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2010년 5월 2일 부활 제5주일
제1독서
사도행전 .14,21ㄴ-27
그 무렵 21 바오로와 바르나바는 리스트라와 이코니온으로 갔다가, 이어서 안티오키아로 돌아갔다. 22 그들은 제자들의 마음에 힘을 북돋아 주고 계속 믿음에 충실하라고 격려하면서, “우리가 하느님의 나라에 들어가려면 많은 환난을 겪어야 합니다.” 하고 말하였다.
23 그리고 교회마다 제자들을 위하여 원로들을 임명하고, 단식하며 기도한 뒤에, 그들이 믿게 된 주님께 그들을 의탁하였다.
24 바오로와 바르나바는 피시디아를 가로질러 팜필리아에 다다라, 25 페르게에서 말씀을 전하고서 아탈리아로 내려갔다. 26 거기에서 배를 타고 안티오키아로 갔다. 바로 그곳에서 그들은 선교 활동을 위하여 하느님의 은총에 맡겨졌었는데, 이제 그들이 그 일을 완수한 것이다.
27 그들은 도착하자마자 교회 신자들을 불러, 하느님께서 자기들과 함께 해 주신 모든 일과 또 다른 민족들에게 믿음의 문을 열어 주신 것을 보고하였다.
제2독서
요한 묵시록 .21,1-5ㄴ
1 나 요한은 새 하늘과 새 땅을 보았습니다. 첫 번째 하늘과 첫 번째 땅은 사라지고, 바다도 더 이상 없었습니다.
2 그리고 거룩한 도성 새 예루살렘이, 신랑을 위하여 단장한 신부처럼 차리고, 하늘로부터 하느님에게서 내려오는 것을 보았습니다. 3 그때에 나는 어좌에서 울려오는 큰 목소리를 들었습니다.
“보라, 이제 하느님의 거처는 사람들 가운데에 있다. 하느님께서 사람들과 함께 거처하시고, 그들은 하느님의 백성이 될 것이다. 하느님 친히 그들의 하느님으로서 그들과 함께 계시고, 4 그들의 눈에서 모든 눈물을 닦아 주실 것이다. 다시는 죽음이 없고, 다시는 슬픔도, 울부짖음도, 괴로움도 없을 것이다. 이전 것들이 사라져 버렸기 때문이다.”
5 그리고 어좌에 앉아 계신 분께서 말씀하셨습니다. “보라, 내가 모든 것을 새롭게 만든다.”
복음
요한 .13,31-33ㄱ.34-35
31 유다가 방에서 나간 뒤에 예수님께서 말씀하셨다. “이제 사람의 아들이 영광스럽게 되었고, 또 사람의 아들을 통하여 하느님께서도 영광스럽게 되셨다. 32 하느님께서 사람의 아들을 통하여 영광스럽게 되셨으면, 하느님께서도 몸소 사람의 아들을 영광스럽게 하실 것이다. 이제 곧 그를 영광스럽게 하실 것이다. 33 얘들아, 내가 너희와 함께 있는 것도 잠시뿐이다. 34 내가 너희에게 새 계명을 준다. 서로 사랑하여라. 내가 너희를 사랑한 것처럼 너희도 서로 사랑하여라. 35 너희가 서로 사랑하면, 모든 사람이 그것을 보고 너희가 내 제자라는 것을 알게 될 것이다.”
May 2, 2010 After Paul and Barnabas had proclaimed the good news to that city and made a considerable number of disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch . They strengthened the spirits of the disciples and exhorted them to persevere in the faith, saying, “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God .” They appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, commended them to the Lord in whom they had put their faith. Then they traveled through Pisidia and reached Pamphylia. After proclaiming the word at Perga they went down to Attalia. From there they sailed to Antioch , where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work they had now accomplished. And when they arrived, they called the church together and reported what God had done with them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. Responsorial Psalm R. (cf. 1) I will praise your name for ever, my king and my God. or: R. Alleluia. The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness. The LORD is good to all and compassionate toward all his works. R. I will praise your name for ever, my king and my God. or: R. Alleluia. Let all your works give you thanks, O LORD, and let your faithful ones bless you. Let them discourse of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might. R. I will praise your name for ever, my king and my God. or: R. Alleluia. Let them make known your might to the children of Adam, and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. Your kingdom is a kingdom for all ages, and your dominion endures through all generations. R. I will praise your name for ever, my king and my God. or: R. Alleluia. Reading 2 Then I, John, saw a new heaven and a new earth. The former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will always be with them as their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, for the old order has passed away.” The One who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Gospel When Judas had left them, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and God will glorify him at once. My children, I will be with you only a little while longer. I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
http://www.franciscanretreats.net/
http://www.evangeli.net/gospel/gospel.html
http://www.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
PREPRAYERING I went shopping today at a tea store. There were hundreds of options and the teas were in large containers and the nice person weighed each of my selections. There was nothing prepackaged and I had a sense of being in touch with authenticity. The experience was contrasted by next visiting a plastic-wrapped, cellophane-secured-from-germ store. There was no person waiting and weighing, except the check-out somebody wishing me a “great Day” which also seemed cellophaned. As we prepare to celebrate our next Eucharist we might pray with the temptations to be plastic. For me, this means being predictable, standard, distant, germless, indirect, formally-gracious, but not necessarily a grace. I was surprised by the personal attention and interaction of the tea-lady today. While waiting for my purchases, I was singing softly to myself and she said I had a good voice and would I sing a song for her. I did! Right out loud!, she did not reduce the price for all that. Jesus was wrapped in authenticity as human as well as divine. Our reception of His Body is the authentic Life and Love of God waiting to be wrapped in all that is graciously graceful of our humanity. We can pray with the chances given to us to let Him out and making Him real. REFLECTION In our First Reading for this liturgy, we hear the conclusion of a great experience of being on mission. Paul and Barnabas did some wonderful things, so wonderful that the people shouted that Zeus and Hermes, Greek gods were visiting them. The two preachers shouted the louder that they were only humans doing the work of bringing good news to them. They had their hardships of course and grew through them in their trust of God’s love and God’s use of them. We hear of their returning to the place where they had been given the mission of proclaiming the Word and initiating communities of faith. They were grace-charged humans, instruments in the hands of God. Those through the centuries who have entered into this instrumentality have known also their being in those same Hands. This past Holy Thursday we heard in the Gospel the verses leading up to those we hear today. Jesus has washed the feet of His followers; Judas has dirtied his hands by his betrayal. Jesus is back at the table and John pictures Jesus as beginning the Good-News, Bad-News of His last hours with His friends, whom He regards as “My Children”. The bad news is that He is going to be with them for only a little while longer. The good news is that He will be revealed in all His glory, upon the Cross. Jesus, according to John, will spend the next four chapters making sure His message is stated as clearly as possible. What is most clear and which will be repeated exactly in chapter fifteen, is that He wishes them to love one another and by this love stay together as well as increase in fruitfulness. By this mutual reverence the love that is the “glory” of God will be experienced by others and so will be drawn into the company of believers. John’s Gospel takes various elements from the book of Genesis. Here John has Jesus giving “a new commandment” which is to “love one another”. The first and newest commandment was creation, “Let there be……..” Light, order, life and fertility were results of a divine creative command. The Fall resulted in darkness, disorder, living outside the original context and fertility was to be experienced in pain. Jesus commands a “new” kind of creational love which is meant to bring back light, reverence, respect for what is and a relational exchange of interiors. The disciples are commanded to love each other into more and more life as Jesus had done with them. Jesus had given them as much as they could handle. Now He was urging them to love outside the circle, beyond the eleven elect. They were to encourage others to reverence themselves as gifts prepared to be given in gratitude to others. Not all of us enter the process of bringing new sacred life into this circle of love. We all are commanded to co-create, co-sculpture, and co-recover the lives within our life’s circle. When understood, this “new commandment” urges us beyond the emotional experience of love. We are missioned to continue God’s creational, resurrectional love. I am how God continues to say, “Let there be light” because of me. “Let there be order” because of how I live. Imagine all that! That is mighty “new” and yet a commandment which surpasses all others. Obviously we have the opposite power as well. There is our ability to also de-create, it is the “old commandment” which the Devil gave to Adam and Eve. Jesus is inviting His disciples and us to accept our being loved by the Creating God and having accepted that, we are urged gracefully to be instruments of attracting others into the circle of life. If I love you, I will want you to be, not more than you can be, but more of the God-loved person you are. The more my love for you helps you to love yourself, the more the circle will be created larger, deeper. The more you have of your true self, the more you will want to share and give others their life. Jesus was handing His life over to us before He handed His life over to death. We are now commanded to be the instruments, sacraments, making His creative love a real presence in the circle of life. “I am the vine and you are the branches, says the lord; he who lives in me, and I in him, will bear much fruit, alleluia.” Jn. 15, 5
http://www.rc.net/wcc/readings/
"Love one another, even as I have loved you" How does God reveal his glory to us? In his Last Supper discourse Jesus speaks of his glory and the glory of his Father.What is this glory? It is the cross which Jesus speaks of here. The cross of Jesus shows us that the greatest glory in life is the glory of willingly sacrificing one's life for the sake of another. In the cross God reveals the breadth of his great love for sinners and the power of redemption which cancels the debt of sin and reverses the curse of our condemnation. Jesus gave his Father supreme honor and glory through his obedience and willingness to sacrifice his life on the cross. The greatest trust one can give to their leader is the willingness to obey in the line of duty, even to the point of putting oneself in harm's way. In warfare the greatest honor belongs not to those who survive but to those who give the supreme sacrifice of their lives. Jesus also speaks of the Father bringing glory to the Son through the great mystery of the Incarnation and Cross of Christ. God the Father gave us his only begotten Son for our sake, to redeem us from slavery to sin and death. He freely offered his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins and the sins of the world. There is no greater proof of God's love for us than the Cross of Jesus Christ. In the cross we see a new way of love – a love that is selfless, sacrificial, forgiving and compassionate beyond comprehension. Jesus commands us, his disciples, to love one another just as he has loved us. How can we love one another selflessly, sacrificially, and with compassion? Through the victory of the cross and resurrection, we have access to God's grace and mercy. God gives us new life through the gift of the Holy Spirit and he fills our hearts with faith, hope, and love. Paul the Apostle reminds us that "God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us" (Romans 5:5). As we turn to God with trust and obedience, he transforms our hearts and frees us to love others with compassion and kindness. Do you want to bring glory to God in the way you love others? "Lord Jesus, your love knows no bounds and your obedience to the Father reverses the curse of our disobedience. May I bring you glory in the sacrifice of my will to the will of the Father and in my love and compassion for others, both for those who treat me well and for those who cause me grief or harm." Psalm 145:1,8-13
Fifth Sunday of Easter
Reading 1
1 I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name for ever and ever.
8 The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9 The LORD is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made.
10 All your works shall give thanks to you, O LORD, and all your saints shall bless you!
11 They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom, and tell of your power,
12 to make known to the sons of men your mighty deeds, and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations. The LORD is faithful in all his words, and gracious in all his deeds.
http://goodnews.ie/calendar.php
The following was written in 1948 by the American poet Jessica Powers. I picked it because it is about love (a theme of today's Mass) – a subject that is so easy to write badly about, so hard to write well about. It takes its title from the first words: "My heart ran forth." It ran forth propagating a wonderful ideal of love for everybody to follow.
But wisdom halted it, out far afield,
asked: did you sow this seed
around your house, or in the neighbour's garden
or any nearby acreage of need?
No? then it will not grow in outer places.
Love has its proper soil, its native land;
Its first roots fasten on the near-at-hand.
Back toward the house from which I deftly fled,
down neighbours' lanes, across my father's barley
my heart brought home its charity. It said:
love is a simple plant like a Creeping Charlie;
Once it takes root its talent is to spread.
How well she captured it! - the tendency in all of us to place love (and all the things that challenge us) at a distance. We place them at a distance (1) in time, or (2) in place.
1. We are always willing to postpone good things, someone said, but bad things we do right away! We would like to postpone faith, hope and love: to put them over the horizon and into the future. But fear, greed and anger we attend to at once. Love is one of the good things: the very best, St Paul said ("the greatest of these is love." 1 Cor. 13:13). So we tend to postpone it. But somewhere deep in us there is the wisdom to know that love is for now or never.
2. And we wouldn’t mind loving people who are at a safe distance, as Jessica Powers let us see. When I love I make myself vulnerable. But if I am afraid of that I won't love. I will dream and sentimentalise instead. “But sure, a body’s bound to be a dreamer / When all the things he loves are far away,” said the sickly song.
If only we could do the good things now, and postpone the bad things! What a world it would be if our love were as quick and as warm and as long-lasting as our hate. A wise man said a startling thing to me once: "There's no future!" I thought he was expressing despair about the country or the modern world…. But he didn’t seem at all a despairing kind of person; quite the contrary. "There's no future," he repeated cheerfully. "The future exists only in your head, nowhere else. It is only an idea. So don’t tell me what you're going to do in the future. Tell me what you're doing now." Who am I? What am I? I am what I'm doing now. If I don’t love the people and the things around me now I am not a loving person and I can have nothing to say about love.
We don’t say, "Give us tomorrow our daily bread." We want real bread, not an idea of bread. Real things are for now. And God, too, is for now. If I don’t love now I know nothing about God. "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love," wrote St John (1 John 4:8).
What a wise woman was Jessica Powers! She didn’t compare love to a dainty plant but to a common weed, a Creeping Charlie. We might say, Dandelions. It should be as ordinary as that, and as familiar, and as irrepressible! It's for everyday use, not just for Sundays.
http://www.presentationministries.com/
Jesus said: "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life." 뾌ohn 14:6
Recently Pope Benedict XVI visited the United States of America . The theme of his visit was "Christ, our Hope." This was a prophetic call to the USA and to the world to "fix [our] eyes on Jesus" (Heb 3:1), our "Hope of glory" ( Col 1:27).
So many people place their hope in better education, government programs, improved technology, a cleaner environment, a higher income, improved health, etc. Placing our hope in worldly circumstances, no matter how good, will ultimately leave us disappointed (compare Rm 5:5), for "the world as we know it is passing away" (1 Cor 7:31).
As Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed, Jesus Christ is our Hope. As Father Al Lauer, founder and longtime author of One Bread, One Body, often wrote on these pages, Jesus is our Hope, and the only Hope we need. Jesus is our Hope of finding God the Father, because no one comes to the Father except through Him (Jn 14:6).
So many people are "without hope and without God in the world" (Eph 2:12). They need Jesus, Who is Hope incarnate. With Pope Benedict, proclaim to a hopeless world that Jesus is our Hope.
http://www.judeop.org/dailyreflections.htm
http://biblereflection.blogspot.com/
Homily from Father James Gilhooley
5 Easter
Fifth Sunday of Easter - Cycle C
John 13:31-35
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. 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. So can it be for you and me if of course we have spiritual courage and discipline.
Today's Gospel takes us back to the Last Supper. We listen to the opening strains of the Teacher's last talk with His closest followers.
If you listen even with your hearing aid turned down to low, you will detect no anxiety and no fears in the Christ. Clearly He is not running scared. This is remarkable. Remember He knows of the impending betrayal of one of His own. He sees His fast approaching crucifixion with its dreadful pain. The Teacher is circled in majesty. He is the original Mr Cool. He does not require blood pressure pills. This is not a prisoner sitting in a death cell ready to eat the traditional last meal. Rather, He is a King hosting a sumptuous victory banquet.
Let me support my statement with irrefutable proof. In the opening two sentences of today's Gospel, you will find the word glory mentioned an extraordinary five times. Does this sound like a Man who feels He is a loser? Quite the contrary! You would not be surprised to discover this Host pouring aged Napoleon brandy in Baccarat snifters for each of the apostles. Then He would pass around a box of the finest Havanas. No doubt, He would say, "Take a second one for the celebration Sunday."
One scholar sums up the situation succinctly. In John's Gospel, the passion, death, and resurrection of the Teacher are not told as distinct tales. Rather, they are part and parcel of one large story. And the thought that runs throughout the narration is supreme glory.
The greatest glory in life, says William Barclay, is glory which comes from sacrifice. Following long-standing traditions, the crew members of the USS Iowa will come together for regular reunions. Their first toast will not be to the survivors but always to the fallen forty seven. Whenever we Catholics and Christians come together as today, we salute not the apostles who survived that Good Friday but our Leader who sacrificed Himself for us.
John argues today that the more one puts out, the more one will receive in turn. Thus, the generous giver happily finds himself the subject of Bunyan's riddle, "The more he threw away, the more he had."
For example, who was the hero of Charles Dicken's A Tale of Two Cities? The beautiful Lucie Manette or Sydney Carton who allowed himself to be guillotined to insure that she might live a life of bliss? Most would answer Mr Carton.
Thus, if you and I can somehow break out of the confining envelope of our own selfishness, if we stop hoarding our time, money, and energy, the bigger will the payoff be for our own Christian selves.
If we take this Gospel message with the seriousness that John intended, we might well become different men and women.
When you grow weary, bring to mind the tested advice of William Ward. "When we are unable, God is able. When we are insufficient, God is sufficient. When we are filled with fear, God is always near."
Reflect daily on the dictum which advises Christianity is not just Christ in you but Christ living His life through you. It goes on to say our love for Christ should be faith with working clothes on, So, we must tell everyone about Someone who can save anyone.
Your sacrifices will someday bring you much glory. That is both the teaching of history as well as a chief principle in life.
Homily from Father Joseph Pellegrino
http://www.st.ignatius.net/pastor.html
5 Easter
5th Easter: The New Jerusalem
Revelations 21: 1-3 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, God's dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will always be with them (as their God).
Forty years ago there were some religious people and some religious denominations who were very upset with NASA, the space program. They decided that the space program must be a sham because the Apollo astronauts circled the moon and then landed on it but did not report that they had found the New Jerusalem. These denominations were so fundamental in their word for word literal interpretation of the Bible that they were convinced that the New Jerusalem had to be up there in the sky somewhere waiting to come down. Since we can never see the backside of the moon from earth, they were sure that was the location of the New Jerusalem. They were upset with NASA because they decided that NASA was hiding the truth.
The New Jerusalem is not on the moon waiting to come down upon earth. But the New Jerusalem does exist. The place where God makes his home among mankind is real. It is the place where his name is Emmanuel--God with us. God’s City, the New Jerusalem, is right here. His City is the Church.
Now by Church I don’t mean the buildings and institutions of Rome. Nor am I referring to our splendid Church buildings in this country, the most beautiful, of course, is St. Ignatius, but who’s bragging? By Church I mean the People of God, united with Jesus Christ and empowered by His Holy Spirit.
The Church is the People of God. Human hearts that have been written upon by the Spirit of the living God have become the means of communication from Christ to other people. The starting point of an understanding of Jesus is faith, faith as it is actually believed, lived, proclaimed and practiced in the Christian Churches. Walter Kasper, Christian theologian, writes that faith in Jesus Christ arises from encounters with believing Christians. Jesus says: “This is how all will know you for my disciples: your love for one another.” (John 13:35) People encounter Christ in people who continue his life. These people, these disciples, living in union with Christ and making his presence a reality in the world, these people are the New Jerusalem. These people are the Church.
We priests experience many meeting with Christ present in his people. We are humbled by these meeting. There are people in this parish who have become fervent members of the faith because they have experienced Christ in other members of this parish.
Jesus Christ became one of us so that all of us may see, hear, touch and be fully exposed to God’s love among us. His Spirit unites his people into a single family, the Family of God, the Church.
Do you remember the theological statement: ‘There is no salvation outside of the Church?” It is important that we develop this thought.
Our salvation, our relationship to God, comes through Jesus Christ. He is the Divine Mediator, the one who has re-established our union with God. This is the gift of Easter. The continual meeting of mankind with the Risen Lord transforms us into Daughters and Sons of God. This is the eternal Easter we celebrate every day of our Christian lives. There is no way of being united to God outside of the Church because Jesus only exists united to his family, the People of God, the Church. There is no salvation apart of Jesus Christ. That is why we say that there is no salvation outside of the Church.
However, not all who profess to be Catholic are within the Church. There are many who profess to be Catholic but who live pagan lifestyles giving lip service to religion due to cultural ties or family pressure. Many times priests meet people who state: “I’m Catholic, but I don’t practice the faith.” Catholicism is a lifestyle, not a membership in an organization. You either do it or you are not it. You either do it, practice the faith, or you are not it, not Catholic.
Certainly, the Church is not limited to those who profess Catholicism. Those who profess Catholicism fully accept all the means of salvation offered as realizations of the Spirit of Jesus Christ among his people. These means are, primarily, the seven strongest ways that Christ is present in his Church which we call the seven sacraments. But we must also remember that there are many who profess Jesus Christ, who live in his life and who share his life with others, who do not profess Catholicism. They are the Church, People of God, giving witness to Jesus as Lord by their love for each other. They may be fervent Episcopalians, or fervent members of various Protestant traditions. They are Christians. There are also those who are the Church who have received a partial revelation of God’s Word in scripture but who have not received the fullness of this Word in the Gospel. These people have been called to receive the salvation of Jesus Christ, to be united to God, through the covenant of Moses, that is the Jewish people, or only through the faith of Abraham, the Moslem people. It is our belief that the fervent and sincere Jew, Moslem, and for that matter, the fervent and sincere Hindu, Buddhist or Animist, etc, all who seek a relationship to God share in the salvation of Jesus Christ, even though they do not know of Him.
There are good people who have never received a call to seek God through any particular religion, but who seek God with a sincere heart desiring to do what is good and right in their lives. Their concept of God matches our concept of God even though their terminology may differ radically from our terminology. Their pursuit of goodness demonstrates their membership in the Church, the New Jerusalem, even though they do not acknowledge the very existence of the Church.
God works his salvation for all people, but always through the union of Jesus Christ with his people. This is the Church, God’s way of being related to the world.
We Catholics need to come to a deeper understanding of the extent of God’s revelation to us. We are at the heart of his revelation. We are called to share in his seven special presences that are the sacraments. People are incorrect if they say, “It does not matter whether you are a member of one faith or another as long as you live this faith.” This is only true to the extent that it reflects God’s particular revelation of his word to the individual. No one can move from a tradition with a greater sharing in the truth to one with a lesser sharing in the truth. A Christian cannot be justified in becoming Jewish, because this means rejecting Jesus as Lord. The Catholic cannot justifiably turn away from the truths that are the seven sacraments, because this means rejecting the real presence of Christ in, for example, the Eucharist or in Penance, or the Sacrament of Matrimony.
The New Jerusalem is the transformation of the world into the Body of Christ. Revelations goes on to say that there is no need for sun or moon in the New Jerusalem for Christ is its light. But the New Jerusalem is, simply put, people. Encounters with people who love as Christ loved are themselves encounters with Jesus Christ. A person can read thousands of books about Jesus, but he will never meet Jesus until he meets a sincere Christian.
We, the members of the New Jerusalem, have the deepest of responsibilities in the world. We must render Christ present for others in the way we love them and in the way we love each other. Charity, love, is not just something that we do. Love, loving the way Christ loved, sacrificial love, is how we express the essence of our being as Christians. The world needs witness of this love. The world needs Christ. And He can be found only in the New Jerusalem, among the People of God.
Homily from Father Phil Bloom
http://www.geocities.com/seapadre_1999/
* available in Spanish - see Spanish homilies
5 Easter
Some Say Love
(May 2, 2010)
Bottom line: Jesus' new way of love fulfills the heart's deepest need.
Jesus says, "I give you a new commandment: Love one another - as I have loved you..."
An incident from the life of Blessed Mother Teresa illustrates this new way of love: Once a journalist accompanied her as she made her rounds, caring for the dying. One of the men had a wound that oozed decay and gave off a foul odor. Mother Teresa calmly washed the wound, all the while speaking softly to the man.
After Mother Teresa finished and they were walking away, the journalist said, "I wouldn't do that for all the gold in the world."
Mother Teresa replied, "Neither would I." She did it for something - or someone - worth more than all the world's gold. Her strength and love came from the time she spent before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament - an hour or more each day.
You and I are not Blessed Mother Teresa - but Jesus may call us to a similar love. One of my friends is caring for his elderly father. His dad always said that, more than anything else, he feared two things: dementia and incontinence. Now, both those afflictions have befallen him. His children, including my friend, take turns caring for their dad, one or two days a week.
"I give you a new commandment: Love one another - as I have loved you."
This weekend we are called to support those who care for the needy in our name. Besides formation of seminarians, youth ministry, the marriage tribunal and other vital programs, the Annual Catholic Appeal supports those who reach out to the poor on our behalf. Last year Catholic Community Services prepared and served over a million meals. They helped 78,073 clients and tutored 429 children. In addition, the Annual Catholic Appeal supports hospital and prison chaplains - including the chaplain at the correctional centers here in Monroe. The Annual Catholic Appeal enables us to do our part in Jesus' new commandment: Love one another - as I have loved you.
Jesus' new way of love fulfills the heart's deepest need. I hope you won't think I am over-sentimental if I conclude with popular song from a few decades back.* Don't worry, I won't sing it, but please listen carefully. It does reflect an aspect of Jesus' self-giving love:
Some say love, it is a river that drowns the tender reed.
Some say love, it is a razor that leaves your soul to bleed.
Some say love, it is a hunger, an endless aching need.
I say love, it is a flower, and you it's only seed.
It's the heart, afraid of breaking, that never learns to dance.
It's the dream, afraid of waking, that never takes a chance.
It's the one who won't be taken, who cannot seem to give.
And the soul, afraid of dyin', that never learns to live.
When the night has been too lonely, and the road has been too long,
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong,
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows,
Lies the seed, that with the sun's love, in the spring becomes The Rose.
**********
*I got the courage to quote this song after discovering that papal preacher, Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa used it in his homily for the Fifth Sunday of Easter. See: "Echad Las Redes - Reflexiones sobre los Evangelios, Ciclo C."
Spanish Version
Homily from Father Andrew M. Greeley
http://www.agreeley.com/homilies.html
5 Easter
Homily from Saint Vincent Archabbey, Latrobe,Pa
http://www.saintvincentarchabbey.org/homilies/index.lasso
5 Easter
May, 02, 2010
John 13:31-33a, 34-35
Campion P. Gavaler, O.S.B.
Fifth Sunday of Easter
Gospel Summary
Jesus tells his disciples in this passage from the Last Supper Discourse that now he is glorified, and God is glorified in him and will soon glorify him further. Jesus says that he will be with them only a little while longer. Then Jesus gives them a new commandment: "As I have loved you, so you also should love one another." This is the sign whereby people will be able to recognize disciples of Jesus -- their love for one another.
Life Implications
The word "glory" appears about 375 times in the Old Testament and about 175 times in the New. The key to grasping its elusive meaning is to understand that, like a sacramental sign, its purpose is to create or to deepen personal relationship. "The heavens declare the glory of God...the whole earth is full of his glory" (Ps 19:2 and Is 6:3). It is possible, however, for an individual to express deep awe in the presence of the beauty of the heavens and the earth, yet not recognize the beauty as a gift of God's glory. For its inter-personal meaning to be realized, glory (like a sacrament) must at the same time be objectively given and subjectively received. To recognize the glory of divine presence in gratitude -- now doubling the meaning of the term -- is to give glory to God.
The Gospel according to John tells the good news that Jesus is the complete, human manifestation of God's presence among us: he is the glory or sacramental sign of the divine presence. John structures his gospel around seven major signs or expressions of divine glory: changing water to wine at the wedding feast ("Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs in Cana in Galilee and so revealed his glory, and his disciples began to believe in him" [Jn 2:11]); cure of the noble's son; cure of the paralytic; feeding the multitude with bread; showing power over the sea; giving sight to the blind man; raising Lazarus from death. Through these signs some began to recognize the divine presence in him. Others, however, remained blind and did not perceive these events as the presence of God's glory.
In his farewell address, Jesus speaks of the eighth event that will be the summary and climax of the seven previous signs. This will happen when he is lifted up for all to see, giving himself in love even to death on a cross. This sign is the ultimate revelation that God is love -- the complete expression of God's glory. God is thus manifested or glorified in him. Jesus on the cross declares the supreme glory of God to be love. God then glorifies him through resurrection.
The Last Supper context of today's passage reminds us that now in every time and place, the Risen Lord extends the eighth sign of divine love through the Eucharist. The bread and wine do not hide, but express the glory of Christ -- the sacrament of his giving himself to us out of love just as he gave himself to us on the cross. Only through the seeing of faith can we recognize the glory manifested as Jesus gives himself on the cross and now gives himself to us as bread and wine.
It is no surprise to discover that Jesus asks all who believe in him to do what he has done to manifest God's glory. If we love others as he has loved us, if we become bread and wine for others, what we say and what we do become expressions of divine glory and signs of the divine presence. Through love that we give, people will know that we are disciples of Jesus. And perhaps in our age of disbelief, through the miracle of love, people may begin to believe in the divine presence, though heretofore they had not perceived the heavens and the whole earth to be filled with divine glory.
Campion P. Gavaler, OSB
Homily from Father Cusick
http://www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/lowhome.html Meeting Christ in the Liturgy
5 Easter
Fifth Sunday
Acts 14, 21-27; Psalm 145; Revelation 21, 1-5; St. John 13, 31-33. 34-35
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
How do we know the Church? What is she like? What are the characteristics that set the Church apart from all other bodies, groups or organizations in the world?
The People of God is marked by characteristics that clearly distinguish it from all other religious, ethnic, political, or cultural groups found in history:
--It is the people of God: God is not the property of any one people. But he acquired a people for himself from those who previously were not a people: "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation." (1 Pet 2:9.)
--One becomes a member of this people not by a physical birth, but by being "born anew," a birth "of water and the Spirit," (Jn 3:3-5.) that is, by faith in Christ, and Baptism.
--This People has for its head Jesus the Christ (the anointed, the Messiah). Because the same anointing, the Holy Spirit, flows from the head into the body, this is "the messianic people."
--"The status of this people is that of the dignity and freedom of the sons of God, in whose hearts the Holy Spirit dwells as in a temple."
--"Its law is the new commandment to love as Christ loved us." (Cf. Jn 13:34.)
--Its mission is to be salt of the earth and light of the world. (Cf. Mt 5:13-16.) This people is "a most sure seed of unity, hope, and salvation for the whole human race."
--Its destiny, finally, "is the Kingdom of God which has been begun by God himself on earth and which must be further extended until it has been brought to perfection by him at the end of time." (LG 9 art. 2.) (CCC 782)
Let's pray for each other until, together next week, we "meet Christ in the liturgy", Father Cusick
(See also nos. 1823, 1970, 2195, 2822, 2842 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.)
(Publish with permission.)
Homily from Father Alex McAllister SDS
http://www.ctk-thornbury.org.uk/
5 Easter
Sermon by Father Alex McAllister SDS
Fifth Sunday of Easter
The very first word of our Gospel text today is of more significance than one might suppose. This little word “Now” indicates that things have moved on, that we have come to a new and important stage in the unfolding of Christ’s salvific work; that we are at a crucial point in the great story of our salvation.
The text today comes from the end of Chapter Thirteen of John’s Gospel. It occurs not long after the washing of the feet and most significantly just after Judas has left the room on his way to betray Christ.
This little word ‘Now’ indicates that the final page in Christ’s story is about to be written. Now that Judas has left the room there is no going back; the decisive series of events that will lead to Christ’s death on the Cross and his ultimate glorification have begun.
And now that Judas has left to do his work, Jesus turns to his disciples and explains to his inner circle that he is about to be glorified and that this will be accomplished “very soon”.
You will notice that Jesus does not speak about his arrest or crucifixion or even his resurrection; instead he uses the word glorification. This is because in John’s understanding the crucifixion, which is the centrepiece of the whole salvific action, is not a moment of ignominy but a glorious triumph.
We see this in many ways. When speaking of the Cross John often uses the expressions ‘raised up’ or ‘lifted up’. By this he means not merely that it is erected on top of a hill but that it is placed in the most prominent place of all.
John sees in the Cross not Christ’s defeat but his victory and so he stresses not the blood and gore but his dignity and glory. The Cross is not lifted up so that the people might see the death of a criminal and take warning; no, it is raised up just as a banner would be raised up to indicate a victory and so for us to find in it a real and lasting hope.
Another example is when Jesus says, “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself.” (Jn 12:32) This lifting up indicates a much more profound exaltation in that Jesus at the moment of his death is somehow suspended over the whole world and becomes the link between heaven and earth.
We are immediately reminded of that stunning picture of the Crucifixion by Salvador Dali you see reproduced in this week’s parish newsletter.
At this crucial hinge point in the Gospel of John, having pointed out that the moment of culmination is imminent, Jesus addresses his apostles fondly as children and gives them what he calls “a New Commandment”.
The commandment to love one’s neighbour as oneself is not new, it is very old indeed going back in the Bible as far as the Book of Leviticus and neither is it unique to Christianity, it being an important feature of many world religions. So if loving one another is actually very old and widespread, what is it about this commandment that is so new?
The newness is to be found in the words “just as I have loved you.” The New Commandment is for us to love each other not in the way we love ourselves but in the way Jesus loves us. And this moves things to a completely new level.
I’m no Greek scholar but apparently there are two words in Greek for our word ‘new’; one refers to newness in time, that is new as opposed to old; and the other to newness in nature, meaning a new kind of thing which is the one used here by Jesus. What we are dealing with is a new type of love.
It is the self-sacrificing love of Jesus that we are expected to reproduce in our relationships with one another.
Just as the glory of God will shine through Christ’s death on the Cross so will his glory shine through us as we live our lives according to this New Commandment and live our lives for our brothers and sisters.
This is not easy. Yes, we are quite good at loving one another, even loving our neighbour; but it is quite another thing to love everyone, especially those who don’t love us or who are different or maybe repel us in some way. Quite another thing to love those who hate us.
The New Commandment requires us not just to love these people; it requires us to love them in a self-sacrificing way.
We find this difficult and oftentimes quite impossible but we know that this is the way Christ lived his life and it is the way we want to live our lives. We have the desire but not always the follow-through.
In order to understand what is being asked of us and how to live it out in our lives we need to look again at Jesus and discover what was his driving motivation. We see from the pages of this Gospel in particular that this was undoubtedly his love for the Father. Last Sunday, for example, we heard Jesus say, “The Father and I are one.”
So if the simple answer to how we implement this New Commandment into our lives is to imitate Jesus, then it is our love for God which should be at the very centre of our lives.
I was at the meeting last week of the prospective candidates for the forthcoming election organised by Thornbury Churches Together and I was most impressed by one of the candidates who when asked what his motivation was simply said, “My love for God and his Son Jesus.”
I shouldn’t single him out since actually all four candidates openly professed the Christian faith, but he was the one who expressed it most clearly and unhesitatingly. Actually we should consider ourselves most fortunate that we have such a choice of committed Christians in our constituency at the election.
But going back to our problem; just how do we live out this New Commandment. Well perhaps that prospective MP’s was right on the button –love God. The motivating force for Jesus was his love of the Father and so our motivating force should be exactly the same.
If we cultivate in our lives a deep love of God then everything else will flow from that. Of course, it is hard to love someone we cannot see; but there again we do observe signs of his work all around us.
In our heads we know who the author of the Universe is; we know who made us; we know exactly who sustains us and keeps us in being. We are also well aware that he does this out of love and for the same reason forgives us our sins and infidelities and opens up for us the way to eternal life. In the face of all this, how can we fail to love God?
Its not easy, there are so many distractions, but if we assiduously cultivate a deep love of God in our lives then it will become that much easier for us to imitate the self-sacrificing love of Jesus. We will then find ourselves living out his commandment of love and in the words of the Apocalypse we will begin to see “the new heaven and the new earth”.
This is the way to make a new creation, this is the way to become one with Christ, this is the way to live the very best of lives.
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