“I made known to them Your name and I will make it known, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them and I in them.”

Christ is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Over the past month we have focused on the ways Jesus reveals the Father. Jesus reveals the Father so that we might know Him and most particularly know His great love.

As we discussed several weeks ago, the Father’s nature and character is love. It is love expressed in relationship with the Son and Spirit. It is love expressed in the extension of that relationship to us, and our participation in it.

St. John captures this revelation so well (why it is called the Book of Revelation) in recording: The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” Let the hearer say, “Come.” Let the one who thirsts come forward, and the one who wants it receive the gift of life-giving water.

Today, we see Adrianna with her parents and godparents doing this very thing. She will be asked through her godparents: What do you ask of the Church? The answer: Baptism. In all its fullness the answer is: I want to come in, to receive, and to have a share in the great love the Father offers.

Throughout the Easter Season in the Asperges, the blessing with Holy Water at the start of each Sunday Holy Mass we are reminded of our own baptism. In Polish this Easter Rite is known by the title of the hymn that is sung: Widziałem Wodę, in Latin: Vidi Aquam, in English: I Saw Water.

Consider that the sight of water flowing from the right side of the Temple as in the vision of Ezekiel (Ez. 47) and from Jesus’ right side on the cross is not just something to be observed, looked at from a distance, but rather something we must run toward and enter so that it touches each part of us. Let us enter that washing and filling where love is made new each day.

The gift of God’s love resides in us both now in an imperfect sense and in eternity perfectly. The gift is new for Adrianna today and will abide in her as it does in all of us. Let us together ensure we live out that love and help her do so. 

“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.”

Christ is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Last week we discussed Jesus’ continuing revelation of the Father, His nature and character, and the interrelationship of the Father, Son, and Spirit.

In a few short weeks we will celebrate the mysteries Jesus is revealing to us as we encounter Trinity Sunday, Sunday in the Octave of Corpus Christi, and the Solemnity of God’s Word.

Today Jesus is discussing that fruit of the Father’s love which is peace. We who are the object of the Father’s love are given the gift of peace – a peace greater than the world can give.

Jesus’ offer of peace is given before His arrest, crucifixion, and death. Facing this, Jesus tells the Apostles to be untroubled and unafraid.

We know in retrospect that they did not immediately listen. Most ran away and hid behind locked doors in fear. Jesus literally had to break through those locked doors with His risen body to show them the truth of what He had said. Finally, with the gift of the Spirit they lived in His peace, unafraid.

The Apostles had something so powerful, so wonderful. They had an assurance of peace flowing from love. What is equally excellent is that we have the exact same thing.

In our Offertory/Secret Prayer we will hear: Grant that we may be ready to receive the peace and love of Your risen Son.

How important it is that we do, that we continually revive our trust in Jesus’ promise of peace and that we live unperturbed, unafraid, untroubled lives.

It is incumbent on us to live in trust.

Brothers and sisters, it is evident. Look at our parish, its situation fourteen years ago. We together decided to trust in God and move forward without the worrying and handwringing that destroys many communities. I could point out many parishes that do the same and those that unfortunately are hiding behind closed doors in trepidation and fear.

To trust and have peace is Jesus’ command and our choice. Let us live that way as we do His work. 

“This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Christ is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

As we have been journeying through this fifty-day celebration of Easter, we may have noticed one theme that re-emerges week after week. That theme is Jesus’ revelation of Who His Father is.

That revelation was made clear from the cross, where obedience to the Father’s will caused His very Son, Jesus, to give Himself up to death to save us.

From the empty tomb we learned that the resurrected Lord appearing in glorified body had opened the gates of heaven to us. We will be like Him in that same glory for all of eternity.

Last Sunday we heard Jesus tell us that the Father, upon His throne, holds us in His hands. The Father declares that we are His and no one can take us away from Him.

Today, Jesus speaks of the Father’s powerful love. Love is what motivates God, love is His character. God is the perfection of love.

The perfection of love calls us to love, calls us to move our love from imperfect to perfect.

God’s perfect love is now in the Church by Jesus’ very command: “I give you a new commandment: love one another.”

Jesus speaks of glory: “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.”  What we might understand of glory is far removed from God’s self-understanding of what glory entails. Glory is simply perfect love.

Glory is not crowns or treasures or power in the earthly banal sense, but rather a treasury of love that we can draw from. As we draw from it, we have cause to share, grow, and perfect love (by God’s grace) in ourselves and in our interactions with others.

St. John in Revelation shares his vision of the new heaven and the new earth. That reality is very much dependent on our cooperation with God and our work in building His Kingdom.

We will not get it done through earthly power nor riches or special wisdom. That work is completely dependent on how well we love.

“Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.”

Christ is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

There is an amazing amount of material and symbolism contained in today’s gospel message.

Seven of the remaining eleven Apostles have gone back to their former way of life, and their former failures. As when Jesus first called Simon, James, and John their nets were empty.

Jesus tells them to try again – meaning not just the fishing, but the ministry they were called to.

Jesus is not big on going back or backsliding. He wants us to, through the power of His resurrection, move forward, to persevere in the ministry we have been given.

After the catch and their recognition of Jesus, Peter finds himself undressed and quickly covers himself and then swims toward the Lord. Peter takes the first step in recovering himself with grace, putting on not just clothes, but the Lord.

Jesus reasserts His resurrected humanity at the campfire by the lake where He eats with them. During that meal, they are reminded of that supper they shared with the Lord before His death, and they are recalled to the ministry of that supper.

Jesus calls Simon Peter aside to reconcile his betrayals. Jesus questions him about his love. In the original Greek, Simon Peter says he loves Jesus as a ‘brother.’ Jesus is asking him if he loves Him with his whole self – just as Jesus loves us.

Even though Simon’s answer is weak, Jesus still calls him to feed and tend His followers, recalling him to ministry.

Finally, Jesus tells Peter that he will have to forego his sense of self-determination and self-control. Jesus tells him that he will learn to let go, even to the point of sacrificing his life for the life Jesus offers.

Like the Apostles that day let us hear Jesus’ call and offer Him all our love. Allow Him to take control of our lives.

“I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world.”

Christ is Risen! He is truly Risen! Alleluia! 

On this last Sunday in the Easter Season, we hear again from the extended Last Supper dialog between Jesus and His Apostles. Jesus is pouring out His heart to them as their servant, teacher, and Lord. He is begging them to take these lessons to heart.

In this dialog Jesus draws the distinction between the world and worldly and those who follow Him. He plainly states that those who follow Him are different.

On this Mother’s Day we might recall those dialogs with our moms: ‘Aww, mom, do I have to be so different. I want to be just like everybody else.’ Maybe it was the clothes or shoes we had. Maybe it was our weird lunch. Yet mom always reinforced the value of being unique. You know how that goes, in one ear, out the other. 

Perhaps I was weirdest and differentest kid of all, my dad having died, my diabetes touching everything I wished I could do. I was the textbook case of a child wanting to be just like everybody else.

I am thankful for the time I had in church. I recognized in God’s word the value of giving my all for His kingdom. In my mind it was no longer a question of wanting to be the same as everybody else but of embracing a different way of living; life different in Jesus.

Let us reinforce this – Jesus made us separate from the world. What we pursue matters. What we want matters. How we live matters.

Jesus asks us to consider those things we are chasing after. Our moms asked a similar question didn’t they: ‘What are you chasing after? What’s important to you?’

If we are not pursuing the kingdom we end up just like Judas. As Acts tells us, Judas went his own way. He pursued what was important to him and that was not God. He was after a worldly prize – power and wealth. That is why he is referred to as the ‘son of destruction.’

In a week we will move from the Easter season into Pentecost and living out the mission given us by Jesus with the power given us by the Holy Spirit. Our Easter joy becomes practical. Let’s then embrace our differentness, not pursuing the world and becoming sons and daughters of destruction, but indeed being sons and daughters of our heavenly King.

This is My commandment: love one another as I love you. 

Christ is Risen! He is truly Risen! Alleluia! 

On this Sunday in the Easter season, we are blessed to welcome a new member of God’s Kingdom through the waters of regeneration – rebirth into a completely new way of life. It is indeed a life of love.

Now, this causes us to raise a question as to Kingdom love, our Christian way of life. What’s all so different about it?

Indeed, people of every background provide love and charity for others. Most people regardless of religious affiliation, or no affiliation whatsoever love in ways aimed at the physical, emotional, psychological, relational, and economic well-being of others.

For Tallulah and us this is the difference. It is not the how, where, or work of love, but rather, its source, sustaining power, and goal.

For those in the Kingdom the source of love is the cross of Christ, the total self-giving of God for a people who neither deserved nor merited His concern. St. John tells us: “We love because He first loved us.” In the Cross our sins are forgiven, we are justified, accepted, and loved by God. By the cross fear and greed, the great barriers to love, are taken away as we trust in what God has done in Christ. So, the first difference between secular love and Christian love is that our love is rooted in the work of Christ and its impact in us.

Second, Kingdom love is sustained and shaped by the Holy Spirit, where secular love isn’t. St. Paul calls it the “fruit of the Spirit.” It is the Spirit that takes the death of Christ, causes it to be real for us, and gives us new hearts so that the death of Christ has a love-producing effect on us. The work of the Spirit sustains and shapes Christian love, but not the love of the world.

Finally, Christian love has a radically different goal, All the good we do in our loving has a Godward goal. Our love has more than a here and now goal and effect. Our love is not just for the present, rather it is forever because its emphasis is what is truly good for all, bringing all to God in Christ.

All that was about how our loving is different, what our baptismal faith changes about our outward loving. But there is more. Our commitment to Kingdom love must bring about deep change in us. We cannot remain just as we are. Within ourselves we must be fully convicted of our love’s shortcomings and work to grow our love so to meet Christ’s commandment.

I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.

Christ is Risen! He is truly Risen! Alleluia! 

My dear brothers and sisters, we continue in our celebration of the Easter Season. We have not so much journeyed with Jesus as we do in other seasons of the Church year, rather we have sat and listened to His teaching, encountering His Risen presence, and being reassured in what He has won for us. We are having the meaning of all scripture opened to us so we might integrate all we learned as we did journey with Him. In short, Easter is about a deeper learning and integration of that learning into ourselves.

We heard this same gospel of the vine just seven weeks ago on the Solemnity of the Institution. On that occasion we related the meaning of the True Vine and our connection to it corporately as the Church.

Today, we consider our personal union with Jesus. Today is about how we are effectuating Jesus’ life in us in tangible ways, i.e., how we are bearing fruit.

We are given the best of examples of bearing fruit in Acts. Saul has just encountered Jesus on the Damascus Road. This man, who, as Paul, would later write about his life of animosity toward the Body of Christ, and toward Jesus, who lived as an enemy of God in his self-righteousness, now lives washed of all sin. Saul was regenerated and made new in forgiveness and in his desire for unity with Christ’s body. Not only that, but he now lives on fire for evangelization: [He] spoke out boldly in the name of the Lord.

We see fruit in Barnabas who brought Saul into the community. He acted as a true brother in kindness and personal witness.

St. John reminds us of our obligation toward love of God and each other. He tells us: And his commandment is this: we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us. He also reveals to us the mark of our salvation, the source of the confidence we should have from living in the True Vine and bearing His fruit, the Spirit he gave us.

Having the Holy Spirit in us and carrying out the work of Jesus in building the kingdom, evangelizing the unbeliever, acting in witness and welcome, we glorify the Father and bear great fruit living what we have learned.