{"id":2861,"date":"2019-05-05T13:00:56","date_gmt":"2019-05-05T17:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=2861"},"modified":"2019-05-05T13:01:07","modified_gmt":"2019-05-05T17:01:07","slug":"3rd-sunday-of-easter-year-c-homily-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/3rd-sunday-of-easter-year-c-homily-2\/","title":{"rendered":"3rd Sunday of Easter, Year C – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

3<\/a>rd<\/a><\/sup> Sunday of Easter, Year C<\/a>
Acts 5:27-32, 40b-41
Psalm 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11-12, 13 (2a)
Revelation 5:11-14
John 21:1-19
May 5, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the Easter season, our first\nreading comes from the Acts of the\nApostles<\/em>, the story of the early church right after Jesus\u2019 Crucifixion and\nResurrection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of what the early church experienced\nwas persecution.  Today we hear how Peter\nand the other apostles were brought in before the Sanhedrin for preaching about\nJesus.  Their response was \u201cWe must obey God rather than men.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not easy to be a disciple of\nJesus.  Jesus knew his disciples would be\npersecuted just as He was persecuted.  He\nknew they would need strength for this. \nThat is why He did not simply die and never be heard from again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two weeks ago, on Easter Sunday, we heard\nthe great news that the tomb was found empty. \nLast week, we heard how Jesus appeared twice to his disciples in the\nlocked room after the Resurrection.  Today,\nwe hear of the third time He appeared to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To understand the significance of these\nappearances, we must pay attention to the specific words about the\nappearances.  Today\u2019s gospel doesn\u2019t call\nthem \u201cappearances.\u201d  They are referred to\nas Jesus revealing <\/em>himself.  He reveals\n<\/em>to them what comes after death so that we might have hope in the\nResurrection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Jesus revealed himself to his disciples\non the shore, He did not simply appear, say hello, and leave.  What He did do was support<\/em><\/strong> them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Jesus\u2019 first two appearances to his\ndisciples, they went fishing.  We should\nnot take this too lightly.  Several of\nthem were fishermen by trade.  So, with\nJesus no longer with them, they felt they had to provide for their livelihood.  So, they went back to was familiar to them, fishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On their own they caught nothing.  Maybe you have experienced the same problem,\nfacing a difficult situation where you tried to take care of it in your own way\nwithout success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then comes Jesus.  He told them to \u201cCast the net over the right side of the boat<\/em>\u201d and the catch was\nabundant.  This is why it is important\nfor us to listen to Jesus.  When we\nlisten to Jesus good things happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of how Jesus provided for them\ndid not end with the abundant catch. \nWhile they were pulling in their nets with the abundant catch, Jesus was\nalready on the shore, cooking breakfast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He had fish before they brought the catch\nin.  More importantly, He had bread.  This leads me to the way in which Jesus\nsupports us.  He feeds us with not just\nordinary bread.  He feeds us with the\nbread that we know as the Eucharist.  It\nis the Body of Christ to strengthen us. \nIt is the Bread of Life that we need to live as Jesus calls us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is why it is important for us to come\nto Mass every week, to receive the Bread of Life, the Body of Christ<\/em>.  We eat\nphysical food on a regular basis, knowing it is necessary for earthly\nlife.  We need to eat the spiritual <\/em>food that Jesus offers us to\nnourish our souls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At our 10:30 Mass this weekend, we have\nfour children who receive this precious Bread for the first time.  We call it First<\/em><\/strong> Communion or First\n<\/em><\/strong>Eucharist.  I emphasis the word\n\u201cfirst\u201d because it is meant to be exactly that, the first <\/em><\/strong>time we receive\nit.  That means there should be more\ntimes afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These children have already been coming to\nMass where they have been fed with God\u2019s Word as found in scripture.  They have been attending religion classes and\npreparation for the Sacrament to help them understand exactly what it is they\nare receiving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not simply ordinary bread.  It is the Bread of Life, it is the Body of\nChrist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Eucharist is a gift, a gift that we\nare not worthy to receive on our own. \nYet, Jesus chooses to make us worthy by giving his life on the Cross so\nthat our sins might be forgiven.  We need\nto repent.  We need to turn back to\nJesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Look at Peter\u2019s conversation with Jesus\ntoday.  Why did Jesus ask him three times\nif he loved him?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Jesus was arrested and put on trial,\nhow many times did Peter deny knowing him? \nThree times.  Peter\u2019s three times\naffirming his love for Jesus is to show his repentance for his sins.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With that in mind, before these four\nchildren make their First Eucharist this weekend, in the Fall they made their First<\/em><\/strong>\nPenance.  Again, the word \u201cfirst\u201d should\ntell us that it should not be the only time they confess their sins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said before, we need to receive\nCommunion weekly to feed our souls.  How\noften do we need to confess our sins?  I\ncannot give you a number.  What I can\ntell you that we are called to confess our sins whenever we are aware of mortal\nsin so that God can forgive us and make us worthy to receive the Eucharist we NEED<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

3rd Sunday of Easter, Year CActs 5:27-32, 40b-41Psalm 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11-12, 13 (2a)Revelation 5:11-14John 21:1-19May 5, 2019 Throughout the Easter season, our first reading comes from the Acts of the Apostles, the story of the early church right after Jesus\u2019 Crucifixion and Resurrection. Part of what the early church experienced was persecution.  Today we …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘3rd Sunday of 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":[29,113,82],"tags":[594,173,292,595],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-K9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2861"}],"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=2861"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2862,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2861\/revisions\/2862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}