May 20-25: May 20 Monday (St. Bernadine of
Sienna, Priest): Jn 14:21-26: 21 He who has my
commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me; and he who loves me will be
loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” 22 Judas
(not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to
us, and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered him, “If a man loves me, he will
keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our
home with him. 24 He who does not love me does not keep my words; and the word
which you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me. 25 “These things I
have spoken to you, while I am still with you. 26 But the Counselor, the Holy
Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and
bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
The context: Today’s Gospel passage is taken
from Jesus’ Last Super discourse. It was commonly held by the Jews that when
the Messiah came he would be revealed to the whole world as King and Savior.
Hence, Judas Thaddeus asks why Jesus is revealing himself only to his
disciples. Jesus does not answer that question directly. Instead, He continues
his work of preparing his disciples for his imminent departure from them by
assuring them that he is not leaving them alone. Instead, Jesus is going to
live in them along with God his Father and God the Holy Spirit.
Jesus promises the abiding presence of the Holy Trinity in
his disciples who express their responsive love for him by keeping his
commandments, especially his commandment of love, because only this type of
loving will open them and make them receptive to the Divine Indwelling of the
Trinitarian God. Jesus is referring to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the
soul renewed by grace. God repeatedly revealed Himself in the Old Testament and
promised to dwell in the midst of His people (cf. Ex 29:45; Ez 37:26-27; etc.).
But here Jesus speaks of the presence of God in each person. We are each a part
of the Divine chain of love. God loves man. He sent His Son to prove it. After
Jesus’ Resurrection and Ascension, God the Father continues to live in us with
His Son and the Holy Spirit. This abiding God gives us the Father’s protection
and providence, the Son’s redemption and forgiveness of sins and the Holy
Spirit’s sanctification and guidance.
Life messages: 1) Let us live in constant
awareness of the abiding presence of the Trinitarian God within us and behave
well in His presence.
2) During moments of doubts and temptations, let us seek the
active guidance and strengthening of our indwelling God. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)19
May 21 Tuesday (St. Christopher Magallanes,
Priest and Companions Martyrs): Jn 14:27-31a: 27 Peace I
leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to
you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. 28 You heard
me say to you, `I go away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would
have rejoiced, because I go to the Father; for the Father is greater than I. 29
And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place,
you may believe. 30 I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this
world is coming. He has no power over me; 31 but I do as the Father has
commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us
go hence.
The context: In his Last Supper discourse, Jesus
gives two gifts to his disciples, namely, the gift of peace and the gift of the
cross leading to glory. Today’s passage refers to the gift of peace. Wishing a
person peace (Shalom), was, and still is, the usual form of greeting
among the Jews and the Arabs. Shalom is a right relationship
with God and with others. Moses instructed the Israelites to bless others
with God’s peace: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face
to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance
upon you, and give you peace” (Numbers 6:22-26). “Peace
be with you!” is the greeting which Jesus used, and which the Apostles
continued to use. Hence, the Church uses it several times in the liturgy. Peace
is one of the great Messianic gifts. St. Paul tells us that it is it is one of
the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Jesus repeats his promise saying, “My peace I
give to you, my peace I leave with you.” Pope Paul VI said: “True
peace must be founded upon justice, upon a sense of the untouchable dignity of
man, upon the recognition of an indelible and happy equality between men, upon
the basic principle of human brotherhood.”
Life message: We are invited to live in the peace
wished by Jesus. This requires that we be reconciled every day with ourselves,
with our neighbors and with our God. Reconciliation with God demands
that we obey His commandments, repent every day of our sins, and ask God’s
forgiveness. Reconciliation with others demands that we
forgive others for their offenses against us and that we ask for their
forgiveness for our offenses against them in words and deeds. Reconciliation
with ourselves comes from our grace-given humble recognition of our
weaknesses and failures and our grateful acceptance and use of the Holy
Spirit’s loving gifts to us of deepened love and trust that God loves us in
spite of these weaknesses, forgives us our sins when we repent, helps us to do
better, and uses our weaknesses to bring us closer to Him, and to demonstrate
His own Love and Power working through us for His glory. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)19
May 22 Wednesday (St. Rita of Cascia, Religious): John
15:1-8: 1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2
Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that
does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already made
clean by the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As
the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither
can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who
abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me
you can do nothing. 6 If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a
branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and
burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will,
and it shall be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear
much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples:
The context: During his Last Supper discourse,
Jesus uses one of his favorite images, the vine and the branches, to help his
disciples understand the closeness of their relationship with him and the
necessity of their maintaining it. Jesus assures them, using the parable of the
vine and branches, that the Life-giving Spirit, Whom Jesus will send them, will
be present and active among his disciples and their successors. This Gospel
passage also emphasizes the need for Christians to abide in Christ as an
essential condition for producing fruits of kindness, mercy, justice, charity
and holiness. Paul further clarified this idea in Colossians 1:18 using
another metaphor, that Christ is the Head and Christians are the different
members of His Mystical Body. Pruning is an essential part of growing fruit-producing
branches. In the vineyards in Palestine, dead branches were pruned to save the
vine. Fruitless, leafy branches draining life sap from the main trunk were also
pruned away leaving only fruit-bearing branches. Jesus tells his apostles that
they have already been pruned by the words he has spoken to them.
Eventually, they will be pruned of all attachment to the things of this world
so that they may be ready to attach themselves to the things of Heaven.
Life messages 1) We need pruning in our
Christian life. Pruning which cuts out of our lives everything that is contrary
to the spirit of Jesus and renews our commitment to Christian ideals in our
lives every day is the first type of self-imposed pruning expected of us. A
second kind of pruning is accomplished by practicing self-control over our evil
inclinations, sinful addictions and aberrations. A third type of pruning is
done by our permitting Jesus to prune, purify and strengthen us as God allows
us to face pain, suffering, contradictions and difficulties with His grace and
the courage of our Christian convictions.
2) Let us abide in Christ and let Christ abide in us:
Personal and liturgical prayers, frequenting of the Sacraments of the Holy
Eucharist and Reconciliation, daily, meditative reading of the Bible and
selfless, loving acts of kindness, mercy and forgiveness enable us to abide in
Jesus, the true vine, as fruit-bearing branches (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)19
May 23 Thursday: Jn 15: 9-17: As the Father has
loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love. 10 If you keep my
commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s
commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that
my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 “This is my
commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has
no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my
friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for
the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you
friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to
you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you
should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that whatever you
ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 This I command you, to
love one another.
The context: During the Last Supper discourse,
Jesus instructs his disciples about love as the hallmark of Christians and the
criterion of discipleship, and he teaches them how love should be practiced.
The criterion of Christian love: Jesus explains to his
Apostles that the basis and criterion of his love for them is the love existing
among the three Persons of the Holy Trinity, and that his love for them is a
reflection of that love. In other words, God’s love for us, as shown by Jesus
through his unconditional, self-giving, sacrificial love in an expression of
his obedience to his Father, must be the criterion of Christian love. We
express our love for Christ by obeying his new commandment of love.
The new commandment: “This is my commandment, that you
love one another as I have loved you.” The old commandment was to “love
your neighbor as you love yourself.” But Jesus insisted that the
criterion of Christian love must be the same as the one for his love. So our
love must also be sacrificial, forgiving, unconditional, selfless and
self-giving. The highest expression of this love is our willingness to lay down
our lives as Jesus did, for people who don’t deserve it.
Life message: 1) We need to be Jesus’ friends:
Jesus invites each Christian to live in the inner circle of his friends by
obeying his commandments, including the new commandment of love. Such friends
abide in Jesus, and Jesus abides in them, and their prayers in Jesus’ name will
be answered promptly by God the Father. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)19
May 24 Friday: Jn 15: 12-17: 12 “This is
my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love
has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are
my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants,
for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you
friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to
you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you
should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that whatever you
ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 This I command you, to
love one another.
The context: Today’s Gospel passage is a part of
Jesus’ Last Supper discourse. Jesus reminds his disciples that he has chosen
them as his friends with a triple mission. First, they are to love others as he
has loved them. Second, they are to bear the fruits of the Holy Spirit in their
lives. Third, they are to ask God the Father in Jesus’ Name, for whatever they
need.
Jesus modifies the Old Testament command from “love your
neighbor as you love yourselves” (Lv 19:18) to “love others as I have
loved you.” This means that our love for others must be unconditional,
forgiving and sacrificial. We, too, must be ready to express our love for
others by our readiness to die for them as Jesus died for us. Then Jesus
explains that the calling to produce fruits, which the Apostles received, and
which every Christian also receives, does not originate in the individual’s
good desires but in Christ’s free choice. Jesus concludes his advice by
referring to the effectiveness of prayer offered in his Name. That is why the
Church usually ends the prayers of the liturgy with the invocation “Through
Jesus Christ our Lord….”
Life message 1) Let us remember that true
Christian love is costly and painful because it involves sacrifice on our part
when we start loving unlovable, ungrateful and hostile people with Christ’s
unconditional, forgiving and sacrificial love. But our Christian call is to
love others as Jesus has loved us, and as Jesus loves them, and he always
offers us the grace to do so.(http://frtonyshomilies.com/)19
May 25 Saturday (St. Bede, the Venerable, Priest,
Doctor of the Church; St. Gregory VII, Pope; St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi,
Virgin): Jn 15:18-21: 18 “If the world hates you, know
that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the
world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you
out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that
I said to you, `A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted
me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also.
21 But all this they will do to you on my account, because they do not know him
who sent me.
The context: In today’s Gospel passage, taken
from the Last Supper discourse, Jesus warns his apostles of what they are to
expect from a world which ignores God and His teaching. They will be hated and
persecuted as Jesus was. But there can be no compromise between Christ’s
disciples and the followers of the powers of darkness. The term “world” in
today’s Gospel passage means people who are hostile towards God and opposed to
His will. They represent an evil society which “calls evil
good and good evil” (Is 5:20). Such a society will hate Christ
and his teachings because Christian teaching exposes the evil of society and
its false and dangerous doctrines. Since the Church Jesus established stands
for truth, morality and justice, it does not support the modern “dictatorship
of relativism.” The modern world hates and ridicules everything Christian
through its liberal, agnostic and atheistic media.
Life message: Let us ask the Holy Spirit for the
courage of our Christian convictions to believe and practice what Jesus taught
and what Jesus continues to teach through the Church. (Fr. Tony) (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)19