Living with and Spreading Christ’s Light, Fourth Wednesday of Easter, April 24, 2024

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan
Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Easter
Memorial of St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen
April 24, 2024
Acts 12:24-13:5, Ps 67, Jn 12:44-50

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

• Today we reach the midpoint of the Easter season and as we prepare to make the transition tomorrow to Jesus’ words from Holy Thursday, interpreted anew in the light of his Resurrection. In the Alleluia versicle today, we ponder Jesus’ words, “I am the Light of the World. Whoever follows me will have the light of life.” Jesus wants us all to have the light of life, to live with with him risen from the dead. That’s why today, on the 25th day of the 50- day Easter season, we have a shift in our Easter Mystagogical Catechesis as we take stock of all that we have experienced over the last three and a half weeks and examine our response to the reality of his resurrection and appearances, the gift of Baptism, the awesome truth of his Real Presence and of his shepherdly care.
• Today’s passage is Jesus’ last public teaching prior to Holy Thursday. Jesus gives these words right after the crowds were challenging his’ Messianic credentials. John says, “Although he had performed so many signs in their presence, they did not believe in him… Nevertheless, many, even among the authorities, believed in him, but because of the Pharisees, they did not acknowledge it openly in order not to be expelled from the synagogue, for they preferred human praise to the glory of God” (Jn 12:37, 42-43). Some refused to believe; others believed but cared too much about human respect. Neither group received and walked in the light Jesus had brought into the world. The Church wants us to ponder those inadequate responses and then, positively, to believe with all our heart and to care above all about pleasing God by walking fully in is light.
• Let’s get more deeply into the choice the Church wants us to make. In the Gospel today, Jesus reveals that he has come as the image of the Father. The one who sees Him, he says, sees the Father. The One who hears him, hears what the Father commanded him to say and speak. The one who believes in Him, believes in the Father who sent him. The way we respond to Jesus and to what he says and does, in other words, is the way we respond to God the Father and his redemptive will. God the Father, Jesus tells us, sent Jesus into the world to save the world, not to condemn it. In order to receive that gift, however, people need to respond freely and willingly and leave death row. They need to choose to leave the darkness and come into the light. Jesus has given us the Father’s commandment, which is “eternal life,” but we need to embrace and live by that commandment, otherwise God’s word, that commandment, will condemn us because we are ultimately rejecting the Father who through and in Jesus proclaimed that word. Jesus’ words are words-to-be-done, not just to hear. His call is something upon which to act with commitment, not something just to consider and remain where we are. The ultimate meaning of a human life depends on how we respond to Jesus’ light, his words, his person, his salvation, placing that gift above human respect and every other consideration.
• Today in the first reading, we see those who have responded to Jesus in this way. Saints Paul and Barnabas and the other members of the Church of Antioch were seeking to live by the light of the Lord, to act on his word, to become the living echoes of his voice, and images of the image of the invisible God, radiating his light to those who were still in darkness. They were seeking to respond to the Father’s command of love, his will for them to have eternal life by coming to know Him and the Son whom he had sent. The Church was growing because of all those drawn to the light they saw radiating in Christians, for in hearing them, they were hearing Christ who had sent them and hearing God the Father; in seeing them, they were seeing icons of Christ and the Father he reflected; in believing in them, they were believing in Christ and in the Father who loved the world so much to send his Son to rescue it. So docile were they to the Lord’s command that when the Holy Spirit revealed to them his will while they were praying and fasting, to set Saul and Barnabas apart for the work he had in mind for them, they immediately acted. Paul and Barnabas gave God a blank check. The whole community allowed them to go rather than selfishly try to keep them to themselves. They knew they were being sent out as a light to the nations and they rejoiced and supported this Mission. And we see what happened. After Paul and Barnabas were set apart, “They, sent forth by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and from there sailed to Cyprus. When they arrived in Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues.” That detail is important because Barnabas was from Cyprus. They were beginning at home. We prayed in the Entrance Antiphon today, “I will praise you, Lord, among the nations; I will tell of your name to my kin” (Ps 18), and Barnabas and Paul set out to do that. They had begun a mission so that, as we prayed in the Responsorial Psalm, all the peoples might praise him, his ways be known about earth and his salvation be embraced among the nations. They were passing on to others Christ’s words, his commandment, his life, his very life risen from the dead in them. And from there they would begin to light the whole world ablaze.
• Today we have another witness who shows us the light of life. St. Fidelis of Sigmarigen (born Mark Rey) was a philosopher, a lawyer and a young professor who heard the Lord calling him to more. While still teaching, he refused wine, wore a hair-shirt and distinguished himself for being modest, meek and chaste like Jesus. At 27 he became a traveling teacher and for six years attended Mass frequently, visited hospitals, adored the Blessed Sacrament, served the poor, and used his law practice to help the poor get justice. Eventually he entered the Capuchins, received the religious name Fidelis and continued to help people to learn how to believe in Christ, the light of the World, hear his words, accept and observe them. He became a famous preacher and confessor and was sent with other Capuchins by the Vatican’s Holy Office to try to bring back the Calvinists in eastern Switzerland. The Calvinists had separated themselves from the teaching and sacraments of the faith. St. Fidelis was successful enough that his life began to be threatened and eventually, on April 24, 1622, in Seewis, he was confronted by 20 Calvinist soldiers who demanded that he renounce the Catholic faith. “I am sent to you to confute, not embrace your heresy. The Catholic religion is the faith of all ages and I fear not death,” he replied. They struck him with a sword, he fell to his knees, stretched his arms in the form of a cross, prayed to God to forgive his enemies and he was struck on the skull and died. His life was luminously Eucharistic to the end and shows us what is possible for us.
• The same Lord whom Paul and Barnabas knew and met and in whom they believed, the same Holy Spirit that set them apart for a special work, that same Spirit who suffused Saint Fidelis in all his missionary journeys, speaks to us at Mass, meets us in the Holy Eucharist, consecrates us for a special Mission and then sends us forth together with the Holy Spirit to bring his light, his word, his presence and his salvation. For us we’re not being sent to Cyprus, but like Barnabas, to our “kin,” here in the “capital of the world,” New York, empowered by the same gifts that strengthened them. The Church continues to pray for us. The Church continues to fast for us. The saints continue to intercede for us. And we, spurning human respect, seek to do it all for God’s glory. This requires great humility. In the Gospel Jesus spoke not of himself but of the Father. And we speak not of ourselves but of Christ, seeking the hallowing of God’s name not ours, the coming of his kingdom not ours, the doing of his will not ours. The more we do so the more we begin to share his attributes. We become united with him to such a degree that we decrease and he increases, that others in accepting us, or rejecting us, are accepting or rejecting him. We’ll see this reality played out in a special way in St. Paul’s life. He would eventually say, “I have been crucified with Christ and the life I now live I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me” (Gal 2:18-20). Today as we prepare to the Lord Jesus, the light and life of the world, he renews us in our calling to be set apart from ordinary things for the work to which he has called us, so that he might send us out to serve others in communion with the love flowing out from his heart. May we respond to this grace of our consecration, renewed each consecration of the Mass,  like St. Paul and St. Barnabas did, so that we might spread God’s glory, receive the gift of eternal life that comes from acting on Jesus’ word, and help many others to come to experience with us the eternal kingdom of light.

The readings for today’s Mass were: 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download