{"id":2153,"date":"2017-05-14T12:50:33","date_gmt":"2017-05-14T16:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=2153"},"modified":"2017-05-14T12:50:33","modified_gmt":"2017-05-14T16:50:33","slug":"5th-sunday-of-easter-year-a-homily-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/5th-sunday-of-easter-year-a-homily-2\/","title":{"rendered":"5th Sunday of Easter, Year A – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

5th<\/sup> Sunday of Easter, Year A<\/a>
\nActs 6:1-7
\nPsalm 33:1-2, 4-5, 18-19 (22)
\n1 Peter 2:4-9
\nJohn 14:1-12<\/p>\n

Throughout our Easter season our first reading comes from the Acts of the Apostles<\/em>.\u00a0 Acts <\/em>tells the story of the early church.\u00a0 If you read the whole story, you hear how the early church faced persecution and challenges.\u00a0 Today\u2019s reading starts with the good news that \u201cthe number of disciples continued to grow<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growth is certain very good news, something we pray we begin to see today.\u00a0 Yet the growth was not without its challenges.\u00a0 God always provides for us in our challenges if, as our psalm response says, \u201cwe place our trust in you.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 Jesus himself says, \u201cDo not let your hearts be troubled.\u00a0 You have faith in God, have faith also in me.\u201d<\/em> Jesus leads on our way through our challenges.<\/p>\n

What is the challenge they face?\u00a0 Jesus chose 12 disciples to become Apostles but as the church grew, it became too much for them to do all <\/em>the work.\u00a0 So, they call forth others to take on a portion<\/em> of the ministry.\u00a0 This is not a new concept.\u00a0 It is reminiscent of when Moses appointed seventy elders to share in his work and God laid his spirit upon the seventy.<\/p>\n

In today\u2019s passage, seven men are appointed to the task at hand.\u00a0 The Apostles \u201claid hands on them<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 This is seen as an \u201cordination.\u201d\u00a0 Even today, our ordination rites include the bishop laying hands on those being ordained.\u00a0 (The bishops are the successors to the Apostles).\u00a0 Our church considers these seven to be the first deacons.<\/p>\n

If you continue to read the Acts of the Apostles<\/em>, you will hear of \u201cpresbyters.\u201d\u00a0 These were people appointed as leaders in each local community as the \u201cbishops\u201d couldn\u2019t be everywhere.\u00a0 (See the letters of Paul to Timothy and Titus whom Paul appointed bishops).\u00a0 As the church grew in the first century following Christ, the role of \u201cpresbyter\u201d grew into what we know today as priests.<\/p>\n

In the centuries that followed we also saw the development of monastic and religious life.\u00a0 Last week we celebrated the World Day of Prayer for Vocations.\u00a0 When we think of vocations, our thoughts might often turn to the bishops, priests, deacons, and religious.\u00a0 Last week\u2019s day of prayer for vocations focused on this but we all have a vocation.\u00a0 A vocation is take the gifts that God has given us and to use them for the building up of his kingdom.<\/p>\n

For instance, married life is a vocation where a man and woman come together as husband and wife in a covenant relationship based on love that serves as a witness to the love that God shows us in the covenant relationship he has with us.<\/p>\n

Today our society in our country celebrates another vocation, motherhood<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 Being a mother is not simply a task or a job.\u00a0 It is a way of life that forever changes the way women lead their lives.\u00a0 When a woman becomes a mother, she is entrusted by God with the gift of her children.\u00a0 A mother is no longer just concerned with her own needs or her spouse.\u00a0 A mother helps her children to become who God calls them to be.<\/p>\n

Of course, mothers should receive help from the fathers.\u00a0 To do God\u2019s work is not for one individual or one \u201cclass\u201d of people.\u00a0 It was not just for the Apostles to do the work of the church.\u00a0 They, and the bishops as their successors, are called to be the leaders of the church but they do not do the ministry alone.\u00a0 It takes many.<\/p>\n

We see this in the way we celebrate Mass.\u00a0 As the priest, I could do everything myself but the priest does not do it all alone.\u00a0 We have altar servers, ushers, readers, extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, and musicians (the last of which you probably don\u2019t want me doing alone).<\/p>\n

This should be a sign of what should go on outside Mass.\u00a0 It is not for the bishops, priests, deacons, and religious to do it all.\u00a0 On staff we have a Pastoral Associate to help in ministries like home visits.\u00a0 We have a Catechetical Leader who oversees our faith formation and youth ministry programs.\u00a0 We have a Finance Director and a secretary to work on the administrative tasks.\u00a0 We have a maintenance person to work on our building and grounds.\u00a0 We have a music director to lead us in our music ministry.<\/p>\n

However, these people, along with me don\u2019t do it all either.\u00a0 For instance, for Pat\u2019s ministry as Pastoral Associate, we have parishioners who take Communion to the homebound and nursing homes.\u00a0 June has parishioners who volunteer to teach our children.\u00a0 Tim has the choir members and cantors who share in our music ministry.\u00a0 Gary is assisted by our Finance Council.\u00a0 I am assisted by our Pastoral Council in planning our future.\u00a0 We have a Building and Grounds team.\u00a0 There is our Rosary and Altar Society, our rummage sale and festival volunteers.\u00a0 My point is we all are called to help in some way.<\/p>\n

I want to end with a prayer I first read in our diocesan stewardship materials but you find in various church resources.\u00a0 I\u2019ll put it on our Facebook page and my blog.\u00a0 For now, I just invite you to listen.<\/p>\n

My church is composed of people like me.
\nI help make it what it is.
\nIt will be friendly, if I am.
\nIts pews will be filled, if I help fill them.
\nIt will do great work, if I work.
\nIt will make generous gifts to many causes, if I am a generous giver.
\nIt will bring other people into its worship and fellowship,
\nif I invite and bring them.
\nIt will be a church of loyalty and love,
\nof fearlessness and faith, and a church with a noble spirit,
\nif I, who make it what it is, am filled with these same things.
\nTherefore, with the help of God,
\nI shall dedicate myself to the task of
\nbeing all the things I want my church to be.<\/p>\n

Taken from our diocesan Joy of Stewardship Manual<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

5th Sunday of Easter, Year A Acts 6:1-7 Psalm 33:1-2, 4-5, 18-19 (22) 1 Peter 2:4-9 John 14:1-12 Throughout our Easter season our first reading comes from the Acts of the Apostles.\u00a0 Acts tells the story of the early church.\u00a0 If you read the whole story, you hear how the early church faced persecution and …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘5th 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":[82,41],"tags":[118],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-yJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2153"}],"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=2153"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2154,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2153\/revisions\/2154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}