LATEST HOMILY 

Fifth Sunday of Easter
May 14, 2017    

Acts 6:1-7
1Peter 2:4-9
John 14:1-12

As we continue the Easter season, the readings move away from resurrection narratives of Jesus and we are now hearing from the readings of today how as baptized believers we are to participate in the life and mission of Jesus. The Christian faith is not a spectator faith, a faith where we just sit back and listen or study. These activities are important because they promote spiritual growth and development. Yet we are called to be active members of the Church. We are called to unite ourselves with Christ and carry on the work he started during his earthly ministry. 

Jesus tells his disciples in the upper room at the last supper “I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father.” That is the challenge for us today to continue the work of Jesus in the world. On that fateful evening Jesus was a source of much joy and sadness. Because of his great love the disciples were overjoyed, but his message of impending suffering and death brought sadness to his followers. Yet Jesus will not leave us as orphans, like the disciples he shows us the way to life.

It is this way if we follow it that will make us fruitful disciples of Jesus. For this way is Christ himself. The disciples had accompanied Jesus for three years and had witness the mighty works of the Lord yet they failed to see that he was the way. Thomas, the man who likes to confront and the one with the very literal mind, protests: “Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” He is clearly thinking in geographical terms. In fact, all Jesus’ words about going and coming are spoken on quite a different level of meaning altogether. However, we can be grateful to Thomas for drawing out of Jesus one of the great sayings of John’s Gospel: “I AM the Way — I AM Truth and Life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” It is obvious from all that has already been said that the Way of Jesus, all the coming and going, the “places” which are being prepared are not to be understood in any literal or spatial sense. They are to be understood totally in terms of mutual relationships, the mutual relationships between Jesus, the Father and his followers. The “Way” of Jesus, through his coming suffering and death, will end in the new and abundant life he wants for all his followers. [Fr. Frank Doyle, SJ]

The Lord Jesus came to fulfill God's promise to bring his people, not simply to a land flowing with milk and honey, but to a restored paradise and new creation where we can dwell with God in perfect peace and unity. That is why Jesus proclaims, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. Jesus does not simply give advice and direction. He personally is the Way, and we cannot miss it. Through his life-giving word and Spirit, Jesus leads and guides us personally every day. To follow the Way of Jesus is not to go anywhere. It is to become a special kind of person, a person whose whole being reflects the Truth and Life that Jesus reveals to us. It is to be a person who is totally identified with the vision and the values of Jesus. To be such a person is to be a person of Truth and Life.

To continue the work of Jesus then is to follow his way into truth and life. In the first Letter of St. Peter we are reminded that we are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people set apart….” We through our baptism have been chosen to bring the Good News to those who hunger for truth and life. We too must hunger for truth and life and so our lives must be a continuous conversion always turning towards the Lord. In this way we become better instruments for the work of God. .