caught fire. Flames rose to the sky. He was surrounded by flames. Finally he called out, “Say father, say, if yet my task is done” But the poor little boy did not know that his father was lying dead and cold in the bottom of the ship. He stood on the burning deck with absolute trust in his father. “Speak, father! Once again he cried. “If I may yet be gone!” While over him fast, through sail and shroud The wreathing fires made way. English poet Felicia Dorothea Hemans immortalized the trust of Giocante in the poem Casabianca. As Giocante showed unwavering trust in his father we see Peter expressing his unchallengeable trust in Jesus. (Fr. Bobby Jose). (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ ).
15) The Sun has risen: The editor of one of the leading religious newspapers was walking along some cliffs near Eastbourne, England, one Easter morning. In his walk he met an old fisherman, and during their conversation together, the editor was struck by the simple Faith of the old fisherman in his risen Savior. "How do you know that Jesus has risen?" he asked. "Sir," came the reply, "do you see those cottages near the cliffs? Well, sir, sometimes when I am far out at sea, I know that the sun has risen by the light that reflected by yon cottage windows. How do I know that Christ has risen? Why, sir, do I not see his light reflected from the faces of some of my fellows every day, and do I not feel the light of his glory in my own life? As soon tell me that the sun has not risen when I see his reflected glory, as tell me that my Lord is not risen." - (Anthony Castle, More Quotes and Anecdote; quoted by Fr. Botelho). (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ ).
16) Love Breakthrough: There is a marvelous New Yorker cartoon which depicts a moment of challenge in the life of one man. He is well on in his middle years, his hair is in retreat, and thick round spectacles sit on his nose. Dressed in pyjamas and dressing gown he stands inside his door staring at something on the floor. The door is heavily reinforced with steel brackets and a variety of bolts and locks and chains. It is a picture of security gone mad. There is no letter box to receive mail, but there is a peeping hole to see out. Clearly no one could penetrate this place without approval. But something has got through this array of defenses. A white envelope with a large red heart impressed on the back is lying on the floor. A valentine card has been slipped under the door. Our middle-aged hero stares in wonder. Is this a joke? Is it a flat letter bomb? Should he claim it or push it back across the threshold? We'll never know! --It is particularly difficult for people who live in fear to show their love. After the Resurrection the apostles still lived in fear so Jesus asks Peter the question: "Do you love me?" Insisting on love is something of a mark of Jesus. Loving the Lord is always a charge to care for others. The question of Jesus stays with us hoping for an answer. This Jesus is worth letting through our defenses and locked doors. He's not a security risk. After all, his Valentine has already been slipped under the door. (Dennis McBride, Seasons of the Word; quoted by Fr. Botelho). (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ ).
17) Back from the brink with Mother Teresa: Brother Andrew from the Missionary Brothers of Charity tells the following story. One day Mother Teresa received a letter written by a man on the day of his intended suicide. He wrote that, on the preceding afternoon, he had worked out all the details for what seemed to him a perfectly “rational” suicide. And then, quite by accident, he came across Malcolm Muggeridge’s biography of Mother Teresa. Bored and with nothing else to do, he started to read it. As he read, he found that book, or rather that life, giving him a new interest in life, and, as he finished it, he moved back from the brink of suicide to begin life anew. The example of Mother Teresa, until then unknown to him, had given him hope. This man had discovered that his boat was empty. But by the example of a living saint, he realized that it could be full. Today’s Gospel episode describes how a full boat of fish opened the eyes of the apostles to the Risen Lord. (E- Priest) (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
18) "I die the King's good servant, but God's first." All the saints exemplify this truth. None of them achieved their holiness and happiness without suffering, because only through suffering for and with Christ could their love for Christ mature. The supposed last words of St Thomas More sum up the lesson beautifully. St Thomas More was the Chancellor of England in the early 1500s, a layman, and a close friend and faithful servant of King Henry VIII. Unfortunately, the King was less faithful. When his first wife didn't give him a son, and he found pleasure in one of the Queen’s ladies in waiting, King Henry requested an annulment from the Pope. But there were no grounds for an annulment. So King Henry, instead of humbly accepting the Church's decision and trusting in God, took things into his own hands. He declared himself the supreme head of the Church in England, denouncing the Pope's rightful supremacy. Then with his newfound religious authority, he granted himself the annulment, so he could marry his mistress. Almost all of England's bishops and noblemen took the king's side in this affair, and the Anglican Church was born. St. Thomas More, the King's highest-ranking adviser, refused to sign the Act of Supremacy and go along with the King. He and his family were threatened, cajoled, and tortured, but he would not betray Christ's Church. Finally, he was convicted of treason and executed. There are various accounts of his last words. The 1966 Academy Award winning movie, A Man for All Seasons (based on the play of the same name by Robert Bolt), told Thomas More’s life story, in which Thomas’ his last words are recorded as: "I die the King's good servant, but God's first." In this fallen world, to love Christ with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, will get us into trouble, sooner or later. But that kind of trouble is good for our souls, which is why God allows it. Suffering for Christ matures our love, and only mature love gives lasting meaning to our lives. That is why in today’s Gospel Jesus informs Peter that he will glorify God by his martyrdom. (E- Priest) (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )..
19) Would-Be Church Destroyers: Our culture is so focused on current events and headlines, that we can easily lose sight of this perspective. But a brief glance at history can remedy that. The mere fact of the Church's endurance through twenty centuries, maintaining the same doctrine, the same forms of worship (the Mass, seven sacraments), and the same structure (bishops united under the pope's leadership to serve believers) is, without a doubt, miraculous. It only becomes more amazing when we take a look at the actual obstacles and enemies it had to overcome. The Roman Empire tried to stamp out Christianity for 300 years. That Empire is gone; the Church remains. In the Middle Ages, the Islamic Empire extended over even more territory than Rome had, and conquered many Christian lands. It invaded Europe and tried to do away with the Church. That Empire fell, but the Church remains. In the sixteenth century, most of northern Europe rebelled against the Catholic Church in what was called the Protestant Reformation. In some countries, being Catholic became a crime earning capital punishment. Yet today, the Catholic Church remains the largest Christian community, and in those countries, the Church remains alive. In the seventeenth century a new Islamic Empire, that of the Turks, tried again to overrun Christian civilization. That Empire is gone; the Church remains. In the eighteenth century, the French Revolution tried to eradicate the Church in France, martyring hundreds, if not thousands. The Revolution passed; the Church endured. In the nineteenth century, Napoleon conquered all of continental Europe, usurped the Church hierarchy, and imprisoned two popes in efforts to take over the Catholic Church. His Empire passed away; the Church remains. In the twentieth century, Soviet Communism tried to wipe out the Catholic Church in all of its territories, as did the German Nazis. Those regimes are gone; the Church remains. Today the saga continues, in Africa, the Middle East, China, and Vietnam. The Church has endured, and it will continue to endure, just as Christ promised. Peter will bring the net to shore, overstuffed with large fishes, and the net will not be torn. (E- Priest) (http://frtonyshomilies.com/ ) L/19
“Scriptural Homilies” Cycle C (No. 26) by Fr. Tony: akadavil@gmail.com
Visit my website: By clicking on http://frtonyshomilies.com/ for missed or previous Cycle C homilies, 141 Year of Faith “Adult Faith Formation Lessons” (useful for RCIA classes too) & 197 “Question of the Week.” Contact me only at akadavil@gmail.com. Visit http://www.vaticannews.va/en/church.html for the Vatican version of this homily and https://www.catholicsermons.com/homilies/sunday_homilies under CBCI. Or https://www.cbci.in/SundayReflectionsNew.aspx?type=text
Fr. Anthony Kadavil, Chaplain, Sacred Heart Residence of the Little Sisters of the Poor, 1655 McGill Ave, Mobile, AL 36604.
