May God grant us, this Sunday, the grace to welcome our Christian vocation with enthusiasm, confidence and courage, so that contributing to the growth of the church, we may be worthy of the peace and joy of the risen Christ, and equally, of a place in God's house.
Happy Sunday!
(Acts 6: 1-7; 1 Pt 2,4-9; Jn 14: 1-12; 5th Sunday of Easter, Year A, May 10, 2020)
On this Sunday the liturgy offers us very beautiful texts. In the Gospel, taken from the discourse after the Supper, Jesus tells us that he goes to prepare a place for us in the Father's house and reveals the Father to us. The first reading shows us the organisation of the early Church and the way they dealt with the problems that were then arising. The second reading tells us about building the spiritual home for a holy priesthood.
What we can admire, first of all, in the Gospel is Jesus’ delicacy. He wished that the disciples' hearts should not be disturbed. The Passion was close. Jesus knew that this event was going to cause a great upheaval for the disciples, but he took care to preserve them from a prolonged disturbance, and said: Let your hearts not be troubled. Have faith in God and have faith in me too. Then Jesus showed his delicacy in the way he spoke of his passion, of the paschal mystery. It is a tragic, shocking mystery, but he presented it with familiar, simple, attractive images: I am going to prepare you a place in the Father's house; when I have gone and I have prepared a place for you, I will return and take you with me, so that you too may be where I am. It is a nice thing for Jesus to prepare a place for the disciples. But how will he prepare it? He will prepare it, precisely, through his sufferings, passion and, of course, his resurrection. Here we can understand that the place that Jesus prepares for us is in his tortured and then resurrected body. By now we are all members of his body, because he has prepared a place for us in it. We can say that the place that Jesus prepared for us is his heart. He allowed his heart to be pierced, because, in a certain sense, we could enter it, because this heart of his was given to us. We can, therefore, admire the delicacy of Jesus' love and, at the same time, his generosity, because the preparation of the place was a very expensive action for him. But an action performed with immense love. John says: After having loved his that were in the world, he loved them to the end (John 13, 1), that is, to the point of preparing a place for them. On the other hand, Jesus presented himself as the way to reach the Father. He says: About the place where I go, you know the way." Thomas asks him: Lord, we do not know where you are going and how can we know the way? Jesus replies: I am the way, the truth and the life. Again, we see that Jesus is all for us: He is the destination of where we are going, and at the same time the way by which we can reach the place. Infact, we must follow him as we follow a path and imitate him. We imitate him if we live in love, because Jesus is the way for he loves us till the end. Jesus shows generous love. This type of love is not easy to achieve. Love attracts us, but generous love frighten us, because it is costly. However, Jesus gave us the grace to go forward on this path of generous love with all the strength that comes from his passion and resurrection. Then Jesus explained that through him we can know the Father. Philip tells him: Lord, show us the Father and it is enough for us. Just as Moses asked God to show him his face, so Philip asked Jesus to show the Father. God replied to Moses: You will see my back, but you cannot see my face (Exodus 33,23). Direct revelation of God is impossible for man. But now we can see the face of the Father in the face of Jesus: Whoever has seen me has seen the Father, says Jesus. If we want to know God, we must contemplate Jesus: contemplate him for a long time, listen to him, and then follow him. In that way we know God better, and so God is revealed to us in his glory, which is a glory of love. The greatness and goodness of God are revealed to us by Jesus’ paschal mystery and his face. Jesus then told us a very surprising thing: those who believe in me, will perform the works that I do and I will make them greater, because I go to the Father. To understand this statement, one must also read the continuation of the sentence. That is, the next two verses of the Gospel: ... and whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me something in my name, I will do it. It is true that the disciples did more great works than Jesus, because Jesus limited his ministry to Palestine. In fact, only rarely did he leave there. The apostles extended their ministry to many nations; therefore, they did a broader work than Jesus. And the work of the Church continues to be a work broader than that of Jesus, but in reality the work of the Church is the work of Jesus himself, of the risen Jesus. This is how Jesus' discourse in the Gospel continues: Whoever believes in me, will do the works that I do and will do greater works, because I am going to the Father and whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, for the Father to be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it (John 14, 12-14). Therefore, everything is the work of the risen Christ; the disciples are his instruments, provided that they pray. And all of us are called to carry out the work of Christ in a more modest but real way in our life. Every Christian has the vocation to do the work of Christ, in union with him through prayer and love. Therefore, we must have great ambitions in our lives; we must do divine works in union with Christ. In our life - family life, work life, human relationships - we must do a divine work and gradually transform the world according to the Father's plan, thanks to our prayer and union with Jesus in generous love.
All of these can be called priesthood, as Peter did in the second reading. He said to Christians: hold on to Christ, a living stone, rejected by men, but chosen and precious before God, you too are used as living stones for the construction of a spiritual building, for a holy priesthood, to offer acceptable spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ. This is a splendid presentation of the Christian life! We are all called to cling to Christ, the living stone. The risen Christ is (as Ps 118,22 says) the stone rejected by men, which has become the cornerstone, because it was chosen, and precious before, God. In his paschal mystery he has become the living stone, which is the foundation of everything in the building. And whoever believes in Christ is also transformed into a living stone, for the construction of a spiritual temple, that is, a non-material temple, but animated by the Holy Spirit. The whole life of the Christian must become an offer to God, a priestly offer, because it is made to God through Christ. Peter calls these offerings spiritual sacrifices pleasing to God, through Jesus Christ. This is our Christian vocation: to offer spiritual sacrifices or, better still, to make spiritual offerings, because it is not about mostly painful, mortifying things, but about the normal activities of life, which are transformed thanks to our union with Christ who died but rose from the dead. The Apostolate of Prayer teaches its members to make the daily offering with this spirit, to be united with the paschal mystery of Christ. It is a question of offering our daily actions, so that our lives may be united to Christ, lived in divine charity. So, humbly, a splendid work was done, an inconspicuous work, that has a wonderful value before God.
In the first reading we saw how the spiritual building of which Peter spoke was built little by little. It is the Church. In the Acts of the Apostles we saw how difficult circumstances had helped to advance its construction. In the early Church there were Jews who spoke Hebrew or, rather, Aramaic - and other Jews who had been to the Hellenistic nations and spoke Greek. The latter are called the Hellenists. There were some rivalries between these two categories of Christians, and at some point discontentment arose among the Hellenists towards the Jews. Every day, there used to be a distribution of food for the widows, which at that time were numerous (men at the time did not have a long life). The discontentment was caused by the fact that, according to the Hellenists, their widows were neglected in this daily distribution.
Faced with this situation, the Twelve convene the group of disciples and established a division of apostolic work. They maintained for themselves the main responsibility, which is not the material one, but the spiritual one: It is not right that we neglect the word of God for the service of the canteens. The apostles must dedicate themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word, because this is the main task of the Church. However, there were also material things to be organised. And then the Twelve propose to choose seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom for the works of charity, Luke does not yet call them deacons, but they were, so to speak, the predecessors of the deacons in the Church. Thus this decision brought a solution to the problem that has arisen and constituted progress in building the Church. The text says: The word of God spread, and the number of disciples in Jerusalem multiplied greatly. God's grace is fruitful. Even in our day there are problems in the Church that need to be solved. The clergy cannot and should not do everything. It seems, increasingly, urgent to involve the lay faithful in the activities of the Church: not only in material things, but also in the works of charity and education. In this way, the building of the spiritual house will be able to erect and glorify God, gradually, transforming the world. All the texts of this Sunday invite us to welcome our Christian vocation with enthusiasm, confidence and courage. It is a splendid vocation. We all have our own vocation in the Church; we must do divine works in union with Christ. Everyone must make spiritual offerings pleasing to God; therefore, it must contribute to the building of the Church. Thus the peace and joy of the risen Christ will fill our hearts. +John I. Okoye
(pictures by chukwubike)
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