{"id":2150,"date":"2017-05-07T12:55:00","date_gmt":"2017-05-07T16:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=2150"},"modified":"2017-05-07T12:55:00","modified_gmt":"2017-05-07T16:55:00","slug":"4th-sunday-of-easter-year-a-homily-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/4th-sunday-of-easter-year-a-homily-2\/","title":{"rendered":"4th Sunday of Easter, Year A – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

4th<\/sup> Sunday of Easter, Year A<\/a>
\nActs 2:14a, 36-41
\nPsalm 23:1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6
\n1 Peter 2:20b-25
\nJohn 10:1-10<\/p>\n

Today we celebrate the Fourth Sunday of Easter.\u00a0 Each year on this Sunday we hear Jesus\u2019 Good Shepherd discourse as found in chapter 10 of John\u2019s Gospel.\u00a0 Jesus identifies himself as the Good Shepherd who always<\/em><\/strong> watches over his sheep.\u00a0 Today is also the World Day of Prayer for Vocations as we pray for all those who serve our church.<\/p>\n

Today we hear Jesus tell how the sheep know the voice of their shepherd and will not follow any other shepherd.\u00a0 They trust the one who has protected them in the past.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, today Jesus\u2019 voice may be one voice among many that we hear.\u00a0 There can be many different people trying to tell us how we should live.\u00a0 Which voice should we listen to?\u00a0 Jesus loves us so much that he willingly gives his life on the Cross for us.\u00a0 He is the one we can trust.<\/p>\n

Still, it can be hard for us to recognize his voice apart from all the others.\u00a0 That is why we need to keep coming back to church each and every Sunday, so that we can learn Jesus\u2019 voice apart from the others.<\/p>\n

When we keep coming to Jesus, he will, as the 23rd<\/sup> Psalm says, refresh our souls, he will spread the table before us.\u00a0 As the Good Shepherd, Jesus always feeds his flock with grace.<\/p>\n

God nourishes us with his words, providing us divine wisdom and grace to follow him.\u00a0 One of the ways God gives us grace is the \u201csacraments.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first sacrament we receive is Baptism.\u00a0 In Baptism we are marked with what we term an \u201cindelible\u201d mark, meaning it can never be taken away.\u00a0 We are forever marked as children of God.\u00a0 In Baptism we receive the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n

I said Baptism is the first<\/em> sacrament.\u00a0 There are seven total.\u00a0 Today I want to focus on three of them that we call \u201cSacraments of Initiation.\u201d\u00a0 Baptism is a Sacrament of Initiation as it is how we come (are initiated) into God\u2019s Church.<\/p>\n

The second Sacrament of Initiation is Confirmation.\u00a0 We receive the Holy Spirit in Baptism.\u00a0 As Catholics, most often we are baptized as little children. \u00a0Confirmation comes when we have grown into an awareness of our faith for ourselves and are sealed with Holy Spirit.\u00a0 As we come to this \u201cawareness of faith\u201d for ourselves, we see Confirmation as a new step in our initiation in faith.\u00a0 This week, sixteen of our youth will be confirmed at the Cathedral by Bishop Matano.<\/p>\n

Now, we turn to the third Sacrament of Initiation, the Eucharist.\u00a0 Baptism and Confirmation are both celebrated just once (and can never be undone).\u00a0 While Baptism and Confirmation are each done once in a lifetime, Eucharist is the sacrament we are called to repeat over and over, at least weekly on Sunday, and even daily for those who are able to come during the week.<\/p>\n

It might seem strange to call something we do over and over \u201cinitiation.\u201d\u00a0 One way we can see the Eucharist as initiation is that, since it is the Body and Blood of Christ<\/em><\/strong>, it is the highest the highest of the sacrament.\u00a0 It is Jesus we receive and it is Jesus we strive to become like.<\/p>\n

When we receive the Eucharist over and over, we might become complacent in what it means to us.\u00a0 It might become too routine for us, meaning we receive without thinking too much about it when what we really need to do is think about what it is that we are receiving.<\/p>\n

If all we needed to do was just receive Jesus, one might suppose that we could run into church, receive Communion, and leave.\u00a0 That would be simple but I think we would have no<\/em><\/strong> appreciation for what we receive.\u00a0 Every time we celebrate Mass, we participate in the consecration and should think about what it is we are receiving.\u00a0 It is not just bread and wine.\u00a0 It is the Body and Blood of Jesus that he gave on the Cross for us<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

As we get ready to receive Communion, we need to realize that \u201cCommunion\u201d indicates a coming together.\u00a0 That\u2019s why we start with readings from the Bible, so that we can hear how God calls us to live.<\/p>\n

We can also think about how it is that we receive Communion.<\/p>\n

We do not simply pass the ciborium around and everyone reach in and grab a host for themselves.\u00a0 No, we come forth in line for Communion.\u00a0 Our coming forth in a line signifies our desire to come to Jesus.\u00a0 Then as the consecrated host is placed in our hands, we receive<\/em> the host as a gift while hearing the words \u201cThe Body of Christ<\/em><\/strong>\u201d and we respond \u201camen\u201d which means yes I believe.\u00a0 Then we can receive <\/em>the Precious Blood as the chalice is handed to us with the words, \u201cThe Blood of Christ<\/em><\/strong>\u201d to which we again respond \u201camen\u201d signifying our belief.<\/p>\n

Then, we don\u2019t go immediately running out of church.\u00a0 Instead we return to our pews and kneel to think about what it is that we have received and to give thanks to Jesus as our Good Shepherd for this gift of the Eucharist.<\/p>\n

At the 10:30 Mass we have six children who will be receiving their First Communion.\u00a0 At the Easter Vigil, we had one person complete their Sacraments of Initiation so this weekend will be the fourth time she receives Communion.\u00a0 How many times have you received Communion?\u00a0 What does it mean to you to receive this gift of Jesus?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

4th Sunday of Easter, Year A Acts 2:14a, 36-41 Psalm 23:1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6 1 Peter 2:20b-25 John 10:1-10 Today we celebrate the Fourth Sunday of Easter.\u00a0 Each year on this Sunday we hear Jesus\u2019 Good Shepherd discourse as found in chapter 10 of John\u2019s Gospel.\u00a0 Jesus identifies himself as the Good Shepherd who always …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘4th Sunday of Easter, Year A – 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":[113,82,11],"tags":[24,173,292,125],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-yG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2150"}],"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=2150"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2151,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2150\/revisions\/2151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}