FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER – B
Acts 9:26-31
1 John 3:18-24
John 15:1-8
There’s no such thing as a free lunch. Talk is cheap. Deeds, not words. If you’re going to talk the talk you’ve got to walk the walk. Actions speak louder than words. The philosophers have only interpreted the world; the point is to change it. Let our speech accord with our life. All of these are variations of the saying from the epistle of St. John: Let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth. There is research that suggests that at least one of the reasons that so many young people have left the Church nowadays is because they don’t see what the church says in word and speech being lived out in deed and practice. The Church talks of love and justice and community and peace but all too often what people see are squabbling, divisions and condemnation. The clergy sex abuse scandal was horrific in ways beyond how horrible sex abuse ordinarily is because it was perpetrated by those saying the opposite of what they were doing. I’m sure that you, like me, have had people respond when asked about coming to Church, “I don’t want to be a hypocrite like so many church-goers.”
That last accusation is not exactly fair. Yes, we don’t always live up to the high ideals of the faith. Keeping the commandments is hard. We are here not as the perfected but as forgiven sinners. And we are trying. The reason we come to Church is so we can support each other as we strive to put the words of Jesus into effect in our lives. Let me make a suggestion on how we might better live the gospel: take baby steps. Don’t imagine that all of a sudden you will become the paragon of virtue you aspire to be. Rather, face all of those facets of yourself which are not Christ-like. Pick one thing to work on and stick with that until you have done enough practice that you’ve got it down. For example, if patience is your issue decide on one thing that gets on your last nerve as your area of practice – say junior leaving dirty dishes in the sink. Instead of blowing up use the event as a teachable moment in life together. After you have that one down, take the next baby step. If forgiveness is difficult, pick one of your wounds – and not the biggest wound to start off with but a littler one – and pray about forgiving those who hurt you until you feel able to forgive. Once that has occurred you can move onto the next hurt. As we practice living the virtues, step by step, bit by bit, we gradually put into practice the gospel life.
We should be cautious, however, not to treat our spiritual practices as some kind of religious calisthenics. We do what we do not as a self-improvement program but as the way to deepen our relationship with Jesus Christ. Think how all of our relationships are founded not so much on our words but on our deeds. Husbands and wives, children and parents, friends and relations all expect us to do more than talk about being together but actually showing up for one another. Saying “I’ve got your back” and actually having your back are not the same thing. We know who we really are connected to when they help with the chores, spend time with us when we’re down, listen to us when we need to vent. We live the gospel in deed and truth because it connects us with the Jesus. Or as both the epistle and the gospel put it in describing our relationship with Christ, by our actions we remain in Jesus and he remains in us.
How do we remain in him? A story: once upon a time there was a curious fish. He had heard about the ocean his whole life long but didn’t know where it was. He looked everywhere for the ocean but could never find it. Finally he decided to ask the wise old whale, Moby Bob, (Moby Dick’s twin brother), where the ocean was. “The ocean,” said the whale, “is what you are swimming in now.” “That can’t be right,” said the fish. “This is only water. I’m looking for the ocean.” So the disappointed fish swam away to look elsewhere. Church, remaining in Jesus does not require any special skills or expertise. To remain in Jesus all we need do is to come to the awareness that we are in the divine presence at every moment of our lives. We are swimming in God every step we take and every move we make. We are often too distracted to understand that we are being held in the divine embrace right at this instant. Remaining in Jesus is a matter of hearing the voice of God in the song of a bird, of seeing the face of God in the beauty of a child, in feeling the presence of God in the sun on our skin, in reaching out a hand to help others. We don’t have to go anywhere else to remain in Jesus. All we need do is remain where we are and know that Jesus is here right now. As Catholics, receiving Holy Communion teaches us to remain in Jesus by the miracle of the ordinary. The ordinary elements of bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Christ to show us that God is found in the ordinariness of life. We who approach the altar this Sunday are making a commitment not limited to within these four walls. We are committing ourselves to bringing the real presence of Jesus whom we have received into our homes, our schools, to our friends and to our family. They should say of us what they said of those initial followers of Jesus: Look how those Christians love one another.
