Thursday, May 28, 2020
Thursday, May 21, 2020
Thursday, May 14, 2020
Wednesday, May 13, 2020
Thursday, May 7, 2020
PASTOR NOTES 5TH SUNDAY OF EASTER
FIFTH SUNDAY OF
EASTER PASTOR NOTES
In today’s gospel, Jesus reinforces what He said last week
when He declared Himself the sheep gate. “I am the way and the truth and the
life…No one can come to the Father except through me.” Once again Jesus is
effectively declaring that He, Himself is the narrow way that leads to eternal
life. By adding that “no one comes to the Father except through me” Jesus is
effectively telling us that it is impossible to have a right relationship with
God except through Christ who is not only the only way to the Father but also
Truth itself and Life itself. And what is more, Jesus is such because He is one
with the Father. Therefore, Jesus is the happiness we long for. Jesus is the
God whom we seek.
The context of this reading though is also important. It
takes place at the Last Supper. Judas has just left to betray Jesus. The
remaining disciples are upset by the way things are going. Only John and we can
presume Peter know that Judas is the betrayer. The rest are still puzzled that
Jesus would say that one of them would betray Him. In short, their hearts were
troubled and they may have taken Jesus’ remarks as almost patronizing them.
But, Jesus immediately made them a promise. Even though He would be leaving
them, it was going to be for their advantage. All they had to do was keep
faith.
He was going away to prepare a place for them in His
Father’s house. And in that house, He tells them, there are many dwelling
places. Although, some translations call these dwelling places “mansions” it is
unlikely that Jesus means to imply that He is referring to physical buildings.
He is speaking of heaven and is telling the Apostles and us that there is
plenty of room there. All we have to do is live out our faith in Jesus as the
way, the truth, and the life, and He will take us there. He will grant us that
gift of eternal life.
In acknowledging Jesus as the only way to the Father and
keeping His commandments in faith, we are also acknowledging that salvation is
God’s free gift. There is nothing we can do to earn it. Further, before God, we
will all be treated as equal whether we began working in the Vineyard early in
the morning or only at the end of the day. As Jesus tells us in the parable
about the workers in the vineyard, God’s generosity knows no bounds.
Of course we know only too well that in this life we become
obsessed with self-importance. We hear how even in that ideal first Christian
community in Jerusalem they thought that the widows who spoke Hebrew were
treated better that those who spoke Greek. In other words, those who came from
outside the Holy Land claimed that they were discriminated against in favor of
those who were native even though at this point, they were all Jews who
had accepted Christ. Things only got
worse when gentiles began converting.
Yet, we see even here how Christ provided for His Church
through the gift of the Holy Spirit. We hear in that first reading how the
Spirit guided Peter and the other Apostles to institute the Order of Deacons so
that the needs of all would be attended to. Later in Acts, we hear of how the
Spirit would guide the Apostles at the Council of Jerusalem into establishing
the procedures that would allow the Gentiles to become part of the Church
without first having to become practicing Jews.
As Saint Peter tells us, if we truly accept Jesus as the
Way, the Truth, and the Life we let ourselves be built into a spiritual
household so that we can become that holy, priestly people who can offer that
acceptable sacrifice to God through Christ. Through baptism, we become “a
chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of [God’s] own” called
out of darkness and into the wonderful light of Him who alone calls us to walk
that path that leads though Him, and Him alone to those dwelling places
prepared for us from the foundation of the world.
Father Tom
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