5TH SUNDAY OF EASTER
In this weekend’s first reading, we see how human the first Christians were. Some were Palestinian Jews, while others were gentiles of Greek origin. When food was distributed to the widows, those of Greek origin complained that they were often passed over. Tensions were bound to arise since each group had different ways of thinking and acting. The second reading, from the First Letter of St. Peter, uses the image of “stone” or “rock.” Peter, referring to Isaiah’s prophecy, tells us that God the Father long ago had established His Son, Jesus, as the “cornerstone, chosen and precious in his sight.” Peter, with warm and welcoming tone, urges us to come with hope and trust to the living stone of salvation, and there to become ourselves a holy temple. Of course, there’s a price to pay. Through our own sufferings, we offer sacrifice and praise to the Father along with the Son. All of this happens through our Baptism and the power of the Holy Spirit. Then comes a warning. Just as many have rejected this rock of salvation to their own condemnation, so too, if we attempt to bypass Christ, then we will ourselves stumble and fall. Peter quotes Isaiah as his authority for referring to Christ as a stumbling block to those who reject Him.
This Gospel Reading is about Jesus and the disciples. He is helping them get ready for his suffering and death. For the apostles this was a huge reversal from the adulation of the entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to the despair of the Cross on Good Friday. Remember when he asked them whether they would leave him, along with the rest of the crowd? Now it is he who is leaving. They are stunned. Peter’s reply at that time might even be appropriate now. “Where will we go? You have the words of eternal life” Jesus tells them as he tells us now. “Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. You have faith in God, have faith also in me.” The straightforward meaning of this directive is, you know how to trust, you do it with God. Use that same trust with me. This trust in Jesus and in God is also what we are called to these days. There is much division within the world community and there is also a lot of division within the lives we lead as people who follow along the way the truth and the life that we are called to by Jesus. Jesus speaks to us not at us. His presence is in the word proclaimed in the Assembly of the people of God gathered together. His word is proclaimed to us in the readings from scripture as well as in lived example of others in the community where we live. We come to Church week in week out to hear the Word. We come to share the joys and sufferings of all the community gathered together. We make a spiritual communion with Jesus; risen from the Tomb We don’t stay in Church all the time as the hard pew might well become the soft bed.
All of us have duties and obligations to family, work and the communities where we live. When we’re confused about the decisions we should make, Jesus Himself will show us the Way. When we don’t know what is true and what is right and what is wrong, the Holy Spirit through the Church and the faith of its members will enlighten us. And when we are drawn into false pleasures that promise us life, Jesus will bring us back to real life and the joy of that life through the power of His love. As we walk along the roads of life let us take up the call of Jesus in the gospel to trust in him and he will not let us down as we follow him.
Fullerton T 