{"id":1811,"date":"2016-04-24T12:45:59","date_gmt":"2016-04-24T16:45:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1811"},"modified":"2016-04-24T12:45:59","modified_gmt":"2016-04-24T16:45:59","slug":"5th-sunday-in-easter-year-c-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/5th-sunday-in-easter-year-c-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"5th Sunday in Easter, Year C – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

5th<\/sup> Sunday of Easter, Year C<\/a>
\nActs 14:21-27
\nPsalm 145:8-9, 10-11, 12-13
\nRevelation 21:1-15a
\nJohn 13:33-31-33a, 34-35
\nApril 24, 2016<\/p>\n

This is the fourth week in a row where our second reading has come from the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 Revelation tells of several visions that John has of what Heaven will be like.\u00a0 These visions can be difficult for us to understand.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s reading speak of one of John\u2019s vision but it doesn\u2019t give difficult images to understand.\u00a0 It centers on John seeing \u201ca new<\/strong> heaven and a new<\/strong> earth<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 It ends with, \u201cBehold, I make all things new<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

What is your vision of Heaven and Earth should be like?<\/p>\n

What would your ideal life be?<\/p>\n

Would it be a loving spouse, a perfect marriage, two children (one boy, one girl), retire young, and travel the world?<\/p>\n

That might happen for some but how often do we get exactly what we want?\u00a0 Is what we want good?<\/p>\n

Think of Paul.\u00a0 He had been a zealous Jew, working as a Pharisee to serve God.\u00a0 He saw Jesus\u2019 followers as worshipping a false prophet and he worked hard to stop them.\u00a0 He was doing what he thought was best but Jesus appeared to him and revealed otherwise.\u00a0 Paul then become a zealous Christian.\u00a0 Paul worked to glorify God.<\/p>\n

God has a plan, a vision for what the world should be like.\u00a0 How much do we work for God\u2019s vision versus what we want?<\/p>\n

For me, one of the things I would like is stability and to know exactly what is going on.\u00a0 I don\u2019t seem to get either.<\/p>\n

I have been here for four years and I believe that we<\/em> have done a lot of good things that have been God\u2019s will and helped people deepen their relationship with God but now I believe God is saying, \u201cGood job, but now I have something else for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

I would like stability from being in the same place for a while.\u00a0 I would like to know what is coming but I don\u2019t so I trust in God.<\/p>\n

I hope my trust in God serves to glorify God.\u00a0 Jesus glorified God by doing the Father\u2019s Will.\u00a0 In turn, God glorified Jesus by raising Him up in the Resurrection.<\/p>\n

Do we glorify God?<\/p>\n

What does it mean to glorify God?<\/p>\n

One way we glorify God is by praising God.\u00a0 We praise God in the way we worship God.\u00a0 We celebrate Mass to praise God.<\/p>\n

Sometimes we think coming to Mass is supposed to make us feel<\/em><\/strong> good.\u00a0 In general, coming to Mass should be a good experience but its purpose should not be just to \u201cfeel good.\u201d\u00a0 I think of \u201cfeeling good\u201d as something superficial, a short lived experience of happiness.<\/p>\n

I use the word \u201chappiness\u201d to signify an earthly state of having a good day.\u00a0 Mass goes a step further.\u00a0 Mass should help draw us into a deeper<\/em> awareness of God\u2019s presence in our lives.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a hard distinction for me to make, happiness versus the joy that comes from a deeper relationship with God but it is a big distinction.\u00a0 Happiness is short lived.\u00a0 Joy from a deeper relationship with God lasts through the good and the bad.<\/p>\n

Happiness makes us feel good for a few minutes.\u00a0 Joy leads us to become more like Jesus, more aware of his presence, and a deeper desire to live as Jesus teaches us.<\/p>\n

What does Jesus give us as a new commandment?\u00a0 \u201cLove one another<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 Our love of Jesus should lead us to love others.\u00a0 This can be a challenge.\u00a0 What does it even mean to love?\u00a0 We love in different ways with different people; friends, siblings, parents, children, friends, as man and woman in marriage, and we are even called to love strangers.\u00a0 Each differently but each as Jesus teaches us.<\/p>\n

Our love for Jesus should govern our actions so that when we leave Mass we go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your lives<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

5th Sunday of Easter, Year C Acts 14:21-27 Psalm 145:8-9, 10-11, 12-13 Revelation 21:1-15a John 13:33-31-33a, 34-35 April 24, 2016 This is the fourth week in a row where our second reading has come from the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 Revelation tells of several visions that John has of what Heaven will be like.\u00a0 These visions …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘5th Sunday in Easter, Year C – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-td","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1811"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1811"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1812,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1811\/revisions\/1812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}