Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year C

Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year C

ACTS 14:21-27

PS 145:8-13

REV 21:1-5A

JN 13:21-22A, 34-35

It is the night of the Last Supper. One of the darkest hours in Jesus’ ministry. Judas has just left the Upper Room to carry out his mission of betrayal. Judas, one of the most capable and trustworthy of the disciples, entrusted with the common purse is intent on selling Jesus to the authorities who will have Him bound, tortured, and crucified. But paradoxically, in this time of darkness, Jesus is teaching His disciples about love. “My children…I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” 

What a wonderful description of a stewardship way of life: Jesus gives us: “love one another as I have loved you.” The command of love is not new. In Leviticus 19:18 God had already commanded that one is to “love your neighbor as yourself.” What is new here is to love as Jesus has loved, which is to love the other more than the self. It sounds so simple. But simple does not necessarily mean easy. If loving like Jesus were easy, I suppose everyone would do it. We have only to look at the news to see that we sadly do not.

How exactly, does Jesus call us to love?  As He, Himself loved. Jesus loved (and loves) by serving us and by making a sacrifice of His very life for us. Sacrifice can be a hard thing for us to learn to do. It can be hard to admit to ourselves the difference between a ‘want’ and a ‘need’. It can be hard to actively look for those who do not have what they need. It can be harder still, to part with what is ours – our time, talent, and treasure – to provide for the needs of the other instead of providing for our own wants. The hardest thing of all, and yet the most rewarding, is sacrifice willingly, out of love. But this is precisely what Jesus calls us to do.

In our first reading, we find Paul and Barnabas “strengthening” and “exhorting” the early disciples in our First Reading by saying, “it is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” Notice they don’t say “one or two” hardships or even “the occasional hardship”. They say “many” hardships.  Picture this my friends: Paul had just been stoned, nearly to death by a mob who did not want to hear his preaching. Yet here he is, still bruised and cut, mangled, bloody, and bandaged while joyfully preaching the need to endure hardship to enter the kingdom of heaven. Another paradox? What an impact his words must have had on the gathered believers! So, it should not surprise us when we find it a challenge to embrace service and self-sacrifice, as a way of life. If it’s demanding, we should be encouraged because it means we are doing it right!

Why is that? Human weakness. Living a life of service and self-sacrifice is not easy because it requires us to continuously fight against our selfish inclinations. Our culture teaches us to be selfish – even applauds it. We tend to hoard all our time by cramming it full of activity, leaving little room for daily prayer with God. We hide our talents and skills instead of putting them at the service of the community out of fear of judgement. We greedily spend both our current and future income buying all the stuff we want at any given moment, filling our homes, garages, and even storage units with junk, but we become stingy with our tithing back to the Lord - who gave us everything we have in the first place. But my friends, yet another paradox awaits. The more we empty ourselves of “self” by serving the needs of others, the more room we make in our hearts for God to pour His grace into us. Amazingly, the more we give our lives away to others, the more Jesus Christ fills us up with Himself - who is Love itself.

Amid those inevitable challenging moments living a life of stewardship brings, we can be assured that the Lord who loves us so much that He died for us and gave us Himself in the Eucharist to be our strength and nourishment, is right here with us every step of the way. As we face the hardships that come with learning to live and love as Christian stewards, we can continue to rejoice in the wonder of the Resurrection this Easter season, finding great joy in following in our Lord’s footsteps and in loving as He loves.

St. Joseph, Lover of Poverty, Pray for Us!