Sixth Sunday of Easter
(We welcome you to post a comment at the end of this homily).
What a week this has been! One event after another tested our nerves as a nation. The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the floods in Tennessee, and the failed bomb attempt in New York grabbed the nation’s attention. Of all the weeks, this was the week that the nation could have used some prayer. May 6 was to be the National Day of Prayer. On the contrary, the day was -marked by controversy and a court ruling that said that having a government-mandated Day of Prayer is unconstitutional. The National Freedom From Religion Foundation, a Wisconsin-based group of "freethinkers: atheists, agnostics and skeptics of any pedigree," filed a lawsuit and Wisconsin judge Barbara Crabb issued a 66-page ruling that said the law violates the U.S. Constitution. In her decision, Judge Crabb said that because prayer is a powerful activity, the government could not use its authority to try to influence when and how people pray.
In the judge’s favor, though, the ruling intentionally or unintentionally acknowledged that “prayer is a powerful activity.” I would think that, that would be the precise reason why we should pray as a nation. I can understand if there is frustration among believers that an increasingly secular and atheistic culture takes a firmer hold of our nation. Perhaps we may think that things are getting worse.
Yet, if we understand the context of today’s gospel reading we may find that things today are better than we imagine it to be. The context is the Last Supper which concludes chapter 13 of John. The manner in which chapter 14 is composed gives us the impression it is Jesus’ farewell discourse. Today’s gospel reading is taken from chapter 14. It was as if Jesus was preparing his disciple for the events that would unfold in the future. This future did not look too promising. Jesus had just had his last meal with the disciples. Soon he would be arrested and put to death; the disciples would face trials; Judas would betray him and Peter would deny Jesus three times; the disciples themselves and anyone who follows Christ would be persecuted. There were atheists, agnostics, skeptics, politicians, and hypocrites in those days as well.
If this Eucharist was our Last Supper with Jesus and if Jesus was preparing us to face today’s world, I am convinced he would not say anything different than what he said to the disciples at that original Last Supper. Talking my cue from today’s gospel reading, I think he would be offering us three things: a challenge, a promise and an assurance. I would like to focus on each of these three points.
A challenge
“Whoever loves me will keep my word... Whoever does not love me does not keep my words.” The challenge is clear – to keep Christ’s word. (Jn 14:23-24) The two thousand years of the world since Christianity is testimony enough that in every generation that Christians, institutionally or otherwise, were disingenuous in the living out their faith, Christianity suffered. The greatest enemy of Christianity is disingenuity – the lack of consistency between what we believe and what we live out; the inconsistency between who we are called to be and who we are. On the contrary, the greatest favour we can offer to Christ and his mission is a genuine practice of Christ’s way of life as we have in the gospels. The practical implication here is that each of our lives has the potential to either become a help to Christ’s mission or to become a counter force to that mission. Today, each of us has the power to make a definite, conscious, and deliberate choice to “keep his word.” The New Testament calls this choice discipleship. In this parish we call this radical discipleship.
A Promise
Christ was fully aware of the best of human intentions and the inability of human beings to carry out these intentions. How many times do we begin the New Year with noble resolutions and then see them fall by the wayside? A similar thing happened in John Chapter 13. The chapter ends with Peter vowing to die for Jesus and Jesus predicting that Peter’s heroic intention will fall by the way side. I am not surprised, then, that in his farewell discourse Jesus makes a promise: “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.” (Jn 14:26)
The key to keeping Christ’s word is not to rely on our own strength but to rely on the power that Christ offers to us. Here is a very common situation we face and I would like to suggest how we can rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome it. How many of you struggle with bad thoughts? I do not just mean impure thoughts, but jealous thoughts, envious thoughts, angry thoughts, prejudiced thoughts, uncharitable thoughts. Many times these thoughts come to our minds from nowhere. Neither do we desire them nor do we know how to deal with them. At best, we take them to the confessional and then we get hammered by them all over again.
I believe that when these thoughts come to our mind unintentionally – they are neutral thoughts. Some of us deal with these thoughts by suppressing these thoughts. My experience with this approach is that at my weakest moment, all these suppressed thoughts come out and hit me harder than ever before. Some of us end up acting these thoughts out. This is another approach but the problem is that now the neutral thought has become a sinful act. I try to avoid both these approaches. There is a third option. This technique has been very helpful for me. When bad thoughts come to my mind, first, I become aware of them. Instead of suppressing them or acting on them, calling on the Holy Spirit, I offer it to God. I say something like, “God, here are my thoughts. I do not know how to deal with them but you do. Here they are, I give them to you. You deal with them.” I do this in my car, in my room, in church – anytime I feel powerless. By the time I am done, the bad thoughts have lost their power over me.
When Christ says, “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you,” (Jn 14:26) I know that Christ offered real help to us. It is up to us to tap into the power that Christ offers us in the Holy Spirit.
An assurance
Christ offers us, first, a challenge, second, a promise and third, an assurance. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.” (Jn 14:27)
Peace is a very abstract term for me. I equate the term peace with presence. In other words, peace comes from presence. I count on the presence of Christ to lead me through life. It the assurance of the presence of Christ that gives me a sense of abandonment. When it comes to my finances, my relationships, the daily challenges that come my way – I know I am not alone. And that is my peace. Christ gives me that peace. But this peace can only be ours if we make a conscious effort to become aware of the presence of Christ. The more we practice it the more real the peace becomes. I suggest that we try it this week.
Conclusion
There is no other place where Christ’s presence is more real than the Eucharist. On this altar the Holy Spirit makes the presence of Christ real for us. This altar, then, is our assurance, our promise and our challenge. With his promise, his assurance, Christ sends us out to challenge the world. This week our challenge as radical disciples is to make Christ real to our world. Amen.
- Fr. Satish Joseph