{"id":2870,"date":"2019-05-19T12:39:59","date_gmt":"2019-05-19T16:39:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=2870"},"modified":"2019-05-19T12:41:04","modified_gmt":"2019-05-19T16:41:04","slug":"5th-sunday-of-easter-year-c-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/5th-sunday-of-easter-year-c-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"5th Sunday of Easter, Year C – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

5<\/a>th<\/a><\/sup> Sunday of Easter, Year C<\/a>
Acts 14:21-27
Psalm 145:8-9, 10-11, 12-13 (see 1)
Revelation 21:1-5a
John 13:31-33a, 34-35
May 19, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus gives us \u201ca new commandment<\/em>.\u201d  Its\nwords are simple, \u201clove one another.<\/em>\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus tells us that we are to \u201clove one another<\/em>\u201d as He has loved\nus.  His love is most evident when He\nsacrifices his life for us on the Cross. \nAre we willing to make sacrifices, to give something up for the good of\nothers?  That\u2019s love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today is Diocesan Mission Sunday.  We take up a second collection to support the\nongoing work of our diocesan missions started by the Sisters of Mercy in Chile (where\nSr. Kay was for a number of years) and the Sisters of St. Joseph in Brazil.  Contributing to the second collection is not simply\n\u201cpaying dues\u201d or \u201cgiving alms.\u201d  It\nshould be an act of love, caring for the people who receive the benefit of the\nmissions.  On this Diocesan Mission\nSunday, we also offer the support of our prayers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a way we can show our love.  This can be a way we follow the example of\nJesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can it be a challenge to make sacrifices?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, that\u2019s what makes it a\nsacrifice.  It won\u2019t be a sacrifice if it\nwere easy.  It isn\u2019t always easy to love\nbut we are called to \u201cpersevere in the\nfaith<\/em>.\u201d  That means we are called to\npersevere in love.  As we hear in Acts, \u201cIt is necessary for us to undergo many\nhardships to enter the kingdom of God<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can be made stronger by the hardships\nwe face.  Some hardships are caused by\nhuman error and sin.  For instance, the\ncurrent hardships caused by the clergy abuse scandal are a very trying time for\nour church.  People are losing faith and\nleaving the Church.  We are called to\npersevere during this hardship and trust in God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s also the hardship we face from the\ndeclining number of parishioners and priests. \nThis means clustering of parishes. \nIt means loss of Masses.  Loss can\nbe difficult to bear but we ask the Holy Spirit to use this time to transform\nour faith communities to make us stronger. \nWe commend all our hardships to the Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We do so hearing the vision of John seeing\n\u201ca new heaven and a new earth<\/em>\u201d while\nformer way had passed away.  The new\nHeaven and a new earth is a vision of Heaven but it reminds us that God can\nhelp us face our hardships.  God is with\nus.  God transforms ordinary bread and\nwine into the Body and Blood of Christ. \nIf we let him, He will transform us into the Body of Christ as a\npeople.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are to bring Jesus to the world.  We are to be the hands of Jesus, helping\nothers, loving others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does starting \u201cnew\u201d mean throwing out\neverything from the past?  No.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does it mean changing everything?  No.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What will change and when?  First, as to when, we received official word\nfrom the diocese that we will be implementing the regional plan at the end of\nJune.  Fr. Tedesche will become the\npastor of all three parishes (St. Michael\u2019s, St. Joseph the Worker, and the\nCatholic Community of the Blessed Trinity) with a new assistant.  I will be moving to St. Luke\u2019s in Livingston\nCounty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I mentioned last week, our Saturday\nnight Mass will go away but the regional plan calls for our Sunday Mass\nschedule to stay the same.  We are not\nthe only ones facing the loss of a Mass in the regional plan.  The church in Wolcott will also lose its\nSaturday night Mass.  The Mass in\nSavannah is changing from Sunday morning to Saturday night.  Other Masses are shifting times on Sunday\nmorning.  All three parishes face changes\nin Mass schedules.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have already been sharing Finance staff\nto be more efficient.  There will likely\nbe sharing of staff for Faith Formation, not simply to cut costs.  We do this to strengthen the programs for\nchildren and youth.  The dwindling\nnumbers of children have made it hard to maintain the Sunday faith formation\nclasses.  Working together with the other\nparishes, sharing resources, and eliminating duplication of resources will help\nus be a better church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to go back now to the first words\nwe heard from Jesus today, \u201cNow is the\nSon of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.<\/em>\u201d  Jesus is the Son of Man.  He glorifies God by trusting in the Father\u2019s\nplan and giving his life for us.  For\nthis God glorifies Jesus by raising him up in the Resurrection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the hardships we face, we are called to\n\u201cpersevere in the faith<\/em>.\u201d  This means trusting God, commending it all to\nthe Lord.  In trusting God, we give him\nglory.  In trusting God, we surrender our\nwill to the Father\u2019s.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our responsorial psalm verse, we sang, \u201cI will praise your name for ever, my king and my God.\u201d  In our Mass, we praise God in word and worship.  Let us also praise him by surrendering our will to his in our daily lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

5th Sunday of Easter, Year CActs 14:21-27Psalm 145:8-9, 10-11, 12-13 (see 1)Revelation 21:1-5aJohn 13:31-33a, 34-35May 19, 2019 Jesus gives us \u201ca new commandment.\u201d  Its words are simple, \u201clove one another.\u201d  Jesus tells us that we are to \u201clove one another\u201d as He has loved us.  His love is most evident when He sacrifices his life …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘5th 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":[82],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-Ki","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2870"}],"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=2870"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2873,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2870\/revisions\/2873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}