How Can We Know the Way: Homily for the 5th Sunday of Easter

Acts 6:1-7

Psalm 33

1 Ptr 2:4-9

Jn 14:1-12

 

Many  readings during the Easter Season come from the Acts of the Apostles  which tells the earliest history of the Church.  On Tuesday we heard, “And it was at Antioch that they were first called Christians.”  Today we hear more of that history: complaining, perceived slights, and everything else.  

 

Being part of the Christian community has never been easy.  Our status as sinners reveals itself again and again, century after century, sometimes in the smallest things. The Greeks complained that the Hebrews weren’t fair when distributing food.  It is likely that the Hebrews had their own complaints against the Greeks that didn't get written down. But something had to be done. That something was the beginning of the order of deacon, ". . . select seven reputable men whom we shall appoint to this task." The task was to serve at table.  A casual reading of Acts reminds us that what we have in the Church today-- the Eucharist, a hierarchy of leaders, as well arguments, rivalries, and disagreements-- has been with us from the beginning.  Human behavior has not improved much over the past two millennia.  It will not improve much over the next two millennia either.

 

The second reading from the First Letter of Peter is taken from a section subtitled, ‘The Dignity of the Christian Vocation.’ “Like living stones let yourselves be built into a spiritual house . . .”  The Church is always under construction, it is always being rebuilt and remodeled, in the same way  that our lives are always changing and being renewed.  Think about building or remodeling a home.  Some of the work is obvious, repainting, new flooring, or adding a room.  Other work, however, remains unseen.  Who notices new wiring or a new hot water heater?

 

Like us, like our homes, and like our society, the church changes and renews itself, yet it remains timeless.  It changes in response to external factors--we are certainly seeing that today.  It remains timeless in the Eucharist.  It changes through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  It changes in ways that may take a long time to appreciate and understand  but the Eucharist endures and will always endure the Real Presence, ever Ancient and ever New. 

 

The exchanges of Thomas and Philip with Jesus are revealing.  Thomas asked, “how can we know the way?”  Jesus answered with a triple I AM statement.

 

It is important to recall that  whenever Jesus begins with "I AM" 

He is making a statement of exclusivity. “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”   

 

Jesus is the only Way in a world of blind alleys.  

Jesus is the only Truth in a world of politics and lies.  

Jesus is the only source of Life in a culture Saint John Paul II called a “culture of death.” 

Jesus is the cornerstone who bears the weight of the entire edifice.

 

Philip’s request reflects the inability of the disciples to truly recognize Jesus; “Show us the Father, that will be enough for us.”  Their incomprehension would change when the Holy Spirit descended at Pentecost

 

One can sense Jesus’ irritation in His answer to them:  “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”  The only access to “seeing” God is through the Son, the Son who took on human flesh, the Son who took on human concerns, the Son who lived life the same way we do, the Son who endured temptation but who, unlike us, did not sin.  All that Jesus is for us He is by reason of His obedience to the Father’s will.  Therefore, His works, His signs, His words, and His revelation 

are all the work of the Father.  They are all windows through which to know the Father. 

 

Later in John’s Gospel we will hear a beatitude to add to those from the Sermon on the Mount:  “Blessed are those who have not seen yet believe.”  It may be the most important beatitude of all.  Only as we remain the living stones of the Church, only as we allow ourselves to be held in place by Jesus, the cornerstone, only as we believe that Christ is truly and substantially present in the great gift and mystery of the Eucharist, only then can we say, as we will in a few moments: 

 

"Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.  Hosanna in the Highest."

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Off to give a retreat to about ten or eleven priests beginning on Monday to Friday.  Good weather forecast.  Spring may have made an appearance.  Thus, photos of flowers though they are from the past not recent.  And from a few different places. 

The Jesuit novitiate in Lyon, France.  It was a monastery of Visitation Nuns.  I was told it was the place Francis de Sales died.

The tulips planted annually at BC in BC colors.  They are being replaced now with pink things on a bush. 

A monastery a few weeks ago.  

Fr. Jack, SJ, MD