Homily (Reflection) for Fifth Sunday of Easter,
Year C (24th April, 2016) on the Gospel
Acts 14:21-27;
Ps 144:8-13. (R. cf. v. 1);
Rev 21:1-5;
Jn
13:31-35.
One man bought a phone and a line for his illiterate mother
in the village. And not quite long, one mobile communication company decided to
reward their customers with some incentives (bonuses). When the woman heard
about this development she joyfully waited patiently for bonus however nothing
came. As her patience began to fail, she visited the office of the mobile
company that was giving bonus nearest to her to know the reason why she didn’t receive
any bonus whereas some received a good number of times.
The customer care unit listened to her story patiently and felt
sorry for her. In their resolution to get to the root of the matter, they collected
the phone from her because she could not produce her mobile number. Behold, the
woman who was running out of patience waiting for bonus from their company was subscribed
to another company.
Topic: Glorify your preferred master.
In today’s gospel, when Judas had
gone out Jesus said to His disciples, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified,
and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will
also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once.” He would not stay
with them much longer. Finally, He gave them a new commandment to love one
another just as He loved them. And this is the mark of discipleship.
The glorification of the Son as we see in today’s gospel is
conditional: If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in
himself. And glorifying God is all about accepting His will in everything, cf. Lk 22:42. Remember that Jesus said
these when Judas had left to finalize matters with the chief priests on the
modalities of betraying Jesus. Therefore, glorifying the Father would be
ultimately accomplished in His shameful death on the cross. Again, when Jesus
prophesied on the kind of death Peter would die, the bible tells us that Peter
was to glorify God by that kind of death, cf. Jn 21:19a. And in Saint Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he highlighted
two other forms; “glorify God by your obedience in acknowledging the gospel of
Christ, and by the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others”
(2Cor 9:13). For Saint Peter, we are
to glorify God in our sufferings, cf. 1Pt
4:16. And again, Saint Paul correctly admonishes us, “you were bought with
a price. So glorify God in your body” (1Cor
6:20).
Borrowing from Saint Paul’s second letter to his son, this
is a saying we can rely on:
If we have died with him, then we shall
live with him.
If we persevere, then we shall reign with
him.
If we disown him, then he will disown us.
If we are faithless, he is faithful still,
for he cannot disown his own self (2Tim 2:11-13).
That illiterate woman in our introductory story did not get any
bonus from that network because she subscribed to another network. Whoever wants
to be glorified by God must first glorify Him here on earth. And God has glorified
us by letting us be called His sons and He will glorify us again if we persevere
as His children, cf. Jn 12:28; 1Jn 3:1-2.
Bible Reading: 2Tim 4:1-8; Rom 6:1-14; 1Pt 4:12-19.
Thought for today:
God rewards His children.
Let us pray: Lord, help us to be worthy of your glory
by glorifying you here on earth – Amen.
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Those who love me will keep my word,
and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with
them. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you
hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.
The
first bishop, Bishop Dupuch found it impossible to build a church because the
local population was hostile to the French. He went back to France for
assistance. The Sodality of Our Lady in Lyon offered to the bishop a bronze
statue of the Immaculate Conception with the understanding that she would be
the Protectress of both the Mohammedans and the natives. It was brought from
France in 1840 and was entrusted to the Cistercian monks of Staueli. Later, Cardinal
Lavigiers, founder of the White Sisters, enshrined it in the new basilica at
Algiers, where in 1876 the image was crowned. This bronze statue, very dark in
colour, is known as Our Lady of Africa.
Jesus used the parable of the vine to illustrate the connection
between Him and His disciples. His Father, the vinegrower prunes fruitful
branches to bear more and removes unfruitful branches to wither and be thrown
into the fire. His disciples were pruned by His words. And He warned, 
