by Fr Simon Labrooy
Acts 1:15-17,20-26
Psalm 112(113):1-8
John 15:9-17
I chose you from the world to go out and bear fruit, fruit that will last.
Brothers and sisters, just a few words about today’s Saint, the Apostle Matthias. And we were told in the First Reading how Matthias was elected, after prayer, discernment. Elected to be the replacement or the Apostle to replace Judas. Nothing much is known about Matthias. Tradition says that he went to Turkey, Ethiopia and Georgia to preach and he was martyred there while preaching. So that is tradition.
But we remember. What is important for us is that God chooses the weak for His work. The Lord chooses the weak for His work. And in the person of Matthias, He has chosen him, nothing known about him, to do His will.
So the question would be for us today: What is the will of the Lord for me?
That is the question. And we seem to be asking the Lord all the time in our discernment: What is Your will for me?
At times, it seems clear the direction but just when we are getting there, we seem to be thrown off track. Now, what is Your will for me?
Generally, the will of God for all of us is that we love one another, is that we do good to one another and will good for one another. Generally, that is the will of God that we are united. Not Manchester United. Just UNITED, okay? Right.
So, generally, in God, all of us are one.
Brothers and sisters, at the beginning of today’s Gospel, we heard the command of Jesus: Remain in me. Remain in my love.
I like this Reading very much, you know. Firstly, because it is read very commonly when we celebrate weddings. Remain in my love. And weddings are always a cause of great joy because there is so much of love there. Remain in my love. I love this Reading.
But the demand goes deeper. Deeper, not just the surface. Falling in love, yes. We fall in love and we are happy. When two people are in love, they are happy. When they get married, they are happy. But that is just a day, ya. That is just a day. We are looking more towards the marriage, the days that will come.
And then we remind ourselves, it is no more about falling in love, you know. It is about remaining in love.
And all of us have our own love experiences with God. All of us have our love experiences. And God has spoken to us in many ways and led us in many ways. But the demand continues to remain in love. That is demand.
Brothers and sisters, we all know that our lives won’t be easy. And we all know there will be obstacles that we have to follow and we have to face. We look at St Matthias today and of course, he had those obstacles. But whatever the obstacle was, he loved. He loved.
And love is a very misunderstood word, you know. Love is not just a feeling. It is more than that, you know. It is my commitment. I have decided I love you. My commitment to you. I love you. I love you.
And of course, love comes in many forms. As I mentioned the other day, because of our limited knowledge of the English language, English language is so limited, it does not give us a proper understanding of love. I love my dog, I love my mother, in the same sentence, you know. What is that? What is that?
But of course, love has deeper meaning than that, you know. So what is love?
St Thomas Aquinas will give us a beautiful understanding of love. And we call that the Christian definition of love. You see, love is just this: To will the good of the other as other without expecting anything in return. Ah, that is love, right? To will the other’s good. Even if I have to tell you how I feel about you which you may not like, that is love. That is love!
So how have we embraced His call to remain in love? That is the question today. The call to remain in love is my journey towards discovering the will of God.
So brothers and sisters, today, the Lord tells us. He tells:
I chose you from the world to go out and to bear fruit, fruit that will last.
He reminds us, you know. You did not choose me, you know. I chose you. You did not choose me. I chose you and I commissioned you to go out and bear fruit, fruit that will last.
And so today, the question remains: Are we stagnated in our Christian faith and stagnated in our Christian love?
That is the question. Are we afraid to challenge one another to love deeper? Are we afraid to challenge one another so that we can grow together? Even if there is misunderstanding that we need to go through in order for us to love one another more? To remain in love with one another?
When we celebrate the Eucharist today, I pray that the Eucharist, Jesus Christ, His love for us will challenge all of us to move from being stagnated, stale, to freshness, to journey towards remaining in love and growing in love.
I pray that will be our journey.
Brothers and sisters, we are also here to celebrate with one another the decision we have made to be healers ourselves. And so we have come to this Eucharist.
Love will heal. Love will heal but how much do we want to invest our love in our healing process? How much do we want to invest our love?
We always say love is not love until it hurts, you know. Until we feel the pinch then we know that is love. Otherwise, we give from the extra. It is not love. Until we feel the pinch, we know it is love. And I want to do it for you. Not because of the extra that I have, because I am digging deep into my reserves to help you.
The best way to gauge our love for one another is to look at the beauty of our families. The beauty. Sometimes our families are disfigured, isn’t it? We can’t seem to love the one who we are living with, right? So disfigured our family. And yet we know I love him, I love my father, I love my mother, I love my wife, I love my husband. My son, oh my if I can kill him, I will kill him, we will say, you know. But I won’t because I love him. I love him. I love him very much. We say this from time to time, you know, but we don’t mean it. We don’t mean it. Love overpowers what our emotions at times want to take control of. It overpowers.
Brothers and sisters, today I would like to lead you into a small prayer search. A search in prayer on how maybe we have been stale and stagnant in our love for the family so that we can move or embrace the challenge and pray for the courage of the Spirit of the Lord to move.
When we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, we cannot, we cannot but give thanks to God for the fruits of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit. And that is what we want to pray for – The fruits of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit.
Today’s Gospel: Go out and bear fruit. Bear fruit, you know. Go out and bear fruit. Not be barren in your love but go out and bear fruit with your love. So deep the meaning today: Bear fruit with your love.
So let us pray today.
Firstly for ourselves, where have I stopped growing in loving my neighbour, meaning my household, my community. Firstly.
Secondly, let us pray for those who we live with. What has happened if there is some kind of misunderstanding? Some kind of breakdown in communication? Have I been the one to approach the person? Or has the person been the one to approach me? Am I proud in my relationship within my own family that I cannot accept the other person’s approach to me? Am I proud? So that is the second thing.
And the third, the third is to pray for our parish community that we are celebrating the Feast of our parish. How is my relationship in my actual neighbourhood? How is my relationship with them?
So we just close our eyes. We remain in the silence of the Lord.
I would like to invite you today to bring to mind those we remembered at the beginning of the Eucharist. Those we brought with us to celebrate the Eucharist though they cannot be here. Bring them into our prayer.
Let us focus on what they asked us to pray for.
Did they ask us to pray for reconciliation in their family?
Did they ask us to pray because they can’t take the pain or grief that they are going through? The loss of a husband, the loss of a wife through death? The loss of a son, a daughter?
Did they ask us to pray for that?
Did they ask us to pray for them because they don’t know why they seem to be getting angry all the time? They are angry with their children, they are angry with their parents, they are angry. For no reason they are angry.
Did they ask us to lift them up and their anger today?
We want to pray for those whom we have brought with us and their intentions.
Let us also, this evening, lift up to the Father and ask the Father to blow His Spirit upon all married couples, especially younger married couples who are struggling to be with one another. The challenges that they are going through. To blow His Spirit on all married couples.
We lift up to the Lord today ourselves, probably the pain that we carry, the burdens that we carry, financial burdens. We don’t know how to move on. There are so many financial responsibilities. We don’t know what to do. We feel like giving up.
We pray for ourselves today.
We pray for ourselves. We pray for our own healing, that the Spirit of the Lord may move us to forgive those who have hurt us. To help us to control that anger. To help us to forego that pride.
We pray to the Lord today.
I invite you to pray for all our seminarians and all our priests, our deacons, for all that we are carrying in our hearts that sometimes seem difficult to bear. Pray for us. Pray for the ability, the courage, the strength that we need.
And brothers and sisters, today, whatever that seems heavy on your shoulders, the burdens you are carrying, by this, whatever seems heavy in your heart, whatever is clouding your mind that there is no clarity, we lift up to the Lord today.
We pray for the guidance of the Spirit of the Lord. Pray for that gift.
We pray that all these distractions that we are facing may not break the unity of our family. May not break the unity of our community.
We pray that the love that we are remaining in may continue to grant us patience for one another.
And so we turn to Mary, our mother, the Queen of peace, the Mother of the church. And together, we turn to her, we offer up all these prayers that we have brought to the altar of the Lord, and the people who have accompanied us to the celebration of the Eucharist today.
We pray:
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you.
Blessed are you among women and
blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, mother of God,
pray for us sinners now and
at the hour of our death.
Amen.