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.
Sharing is caring. You are very free to share our daily reflections with your friends and
loved ones. They need them.
For
more homilies (reflections):
Visit our website: www.thepulpitonline.com
Send us Email: thepulpitonline@gmail.com
To
Contact and/or to support this ministry:
Tel: +234 813 305 0302
+234 905 655 4466
Email: thepulpitonline@gmail.com
Post a Comment
Post a Comment