Fifth Sunday of Easter

Jan 14 2025

A House of Living Stones

Over the years several television shows have focused on rebuilding and reshaping houses. For over thirty years PBS’s This Old House has offered tips on repairing homes. More recently, Extreme Makeover takes a team into someone’s home and transforms it to meet the serious needs of its occupants, often dealing with health or disability issues or trying to serve the larger community in some way.

From the beginning the church has been imagined as a house of living stones, built on Jesus Christ, a dwelling place where people come for shelter and sustenance, where they can set down their burdens and find comfort and consolation before being sent back out in the world to make it a better place to live.

The risen Christ is truly one who offers an “extreme makeover.” He can be trusted to shape us into a dwelling place where the Spirit of the Lord takes up permanent residence, bringing gifts to benefit the world. From the beginning there have been challenges for those who form the church, and an ongoing need for renovation to meet the needs of the time.

Our efforts to make the church a home where love, mercy, justice, and peace will be found should lead us to build more firmly on Jesus our cornerstone. When the time comes, the home he promised to prepare for us and take us to should be easily recognizable. It should not be that much different from the church we have been living in all our lives.

Consider/Discuss

What does it mean to be a community of “living stones”?
What are the “works” that Jesus empowers us to do, perhaps even greater than what he did?

Responding to the Word

We pray the Lord to give us confidence to trust in his word that he has gone to prepare a permanent dwelling place for us, where we will be with him and all those who have gone ahead of us. We pray that this assurance may strengthen us to live as if we were already there.

Jan 14 2025

Scripture Study for

Today’s scriptures observe tension within the early Christian community. Both the Greek-speakers and Hebrew-speakers were probably Jewish-Christians, separated by language rather than by religious background. At issue is some practical matter, not a point of doctrine. Peter does not stand as sole leader. Rather, the entire group of apostles, known as the Twelve, addresses the problem. Besides this collegiality, the community practiced subsidiarity, for the community select ed men to exercise the ministry. The diversity that accompanied the growth of the community both enriched it and was the cause of the tension described here.

The second reading characterizes Christ as a living stone and describes Christians as living stones as well. The stone is living because of who Christ is and not because of what he does. When “living” describes Christians, it refers to the life that is theirs because of their relationship with Christ. As cornerstone, Christ is the underpinning of the building, the church. This stone is sometimes considered the capstone, the stone that holds the two pillars of an arch together. This passage clearly related the way they understand Christ and how they understand the church.

Jesus seeks to strengthen his followers who are troubled at the thought of his departure. He urges them to trust. He does not focus on the end of his life, only on the joyful events that will follow it. He leaves to prepare a place for the others with God. The passage is open to both an apocalyptic and a mystical interpretation. In the first, he is referring to his return at the end of time; in the second, he is alluding to the indwelling of his spirit enjoyed in this life by those united with him. Neither Thomas nor Philip fully understands what he means. Jesus ends his discourse with a promise that those who believe in him will be able to perform deeds that are even more wondrous than those he has performed.

Jan 08 2025

The Holy Spirit—The Tie That Binds

I was the chaplain on call for the day shift that day. A nurse called, “Please come!”

When I got to the seventh floor, by the nursing desk two men and a woman were shouting at each other. The room opposite was bursting with large people, arguing. I bent my head to the nurse, “What’s going on?” “Nine children. They’re fighting over their mother’s last wishes.” We got them calmed enough to pray together and be silent so they could focus on their dying mother. A few minutes later, with her last words, she pleaded quietly, “Children, please don’t fight.”

The deepest desire of a mother’s heart is for her children to flourish. Integral to that flourishing is her desire for them to get along and to care for each other. My grandma said to my dad and his six siblings, “Stay together.”

If this is how a mother feels, how much greater, then, are the desires of God’s heart? As we build in the next few weeks toward the empowerment of Pentecost, what are the Lord’s designs for our flourishing?

The Holy Spirit is the tie who binds a community together. When the early Christians bickered over who was getting enough food, the apostles were inspired to anoint the first deacons to serve. That way the church could be at peace and prosper.

Jesus prays that we all be one. The tension in today’s Gospel is that Jesus knows that he is about to go away. How are his followers to stay together? He wants them to flourish. They flourish best together. He is the Way. If they remain focused on him, they will stay together. They are about to be handed an important mission: to be Christ to the world. They need that focus. So do we.

Consider/Discuss

One of the most rewarding elements in the Christian life is to find out God’s vision and take it for our own. What is God’s dream for the world? What is your part in that grand vision?
Jesus says that he is “the Way.” He doesn’t say, “I am a nice idea.” In a world sometimes unconvinced, is the Christian message good for human flourishing? How does faithfully following Jesus matter?

Living and Praying with the Word

Lord, we put our hope in you. There is much that pulls us apart from each other. Your vision is for us to be together. We pray earnestly for you to heal our divisions, for you are our unfailing help. We commit ourselves to you again this day. Be our Way, our Truth, and our Life.

Jan 08 2025

Scripture Study for

The early Christian community comprised both Jews (Hebrews) and Gentiles (Graeco-Roman). Social divisions between them were not easily overcome, even in the care of the needy. The apparent neglect of the Gentile widows, whether intended or not, presents itself to the apostles as a practical problem that needs to be addressed structurally. They cannot take time from their particular ministry to make sure that everyone’s needs are met. Yet they recognize the importance of solicitude for needy widows and others, as shown not only by their desire to choose men with good reputations, known to be filled with the Spirit and wisdom, but also by their prayer and imposition of hands.

Peter’s audience has been born anew through the word of God (1:23). This word draws them to the Lord, who is building them into a temple where they will offer spiritual sacrifices to God. Like Israel, Christians are to be for God a chosen race, a holy and royal priesthood, and a holy nation, whose purpose is to proclaim the praises of God, and thus draw others to God as well. Like Peter’s audience, Christ too was rejected by those without faith and thus became a stumbling block for them. Yet he remains alive to nurture and support them, the living cornerstone on which the church is founded.

In his farewell discourse at the Last Supper, Jesus assures his followers that they are not to be perturbed by his imminent departure, because he goes to the Father, where he will prepare a place for them. When he returns, he will take them there. Yet they will not be going someplace completely unknown to them. Indeed, the way to the Father they already know because they know Jesus, in whom they have met the Father. Not quite getting it, Philip asks that they actually see the Father, “that will be enough for us”(!). Jesus reminds his followers once again that in him they have actually seen the Father because the Father is in him.

Dec 16 2024

Membership Qualifications

Groucho Marx once said, “I don’t want to belong to any club that would have someone like me for a member.” We laugh because usually, the opposite is the case. We don’t want to belong to any club that would have anyone very different from me as a member. The Church, however, is true to its calling when the welcome mat is out for all.

Acts today gives us a “tweeter’s” version of the early council of Jerusalem on the issue of whether Gentiles can be received into the community without circumcision and accepting the Law of Moses. Take some time to read all of Chapter 15 to hear the three important speeches that determined the conditions for the outcome of this debate. The final decision was reached under two influences: “the Holy Spirit and us”—the “us” being Peter, Barnabas, and Paul, and James, leader of the church in Jerusalem.

In a more intimate manner of expression, though no less binding, Jesus speaks about the requirements for having the Father and him come to dwell with the disciples: “Whoever loves me will keep my word.” That “word” we heard last week, his great commandment: Love one another as I have loved you. Jesus gives further assurance: “The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.”

In both instances, the Holy Spirit is recognized. May the Holy Spirit always continue to work on the Church’s membership drive and guide the deliberations of its leaders.

Consider/Discuss

What do you see as necessary for being a member of the Catholic Church?
Do you know what the Church declares necessary for being a member in good standing?

Responding to the Word

Holy Spirit, you descended upon Christ at his baptism, guided him through his ministry, and were his first gift after the Father raised him from the dead. Continue to be with his body, the Church, to guide its work so that all its members live according to his word.