The Feast of Saint Justin the Martyr, Christian Philosopher

Today is the feast of Saint Justin the Martyr, a Christian philosopher of the second century who was put to death, together with his students, at the very beginning of the Christian era, around the year 165 CE.

Few of his writings have survived, but the work we do have demonstrates the broad influence Saint Justin had in shaping our understanding of Jesus as the second person of the trinity, the Son of God, an incarnation of the divine logos.

Justin established the theology that Jesus of Nazareth, Joshua bin Joseph, was the embodied manifestation of God’s rational aspect, the principle of divine reason alive in the world.

His work established the notion that all people carry a seed of the Word within them, insofar as all people are created in the divine image and thereby share in the being of God. This doctrine is referred to as the Logos Spermatikos and it stands in stark distinction to the much more pessimistic theology of Saint Augustine of Hippo developed three hundred and fifty years later, at the beginning of the Church’s imperial era.[1]

Justin’s theology suggests that when God breathed life into Adam, God imparted to his creature God’s own self…like a seed of the divine, God planted within Adam, and the descendants of Adam (humanity writ large), a yearning for the truth and the ability to become transformed by the truth, through the agency of the divine logos as we encounter it in ourselves and see it reflected in our fellow human beings, thus making humankind into the creatures that Aristotle referred to as “the rational animal.”

Justin also taught that the divine is indivisible, that wherever God is present God is present fully, in person and in attribute.

In other words: he taught that human beings, who bear a seed of the word within themselves, must therefore bear the fullness of God within themselves.

Justin held to the nation that by Adam’s sin our connection to the divine within us became corrupted, occluding our experience of grace, causing the seed within us to become dormant, like grain buried in a dry field. He taught that that the reality of sin functions as an existential barrier within us that cuts us off from our inherent potential and the ability to live our lives in the fullness of God’s promise. Suggesting that sin, to the extent that we are engaged in it (and all of us are) undermines our capacity to understand the truth, perceive beauty and do good, sin interferes with our desire for justice and our capacity for mercy; though it does not obviate our connection to the divine, Justin taught that it is due to sin the connection enters a stage of latency for which baptism was the cure, nourishing and enlivening the dormant seed with us, as ordinary water is to the ordinary seed, baptism confers grace and activates our potential. Baptism confers grace, facilitating the germination of the seed, which opens us to the real presence of God that has always been within us.

[1] Augustine devised the doctrine of original sin, arguing that humanity does not share in the being of God (individually or corporately) because we are created ex nihilo, out of nothing.

A Homily – The Seventh Sunday of Easter (Year C)

First Reading – Acts 7:55-60 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 96(97):1-2,6-7,9 ©

Second Reading – Apocalypse 22:12-14,16-17,20 ©

Gospel Acclamation – John 14:18

The Gospel According to John – John 17:20-26 ©

 

 (NJB)

 

Listen!

 The good Saint Stephen did not need to die that day; Christians we are not called to be fanatics.

 When Stephen had his vision he did not see Jesus at the right hand of God, we know this because God and Christ in heaven are not embodied beings, they are not visible to the eye, they have no hands...Stephen was either speaking metaphorically, or he was ill.

 It is a tragedy that he died for speaking in these allegories, there was much more good work for him to do along the way; his martyrdom cut that short.

 Be mindful.

 God is not concerned with earthly title and honors, or the fawning obsequiousness of human beings. It is we who are obsessed with questions of kingship, not the divine.

 God is Abba, father; Jesus is brother, teacher…he came to us in friendship, and to show us the way.

 God is the keeper of a garden, not the king of kings, or the ruler of empires. Rejoice in this, we are all children of God, and God has no enemies. God is the creator of all things, and without a single note of coercion, in the end all things conform to the will God, who is humble and just, merciful and loving.

 In the presence of God there will be no dismay, as Isaiah promised: God shall wipe the tears from everyone’s face, and everyone is invited to share God’s table.

 Be mindful.

If you have never worshipped a graven image, do not think you are superior to any who have, because idolatry can be found in more than the worship of objects; idolatry is most insidious when presented in the form of doctrine and dogma, creeds and decretals that condition out ideas and beliefs.

 Know this:

 The promise of John’s revelation is that every person will receive what they deserve…as  children of God we will receive God’s love and be forgiven, just as Jesus prayed when he was dying on the cross; we will all receive mercy, we will be cleansed and made well, healed and made happy.

 We will be whole.

 The hungry will be fed, and the thirsty will drink; God will sustain us as God always, has and the  gift of divine sustenance is free. This is the gospel, it is the promise of God.

 Understand this!

 There are passages in which the Gospels provide the reader with only a tangled set of words and confused concepts that do little to shed light on anything good or meaningful; the Gospel for today is such a passage, therefor you must consider it carefully.

 It is nearly impossible to get an accurate bead on the meaning from today’s reading; set aside for a moment that of the four Gospels, the Johannine Gospel has the least concern for historical accuracy. The Gospel produced by John’s community was written more than one hundred and twenty years after Jesus’ death. It is likely that the event portrayed here never happened, that Jesus never spoke these words in this way; he may have said something like it, but that is neither here nor there. This meandering passage represents the thoughts and feelings of John’s community at the end of the first century CE, not the thoughts and feelings of Jesus of Nazareth as he was engaged in his ministry…they had different missions and different concerns.

 Jesus opened the way for all, while John narrows the way for most. This Gospel represents the mystical and mysterious way in which Christians had come to see the life of Jesus, and Jesus’s relationship to God, the creator of the Universe. It represents this in terms that have a connection to the prevailing philosophical beliefs regarding the metaphysical structure of reality, but does nothing to explicate the system of beliefs it is specifically engaging…much less does it teach the way as a lived reality.

 It is poor theology.

 This type of thinking has been a burden on the faith; it should be struck from the cannon. It is impossible for us to know what the Gospel writers meant, or what the limits of their thinking were, never mind the fact that the metaphysical systems of the ancient world were false…wrong…errant, there is little in these thought systems that can help us understand ourselves, the world we live in, or our relationship to the divine.

 Know this.

 Jesus prayed to God on behalf of his followers, he prayed that they would understand both his mission and the mission that he was passing on to them.

 He prayed for their unity, he prayed that they love one another, and that the message they carried forward in his name be a message of love and hope.

 This Gospel passage has the appearance of being directed specifically to Christians, and that is unfortunate because the mission of Jesus crosses all boundaries; sectarian, national, ethnic and gender.

 Furthermore, this Gospel passage is overly concerned with the message regarding the identity of Jesus; it is dogmatic, it pushes the message of who John’s community believed Jesus was, over the mission had assigned to his disciples to preach the love of God. In this way the Gospel deviates from the faith.

 Who Jesus was in the world and what we believe about him, those matters are not germane. Such beliefs have no bearing on the way that is meant to be foundation of Christian life.

 As followers of the way, rather than concerning ourselves with who we believe Jesus was, we need to concern ourselves with how Jesus was in the world, and with how we may be able to live a loving life of humble service according to the standard Jesus set.

First Reading - Acts 7:55-60 ©

The Stoning of Stephen

Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at God’s right hand. ‘I can see heaven thrown open’ he said ‘and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’ At this all the members of the council shouted out and stopped their ears with their hands; then they all rushed at him, sent him out of the city and stoned him. The witnesses put down their clothes at the feet of a young man called Saul. As they were stoning him, Stephen said in invocation, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ Then he knelt down and said aloud, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them’; and with these words he fell asleep.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 96(97):1-2,6-7,9 ©

The Lord is king, most high above all the earth.

Alleluia!

The Lord is king, let earth rejoice,

  the many coastlands be glad.

  His throne is justice and right.

The Lord is king, most high above all the earth.

The skies proclaim his justice;

  all peoples see his glory.

  All you spirits, worship him.

The Lord is king, most high above all the earth.

For you indeed are the Lord

  most high above all the earth,

  exalted far above all spirits.

The Lord is king, most high above all the earth.

Alleluia!

 

Second Reading – Apocalypse 22:12-14,16-17,20 ©

Come, Lord Jesus

I, John, heard a voice speaking to me: ‘Very soon now, I shall be with you again, bringing the reward to be given to every man according to what he deserves. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. Happy are those who will have washed their robes clean, so that they will have the right to feed on the tree of life and can come through the gates into the city.’

I, Jesus, have sent my angel to make these revelations to you for the sake of the churches. I am of David’s line, the root of David and the bright star of the morning.

The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come.’ Let everyone who listens answer, ‘Come.’ Then let all who are thirsty come: all who want it may have the water of life, and have it free.

The one who guarantees these revelations repeats his promise: I shall indeed be with you soon. Amen; come, Lord Jesus.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 14:18

Alleluia, alleluia!

I will not leave you orphans, says the Lord; I will come back to you, and your hearts will be full of joy.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to John 17:20-26 ©

Father, May they Be Completely One

Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said:

‘Holy Father, I pray not only for these, but for those also who through their words will believe in me.

May they all be one. Father, may they be one in us, as you are in me and I am in you, so that the world may believe it was you who sent me.

I have given them the glory you gave to me, that they may be one as we are one.

With me in them and you in me, may they be so completely one that the world will realise that it was you who sent me and that I have loved them as much as you loved me.

Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they may always see the glory you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

Father, Righteous One, the world has not known you, but I have known you, and these have known that you have sent me.

I have made your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and so that I may be in them.

 

A Homily – The Seventh Sunday of Easter (Year C)

A Homily – The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin, A Holy Day of Obligation (Year C)

First Reading - Zephaniah 3:14-18

Responsorial Psalm – Isaiah 12

Gospel Acclamation – Luke 1:45

The Gospel According to Luke 1:39-56

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

God is not a warrior and God does not intervene in human affairs, either to pass judgement, pardon or grant reprieve. God has no enemies, because the divine being is love.

There is wisdom in the words of the prophet: be patient; salvation flows from the wellspring of eternal being; enter the living stream, step into the way, let it carry you from this life into the arms of the God the infinitely compassionate.

Consider the Gospel reading for today.

The writers of Mark began their narrative when Jesus of Nazareth, otherwise known as Joshua son of Joseph, was an adult, at the beginning of his public ministry, but the early Christians wanted more, and so the authors of Luke brought their narrative back in time, making a fable of his conception and birth. In their story they attempted to tie-up and cinch-off a variety of loose threads in the stories that were being told about Jesus in their own day, and in so doing they hoped to unite different factions of the Christian movement who had already begun to diverge in their beliefs about Jesus, the meaning of the Gospel and the mission of the Church.

The narrative we are give today was meant to appeal to the followers of John the Baptist by bringing forth the notion that Jesus and John were actually cousins, and that even though John was older, he was a follower of Jesus from the time he was in the womb. It subordinates Johns to Jesus in the same way that John’s mother was subordinate to Mary…the whole thing is a fiction.

That today’s reading made it into the cannon is unfortunate, because a great deal of theology and doctrine has been hung from these exercises in make believe, and are little more than naked political calculations meant to manipulate the burgeoning Church

The succeeding Gospels each in their turn employed the same literary technique, reaching farther back further in time; the writers of Matthew inserted a confusing genealogy; tracing Jesus’ heritage back to Adam, through David on his father’s side. And yet, at the same time we are asked to believe that Joseph was not his biological father…it is nonsense, and has been criticized for being nonsense from the moment it was penned.

Regardless of these failures of the human imagination, rejoice in the divine, rejoice that we who are infinitely less than the infinite being who created us, the universe and everything in it, rejoice in the reality that we have received the blessing of God, that we are children of the divine, animated by the same spirit that animate Jesus and Mary, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Rejoice in God’s mercy and do not fear.

First Reading - Zephaniah 3:14-18

The Lord, the King of Israel, is in Your Midst

Shout for joy, daughter of Zion, Israel, shout aloud!

Rejoice, exult with all your heart, daughter of Jerusalem!

The Lord has repealed your sentence; he has driven your enemies away.

The Lord, the king of Israel, is in your midst; you have no more evil to fear.

When that day comes, word will come to Jerusalem:

Zion, have no fear, do not let your hands fall limp.

The Lord your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior.

He will exult with joy over you, he will renew you by his love; he will dance with shouts of joy for you as on a day of festival.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Isaiah 12

The Rejoicing of a Redeemed People

Great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.

Truly, God is my salvation,

  I trust, I shall not fear.

For the Lord is my strength, my song,

  he became my saviour.

With joy you will draw water

  from the wells of salvation.

Great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.

Give thanks to the Lord, give praise to his name!

  Make his mighty deeds known to the peoples!

  Declare the greatness of his name.

Great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.

Sing a psalm to the Lord

  for he has done glorious deeds;

  make them known to all the earth!

People of Zion, sing and shout for joy,

  for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.

Great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.

 

Gospel Acclamation – Luke 1:45

Alleluia, alleluia!

Blessed is the Virgin Mary, who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Luke 1:39-56

The Almighty Has Done Great Things For Me

Mary set out and went as quickly as she could to a town in the hill country of Judah. She went into Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth. Now as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She gave a loud cry and said, ‘Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord? For the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy. Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.’

  And Mary said:

‘My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit exults in God my saviour; because he has looked upon his lowly handmaid.

Yes, from this day forward all generations will call me blessed, for the Almighty has done great things for me.

Holy is his name, and his mercy reaches from age to age for those who fear him.

He has shown the power of his arm, he has routed the proud of heart.

He has pulled down princes from their thrones and exalted the lowly.

The hungry he has filled with good things, the rich sent empty away.

He has come to the help of Israel his servant, mindful of his mercy – according to the promise he made to our ancestors – of his mercy to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’

Mary stayed with Elizabeth about three months and then went back home.

 

A Homily – The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin, A Holy Day of Obligation (Year C)

A Homily – Feast of the Ascension, A Holy Day of Obligation (Year C)

First Reading – Acts 1:1-11 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 46(47):2-3,6-9

Second Reading - Ephesians 1:17-23©

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 28:19,20

The Gospel According to Luke – 24:46-53 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 Place yourself into the mindset of the disciples, and following them the authors of the Book of Acts, men and women who cling to the notion of Jesus came to establish a messianic kingdom in Israel. Jesus directs their attention away from Jerusalem to the broader world, a world beyond Palestine and the power of empires…then he left. The disciples taught that they and all of his other followers, that everyone who witnessed the event were filled with a pro-found hope in the expectation of his return…they possessed the vanity of a psalmist.

 Know this.

 It is right to praise God, the creator of the Universe, but it is not right to assume that God favors one people over another, and that God makes one nation the subject of another, that God puts any people under God’s feet, or under the feet of another…the disciples were not given the authority to rule the world, and because they never had it they did not pass it on to those who inherited their work….the church today does not possess it either.

 God, the true God, the God of love and mercy, the God of Jesus shuns war and abhors violence. The Christian God is not king; Jesus imagined God as a understanding parent and a caring friend who mourns for Jacob, is saddened by Israel and grieves for the church.

 Nevertheless, do as the psalmist asks and sing praises to the divine and give thanks for the grace we receive. Praise God, but do not look for God to be seated on a throne in the palace of a walled city; look for God in the garden, find God’s spirit in the face of your neighbor.

 Be mindful.

 If the armies of the world truly belonged to God, God would disband them in an instant, and send all of the soldiers home to their families.

 Remember the life of Jesus, and God; whom he called abba…meaning papa.

 Is God glorious?

 Indeed, God is the creator of the universe, and yet in God’s view the most exalted place to be is in relationship to us, each one of us as children of the divine.

 Therefore, we pray that each and every one of us comes to the full knowledge of God, to love the wayward among us as a parent loves their child.

 There is hope in the knowledge of God, and the hopes we have for ourselves, the hopes we have for those we love are to be extended to everyone, even those we do not love…this is the way.

 If you think that God has promised riches and glories, as the inheritance of the saints, bear in mind that the first will be last and the last will be first, and that spiritual riches are not counted in gold and silver and precious things.

 Understand this.

 There are good intentions in these words from the apostle, but poor execution; God and Jesus are not merely above all other powers in the world. The divine is beyond all such conventions.

 Know this:

 Matthew says that the “Great Commission” grants authority to the group of disciples that survived Jesus’ arrest and execution…this is a piece of propaganda.

 It is likely that the event itself never happened, but the authors of Matthew’s Gospel, writing over one hundred years after Jesus was killed, thought it necessary to establish their authority to speak and act in Jesus’ name (exclusively) into the sacred text.

 This is a con…predicated on a fabricated narrative, which is a problem

 Besides this little detail of foolishness, the message itself is reasonable; it articulates the basic mission of the church, to turn all-people of all-nations into followers of the way, into seekers of justice and servants of truth, people who care for the stranger, the widow and the orphan.

 Consider the Gospel reading for the day:

 It is mythology and metaphor…the message here is not “see, how it is written,” as if these events had been foretold, but see here what I am writing in his name, that Jesus, the anointed one of God (the Christ), has begun the ministry of repentance, which began with his cousin John and is now to spread from Jerusalem to every nation. It is a command: to preach the good news, the forgiveness of sins, the liberation of the captive and the salvation of all people.

 Jesus then encourages his followers to stay in Jerusalem until the time is right, to increase in number and grow in strength…then he was gone. 

First Reading – Acts 1:1-11 ©

Jesus Was Lifted Up While They Looked On

In my earlier work, Theophilus, I dealt with everything Jesus had done and taught from the beginning until the day he gave his instructions to the apostles he had chosen through the Holy Spirit, and was taken up to heaven. He had shown himself alive to them after his Passion by many demonstrations: for forty days he had continued to appear to them and tell them about the kingdom of God. When he had been at table with them, he had told them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for what the Father had promised. ‘It is’ he had said ‘what you have heard me speak about: John baptised with water but you, not many days from now, will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.’

  Now having met together, they asked him, ‘Lord, has the time come? Are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He replied, ‘It is not for you to know times or dates that the Father has decided by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and then you will be my witnesses not only in Jerusalem but throughout Judaea and Samaria, and indeed to the ends of the earth.’

  As he said this he was lifted up while they looked on, and a cloud took him from their sight. They were still staring into the sky when suddenly two men in white were standing near them and they said, ‘Why are you men from Galilee standing here looking into the sky? Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven, this same Jesus will come back in the same way as you have seen him go there.’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 46(47):2-3,6-9

The Lord is King

Cry to God with shouts of joy.

All nations, clap your hands;

  cry out to God in exultation,

for the Lord, the Most High, is greatly to be feared,

  and King over all the earth.

He has made whole peoples our subjects,

  put nations beneath our feet.

He has chosen our inheritance for us,

  the pride of Jacob, whom he loved.

God ascends amid rejoicing,

  the Lord goes up with trumpet blast.

Sing to God, sing praise.

  Sing to our king, sing praise.

God is king over the whole earth:

  sing to him with all your skill.

God reigns over the nations;

  God sits on his holy throne.

The nobles of the peoples join together

  with the people of the God of Abraham,

for to God belong the armies of the earth;

  he is high above all things.

 

Second Reading - Ephesians 1:17-23 ©

Brothers and sisters:

May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a Spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of him.

May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call, what are the riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe, in accord with the exercise of his great might:

which he worked in Christ, raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens, far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this age but also in the one to come.

And he put all things beneath his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church,

which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.

 

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 28:19,20

Alleluia, alleluia!

Go, make disciples of all the nations.

I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Luke – 24:46-53

He Withdrew From Them and Was Carried Up Into Heaven

Jesus said to his disciples:

  ‘You see how it is written that the Christ would suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that, in his name, repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses to this.

  ‘And now I am sending down to you what the Father has promised. Stay in the city then, until you are clothed with the power from on high.’

  Then he took them out as far as the outskirts of Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. Now as he blessed them, he withdrew from them and was carried up to heaven. They worshipped him and then went back to Jerusalem full of joy; and they were continually in the Temple praising God.

 

A Homily – Feast of the Ascension, A Holy Day of Obligation (Year C)

A Homily – The Sixth Sunday of Easter (Year C)

First Reading - Acts 15:1-2,22-29 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 66(67):2-3,5-6,8 ©

Second Reading – Apocalypse 21:10-14,22-23 ©

Alternative Second Reading – Apocalypse 22:12-14,16-17,20 ©

Gospel Acclamation – John 14:23

The Gospel According to John 14:23-29 ©

 

 (NJB)

 

Listen!

Salvation is not earned, it is a gift. It is the fulfillment of God’s intention for you and the whole of creation. Salvation is not linked to our rites and rituals, to the way we mark ourselves as belonging to a group, or not, to whether we are in or outside of the Church. Our ultimate salvation has nothing to do with the things we eat, or with our deeds whether they are good or bad ones.

 Our Salvation comes from God and we are all saved together; until we have arrived at its fullness we are not saved at all.

 Be mindful.

 The psalmist is right to ask God to bless all peoples and all nations; to have pity and to be merciful in the fulfillment of God’s promise.

 Know this:

 God’s work is not confined to a single place and time, neither does God belong to one people.

 God, who created the universe, is the God of everyone; whether they know of God or not. God is still God.

 Ask for God’s blessing, not just four yourself, but ask for the divine spirit to bless everyone, even the exile…even your enemy.

 When we visualize the fulfilment of God’s promise, when we reflect on the heavenly worlds and the paradise to come, let all the talk of heavenly rewards, of precious metals and precious stones, let that fall away; forget the talk of gold and gems.

 Ignore the jingoism, the fetish with Israel and Jerusalem, they are not relevant to these reflections. Every reference we find in scripture to such material things, or the work of human beings, is a distraction from the central message the gospels are meant to convey.

 Know this!

 Where God is there is God who sustains all things within the divine self.

 Within God, who is the parent of all that live, there is no temple, there is no altar, there is no edifice or anything we would recognize as the structure of a Church; there is no cathedral, there is no basilica…where God is there is light, and love and peace.

 The light has no limit, the light shines forever and there is no darkness in it; in God’s embrace all people are welcome, and no one will come to it who has not been prepared for it.

 Remember.

 God prepares us all and makes us ready for the way; where God dwells there are no gates. People will come having passed through every plane of existence, they will come from all directions. 

 Every person will receive what they deserve; as the children of God they will receive God’s love, they will be forgiven just as Jesus prayed when he was dying on the cross. We will all receive mercy through the auspices of the heavenly will we will be cleansed and made well, healed and made happy; we will be whole. The hungry will be fed and the thirsty will drink, the gift is free; it is the promise of God.

 Understand this:

 God is present in all of God’s children and where God is present God is present fully. There is no division in the divine, and with the divine is every is every person who has ever been, who is and who yet shall be; the divine is inclusive of all reality…no-one is excluded. Everyone is present within the divine, as such they are present within each of us, for each of us carries the divine within ourselves.

 Jesus is the son of God, in the same way that each of us is a child of God; a son or daughter, therefore love one another, as God loves you…this is the great commandment, and do not be afraid, for life on Earth is merely a passage to another world; our experience represents the unfolding of a mystery.

 God abandons no-one; God will leave no orphans, no-one will be left stranded in the throws of sin; not one of us shall be lost. Everything, and everyone, returns to the creator, in so doing we come to the understanding that we never apart.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today.

 There are passages, and there are many of them, in which the Gospels provide the reader with only a tangled and confused set of words and concepts that do little to shed light on anything good or meaningful.

 The Gospel for today is one of those passages.

 Of the four Gospel’s, John’s has the least concern for historical accuracy. It was written more than one hundred years after Jesus’ death and it is likely that the event portrayed here never happened, that Jesus never spoke these words in this way.

 What this meandering passage represents is the thoughts and feelings of John’s community at the end of the first century CE. It fully represents the mystical and mysterious way in which Christians had come to see the life of Jesus in relationship to God. It does this in terms that have a connection to some of the prevailing philosophical beliefs regarding the metaphysical structure of reality, but does nothing to explicate the system of beliefs it is specifically engaging…it is poor theology.

 This type of thinking has been a burden on the faith over the centuries and millennia; it should be struck from the cannon because it is impossible for us to know what the Gospel writers meant, what the limits of their thinking was, never mind the fact that the philosophies of the ancient world, their metaphysical systems, were false; because they are errant there is little in those thought systems that can help us understand ourselves, the world we live in, or our relationship to God.

 What truth we can glean from today’s passage is this:

 Jesus prayed to God on behalf of his followers, he prayed that they would understand both his mission and the mission he was passing on to them. He prayed for their unity, heHe prayed that they love one another, and that the message they carried forward in his name was one of love.

 This Gospel passage has the appearance of being directed specifically to Christians, and that is unfortunate because the mission of Jesus crosses all boundaries; sectarian, national, ethnic and gender.

 This Gospel passage is overly concerned with the message regarding the identity of Jesus, as such it is dogmatic, it pushes the message of who John’s community believed Jesus was, over and against the mission to preach the love of God. This is not what Jesus himself taught, and in this way the Gospel deviates from the faith.

 Who Jesus was in the world, and what we believe about that is not germane. Such beliefs have no bearing on the way that is meant to be the core teaching leading into the Christian life.

 As followers of the way, rather than concerning ourselves with who we believe Jesus was, we need to concern ourselves with how Jesus was in the world, and with how we may be able to live a loving life according to the standard Jesus set.

First Reading - Acts 15:1-2,22-29 ©

It Has Been Decided by the Spirit and by Ourselves Not to Burden You with Any Burden Beyond these Essentials

Some men came down from Judaea and taught the brothers, ‘Unless you have yourselves circumcised in the tradition of Moses you cannot be saved.’ This led to disagreement, and after Paul and Barnabas had had a long argument with these men it was arranged that Paul and Barnabas and others of the church should go up to Jerusalem and discuss the problem with the apostles and elders.

Then the apostles and elders decided to choose delegates to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas; the whole church concurred with this. They chose Judas known as Barsabbas and Silas, both leading men in the brotherhood, and gave them this letter to take with them:

‘The apostles and elders, your brothers, send greetings to the brothers of pagan birth in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia. We hear that some of our members have disturbed you with their demands and have unsettled your minds. They acted without any authority from us; and so we have decided unanimously to elect delegates and to send them to you with Barnabas and Paul, men we highly respect who have dedicated their lives to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accordingly we are sending you Judas and Silas, who will confirm by word of mouth what we have written in this letter. It has been decided by the Holy Spirit and by ourselves not to saddle you with any burden beyond these essentials: you are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols; from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from fornication. Avoid these, and you will do what is right. Farewell.’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 66(67):2-3,5-6,8 ©

Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.

Alleluia!

O God, be gracious and bless us

  and let your face shed its light upon us.

So will your ways be known upon earth

  and all nations learn your saving help.

Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.

Let the nations be glad and exult

  for you rule the world with justice.

With fairness you rule the peoples,

  you guide the nations on earth.

Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.

Let the peoples praise you, O God;

  let all the peoples praise you.

May God still give us his blessing

  till the ends of the earth revere him.

Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.

Alleluia!

 

Second Reading – Apocalypse 21:10-14,22-23 ©

He Showed Me the Holy City Coming Down Out of Heaven

In the spirit, the angel took me to the top of an enormous high mountain and showed me Jerusalem, the holy city, coming down from God out of heaven. It had all the radiant glory of God and glittered like some precious jewel of crystal-clear diamond. The walls of it were of a great height, and had twelve gates; at each of the twelve gates there was an angel, and over the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel; on the east there were three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. The city walls stood on twelve foundation stones, each one of which bore the name of one of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

I saw that there was no temple in the city since the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb were themselves the temple, and the city did not need the sun or the moon for light, since it was lit by the radiant glory of God and the Lamb was a lighted torch for it.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 14:23

Alleluia, alleluia!

Jesus said: ‘If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him.’

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to John 14:23-29 ©

A Peace the World Cannot Give is My Gift to You

Jesus said to his disciples:

‘If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him and make our home with him.

Those who do not love me do not keep my words.

And my word is not my own: it is the word of the one who sent me.

I have said these things to you while still with you; but the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all I have said to you.

Peace I bequeath to you, my own peace I give you, a peace the world cannot give, this is my gift to you.

Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.

You heard me say: I am going away, and shall return.

If you loved me you would have been glad to know that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.

I have told you this now before it happens, so that when it does happen you may believe.’

 

A Homily – The Sixth Sunday of Easter (Year C)