Easter 5th Week:
May 10 Wednesday: John 15:1-8:
The context: During his Last Supper discourse,
Jesus uses one of his favorite images, the vine and the branches, to help his
disciples understand the closeness of their relationship with him and the
necessity of their maintaining it. Jesus assures them, using the parable of the
vine and branches, that the Life-giving Spirit, Whom Jesus will send them, will
be present and active among his disciples and their successors. This Gospel
passage also emphasizes the need for Christians to abide in Christ as an
essential condition for producing fruits of kindness, mercy, justice, charity,
and holiness. Paul further clarified this idea in Colossians 1:18 using
another metaphor, that Christ is the Head and Christians are the different
members of His Mystical Body. Pruning is an essential part of growing
fruit-producing branches. In the vineyards in Palestine, dead branches were
pruned to save the vine. Fruitless, leafy branches draining life sap from the
main trunk were also pruned away leaving only fruit-bearing branches. Jesus
tells his apostles that they have already been pruned by the words he has
spoken to them. Eventually, they will be pruned of all attachment to the
things of this world so that they may be ready to attach themselves to the
things of Heaven.
Life messages 1) We need pruning in our
Christian life. Pruning which cuts out of our lives everything that is contrary
to the spirit of Jesus and renews our commitment to Christian ideals in our
lives every day is the first type of self-imposed pruning expected of us. A
second kind of pruning is accomplished by practicing self-control over our evil
inclinations, sinful addictions and aberrations. A third type of pruning is
done by our permitting Jesus to prune, purify and strengthen us as God allows
us to face pain, suffering, contradictions and difficulties with His grace and
the courage of our Christian convictions.
2) Let us abide in Christ and let Christ abide in us:
Personal and liturgical prayers, frequenting of the Sacraments of the Holy
Eucharist and Reconciliation, daily, meditative reading of the Bible and
selfless, loving acts of kindness, mercy and forgiveness enable us to abide in
Jesus, the true vine, as fruit-bearing branches (Fr. Tony) (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
21.
May 11 Thursday: Jn 15: 9-11:
The context: During the Last Supper discourse,
Jesus teaches his disciples that love is the hallmark and the criterion of
Christians. Jesus reminds his disciples that he has chosen them as his friends
with a triple mission. First, they are to love others as he has loved them.
Second, they are to bear the fruits of the Holy Spirit in their lives. Third,
they are to ask God the Father for whatever they need in Jesus’ name.
The criteria of Christian love: First, Jesus modifies the
Old Testament command from “love your neighbor as you love yourselves” (Lv
19: 18) to “love others as I have loved you.” This means that our
love for others must be unconditional, forgiving, and sacrificial. Jesus
invites each Christian to be in the inner circle of his friends by obeying his
commandments including the new commandment of love. Such friends abide in
Jesus, and Jesus abides in them, and their prayers in Jesus’ name will be
answered promptly by God the Father. We express our love for Christ by obeying
his new commandment of love. Jesus further explains that the real source of
Christian joy is the certainty that God loves us. We, too, must be ready to
express our love for others by our readiness to die for them as Jesus died for
us.
Life message: 1) Let us remember that true Christian
love is costly and painful because it involves sacrifice on our part when we
start loving the unlovable, ungrateful and hostile people with Christ’s
unconditional, forgiving and sacrificial love. But our Christian call is to
love others as Jesus has loved us, and as Jesus loves them. (Fr. Tony) (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
21.
May 12 Friday: Jn 15: 12-17:
The context: Today’s Gospel passage is a part of
Jesus’ Last Supper discourse. Jesus reminds his disciples that he has chosen
them as his friends with a triple mission. First, they are to love
others as he has loved them. Second, they are to bear the
fruits of the Holy Spirit in their lives. Third, they are to ask God
the Father in Jesus’ Name, for whatever they need.
First, Jesus modifies the Old Testament command from “love
your neighbor as you love yourselves” (Lv 19:18) to “love others as I
have loved you.” This means that our love for others must be
unconditional, forgiving, and sacrificial. We, too, must be ready to express
our love for others by our readiness to die for them as Jesus died for us.
Second, Jesus explains that the calling to produce fruits, which the Apostles
received, and which every Christian also receives, does not originate in the
individual’s good desires but in Christ’s free choice. Third, Jesus concludes
his advice by referring to the effectiveness of prayer offered in his
Name. That is why the Church usually ends the prayers of the liturgy with
the invocation “Through Jesus Christ our Lord….”
Life message 1) Let us remember that true
Christian love is costly and painful because it involves sacrifice on our part
when we start loving unlovable, ungrateful and hostile people with Christ’s
unconditional, forgiving and sacrificial love. But our Christian call is to
love others as Jesus has loved us, and as Jesus loves them, and he always gives
us the grace to do so. Tony
(Fr. Tony) (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
May 13 Saturday: Jn 15:18-21:
The context: In today’s Gospel passage, taken
from the Last Supper discourse, Jesus warns his apostles of what they are to
expect from a world which ignores God and His teaching. They will be hated and
persecuted as Jesus was. But there can be no compromise between Christ’s
disciples and the followers of the powers of darkness. The term “world” in
today’s Gospel passage means people who are hostile towards God and opposed to
His will. They represent an evil society which “calls evil
good and good evil” (Is 5:20). Such a society will hate Christ
and his teachings because Christian teaching exposes the evil of society and
its false and dangerous doctrines. Since the Church Jesus established stands
for truth, morality and justice, it does not support the modern “dictatorship
of relativism.” The modern world hates and ridicules everything Christian
through its liberal, agnostic and atheistic media.
Life message: Let us ask the Holy Spirit for the
courage of our Christian convictions to believe and practice what Jesus taught and
what Jesus continues to teach through the Church.
(Fr. Tony) (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
