Walking with Jesus: Fifth Sunday of Easter

For Sunday, May 7, 2023

Acts 6:1-7, 1 Peter 2:4-9, John 14:1-12

“Show us God … show us the Father,” Philip asks Jesus at the Last Supper, from which today’s Gospel is taken. Before the Passover dinner begins, “Jesus knew that His hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. He loved His own in the world and He loved them to the end.” [John 13:1] He spends quite a bit of time cementing the fact that God loves all people and loves the apostles for staying with Him and realizing He is sharing that God’s love is supreme and given to all. There are no conditions attached: God just plain loves. He will display the ultimate example of love by dying on the cross. They do not know this will be happening in a few days. Jesus reinforces the mission of the apostles by washing their feet; they are to be givers and caregivers to all. The act of washing another’s feet is one that cannot even be expected from the lowliest Jewish slave. Is there any deeper humiliation Jesus can endure? Shortly He will be stripped of all His clothes, beaten, and nailed to a cross as an example of His supposed defeat — His cause gone the way of all lost causes. Now Jesus is explaining more about the connection between His love and God’s love, and the need for the apostles to be leaders in showing God’s love throughout their lives.

Jesus begins by telling them to Have Faith … to believe in Him … trust Him … reflect on His teachings … look at His miracles. No one has ever done what He has done, especially in giving sight to a man born blind and raising Lazarus from the dead after his body had begun decomposing. He knows they will run, scared at the sight of his torturous death. And He knows the Holy Spirit will tie it all together by descending upon the apostles and disciples. Until that time, they will be confused. People today wonder about two things: the key to understanding God, and its handle on their lives. They get frustrated with a God who doesn’t show Himself and a Church that doesn’t seem to shed useful light on God. They say, “Well, we haven’t found God in the outer regions of the universe” … and Bertrand Russell concludes, “If God exists, He has not given us enough signs of Himself.” The apostles at the Last Supper are having very similar worries. Not only is Jesus showing Himself as God, he also is demonstrating what makes God tick. His mindset is on humility rather than glory and impressiveness. God is the God of love but also the God of mercy — that what He is best at. God is a God of healing and of His saving miracle: That concerns Him most. If we think of all the times Jesus shows us of God, it becomes clear that Jesus totally accepts His death for our sins as the total expression of God’s undying love for us. Am I grateful and loving and caring for those in my life as my living response to being loved?

In the reading from Acts, the apostles are dealing with a challenge from within the community. They have grown by leaps and bounds. There are two language groups:  converts from the Jerusalem community, whose language is Aramaic; and a second group of Jewish converts from the Diaspora who do not live around Jerusalem and Israel. The problem is that the widows have no means of support. Could they receive the same degree of care extended to Hebrew-speaking widows? The wisdom and plans of God brought about the original Diaconate community. More people have come to believe, and people are realizing they are a community of love: caring, helping, knowing they are loved and grateful.

Peter portrays Jesus as a “living stone,” the cornerstone. In the ancient world, a cornerstone is something far different from today’s “non-essential” building block of a structure. At that time, a cornerstone is the first one laid, the best-cut and strongest stone on which the rest of the building will take shape. The question for us: Is Jesus the center of my life and the example of all my love, caring, mercy and forgiveness? If not, I’m missing the point.

The Gospel is a big part of Jesus’ farewell speech to His disciples. How will they survive without their leader when He returns to the Father? He is going to prepare a place for each of them … and each of us! What are they going to do? How will they find their own way? These concerns enable Jesus to describe Himself as the place where He is going: I am the way and the truth and the life … the only way is through Me. Then He makes a pivotal assertion: “Whoever believes in Me will do the works that I do and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father.” [John 14:12] The world is a hostile world. Hatred and persecution from outsiders take their toll. Jesus’ revelation of God’s love is the foundation of Christian unity. Through the guidance of the Spirit, mutual love and unity always survives and thrives. If it is “all about me,” then the source of all love — God — is missing, and His example will be missing in action.

So I reflect on:

• I try meditating on:

If I really believed that I’m chosen, I would …
If I really believed that I’m royal ancestry, I would …
If I really believed that I’m holy, I would …
If I really believed that I’m beloved, I would …

Because all these things are true of me, when I meet the Risen One, I will …

Sacred Space 2023 states:

“We follow Jesus as one we know, not as we might follow a stranger. We have come to know Him by studying His life and times, getting to know the places and events of His life, becoming familiar with the gospels and getting to know Him in the heart in prayer. This is the way of keeping our centre of conviction focused and our motivation strong. As this happens freedom grows and we begin to find Him everywhere.”