Fifth Sunday of Easter
There is a story my second grade teacher told us in my catechism class that I still remember. One day, Michelangelo walking through a garden in Florence, saw a block of marble in a corner protruding from the earth. It was half covered by grass and mud. He stopped suddenly, as if he had seen someone. Then he said to his friends who were with him, exclaimed: "An angel is imprisoned in that marble; I must get him out." And, armed with a chisel, he began to work on that block until the figure of a beautiful angel emerged. Each of us is a work in progress too. Each of us is a disciple in the making; we are Christians in the making. And today's readings offer us ways that God can make us who are called to be.
Let us also keep in mind where we are in our Easter Season. As we progress toward Pentecost, there is a recognizable movement in the scripture readings we heard. For three Sundays after Easter we heard stories of the appearance of Jesus to his disciples. Now as we move to the fifth Sunday after Easter, the readings are taking us away from the physical appearance of Jesus to the newer ways in which Jesus will be present to his followers. The analogy of the vine and its branches in today’s gospel reading does exactly that. “Remain in me, as I remain in you,” Jesus says. “Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.”
The vine and branch analogy tells us two ways in which Jesus will be present to us after his resurrection. First, Jesus will be present in and through his words. Jesus says, “You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.” Second, Jesus talks about his in-dwelling presence in the disciples. In what seems to be an invitation to deeper communion, Jesus says, “Remain in me, as I remain in you.” There is yet another way in which Christ is present to us today that we do not hear about specifically in today’s gospel, but John already talks about it in his sixth chapter – Jesus is the Bread of Life.
Today's reading and homily in that sense is a "back to the basics" kind. I invite each of you to make a personal recommitment to Christ by recommitting yourself to ways in which Christ is present to us - God's Word, God's Spirit and God's real presence in the Eucharist.
1.The Word. The Word…In the Old Testament, when God gave Moses the two stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments, the people created a special container to them – the Ark of the Covenant. They took the ark wherever they went; even into the battlefield. The ark contained the first scriptures – the word of God. For the Israelites, the ark contained not mere stone tablets that recorded God’s speech. The ark became the way in which God was really present to the people.
Jesus, of all people, was aware of the power of the Word of God. That is why, in verses following the section in today’s gospel he said to his disciples, “If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.” The Bible, then, is not merely a book; the Bible is a person. When I taught religion in school I used the Bible extensively. And children often handled the Bible like they handle any other textbook. I would often require them to give special reverence to the Bible. For example, if they carelessly dropped the Bible to the floor I would require them to pick it up and kiss it. It was my way of teaching them that the Bible is God’s real presence in their life. Kissing the Bible is for children. For the adults – the Bible is the point of direct contact with God. Along with Jesus, I am inviting all of you to recommit time to spending time with God through the scriptures. This is how we come to know God and know what God is calling us to.
2.The Holy Spirit. In today’s second reading John says, “Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them, and the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit he gave us.” This reading is the Church’s way of keeping one eye on the past event of the resurrection and the one eye on the future event, the Pentecost. In our Catholic tradition, pilgrimages have a very important place. People go to the Holy Land, to Fatima, to Lourdes, to Rome seeking an experience of God. Yet the most difficult and but the most meaningful pilgrimage one can make is to one’s heart… to one’s soul and discover the God who lives within. People often do not undertake this journey because it requires silence, prayer and patience. In the process they may discover who they really are – and that is not always easy. But the Spirit of Christ dwells in our depths by virtue of our baptism. I am inviting you to discover the Spirit of Christ anew in your heart.
3.It is the word and the Spirit that leads us to discover Christ in the Eucharist. Here is what I think. For the bread and wine to become the body and blood of Jesus we require both Word and Spirit. These three things go together – The Word, the Spirit and the Eucharist. If a person does not take time to discover the power of the Word and the indwelling Spirit, he or she puts a lot of blocks in finding Christ in the Eucharist.I am inviting you today to rediscover Christ in the Eucharist by also committing yourself to the Word and the Spirit.
- Fr. Satish Joseph