Fr. Roger J. Landry
Conversations with Consequences Podcast
Homily for the Sixth Sunday of Easter (A), Vigil
May 16, 2020
To listen to an audio recording of this short Sunday homily, please click below:
The following text guided the homily:
- This is Fr. Roger Landry and it’s a joy for me to be with you as we enter into the consequential conversation the Risen Lord Jesus wants to have with each of us this Sunday.
- He will talk to us specifically about four promises, four blessings, four different ways he wants to relate to us. He said these words during the Last Supper, not only to prepare the apostles for his betrayal, crucifixion and death that would happen within hours, but even more for the post-Resurrection reality of the Church, which is why the Church always ponders these passages during the Easter Season.
- The first promise is “I will not leave you orphans.” Jesus will never abandon us. Sometimes we may feel abandoned, just like he felt on the Cross, but just as God the Father was with him so He will be with us. What a great consolation this is, something we pray that all of those in ICUs with Covid-19, or who otherwise feel alone, may experience. Notice the expression Jesus uses, however. He doesn’t say, “I will not leave you alone,” but rather, “I will not leave you orphans.” He will not allow us to be abandoned by Father and mother. He will speak to us later about how God the Father will remain with us and the following afternoon he will give us his Mother to be our own. In this month of May, dedicated to our Lady, how important it is for us to recognize that we’re not orphans, but to live ever more in communion with God the Father and with Mary our spiritual Mother, both of which are made possible by the work of Jesus, the Son of the Father and the son of Mary.
- The second promise is, “I will ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth,” whom he says “you know because he remains in you and will be with you.” We’re now beginning our remote preparation for Pentecost and Jesus will be speaking to us three weeks in a row about the work of the Holy Spirit in us. Today I will just mention one of the chief works of the Holy Spirit is to convince us we are beloved sons and daughters of God the Father. The Holy Spirit is poured into our hearts so that we might cry out, “Abba, Father!,” so that we might recognize the intimacy of a relationship with God as “dad.” The Holy Spirit will remain in us helping us to relate to God the Father, so that we may never feel we’re orphans.
- The third promise is, “In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you.” Jesus tells us that his resurrection will be our life — “I live and you will live,” he says — and that when he goes to be with the Father, to dwell in communion with the Father, he is bringing us with him, as members of his Mystical Body. This is a mind-blowing reality. Jesus will develop it more deeply on Holy Thursday in a passage we’ll hear next Sunday. But his mission is to bring us into the communion of persons who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to help us come alive through his resurrection and ascension, and to assist us to live in communion with God who entered our world to redeem us and make that communion possible.
- And the fourth promise is, “Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father and I will love him and reveal myself to him.” We have been made by God, who is love, in his image and likeness, meaning we’ve been made by Love with a capital L for love. Earlier during the Last Supper, Jesus said, “Just as the Father loves me,” and we know the Father can’t love him any more, “so I love you.” Then he asks us to remain in his love, telling us that we will remain in his love when we love God and love others as he has loved us. So there is a condition he places on our receiving his love: we have to love. That’s why Jesus speaks to us in the Gospel this Sunday about keeping his commandments. He tells us, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments,” and “Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one that loves me.” Jesus tells us that we cannot have that communion with him unless we do what He commands. There’s a clear reason for this: because Jesus is the Word-made-flesh. We cannot separate Him from the word he put into flesh. We can’t truly love him and at the same time choose not to love his will expressed in the commandments. We cannot have a union with him and not have union with him at the same time. We cannot love him and at the same time fail to be faithful to him, for example, by breaking the commandments, all of which hang, Jesus tells us elsewhere, on the two-fold command to love God with all our heart and to love our neighbor. We cannot love God and then choose other gods over him, or use his name as a throwaway word, or prioritize non essential work, cartoons, sports or political talk shows over him on Sunday. We cannot love him and at the same time disrespect those through whom he gave us life or hate or kill, steal from or lie to those he loves. We cannot love him and at the same time think that his love is not enough, by coveting what others have, or the ones others love. It’s pretty simple conceptually, but in practice so many of us try to separate Jesus from his Word, thinking that we love him as long as we have “positive feelings” about him, “respect” him, and have “affection” for him. But he tells us love is shown in deeds. Just like a husband’s love for his wife is shown not by how many times he whispers “I love you” in her ears, but by his faithful love for her in all his deeds, so our love for Jesus is shown by our loving fidelity in remaining faithful to him in all the areas specified by the commandments.
- As we prepare for Sunday, Jesus wants to get us ready so that our conversation with him, just like his conversation with the apostles on Holy Thursday, might truly be consequential and that we, though zealously desiring and striving to keep his commands may experience the blessings he promises. He wants us to experience the real love of God the Father and of the Blessed Mother, especially when we’re in difficulty, reminding us of their protection and prayers. He wants us to receive in full measure the gift of the Holy Spirit. He wants us to rise and live with him and to see him as he reveals himself to us. Let us ask for the grace to express our gratitude for him and to enter into a covenant of love by remaining always in communion with him in our choosing morally to please him along the path of love he gives us in the commandments.
- God bless you all!
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