6th Sunday of Easter
– Cycle A
Homily
(Acts 8:5-8, 14-17; Psalm 66:1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16, 20; 1 Peter 3:15-18; John 14:15-21)
If you were asked to, do you think you
could “give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope”?
Could you do it with “gentleness and reverence”?
Our ordinary, daily, life gives us all
kinds of opportunities for giving an account of our hope. We live today in a
world that many are calling a “post-Christian” era. Experts who study that sort
of thing actually have fifteen measures of non-religiosity that include not
praying to God, or reading the Bible, or attending church, or considering faith
an important part of their lives.
The most recent study concluded that thirty-seven
percent of Americans can be classified as “post-Christian” based on those
fifteen criteria. Thirty-seven percent! We live in a world in desperate need of
hope. This is why the “new evangelization” is so important – because you have
hope because we know that Jesus has conquered sin and death and has sent his
Spirit to be our “Advocate” – to change the world. You and I have hope because
we have a vision of an end-time of fulfillment when there will be a new heaven
and a new earth and the kingdom will be fully engaged in all of creation. And
you and I have an obligation to share that hope with all those who struggle
with hopelessness.
In my prison ministry I go to Collins
Correctional on as many Friday nights as I can, and those of us from the
outside have faith-sharing conversations with the men inside. If you want a
prime example of a place where hope is rare, visit a prison. But just this Friday one of the men started
talking about how easy it is to focus on the length of his bid – until he
remembers that he has the promise of eternal life. “You know”, he said, “when I
think of being with Jesus for all eternity, the next three years seem like
nothing at all”.
You and I also must live in a hope
based on the promises of Christ – and we can hope not because we are so good at
trusting, but because God is trustworthy. And the message of the
trustworthiness of God is truly “Good News” – Gospel – euangelion in Greek – evangelization. We should feel compelled to
share that Good News with everyone in our lives – and to do so, as the second
reading reminds us – with gentleness and reverence.
You might think that you are poorly
equipped for the task of evangelization. But consider this – Philip in the
first reading had no written gospel, had no catechism, had no Religious Ed or
Catholic School education – he might not have even ever met Jesus in person.
Yet his faith was so strong that it allowed him to go to Samaria – Samaria! –
where there was such great animosity – and he witnessed so effectively that the
crowds paid attention and were filled with great joy.
What it takes is being a “Good News”
person. We recently completed a program in the parish called “Good News People”
– could all of those here who were part of the program please stand up. For
those of you who missed out on it the past year, we’re going to run it again
starting in the fall. One of the messages of the program is that we must live
the gospel – we must live the good news, that if we love Jesus it has to make a
difference: we need to be somehow transformed, challenged, changed.
As St. John Chrysostom so aptly put it
1650 years ago: “There would be no need for sermons, if our lives were shining;
there would be no need for words, if we bore witness with our deeds. There
would be no pagans, if we were true Christians.”
Jesus tells us that those who see him
see the Father, and because he has given us the Spirit, those who see us can
see Jesus – if we keep his commandments of love and witness to hope. How are
you going to be Good News to others this week? You might be the only Gospel
that some people will ever read.
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