{"id":2161,"date":"2017-05-28T11:56:09","date_gmt":"2017-05-28T15:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=2161"},"modified":"2017-05-28T11:56:09","modified_gmt":"2017-05-28T15:56:09","slug":"7th-sunday-of-easter-year-a-homily-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/7th-sunday-of-easter-year-a-homily-2\/","title":{"rendered":"7th Sunday of Easter, Year A – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

7th<\/sup> Sunday of Easter, Year A<\/a>
\nActs 1:12-14
\nPsalm 27:1, 4, 7-8 (13)
\n1 Peter 4:13-16
\nJohn 17:1-11a<\/p>\n

On Thursday we celebrated Jesus\u2019 Ascension into Heaven.\u00a0 This marked an important moment as the disciples saw him ascend on the cloud so that they (and us!) might all know Jesus has returned to his place in Heaven, seated at the right hand of the Father.<\/p>\n

Now, it is almost<\/em> time for the Apostles and disciples to take the gospel message to all the world.\u00a0 I say \u201calmost\u201d because Jesus told them to wait for \u201cthe promise of the Father<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 This is, of course, a reference to the Holy Spirit that they will receive at Pentecost and that we have received in our Baptism and were sealed with at Confirmation.<\/p>\n

So the Apostles once again gather in the upper room.\u00a0 Earlier in our Easter season, we heard how the disciples gathered in the room with the doors locked for \u201cfear of the Jews<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 At that time they couldn\u2019t understand what had happened.\u00a0 Jesus, the one they thought to be the Messiah was crucified and the tomb was empty.<\/p>\n

Since that time Jesus spent forty days with them teaching them about his Crucifixion and Resurrection fulfilled what had been foretold.\u00a0 They rejoiced to have this time with Jesus.<\/p>\n

Now Jesus has \u201cleft them\u201d but unlike with the Crucifixion and the tomb being found empty, this time they know exactly where Jesus has gone because they saw him ascend.<\/p>\n

I wonder how they felt as they once again gathered in the upper room.\u00a0 We are told that they \u201cdevoted themselves with one accord to prayer.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 I wonder what they were saying in their prayers.<\/p>\n

Perhaps they prayed that they might experience Jesus’ daily presence among them.<\/p>\n

Perhaps they prayed to know what to do next.\u00a0 Remember Jesus is our light.\u00a0 As our light he helps us to see the world as he sees it.<\/p>\n

Perhaps they still had some fear, fear of what was to come.\u00a0 Jesus had told them that they would suffer.\u00a0 Did they fear the suffering?<\/p>\n

We can all fear suffering.\u00a0 Society teaches us to avoid suffering.\u00a0 Suffering is seen as bad yet we hear Peter write, \u201cRejoice to the extent that you share in the sufferings of Christ<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rejoice?\u00a0 The very definition of \u201csuffering\u201d would seem to indicate that suffering is something to avoid.\u00a0 How can we possibly rejoice in suffering?<\/p>\n

Peter does not say that all sufferings are good.\u00a0 He speaks of the suffering that comes as the result of murder, theft, or evil as not good.\u00a0 No, the suffering Peter speaks of is when we are \u201cmade to suffer as a Christian.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

For instance, one of the reasons we don\u2019t talk about our faith outside church much is because we are afraid of what people might say to us.\u00a0 Will they ridicule us?\u00a0 So what if they do?\u00a0 It is their loss, not ours.\u00a0 So, instead of becoming silent, we should ask the Holy Spirit for the gift of courage so we can proclaim Christ to the world.<\/p>\n

Now, I want to shift to our \u2018response\u2019 to the sufferings we face in our worldly lives.\u00a0 Our response can say much about our faith.<\/p>\n

For instance, say one is facing a terrible illness and gives up on God because God doesn\u2019t give them a miracle that says something about their faith.\u00a0 On the other hand, if, when we are ill, we turn to our faith to ask Jesus to walk with us through<\/em> the illness then we are glorifying God.<\/p>\n

If, in the midst of our sufferings in the land of the living, we look past that to see eternal life, we \u201challow\u201d God\u2019s name, trusting he is with us.<\/p>\n

When I say, \u201cWe look past that to see eternal life,\u201d I don\u2019t simply mean eternal life as we will know it after death.\u00a0 We just heard Jesus\u2019 words he prayed to the Father, \u201cNow this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

We do know God and we know Jesus.\u00a0 We know Jesus to be the one who embraced suffering in his Passion.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t want to suffer.\u00a0 He prayed in the garden that if it was the Father\u2019s will, this cup of suffering might pass from him, but he knew that it was the Father\u2019s will and that his suffering had a purpose, our salvation<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Does our suffering relate to our salvation?\u00a0 Absolutely.\u00a0 If we run from our faith in our suffering, then we close ourselves off from salvation but if we turn to God in our sufferings, we open ourselves to the glory of salvation.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t easy.\u00a0 I will admit there are days when I pray all my problems would just go away but then I try to leave it in God\u2019s hands as my light and my salvation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

7th Sunday of Easter, Year A Acts 1:12-14 Psalm 27:1, 4, 7-8 (13) 1 Peter 4:13-16 John 17:1-11a On Thursday we celebrated Jesus\u2019 Ascension into Heaven.\u00a0 This marked an important moment as the disciples saw him ascend on the cloud so that they (and us!) might all know Jesus has returned to his place in …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘7th 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":[29],"tags":[296],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-yR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161"}],"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=2161"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2163,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161\/revisions\/2163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}