11 May 2014 – Fourth Sunday of Easter

Shared Homily Starter


First Reading:
Acts 2.14, 36-41
Second Reading:
 1 Peter 2.20-25
Gospel Reading:
John 10.1-10



One of the questions facing Christians today is how to honour our faith and our baptism without becoming elitist and exclusionary. One way is to embrace the cosmic meaning of our baptism, which is to live in the experience of Christ. Bonaventure says God's visage is present in every creature, that is, God is expressed in all things, so that each creature is a symbol and a sacrament of God's presence. “Attentiveness to the other ... means relating to the other ... as icon through which the infinite goodness of God radiates. This is the basis of viewing creation as family in which we relate to all beings as brothers and sisters. ... To live in the experience of Christ is to live in the experience of relatedness, to be a member of the cosmic family, because Christ is the Word of God through whom all things are related.”1

In the First Reading, Peter says: “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” What if we looked at this from the perspective of living in right relationships with God and all that is God's, that is, from the perspective of the experience of relatedness. Looked at this way, lived this way, we enter the dance of the Trinity, the dance of mutual outpouring love.

Peter continues by saying, “the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are far off, every one whom the Lord our God calls to him." Now if we continue in the same understanding that I have been talking about, we must acknowledge that we are all called by God. But as we also know not everyone acts accordingly. Today's gospel reading is from the Gospel of John. Previously in this gospel, in verses 11 and 12 of the first chapter, the Evangelist tells us that Jesus “came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him ... he gave power to become children of God”.

Why, with the promise of unity with the Creator, would anyone resist God's call or Jesus' teaching or the prompting of the Holy Spirit? I don't think anyone does this on purpose but I do think that all of us, at times, fill our lives with so much noise and busyness that we can't hear the voice of God coming from deep within us. For most of us, this is a temporary lapse. When I say us, I'm speaking about anyone, who walks in the way of justice, compassion, peace and the common good.

On the other hand, some people become so taken by the perennial and alluring voices of thieves and robbers, that they become deaf to the voice of the Shepherd. These are the voices of profit and power-seeking, consumerism, competition, and various fears. But these voices belong to the thief who comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

Jesus tells us that he came that we may have life, and have it abundantly. He is the door of the sheep and if we enter by him, we will be made whole and find pasture. Now, by our baptism and participation in the Eucharistic meal, we are to become Christ for others. Our baptism is the door that invites us into the experience of Christ. Rather than being an invitation or membership into an exclusive club it is an invitation to realize, recognize and appreciate our relatedness to God and to all of creation because all-that-is came into being through the Word of God.

One answer to the question referred to at the start of this homily is: We honour our faith and our baptism by ignoring the voices of thieves and robbers who come to destroy, by heeding the voice of our Shepherd who told us: Our God is One. You must love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. ... You must love your neighbour as yourself2. Baptism prepares us for the knowledge that, religious truth, if it is truly religious, is not a formula to recite but a deed to do. As it says in the First Letter of John, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God." If God is love, then the name of God is something to do. Without the deed, without doing the love, it is just noise, or a way to get my own way or to destroy my enemies. To quote one of my favourite sayings from John Caputo, “When love calls for action, we had better be ready with something more than a well-formed proposition even if it has been approved by a council.”3 In other words, more than something we feel, Love is something we do. Jesus is not only talking to Peter when his says, “if you love me, feed my lambs... tend my sheep... feed my sheep.”4 Amen! Alleluia!



Please share your thoughts.
1Delio, Ilia. 2008. Christ in evolution. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, pp. 62-3.
2Mark 12:30-31
3Caputo, John D. 2001. “On Religion – Without Religion” in On religion. London: Routledge, p. 130.
4John 21:15-17

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Homily on Mark 6:14-29 - for July 15, 2012

Image
God’s Voice Will Not Be Silenced Speaking Truth to Power This reading tells me that there are consequences to speaking truth to power, often deadly consequences.   But, God’s voice will not be silenced.    We are told that John spoke against King Herod’s marriage to his brother’s wife, Herodias.   Herodias was not too pleased about this negative publicity.   So she bides her time.   She uses Herod’s hastily spoken promise to her daughter to silence John once and for all. But God’s voice will not be silenced.   We are told in the stories just before this that Jesus was rejected in his own home town of Nazareth.   Jesus left Nazareth but he was not deterred by this rejection.   He sent the twelve out two by two and Jesus and his disciples carried on God’s call to repentance when John no longer could.   Speaking truth to power continues to have devastating consequences.   In 2004, I went on a women’s del...
Read more

7 July 2013 – 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Image
Shared Homily Starter First Reading: Isaiah 66.10-14 Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 62 Second Reading: Galatians 6:14-18 Gospel: Luke 10.1-12, [13-16], 17-20 Today’s gospel is about evangelization.   The word, “evangelization” has become, for many of us, a word that sends up red flags.   This is because, unfortunately, for almost two millennia, evangelization has been used more as a weapon than as an invitation to follow Christ’s example of peace and love.   Let’s examine evangelization from Jesus’ perspective.   He knows there are plenty of people out there who would be open to hearing the Good News.   He also knows that there are plenty who don’t want to hear it.   But Jesus sends out his disciples like lambs into a sea of wolves.   We live in a culture of ravenous consumption and accumulation.   We seek to accumulate more and more money, more and more power and more and more ad nauseam.   The more we have, the more we wan...
Read more

24TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Image
15 September 2013 – Shared Homily Starter First Reading: Exodus 32.7-11, 13-14 Second Reading: 1 Timothy 1.12-17 Gospel: Luke 15.1-32 When I pondered this week’s readings, a theme began to emerge.   Before I delve into the theme, I’d like you to consider a quote from Thomas Berry.   He said, “[O]ne of the basic difficulties of the modern West is its division into a secular scientific community, which is concerned with creative energies, and a religious community, which is concerned with redemptive energies.   So concerned are we with redemptive healing that once healed, we look only to be more healed.   We seldom get to our functional role within the creative intentions of the universe” (Berry 1988:25). When I considered this and looked at the readings again, I saw that what we need to be is not only co-creators but co-redemptors.   For example, in our first reading, have God’s promises to Noah and to Abraham been committed to forgetfu...
Read more