Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year C

Last week was World Day of Prayer for Vocations, and I think I mentioned not

only that we all have a vocation, a special way in which God is calling us to

serve Him, but also that we don’t know what that adventure will be and what

lies in the future. Perhaps you might be sitting there and thinking, well, I’m 88,

and I don’t think there is much more now that God would have in store for me.

Well, leave yourself open to be surprised. I know someone who, only in his

older years, discovered that he had a hidden talent for composing hymns and

music for the Mass. Or, moving to made up examples now, there could be

someone who, only by the age of seventy-one, finally manages to control his or

her anger, much to the surprise of everyone.

We are all called to serve the Lord. And as part of that, the driving force is

God’s love. Not just ordinary human love, but God’s divine love. “When

Judas had gone out from the upper room, Jesus said, ‘Now is the Son of Man

glorified’.” This is because the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus are

now in motion, by which He will renew and re-fashion the whole world. Death

and sin will no longer reign, and no longer have the upper hand. Whilst

suffering on the Cross, the Lord forgave not only those who were good and

faithful servants, or maybe even those who were a bit ignorant and made life

difficult for Him, those who tried to help but made matters worse; He also

forgave His enemies. He wanted everyone to be saved, for everyone to have a

chance. In the parable where the master is hiring people to work in his

vineyard, he goes to the market square at various times during the day to recruit

more workers, and even when there is just an hour’s worth of daylight left, he

still hires more. It’s like the fact that there are those who are good and fervent

followers right from their childhood. Some convert as teenagers. Others as

young adults, or maybe older adults. There are those who turn or return to the

Lord when they have only maybe five years of life left. And then there are the

deathbed conversions: Lord, I’ve been a fool. I don’t know why I made such a

mess of my life. I’m such a disappointment to you and my family, and I’ve let

myself down. Please forgive me, even though I don’t deserve to be forgiven.

The Lord wants all to convert, so He prays and suffers for everyone, even those

who work against Him. So we have to do the same: “just as I have loved you,

you also are to love one another”. We can only do so, fired by His love, having

Him loving in and through us. We can’t do it alone.

In the first reading, Paul and Barnabas have been around on their missionary

work, inspired by love of the Lord and humanity, and as they return, they water

the seeds that have been planted and are starting to grow. The Church begins to

take shape. They appoint “elders” in every church. Often the word “elder” is

used to translate two Greek words, from which we get the English words of

bishop and presbyter, or priest. In this case, the Greek word is “presbuterous”.

As your Parish Priest, I live in a presbytery, the house of the presbyter. Paul

and Barnabas’ work for the Lord has been hard-going, but it’s starting to pay

off, and they encourage the people there with their news of what has been

happening on their missionary journeys. If you want to hear what is happening

in the diocese with regard to vocations, have a look at the vocations newsletter,

using the link in last week’s bulletin. If you’ve recycled it by now, I can give

you the link again or print you off a copy.

As part of encouraging vocations, last week we were also praying here in

church before the Blessed Sacrament. In the second reading, it looked to a

future time when God will fully make His home among us: “He will dwell

with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as

their God”. We already have that in a hidden way, in that Jesus in the Blessed

Sacrament is present in every occupied tabernacle of every Catholic church

across the world. He is here, and we can literally draw close to Him, and

experience the radiance and sweetness of His Presence, inspiring and drawing

us on to serve Him with that heroic love we are all called to.

When the Church looks to canonise someone, they have to do an investigation

into that person’s life and see if this supposed saint has lived the faith to an

heroic degree. Donald Trump isn’t someone I would currently include on that

list, but there’s hope for everyone. At a Catholic charity dinner before his

election as president, he stood up and said something like: you don’t know

how hard it is to speak here when about fifty percent of the people love you,

and the other fifty percent absolutely hate your guts. The point I’m making is

that, living the faith to an heroic degree can be something like that, standing up

for Christ, not just when it’s easy, but also when it’s downright scary, showing

love, not just to friends, but also to enemies. But that is something we are all

called to do; we are all called to be saints.

Our vocation then, as St Thérèse of Lisieux discovered, is to be love in the

heart of the Church. In that way, we fulfil our calling, our vocation, and we

leave God to sort out the rest.

Curious about exploring things further?  If you would like to ask further questions about the topics raised in these homilies (or maybe think it wasn’t explained too well!), please feel free to e-mail Fr Michael at stjoseph.thame@rcaob.org.uk