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6TH SUNDAY OF EASTER ~ YEAR C ~ MAY 25, 2025

6TH SUNDAY OF EASTER ~ YEAR C ~ MAY 25, 2025

OBEDIENT TO HIS COMMANDMENTS

St. Peter Chrysologus once said, appeal to you by the mercy of God. This appeal is made by Paul, or rather, it is made by God through Paul, because of God’s desire to be loved rather than feared, to be a father rather than a Lord. God appeals to us in his mercy to avoid having to punish us in his severity. Listen to the Lord’s appeal: In me, I want you to see your own body, your members, your heart, your bones, your blood. You may fear what is divine, but why not love what is human? You may run away from me as the Lord, but why not run to me as your father? Perhaps you are filled with shame for causing my bitter passion. Do not be afraid. This cross inflicts a mortal injury, not on me, but on death. These nails no longer pain me but only deepen your love for me. I do not cry out because of these wounds, but through them I draw you into my heart. My body was stretched on the cross as a symbol, not of how much I suffered, but of my all-embracing love. I count it no less to shed my blood: it is the price I have paid for your ransom. Come, then, return to me and learn to know me as your father, who repays good for evil, love for injury, and boundless charity for piercing wounds. Listen now to what the Apostle urges us to do. I appeal to you, he says, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice. By this exhortation of his, Paul has raised all men to priestly status.

How marvelous is the priesthood of the Christian, for he is both the victim that is offered on his own behalf, and the priest who makes the offering. He does not need to go beyond himself to seek what he is to immolate to God: with himself and in himself he brings the sacrifice he is to offer God for himself. The victim remains and the priest remains, always one and the same. Immolated, the victim still lives: the priest who immolates cannot kill. Truly it is an amazing sacrifice in which a body is offered without being slain and blood is offered without being shed. The Apostle says: I appeal to you by the mercy of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice. Brethren, this sacrifice follows the pattern of Christ’s sacrifice by which he gave his body as a living immolation for the life of the world. He really made his body a living sacrifice, because, though slain, he continues to live. In such a victim death receives its ransom, but the victim remains alive. Death itself suffers the punishment. This is why death for the martyrs is a birth, and their end a beginning. Their execution is the door to life, and those who were thought to have been blotted out from the earth shine brilliantly in heaven. Paul says: I appeal to you by the mercy of God to present your bodies as a sacrifice, living and holy. The prophet said the same thing: Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but you have prepared a body for me. Each of us is called to be both a sacrifice to God and his priest. Do not forfeit what divine authority confers on you. Put on the garment of holiness, gird yourself with the belt of chastity. Let Christ be your helmet, let the cross on your forehead be your unfailing protection. Your breastplate should be the knowledge of God that he himself has given you. Keep burning continually the sweet-smelling incense of prayer. Take up the sword of the Spirit. Let your heart be an altar. Then, with full confidence in God, present your body for sacrifice. God desires not death, but faith; God thirsts not for blood, but for self-surrender; God is appeased not by slaughter, but by the offering of your free will.

There was once a man who had four young sons. Wanting to teach them about the dangers of judging things too rapidly, he decided to send each of them on a journey, one after the other, to a distant pear tree. Each son when in a different season, the first in winter, the second in spring, and so on. At the end of the year, he brought his children together and asked them what they’d seen.

The son who’d travelled in winter described a gnarled, twisted, and barren tree that stood stark and ugly against the land. The son who went in spring disagreed. No, he said, the tree seemed full of hope and promise, with green buds along its branches. The third son, who’d travelled in summer, disagreed once more. The pear tree he’d seen was covered in beautiful blossom that looked and smelled divine. Finally, the last son, who’d made the journey in fall, disagreed again, describing a tree laden with sweet and delicious pears that tasted better than any he’d eaten before.

When each son had spoken, the father said they were all correct, because they’d only seen but one season of the pear tree’s life. He explained to his sons that it’s foolish and impossible to judge something in this manner. The essence of something, whether it’s a tree or their fellow man, can only be measured as a whole, at the end of the year, having seen it in its fullness. To make your judgment in winter is to miss the promise of spring, the beauty of summer, and the fruit in fall.

How true it is to see the lesson from the Readings today? By keeping the commandments of the Lord, we can change our lives and can become followers of Jesus. Last Sunday we reflected on our Christian identity when Jesus said, “By this people will know that you are my disciples”. Our identity lies within the commandment of loving one another. There is a beautiful reflection from a letter to Diognetus:

“Christians are indistinguishable from other men either by nationality, language or customs. They do not inhabit separate cities of their own, or speak a strange dialect, or follow some outlandish way of life. Their teaching is not based upon reveries inspired by the curiosity of men. Unlike some other people, they champion no purely human doctrine. Regarding dress, food and manner of life in general, they follow the customs of whatever city they happen to be living in, whether it is Greek or foreign. And yet there is something extraordinary about their lives. They live in their own countries as though they were only passing through. They play their full role as citizens, but labor under all the disabilities of aliens. Any country can be their homeland, but for them their homeland, wherever it may be, is a foreign country. Like others, they marry and have children, but they do not expose them. They share their meals, but not their wives. They live in the flesh, but they are not governed by the desires of the flesh. They pass their days upon earth, but they are citizens of heaven. Obedient to the laws, they yet live on a level that transcends the law.

Christians love all men, but all men persecute them. Condemned because they are not understood, they are put to death but raised to life again. They live in poverty, but enrich many; they are totally destitute, but possess an abundance of everything. They suffer dishonor, but that is their glory. They are defamed, but vindicated. A blessing is their answer to abuse, deference their response to insult. For the good they do they receive the punishment of malefactors, but even then, they rejoice, as though receiving the gift of life. They are attacked by the Jews as aliens, they are persecuted by the Greeks, yet no one can explain the reason for this hatred.

To speak in general terms, we may say that the Christian is to the world what the soul is to the body. As the soul is present in every part of the body, while remaining distinct from it, so Christians are found in all the cities of the world but cannot be identified with the world. As the visible body contains the invisible soul, so Christians are seen living in the world, but their religious life remains unseen. The body hates the soul and wars against it, not because of any injury the soul has done it, but because of the restriction the soul places on its pleasures. Similarly, the world hates the Christians, not because they have done it any wrong, but because they are opposed to its enjoyments.

Christians love those who hate them just as the soul loves the body and all its members despite the body’s hatred. It is by the soul, enclosed within the body, that the body is held together, and similarly, it is by the Christians, detained in the world as in a prison, that the world is held together. The soul, though immortal, has a mortal dwelling place; and Christians also live for a time amidst perishable things, while awaiting the freedom from change and decay that will be theirs in heaven. As the soul benefits from the deprivation of food and drink, so Christian’s flourish under persecution. Such is the Christian’s lofty and divinely appointed function, from which he is not permitted to excuse himself”.

The passage taken from the Acts of the Apostles speaks to us about what is essential. In the early Church there was immediately a need to discern what was essential about being a Christian, about following Christ, and what was not. The apostles and the other elders held an important meeting in Jerusalem, a first “council” (which took place in 50AD known as Council of Jerusalem), on this theme, to discuss the problems which arose after the Gospel had been preached to the pagans, to non-Jews. It was a providential opportunity for better understanding what is essential, namely, belief in Jesus Christ who died and rose for our sins and loving him as he loved us. There is a beautiful lesson hidden for us to know that by coming together and speaking out, we can solve the problems but unfortunately guns and wars have become the mean to solve the issues which lead us towards hatred, division, disunity, and discrimination.  But note how the difficulties and misunderstandings were overcome: not from without, but from within the Church.   Once we know what is essential then we can keep the command of the Lord within our hearts (please read Psalm 119).  Holy Father Pope Francis says “In your parishes, in your dioceses, be a true “lung” of faith and Christian life, a breath of fresh air! In this Square I see a great variety: earlier on it was a variety of umbrellas, and now of colours and signs. This is also the case with the Church: a great wealth and variety of expressions in which everything leads back to unity; the variety leads back to unity, and unity is the encounter with Christ”.

Once a teacher called all his disciples and said, “Bring a bag of potatoes with you when you all come to discourse tomorrow but remember that each potato you bring should have the name on them of the person whom you envy. Disciples who envy many people bought as many potatoes as possible with them.”

The next day, all the disciples came with potatoes in a bag. Some bought less, some bought more.

Now, the teacher said to his disciples, “For next seven days, everyone of you should keep these potato bags that you bought with. Wherever you go, eating, drinking, sleeping, walking, whatever you do, these potato bags should always be with you.”

Disciples didn’t understand anything, but they knew they had to follow the teacher’s request.

After three or four days, the potatoes started to rot, and the disciples started to get disturbed by the smell of them. Somehow, the disciples spent seven days with the potatoes.

After the seventh day, they all went to the teacher with the bags. One of them said, “Teacher “why did you asked us to keep these potatoes with us? They started rotting and smelling, it was difficult to keep them with us every minute.”

At this the teacher smiled and said, “You are feeling the burden of these potatoes in just seven days, then think how much burden it is on your mind when you envy other people.

We do have the same problem if we don’t obey the commandments of the Lord.

To keep the commandments of the Lord means we look at his Holy Cross every day. Whenever we carry the crucifix with such great veneration and love for the Lord, we are not performing a simple outward act; we are pointing to the centrality of the Lord’s paschal mystery, his passion, death and resurrection which have redeemed us, and you are reminding yourselves first, as well as the community, that we have to follow Christ along the concrete path of our daily lives so that he can transform us. I remember during the Confirmation Mass, when Bishop asked the candidate the question about the Easter Symbol, the Paschal Candle and the flame on top reminded me and all of you that we are called to be the light and without keeping his commandments we can’t follow his paths.  However, the Blessed Virgin Mary teaches us how to keep his commandments and meditate on them day and night.

Jesus through the Gospel of John continued his farewell discourse as he was sitting at the dinner table.  Jesus entrusted his last thoughts, as a spiritual testament, to the apostles before he left them. Last Sunday Jesus said in the same chapter that “today I give you a new commandment ‘love one another” which was to follow after he washed the feet of his disciples.  Today’s text makes it clear that Christian faith is completely centred on the relationship between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Whoever loves the Lord Jesus welcomes him and his Father interiorly, and thanks to the Holy Spirit receives the Gospel in his or her heart and life. Here we are shown in the centre from which everything must go forth and to which everything must lead loving God and being Christ’s disciples by living the Gospel. Pope Benedict XVI used this expression: evangelical spirit.

Pope Francis said “Draw always from Christ, the inexhaustible wellspring; strengthen your faith by attending to your spiritual formation, to personal and communitarian prayer, and to the liturgy. Advance with determination along the path of holiness; do not rest content with a mediocre Christian life, but let your affiliation serve as a stimulus, above all for you yourselves, to an ever-greater love of Jesus Christ”.

Saint Gaudentius of Brescia – Bishop, reflecting on the true image of Christians who keep the commandment of the Lord said “One man has died for all, and now in every church in the mystery of bread and wine he heals those for whom he is offered in sacrifice, giving life to those who believe and holiness to those who consecrate the offering. This is the flesh of the Lamb; this is his blood. The bread that came down from heaven declared: The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world. It is significant, too, that his blood should be given to us in the form of wine, for his own words in the gospel, I am the true vine, imply clearly enough that whenever wine is offered as a representation of Christ’s passion, it is offered as his blood. This means that it was of Christ that the blessed patriarch Jacob prophesied when he said: He will wash his tunic in wine and his cloak in the blood of the grape. The tunic was our flesh, which Christ was to put on like a garment and which he was to wash in his own blood”.

Even if we fail to keep his commandments, the Holy Spirit does help us to understand his message because the Holy Spirit is our Advocate and Help, who prays for us as St. Paul writes to the Romans “Brothers and Sisters: For all who are led by the Spirit of God, are children of God.  For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!”  it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him” (8:14-17).

Are we obedient to his commandments?

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