Friday, May 30, 2025

 

Friday of the Sixth Week of Easter

(Acts 18:9-18; John 16:20-23)

As if global warming were not enough concern for the future, another catastrophe looms on the horizon.  Western cultures will wane if not disappear because women in many nations do not want to bear children.  The joy of which Jesus speaks in today’s gospel is being lost.

Jesus speaks of childbearing as a metaphor to describe his imminent death and resurrection.  He tells his disciples that their anguish will be great like a woman in labor as they watch him suffer and die.  But like a child being born, he will rise to a new life giving them great joy.

Jesus shares his new life with us in Baptism.  Properly nourished with the Eucharist, the new life will recognize the need to procreate for the common good.  It will also acknowledge that few things are more satisfying than guiding one’s progeny to become loving, faithful people of God.

Friday, May 10, 2024

Friday of the Sixth Week of Easter

(Acts 18:9-18; John 16:20-23)

Today’s gospel reminds us of the trauma of giving birth.  Prolife advocates must be sensitive to what they are asking of pregnant women.  Although there is no legitimate defense for a direct abortion, giving birth to a child requires great patience.

Jesus compares the difficulty of giving birth to the challenge of following him.  It is as true today as ever.  Schoolboys will mock their classmates who refuse to look at pornography.  A large part of society will frown in disapproval on large families.  We may even become irritated with ourselves for passing by an opportunity to take a holiday because of a standing commitment to take Communion to the sick.  Do not fret -- Jesus is telling both ancient and contemporary disciples – he will more than compensates for any sacrifices for his sake.

He is offering more than promises for the future.  He gives all his disciples the assurance of the Father’s ongoing attention.  Like having a service guarantee on a new computer, he says the Father will provide if anything goes wrong.

Friday, May 19, 2023

Friday of the Sixth Week of Easter

(Acts 18:8-18; John 16:20-23)

The gospel today touches a sensitive nerve.  It promises that God will accede to every request made in Jesus’ name.  Yet from experience it seems that at least some of prayers go unanswered. How should this seeming contradiction be deciphered?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church provides some answers.  First, it says that we must pray to God as “our Father” who knows best what is good for us.  Then it offers the critique of the Letter of James that we often ask God for things with a divided heart.  That is, we ask for things which will be used for evil purposes.  Finally, the Catechism cites St. Augustine saying that the granting of our request may be delayed so that we may grow in trust as we continue to pray.

The answers that the Church provides are based on faith in a Creator who loves us.  His existence is not self-evident, at least to most people.  Yet we know, also from experience, that what St. Paul writes is true: “…all things work for good for those who love God….”

Friday, May 27, 2022

 Friday of the Sixth Week of Easter

 (Acts 18:9-18; John 16:20-23)

Someone you love is diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor.  She will be dead most probably within a year, perhaps a little more.  There is no long-term prognosis.  You begin the excruciating ordeal of saying, “Good-bye.”  This is the situation of the disciples which the Lord addresses in today’s gospel.

Jesus anticipates the pain his disciples will feel.  He compares it to the labor a woman endures when she gives birth.  Its sharpness will take their breath away.  Its duration will stick in their memory like a knife in wood.  But seeing Jesus in the resurrection will be like hearing the cries of new life.  Immediately pain’s grip will be released, and exultation will overwhelm lingering discomfort.  The disciples’ desires will then be purified so that their every wish may be granted.  Understanding of all that has gone on, capacity to share their ecstasy with others, wisdom to never doubt again will be theirs.

We naturally do not want to suffer.  But we accept pain and even embrace it at times as necessary to reach heightened awareness.  Indeed, suffering may bring us a whole new kind of life. We should see the pain of death as taking us closer to the Lord.  It should make us ever reliant on Him.  In death’s completion, we will see His goodness face to face.  This joy will far surpass any wonder of this world.

Friday, May 11, 2018

Friday of the Sixth Week of Easter

(Acts 18:9-18; John 16:20-23)

According to the Acts of the Apostles, Jesus said, “’It is more blessed to give than to receive’” (Acts 20:35). People who find themselves harassed by church donation seekers may take some comfort in knowing that this saying is not recorded in any of the four gospels.  Their relief may gain momentum when they read today’s gospel.  Jesus quite clearly states, “’Whatever you ask the Father in my name will be given to you.’”  In fact, a form of this promise is found in each of the four gospels!

But what does Jesus mean by it?  Perhaps all of us have prayed for something with faith and persistence that was not granted.  Recently a woman came to me sounding profoundly disillusioned.  She complained that she prayed for her mother to live, but the elder died.  Is Jesus then to be taken at his word?  Of course, he is.  An old African-American preacher once advised, “Until you have been knocking on the closed door for years with your knuckles bleeding, you do not know what prayer is.”  Persistence may not be a matter of days or even years.  It may require decades or even centuries.

Christians have been praying for two millennia that Jesus return soon without its full realization.  We see signs in the falling of the Iron Curtain, for example.  But we also recognize that all earthly progress is bound to fall short of God’s Kingdom.  Encouraged by the progress made and hopeful that it might grow, we continue to pray.  We take Jesus at his word because we have already received more than a fair share of blessing.  We pray always in his name confident that our Father in heaven will grant us all that is good.

Friday, May 30, 2014

Friday of the Sixth Week of Easter

(Acts 18:9-18; John 16:20-23)

“O happy fault!” the “Exultet” proclaims in the Holy Saturday liturgy. This oxymoron declares the desirability of Adam’s sin for having produced the effect of the world’s knowing the Son of God.  A woman might similarly speak of her labor as sweet pain in that it accompanies the wonder of a new-born child.  In today’s gospel Jesus uses this image of child-bearing to describe the glory of the resurrection after his bloody death.

In the passage Jesus is making his farewell to his disciples.  They are confused by his reiterating how they will not see him for a while and then see him again.  As is his custom, Jesus uses an image from daily life to give clarity.  They will experience sorrow at his leaving them but joy when he returns, just like a woman who after labor sees her baby.  His going and coming is also like childbirth as it brings a whole new way of living.

Jesus, the master story teller, is capable of relating his meaning with clear, strong images.  As the Word of God, it is only fitting that he uses words artfully.  We give thanks for him, especially as we realize that he spoke most eloquently on the cross where he shows us the depth of God’s love.

Friday, May 10, 2013

Friday of the Sixth Week in Lent

(Acts 18:9-18; John 16:20-23)

Someone you love is diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor.  She will be dead most probably within a year, perhaps a little more, but there is no long-term prognosis.  You begin the excruciating ordeal of saying, “Good-bye.”  This is the situation of the disciples which the Lord himself addresses in today’s gospel.

Jesus anticipates the pain his disciples will feel when he dies as the labor a woman endures when she gives birth.  Its sharpness will take their breath away.  Its duration will inscribe itself like a knife in wood.  But seeing Jesus in the resurrection will be like hearing the cries of new life.  Immediately pain’s grip is released and exultation mutes any lingering acuteness.  The disciples’ desires will then be purified so that whatever they ask – understanding of what is going on, capacity to share their ecstasy with others, wisdom to never doubt again  – will be granted.

We naturally do not want to suffer pain.  But we accept it and even embrace it at times as necessary to reach heightened awareness, indeed a whole new kind of life. We should see the pain of death as taking us closer to the Lord by making us ever reliant on Him and by seeing His goodness encompassing more than the wonders of this world.

Homilette for Fiday, May 2, 2008

Memorial of St. Athanasius, bishop and doctor of the Church

(John 16:20-23)

In the gospel Jesus describes a mother’s joy in giving birth. Today we would want to include the father’s participation in that bliss. In having children parents contribute to the great chain of life. They not only experience solidarity with humanity but also realize a primordial personal goal. Their genetic material – what used to be called blood-line – is handed on. It is assurance against death in a way. Rather than being totally obliterated by time, they now have progeny to carry evidence of their existence into the future.

Of course, Jesus is only making a comparison when he speaks of the birthing process. Like a mother rejoices after the pang of birth, he says, his disciples will exult after the anguish of his crucifixion. We should see more here than a turn of emotion from unbearable sorrow to uncontainable joy. There is a deeper parallel between giving birth and rising from the dead. The one on whom the disciples have latched their hopes for the future has delivered. Better than handing on genetic material, they will achieve everlasting life.

Jesus then refers to “the Father,” a term the evangelist John continually cites to indicate Jesus’ filial relationship with God. We should take care, however, that we do not understand this bond to mean that the Son has issued from the Father like a child is borne of his parents. Today we remember St. Athanasius, the genius of the fourth century who saved the Church from this latter idea in the fourth century. At the time Christianity was deeply divided between those who understood Christ as one with the Father from all eternity and the so-called Arians who accepted Christ as created in time and therefore subordinate to the Father. St. Athanasius’ conception of the Father and the Son being of the same nature, alike in everything except being distinct persons, proved faithful to Scripture and traditional belief. It is the faith that we proclaim to this day in the Nicene Creed on Sunday.