6th Sunday of Easter
“For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that be the will of God,
than for doing evil”. 1 Peter 3:17.
Jesus said to his disciples: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments”. John 14:15
My dear Parish members in Christ Jesus,
Let us pray, parishioners
Lord, help us to seek the values
that will bring us eternal joy in this changing world.
In our desire for what you promise
make us one in mind and heart.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever.
– Amen.
The Responsorial Psalm invites us saying: Let all the earth cry out to God with Joy.
“Shout joyfully to God, all the earth, sing praise to the glory of his name;
Proclaim his glorious praise. Say to God,
How tremendous are your deeds.”Psalm 66:1-3
Christianity might have been begun historically out of empty cross and empty tomb; but each one of us as Christians are nourished and grown spiritually by believing Jesus’ words, especially his promises for our life. Those promises are what we hear in today’s Gospel (Jn. 14: 15-21), which are not empty words like politicians’ sweet-talks but genuine and valid.
Jesus had been a comforter to them during the time they had been walking with him. Because of his lovely nearness, his consoling words and his uplifting words and actions, the disciples were never worried about their life. But when he foretold his departure from them, they felt so broken and depressed. Their minds were agitated by the thoughts of how they would ever get along without him. During their hours of tumultuous mental sufferings, he uplifted them by sharing and foretelling in a very emotional way all that he would be doing in their life journey and mission. Those encouraging words of Jesus are addressed to us through his Apostles today:
· He will not leave us orphans, especially in the time of pandemic or during the bleak situations we face in our Golden Age; he will certainly come to us.
· His Father will give us another Advocate, the Spirit of truth, who will act superbly with us and through us always.
· We will be loved by our Father and Jesus will love us and reveal himself to us.
· We too will realize that Jesus is in his Father and we are in Jesus and he is in us.
· Whatever we ask the Father in Jesus’ name, all will be granted to us.
However there is a hitch: If we want all those promises of Jesus to become realized in our life, Jesus underlined only one demand from us: We should live in his love wholeheartedly. This means, as he himself explained, if we truly love him, we must keep his commandment of neighborly love wholeheartedly. This ‘living Jesus’ speaks, walks and works through us always. Hence, the crosses we carry in our daily life are not empty at all. We are carrying Jesus crucified. As we hear from Peter(1 Pet. 3: 14-18), we sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts; we suffer for doing good, if that be the will of God, than for doing evil; and putting our fleshly sins to death, we would inherit the life Jesus has brought to us in the Spirit. Consequently, all our crosses turn out to be the part of Jesus’ own sufferings which brought salvation to humanity.
Also, we live not as empty tombs but in our body we carry Jesus the resurrected. We try to fill our emptiness with Jesus’ loving Presence as he promised: ‘Remain in me as I remain in you’. ‘Love me as I love you’ and ‘Love one another as I have loved you.’ By this pure triple love we begin to serve others in their needs and difficulties as Philip and other disciples did (Acts 8: 5-17). At the dawn of the Church, many signs and wonders of love were happening, especially the miracles of healing. Only because of such signs of love, people in one Spirit paid attention to what was proclaimed by the disciples; there was great joy in Christian communities. Let us earnestly pray that we and all our friends may find the same joy in the sufferings we face especially because of the corona virus pandemic.
Faith makes all things possible.
Hope makes all things work.
Love makes all things beautiful.
God bless you all,
Father Valley