{"id":3877,"date":"2020-05-17T11:07:55","date_gmt":"2020-05-17T15:07:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=3877"},"modified":"2020-05-17T11:07:55","modified_gmt":"2020-05-17T15:07:55","slug":"6th-sunday-of-easter-year-a-homily-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/6th-sunday-of-easter-year-a-homily-2\/","title":{"rendered":"6th Sunday of Easter, Year A – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

6th<\/sup> Sunday of Easter, Year A<\/a>
Acts 8:5-8, 11-17
Psalm 66:1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16, 20 (1)
1 Peter 3:15-18
John 14:15-21
May 17, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus calls us<\/em><\/strong> to proclaim the gospel message.  Just before his Ascension, Jesus tells his disciples to go out and baptize all<\/em><\/strong> nations in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The early church went out.  Today we hear of how \u201cPhilip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed the Christ to them.<\/em>\u201d  Remember, the Jews and Samaritans did not associate with one another.  That is no more.  The gospel is meant for all<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip was empowered to drive out demons and cure many people.  This got the attention of many people such that they \u201cpaid attention to what was said by Philip.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Coronavirus has gotten the attention of many people.  It has got people to open themselves to God.  For some practicing Catholics, they are finding out how important their faith is to them.  Some people who hadn\u2019t been going to church are watching Mass via live streaming.  This is good news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We need to do more to proclaim the gospel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, because of the Coronavirus, we can\u2019t go out right now as Philip went out.  As a parish we are making use of livestreaming, Facebook<\/a>, and our website<\/a> to share our faith.  Perhaps, you use social media to share your faith.  Yet, still, we can\u2019t go out physically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That shouldn\u2019t stop us from the work of proclaiming the gospel, the work of evangelization.  There is another way to evangelize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this we turn to Peter\u2019s words, \u201cAlways be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this time of the Coronavirus pandemic we need hope.  God gives us hope.  We are united in hope through our celebration of Mass.  If we share our hope in God, we are proclaiming the gospel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, we still can\u2019t go out.  How are we to share our hope?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, we are not to be pushy.  We are to \u201cdo it with gentleness and reverence.<\/em>\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We share our hope by declaring what God has done for us as the explanation for our hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You probably aren\u2019t seeing a lot of people in person.  However, how many people are you talking to on the phone or online?  What do you talk about?  Do you talk about how you are dealing with the shutdown?  Is God part of the conversation? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What if you are talking with someone who may not go to church or is sounding depressed?  Again, we are not to be pushy with our faith but would you ever consider simply saying, \u201cI\u2019m glad I have my faith to help me through this.\u201d  If they don\u2019t respond, that is their choice.  You have opened the door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, our hope would be that they would respond.  They might talk about their own faith.  They might ask about your faith.  This is where you give an explanation for your hope. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You don\u2019t have to give a big theological discourse.  Going back to our first reading, Philip went out to Samaria but he didn\u2019t have to do all the work of evangelization all by himself.  Once the apostles in Jerusalem heard of the success of Philip\u2019s efforts (through God\u2019s grace), they sent Peter and John to join him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what is the reason for your hope?  Only you can speak about your personal experiences of faith.  For me, I think about how God has filled a void in my life.  I think about how, when things go bad because of human choices, God has always been there with me.  For instance, it took me a long time when I graduated from college for engineering to find a job.  However, I didn\u2019t get depressed.  I didn\u2019t have to live on the streets.  I didn\u2019t realize it then but now I can look back on those days and see how God was walking with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about reasons for our hope that apply to all of us?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First and foremost is that we know that Jesus died for us.  He was willing to lay down his life for us.  What greater love could He ever shown for us?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also know that even though Jesus has ascended into Heaven, He has not abandoned us.  In today\u2019s gospel, Jesus tells us, \u201cI will not leave you orphans<\/em>.\u201d  He returns to his place at the right hand of the Father.  There He asks the Father to \u201cgive us another Advocate to be with you always.<\/em>\u201d  He gives us the Holy Spirit who is always present with us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are the things God has done for us.  These are the explanation for our hope.  Life in this world is not perfect.  We suffer.  We can choose to see the cup as half-empty, thinking about what we don\u2019t have.  Or we can choose to see the cup as half-full, giving thanks for what God has given us.  We need to \u201cshout joyfully\u201d <\/em>and \u201csing praise<\/em>\u201d for all the good things God has done for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus died for us.  He did this to lead us to our Father.  Jesus speaks of how He and the Father are one and that we are in him as He is in us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We give praise, we \u201cshout joyfully<\/em>\u201d for all that God has done for us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

6th Sunday of Easter, Year AActs 8:5-8, 11-17Psalm 66:1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16, 20 (1)1 Peter 3:15-18John 14:15-21May 17, 2020 Jesus calls us to proclaim the gospel message.  Just before his Ascension, Jesus tells his disciples to go out and baptize all nations in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The early church …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘6th 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":[714,9,82],"tags":[765,124,766],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-10x","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3877"}],"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=3877"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3884,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3877\/revisions\/3884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}