07 May 2023 – 5th Sunday of Easter (Year A)

by Fr Joachim Robert

Dear friends,

In our 5th Sunday of Easter our readings points us towards community building, the challenges, the obstacles and what one face to live in a community.

In the First Reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we know that the number of disciples were increasing after Pentecost. And as the numbers grew, more people encountered God, encountered Jesus and were brought into the faith. And among them were so many people who were perhaps outsiders, people who are not familiar to the Jewish tradition and the Jewish faith.

And here in the First Reading we see the Hellenists, which is Greek-speaking Jews, those Jewish people who spoke Greek and accustomed themselves to the Jewish culture. And on the other hand, we had the Hebrew people who were steeped in their tradition. And when they came together some conflict arose. And the reason for this was that they were neglecting the widows in their food distribution. And after having this situation, what happened was they brought the whole issue together to the disciples to get them to make their decision.

And after praying, what they did, the disciples were focusing on preaching the gospel and on healing. And they allowed a few more people to come together to take over this responsibility of providing for the widows, especially in the food distribution. And we see, dear friends, of how the early church face these challenges, and when they were confronted with situations like this, how did they deal with them. And as we look again, we see that as they confronted this situation, they did not just hide it, they did not just put it or sweep it under the carpet. But what they did was to bring that up to light and together they found a solution in addressing this situation that was at hand.

And as we look at how they have dealt with that situation, we come to realise that amidst the challenges and the confrontation, the arguments perhaps or certain frictions they may have, they were able to look at the goodness of the community and they were able to draw the goodness from the community and to do it for the betterment of the community. Because at the end, we see after what they have done, after appointing a few others to take this responsibility, on creating a new ministry, the word of the Lord continued to spread, the numbers of the disciples in Jerusalem continued to grow.

And here we need to recognise, dear friends, that even whatever circumstances or situations that we are in, even amid misunderstanding, friction, personalities, that there is something good in each and every one of us and from there, we are able to recognise that goodness and use it for the betterment of our community. And I am sure in every aspect of our lives, whether in the community, whether in our families, whether with our loved ones, even in our own selves, very often we allow what clouds that is around us to colour the way we think or affect the way we make decisions.

But the early church continues to remind us, and tell us, that amidst whatever challenges that we are going through, goodness prevails in one another. Goodness prevails in our community, goodness prevails in our families.

The first thing that we can learn from today’s readings, the First Reading especially, is that goodness exists in one another. And you and I, dear friends, have that goodness in us which is gifted to us by God.

And the second thing that we need to be reminded in the Second Reading from the Letter of St Peter is that each and every one of us are chosen and sent for this mission that the Lord has entrusted to us, this mission to become proclaimers of God’s word and God’s love. And how does He empower us? It is by acknowledging that each and every one of us are chosen by Him. He says in the last portion of the text:-

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, a people set apart to sing praise to God who called you out of the darkness into His wonderful light.

So each and every one of us, dear friends, are called and chosen for a particular purpose and once we acknowledge who we are in our relationship with God, the Holy Spirit empowers us to take the necessary mission that has been entrusted to us. All gifted with different charisms, different talents and giftedness but all used for the same glory of building God’s kingdom. So the second thing that we need to realise, dear friends, we empowered by the Holy Spirit to acknowledge the goodness that is already present in one another.

And on the Gospel, we come to see how Jesus addresses His disciples once again. He said “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God still and trust in me.” And as we look at the Gospel, we see this conversation between Thomas, who do not know where he has to go, and Philip, even though he acknowledges Jesus as the Messiah, was not able to see beyond the physical Jesus. And even then, we see in our community building there will always be conflicts, there will always be situations that we need to dialogue together. And when the dialogue happens, dear friends, each one of us may have different perspective of things but all of us must be reminded that all of us are here because of Jesus, to allow the light of Christ to shine within our hearts, to shine within our lives, and whatever differences or darkness that may exist, we may allow that to pass away and let the light shine even more brightly.

And to Thomas, Jesus says:

I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.

And Jesus invites him to take the path of humility, to be obedient to what Jesus is telling him, to acknowledge Him as the Messiah and to allow that grace of God to work in his life.

And with Philip, even though there was this desire of knowing God, knowing Jesus, he was still clouded in what he thought of himself. His knowledge perhaps were clouded by not being able to recognise that God has already been present or Jesus has already been present among them and who he has before him is the Father, as Jesus says:

You must believe in me when I say I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Believe on the evidence of this word if not for any other reason.

So as we pray for our community, dear friends, pray for our families and pray for ourselves, we need to recognise that first of all goodness is present in each and every one of us.

And the second thing is by the invitation that the Lord gives us, by the virtue of our baptism, we are empowered with the gift of the Holy Spirit, to embrace the different charisms that we have, to acknowledge the giftedness of each other so that we are able to use them and empower the community to do more, so that we can grow in the fruits of the spirit.

And the third thing that we need to embrace and recognise is that to see the Father’s face in one another. To see the goodness of God, to see the empowerment of the Holy spirit and the gift that is present in one another so that we are able to recognise the work of God in each other’s life. And doing so, we are able to truly, truly live in the life of the Spirit.

So let us pray, dear friends, for our community, for our families and for our loved ones that each and every one of us may embrace the goodness, to be filled with the mpowerment of the Holy Spirit and be able to see the Father’s face in each other.

Click below to listen to homily and watch video:-

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