Thursday, April 11, 2024

Memorial of Saint Stanislaus, bishop and martyr

(Acts 5:27-33; John 3:31-36)

The Gospel of John is said to be dualistic.  This means that it sees all reality in terms of being either good or bad without mixing the two.  Today’s reading reflects this dualistic understanding.  The one who comes from heaven, of course, represents all that is good while the one from earth is completely bad.

Reality is not so tidy.  Good things can come from earth as well as heaven.  Genesis says that after He created the heaven and earth, God called his work “very good.”  Sin, however, has compromised the good of the earth.  It has never been all bad, but always in need of some redemption.  This has been accomplished through the passion, death, and resurrection of God’s Son.  Now humans are saved from corruption through belief in Christ’s salvific work.  They must not only say that they believe in Jesus but live their belief by obedience to his teachings. 

All the saints have shown submission to Jesus.  St. Stanislaus testified to Jesus’ truth by opposing the unjust wars and the immoral acts of the Polish king.  For his opposition, the king murdered Stanislaus. Although there are different versions of this story, Stanislaus is still honored as Poland’s first native born saint.

 

Thursday, April 23, 2020

Thursday of the Second Week of Easter

(Acts 5:27-33; John 3:31-36)

In yesterday’s gospel Jesus spoke of darkness as evil.  He said, “’…people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil.’”  Darkness and its prime referent, night, do not only symbolize evil.  They also represent ignorance.  Earlier John’s gospel said that Nicodemus came to Jesus at night.  He was coming out of ignorance into the light of Christ.  He called Jesus, “Rabbi,” which means “Teacher.”  Today’s gospel indicates how authoritative a teacher Jesus is. 

Teachers study the ideas of wise people.  They learn from the writings of Aristotle or Plato.  They cannot know everything of these masters because they didn’t live with them.  They could not ask questions of clarification and deeper probing.  When Jesus speaks of God, however, he knows all that there is to know. It is unclear whether Jesus is the speaker of today’s passage.  Nevertheless, it is clear that Jesus is said to have come from heaven.  He shares with people on earth “what he has seen and heard.”  It is like having Shakespeare as your English teacher.

The content of Jesus’ teaching – all that he has learned from God – is revealed in the rest of the gospel.  Having been formed in the faith, we have some idea of what it says.  We are to deny ourselves and to trust in God’s mercy.  This is not just a difficult task; it is also harrowing.  Jesus lived what he taught, and look where it got him.

Thursday, April 7, 2016

Memorial of Saint John Baptist de La Salle

(Acts 5:27-33; John 3:31-36)

Saint John Baptist de La Salle inherited a large fortune from his nobleman father.  He also felt called to the priestly life at a young age.  But he used neither his money nor his vocation in traditional ways.  He gave away his fortune to feed the poor.  He did not pursue a curate’s life but founded an intentionally non-clerical religious institute to educate poor boys.  He was a man “born from above” as Jesus says in the long discourse from which today’s gospel is taken.

Throughout the passage Jesus’ language appears strange.  His mannerism also seems disengaged, even distant.  These effects were intended by John the Evangelist to help his readers appreciate the difference between Jesus and the world.  As Jesus says here, he is “’the one who comes from above (and) is above all.’” In reality Jesus was quite like other people.  He had outstanding characteristics, but he was not odd or eccentric.  He was sensible, thoughtful, and compatible. Yet he testified, as the fourth gospel makes evident, to a way of life that the world cannot comprehend.  Where the world seeks comfort, credit, and control, Jesus’ Spirit moved him and those to whom he has given it to self-denial for the sake of others.

By the grace of God, Jesus has shared his Spirit with us.  It is the greatest gift because it provides us with an infinitely open future.  But it entails dominance over our  distorted desires.  We are to re-channel our energies in love for others.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Thursday of the Second Week of Easter

(Acts 5:27-33; John 3:31-36)

It often seems incredible that one may be saved by simply expressing faith in Jesus.  St. Paul classically expresses this thought in his letter to the Romans: “For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.”  But faith is more than lip-service as today’s gospel indicates.

In the passage the speaker (probably Jesus although the identity is actually ambiguous) juxtaposes belief in the Son with disobedience to him.  The implication here is that faith surpasses giving assent to propositions about Jesus and even having a trusting relationship with him.  Rather, the gospel is saying that faith is obedience to Jesus’ commands.  He will tell us to love one another by performing acts of service.

Is faith then just another name for love?  This is a tempting conclusion, but it is wiser to maintain a distinction between the two.  Faith recognizes the need to love and moves one to act.  Love guides the action to completion with the recognition of God in the other.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Thursday of the Second Week of Easter

(Acts 5:27-33; John 3:31-36)

Shakespeare professors sometimes test students by having them identify the play, the speaker, and the circumstances of isolated lines. The gospel today tests readers in much the same way.

The passage follows the famous quotation of John the Baptist that Jesus must increase while he must decrease. Thus, this John may be the intended speaker. But the words themselves are very similar to Jesus’ in his dialogue with Nicodemus at the beginning of John 3. It could be that somehow they came unmoored from their original setting and found their way to the end of the chapter. The translators of the New American Bible evidently think that the words most likely belong to the evangelist himself as they are not framed in quotation marks.

In any case the words summarize what has been said of Jesus to this point in the gospel. He is from God and has come into the world to give life to those who accepts his testimony. Reading these words, we should become anxious to learn the full testimony given in the remaining chapters.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Thursday of the Second Week of Easter

(Acts 5:27-33; John 3:31-36)

We should note who the speaker of today’s gospel passage is. He sounds like much like Jesus in yesterday’s reading saying to Nicodemus, “’God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” A supermarket shelf comparison will note just about everything the same except the pedigree when today’s speaker proclaims, “’Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever disobeys the Son will not see life...’” That speaker, however, is not Jesus but John, whom we (and not the text) call “the Baptist.”

The reading does not give us the context of John’s testimony, but we can easily find it by referring to the whole gospel. Jesus has left Jerusalem and gone into the country of Judea where John is baptizing. The text shows Jesus baptizing many people and John’s disciples worried that he is encroaching on John’s turf. But John -- the true prophet that he is – does not protest but submits. “He (Jesus) must increase;” John famously says, “I must decrease.”

Today’s gospel bids us to question the meaning of eternal life. How does it compare to the many ways we gratify ourselves? Is it more wonderful a vacation cruise or more comfortable than central air and heating? Perhaps more to the point, can we be assured of eternal life as much as many modern comforts are affordable to most of us? Our celebration of Easter emboldens us to respond to these questions with both good sense and conviction. Eternal life is companionship with the risen one. It far exceeds anything the world has to offer because it provides a joy not limited to time and space. Just as surely as Jesus rose from the dead, we will experience eternal life when we, like John, submit to him.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Thursday of the Second Week of Easter

(Acts 5:27-33; John 3:31-36)

We should take note of who is speaking in this gospel. It sounds similar to yesterday’s gospel where Jesus tells Nicodemus, “’God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” Today’s passage, however, relates the testimony of John, whom we (but not the fourth evangelist) call “the Baptist.”

The reading does not mention us the context of John’s testimony, but we can find it by referring to the whole gospel. Jesus has left Jerusalem and gone into the country of Judea where John is baptizing. Jesus also baptizes -- a fact which raises concern among John’s disciples that Jesus is encroaching on John’s turf. However, John -- a true prophet – raises no objection. On the contrary, he utters his famous words of submission, “He (Jesus) must increase; I must decrease.”

Today’s gospel challenges us to be likewise humble. We think of ourselves as fortunate to live in a time of so many comforts and conveniences – to name a few: high definition television, central air and heating, popular vacation cruises. But are these luxuries anything in comparison to the eternal life which Jesus promises? Eternal life is companionship with Jesus. It far exceeds anything the world has to offer because it provides a joy not limited to time and space. We will experience it when we, like John, submit ourselves to him.

Homilette for April 3, 2008

Thursday of the Second Week of Easter

(John 3:31-36)

We should take note of who is speaking in this gospel. It sounds somewhat like Jesus himself. We may remember the gospel passage yesterday where Jesus tells Nicodemus that “’God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” Today’s passage is remarkably similar. The speaker proclaims, “’Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever disobeys the Son will not see life...’” The speaker, however, is John, whom we call “the Baptist.”

The reading does not give us the context of John’s testimony, but we can easily find it by referring to the whole gospel. Jesus has left Jerusalem and gone into the country of Judea where John is baptizing. The text shows Jesus baptizing many people and John’s disciples worried that Jesus is encroaching on John’s turf. However, John -- the true prophet that he is -- offers no protest. On the contrary, he utters his famous submission, “He (Jesus) must increase; I must decrease.”

Today’s gospel lays out a challenge for us. What is the “eternal life” it speaks of in comparison to the many ways we have to gratify ourselves? Is it better than high definition television, central air and heating, vacation cruises? Perhaps more to the point, can we be assured of “eternal life” as much as modern luxuries are affordable to us? Our celebration of Easter buoys us up so that we might answer these questions with sense and conviction. “Eternal life” is companionship with the risen one. It far exceeds anything the world has to offer because it provides a joy not limited to time and space. Just as surely as Jesus rose from the dead, we will experience “eternal life” when we, like John, submit to him.