A Homily - The Fourth Sunday of Easter (Year C)

First Reading – Acts 13:14,43-52 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 99(100):1-3,5 ©

Second Reading – Apocalypse 7:9,14-17 ©

Gospel Acclamation – John 10:14

The Gospel According to John 10:27-30 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 We do not preach the good news to save people, we preach the good news: that they are already saved.

 Know this.

 We are not the principal actors in the drama of salvation, God is, and we are each of us the subjects of God’s love.

 Remember.

 Grace is not a thing we are given, grace is not a commodity like a talent of silver or a measure of grain. The grace God has poured out on you is not subject to the laws of scarcity, God has a super abundance of grace to give, and God pours it out for everyone.

 As Christians we are called to have faith in God’s grace, to trust in it, to trust in God’s plan for the salvation of everyone…leave no one outside of your prayers.

 Let us consider the words and deeds of the apostles in the day’s after Jesus was executed. The apostles were motivated to adhere to the norms of their society, taking their commission from the risen Christ and going first to the Jews because they themselves were Jewish and through them they reached out to others in the community, people who knew the laws of Moses and the tradition of the prophets but had not converted to Judaism; the apostles made converts among them.

 They presented themselves as instruments of God’s will, having been charged with spreading the good news to all nations, and so because God’s proclamation of love is so great that it cannot be confined to a single group, they slipped the bounds of their society to preach to the world WRIT LARGE.

 Their message of hope and love was welcome among the people who wanted to hear that no matter what class or station they belonged to, God knew them, they wanted to hear that God loves them and has selected each of them for eternal life.

 Nevertheles,s there was resistance among the leading Pharisees and their allies in the upper classes. There is always resistance to the gospel from those who feel like the path to salvation is something for them to protect and control.

 In the face of that resistance, the apostles recognized that they had reached the end of what they could accomplish among their own people and so they moved on, and they carryied the good news with them.

 Be mindful!

 God is with us wherever we are and wherever God is, the temple of God is also there. Enter the temple with hope and joy, there are no prerequisites; it is free to enter, you are standing at the threshold and the door is open…go in and commit your self to a life of service. Serve God, by serving your sisters and brothers, look into the face of your neighbor and see the face of God shining back at you.

 When the scriptures tell us we are God’s people; those words are not directed to the audience who first heard and read them, nor to us as we are reading them now. The scope of those words is not so narrow; the scope of his words delineate the magnitude of God’s work, which is infinite and eternal

 God’s will is directed toward the well-being of every living being that ever was, ever has been and ever will be.

 The good news applies to the whole of creation, in a world without end; it informs us that we belong to God and God’s mercy lasts forever,

 Remember this!

 God is not a king; neither does God sit on a throne.

 The multitude that John witnessed in his vision is numberless, their number is without measure…it is a number without end. It is the full number of those who have experienced the persecution of the living, in the long sojourn of time and space. It includes every being who has hungered and thirsted and suffered pain.

The multitude is all of us, all of God’s children gathered together as one, and none of us are lost…not now and not ever.

 Know this.

 We do not receive God’s grace by the blood of the lamb, not the literal blood, we are not sanctified by animal sacrifice…we never were.

 We enter the way when we have let go of our enmities, when we have forgiven all who have wronged us and accepted the forgiveness of those we have wronged. It is then and only then that we are able to bear witness to the fullness of God.

 To stand in God’s presence before we are prepared, is to face divine spirit as a purifying fire.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today; there is truth and wisdom in it…there is also folly, mis construal, fear and deception…you must untangle them!

 Remember the beginning of John’s Gospel:

 In the beginning was the Word

All things came to be through the Word

Not one thing came to be with the Word

In the Word was life, and light

Know this.

Jesus is the Word of God, and the Word of God is the shepherd who guides us, every sheep belongs to him. There is not one sheep that is not a member of God’s sheepfold, white, black or speckled.

It is sad and unfortunate that the priests and bishops of the Church, those hirelings who put themselves in positions of management forget this. They have done great harm to the people of God because of their fear, their greed and their shortsightedness.

They believed that they and the church at large were only responsible for a few of the sheep, those who had entered the fold, though in reality they were tasked with protecting the whole flock, spread throughout the world.

Many of them, even from the earliest days of the Church, presented themselves as both sheep and shepherd to the community, but in reality they were  more like rustlers, they came to devour the flock in their ravenous hunger.

Remember, God does not love Jesus because he laid down his life, but rather, Jesus laid down his life in recognition of God’s love, which was already present, a love so great that he trusted in it completely…love preceded the sacrifice, the sacrifice did not engender love.

Be mindful.

The sheep do not choose the shepherd, the shepherd chooses the sheep, and Jesus, giving voice to the word of God, informs us that the flock is the whole of the humanity. God has chosen all of us, and God’s pasture is the entire earth.

In the scripture we see Jesus depicted as the shepherd, with the understanding that the shepherd is God; in whom all things exist and have their being.

There is just the one shepherd; whether it make sense to us or not is immaterial, because the shepherd has called us each by name…listen for the voice of the shepherd and do not trouble yourself with how the shepherd speaks, in what language or text. It is not your concern how the shepherd speaks to your sister or brother, to your neighbors or the stranger in your midst.

The shepherd speaks to them in the same way the shepherd speaks to you, and they are listening as they are able (or willing).

Everyone that is, has ever been or ever will be, everyone without exception follows in the way, some flow with the current and others resist; we are all on the path to the divine and there is no other way.

Do not trouble yourself if you do not understand the journey another person is on, God is guiding them, as God is guiding you. Your failures are your own, as theirs belong to them, but God has accounted for them all.

If you resist, God will be patient; God waits for everyone, because God’s ministry, and the church Jesus founded to carry out that work, is a ministry of love…patient and kind.

Do not doubt it.

God will not lose a single one of us. Neither will any one of us lose God; no matter what, God is with us. There is no place where God is not.

First Reading – Acts 13:14,43-52 ©

'We Must Turn to the Pagans'

Paul and Barnabas carried on from Perga till they reached Antioch in Pisidia. Here they went to synagogue on the Sabbath and took their seats.

When the meeting broke up many Jews and devout converts joined Paul and Barnabas, and in their talks with them Paul and Barnabas urged them to remain faithful to the grace God had given them.

The next sabbath almost the whole town assembled to hear the word of God. When they saw the crowds, the Jews, prompted by jealousy, used blasphemies and contradicted everything Paul said. Then Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly. ‘We had to proclaim the word of God to you first, but since you have rejected it, since you do not think yourselves worthy of eternal life, we must turn to the pagans. For this is what the Lord commanded us to do when he said:

I have made you a light for the nations, so that my salvation may reach the ends of the earth.’

It made the pagans very happy to hear this and they thanked the Lord for his message; all who were destined for eternal life became believers. Thus the word of the Lord spread through the whole countryside.

But the Jews worked upon some of the devout women of the upper classes and the leading men of the city and persuaded them to turn against Paul and Barnabas and expel them from their territory. So they shook the dust from their feet in defiance and went off to Iconium; but the disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 99(100):1-3,5 ©

We are his people, the sheep of his flock.

Cry out with joy to the Lord, all the earth.

  Serve the Lord with gladness.

  Come before him, singing for joy.

We are his people, the sheep of his flock.

Know that he, the Lord, is God.

  He made us, we belong to him,

  we are his people, the sheep of his flock.

We are his people, the sheep of his flock.

Indeed, how good is the Lord,

  eternal his merciful love.

  He is faithful from age to age.

We are his people, the sheep of his flock.

Alleluia!

 

Second Reading – Apocalypse 7:9,14-17 ©

The Lamb Will be their Shepherd and Will Lead them to Springs of Living Water

I, John, saw a huge number, impossible to count, of people from every nation, race, tribe and language; they were standing in front of the throne and in front of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palms in their hands. One of the elders said, ‘These are the people who have been through the great persecution, and because they have washed their robes white again in the blood of the Lamb, they now stand in front of God’s throne and serve him day and night in his sanctuary; and the One who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. They will never hunger or thirst again; neither the sun nor scorching wind will ever plague them, because the Lamb who is at the throne will be their shepherd and will lead them to springs of living water; and God will wipe away all tears from their eyes.’

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 10:14

Alleluia, alleluia!

I am the good shepherd, says the Lord; I know my own sheep and my own know me.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to John 10:27-30 ©

I Know My Sheep and They Follow Me

Jesus said:

‘The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me.

I give them eternal life; they will never be lost and no one will ever steal them from me.

The Father who gave them to me is greater than anyone, and no one can steal from the Father.

The Father and I are one.’

 

The Fourth Sunday of Easter (Year C)