Mother Church invites us to celebrate Sunday, May 07, 2023, as the fifth Sunday of Easter – Year A. In the entrance antiphon we pray: “O sing a new song to the Lord, for he has worked wonders; in the sight of the nations he has shown his deliverance, alleluia.”
First Reading: Acts 6: 1-7.
In those days when the disciples were increasing in numbers, the Hellenists murmured against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. And the Twelve summoned the body of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brethren, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” And what they said pleased the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands upon them. And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.
Comment
The Twelve Apostles establish a principle which they consider basic: their apostolic ministry is so absorbing that they have no time to do other things. In this particular case, an honourable and useful function – distribution of food – which cannot be allowed to get in the way of an even more important task essential to the life of the Church and of each of its members, that is, leading prayers and preaching the Word of God.
The main responsibility of the pastors of the Church is to preach the word of God, administer the sacraments and govern the people of God. Any other commitment they take on should be compatible with their pastoral work and supportive of it, in keeping with the example given by Christ: he cured people’s physical ailments in order to reach their souls, and he preached justice and peace as signs of the Kingdom of God.
Saint Paul VI says this of priests in his encyclical Evangelii nuntiandi, “As pastors, we have been chosen by the mercy of the Supreme Pastor, in spite of our inadequacy, to proclaim with authority the Word of God, to assemble the scattered people of God, to nourish this people on the road to salvation, to maintain it in the unity of which we are, at different levels, active and living instruments, and increasingly to keep this community gathered around Christ faithful to its deepest vocation.” Paul VI on the role of the pastors of the Church.
For his part, Saint John Paul II once called on each priest to embrace God’s word in its entirety, meditate on it, study it assiduously and spread it through his example and preaching. His whole life should be a generous proclamation of Christ. Therefore, he should avoid the temptation to “temporal leadership: that can easily be a source of division, whereas he should be a sign and promoter of unity and fraternity.”
Let us pray for our priests in the words of Christian Cardinal Tumi, the late Emeritus Archbishop of Douala in Cameroon, “Lord Jesus, our one and only High Priest, make that our priests and religious, by the witness of their behaviour, may inspire your faithful to live a life of purity and to follow you. May they, more now than ever before, remain attached to you, by striving to resemble you through a life of self-denial; and may they remain faithful to the commitments of their vocations. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. Alleluia!
Second Reading: 1 Peter 2: 4-9
Beloved: Come to the Lord, to that living stone, rejected by men but in God’s sight chosen and precious; and like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and he who believes in him will not be put to shame.” To you therefore who believe, he is precious, but for those who do not believe, “The very stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and “A stone that will make men stumble, a rock that will make them fall”, for they stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Comment
As we said over the past Sundays, the First Letter of Peter is addressed to Christians who were living in a remote part of the Roman Empire, presumably with little contact with other Christian communities. Two major themes run through the letter: first, the high dignity and boundless joy of being a Christian, and, second, the necessity and tremendous honour of sharing in the sufferings of Christ. The letter is therefore about Christian discipleship with its joys and its sorrows; its teaching is that sorrow comes but is always absorbed in joy. Even though death and life run through this letter, it is always life that wins over death.
In the passage selected for our meditation, Saint Peter tells us that Baptism makes us members of the Church. He uses the idea of constructing a building to explain that Christians together go to make up the one, true people of God. The Church is like a spiritual building of which Christ is the cornerstone, that is, the stone which supports the entire structure. Christians have to be living stones united to Christ by faith and grace, thereby forming a solid temple in which “spiritual sacrifices” are offered, which are acceptable to God.
The believers’ living hope based on their new birth should lead to a lifestyle of holiness. Peter exhorts us to prepare to meet the challenges of obedience by adopting a new mind-set. He urges us to prepare our minds for action; to have self-control, and to set our hope fully on God. Holy living demands determination.
The priesthood of all Christians demands obedience, praise and deeds of mercy; it emphasises responsibility and is collective in its application.
As one Christian writer, Origen, says: All of us who believe in Christ Jesus are called living stones. For if you, who are listening to me, want to prepare yourself better for the construction of this building, and be one of the stones closest to the foundation, you need to realise that Christ himself is the foundation of the building we are describing. As the Apostle Paul tells us (1 Cor 3:11), no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Saint Peter shows how those who do not believe in Christ as the cornerstone become like stones that make men stumble, rocks that make them fall.
Let us pray that the Holy Spirit may visit us this day and open our eyes that we truly see that Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of our lives. Outside him, we are lost. “God our Father, hear our prayer and send out on all mankind the Spirit who makes us your sons and daughters, as foretold by Christ, the witness of your truth; and so bring to completion through the gospel the sanctification promised by your Word. We make our prayer through Christ our Lord. Amen. Alleluia.”
Gospel acclamation: Alleluia, alleluia. I am the way, the truth and the life, says the Lord; no one comes to the Father, except through me. Alleluia.”
Gospel: John 14: 1-12.
In those days, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also; henceforth, you know him and have seen him.” Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father; how can you say, “Show us the Father?” Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves. “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father.”
Comment
As Eastertide moves towards Pentecost, the Church turns to the pages of Saint John’s Last Supper discourse to find suitable expressions for her union with Christ. Shortly before today’s passage, Jesus predicts that Peter is going to deny him. “Truly, truly, I say to you, the cock will not crow, till you have denied me three times.” This must have saddened the disciples and so Jesus tries to cheer them up in the present passage by telling them that he is going away to prepare a place for them in heaven where his Father resides.
One of the disciples, Philip, asks him how to find God. Our gospel lesson of this day gives Jesus’ answer to that question, one many of us continue to ask ourselves each day. Jesus tells Philip, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me.” Jesus is our road map to finding God. That is one of the reasons we go to Church. We are looking to Jesus to show us the way to his Father.
Jesus is the way because he is the only path linking heaven and earth. He gives us advice and direction. He takes us by the hand when we read Sacred Scripture and leads us to his Father. He is our guide on our journey through life. Outside him there is no other sure guide.
Jesus is the truth. In this day and age, when there is so much confusion about God, says Cameroonian Jesuit Priest Stephen Kizito Forbi, it is a great gift to be able to turn to Jesus and learn the truth. You have often heard many people say, “Do what they teach not what they do.” We say this because what these people say and what they do are two different things altogether. They teach only by their words and not by their examples. Jesus, on the contrary, is the Truth because he teaches us not only by words but also by example. He tells us to love our enemies and shows it when he prays for those who are crucifying him: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing.”
Jesus is the life. He is really a life-giver. During his time on earth, he gave many people physical life by curing them of their illnesses. He brought some back to life and gave them back to their loved ones, e. g, the son of the widow of Nain (Lk 7: 11-18), and his friend Lazarus (Jn 11: 1-44). He gave people spiritual life by preaching to them the Word of God.
What should we do on a day like this after listening to Jesus tell us that he is the way, the life and the truth? First, let us be thankful to him for accepting to do great work for us. If he is the way, which he is, then let us follow him. Our presence in church this day is our way of following him. If he is the truth, then we need to grow in our knowledge about him. How do we grow in this knowledge? By reading the Bible more. We should put a Bible reading hour in our schedule each day and get to know our Lord and Saviour better through his words. Finally, if Jesus is the life, then we need to receive him in our lives in the sacraments. This means adding one more Mass day to our Sunday obligations, blessing our marriage in church; baptising our kids; going for the Sacrament of Reconciliation, which is a free gift from God. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through him. Amen, alleluia.
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