HOMILY OF THE 7TH SUNDAY OF THE EASTER: YEAR C

HOMILY OF THE 7TH SUNDAY OF THE EASTER: YEAR C

HOMILY THEME: TOGETHER WE ARE BETTER

BY: Fr. Isaac Awe

Acts 1:1-11, Ps: 46; Eph 1:17-23; Lk 24:46-53

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “I love your Christ but I hate your Christians” this was uttered as a result of disunity in the Christendom which starts from our families. My people worship me with their lips but their hearts are far away from me(Isaiah 29:13). We should always keep in mind that Jesus we are running after is LOVE INCARNATE and love is an action word. Hence, out of his love for his dispersed followers, he’s calling on us for reunion as a body but with many parts.

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Jesus’ prayer for unity appears four times in John 17. The unity of God’s people should reflect the unity of Father and Son. The son is obedient to the Father and the Father loves the son. We are many members, but one body says st Paul (Romans 12:4-5,Col. 3:15). Jesus did not pray that all believers would agree. To be one is not the absence of opinions, but the absence of division. Disunity weakens, scatters and muffles the disciples, and this world as a whole. No bandage or tape or glue can piece together a divided community of disciples or the world.

As we look around us we realise how urgently we need this prayer. Instead of being united, we are separated. We are putting up dividers and fences. The worst kind of fences and the most difficult to detect are the ones that are invisible to our eyes. Where are those invisible fences that keep us from being united with our neighbours and God, from being one in the spirit? There are fences based on physical appearances, separating persons of different race or ethnicity or gender. There are fences based on nationality, regions, or language, or even accents.

Jesus certainly abolished some of the fences of his time. His ministry was to all and for all, even the outlawed, the unclean and the sinners. Jesus also erected fences of good standards, healthy living and morality, but never to a point where people were shut out. When it comes to dealing with people, he never turns his back on anyone, not even on the ones who crucified him.

Who are our brothers and sisters in Christ? God desires unity for all of his people, for married couples, families, communities, and churches across every land and nation. Sadly division and strife is often the result of personal pride, sin, prejudice, and the failure to love, forgive, and reconcile. That is why prayer is so necessary, both for safeguarding unity and for healing and restoration wherever unity has been broken.

Jesus knew the weakness of his disciples, their competitive spirit to see who would rank first, their dislike for Samaritans and others who were not of their own company, and the fear that would scatter them and make them deny their Lord when Jesus’ enemies arrested him in the Garden of Gethsemane and nailed him to the cross on Calvary. John tells us that Jesus loved his own to the very end (John 13:1). Nothing could break nor diminish the love he had for them, not even betrayal and rejection. As disciples of Jesus we are called to love and lay down our lives for all who believe in him. If we are willing to die for our brothers and sisters in Christ, how much more should we strive to live in harmony, love, and unity with one another.

The sunflower is probably the most amazing flower God created. It literally follows the sun. Their unity is totally dependent on one thing; their relationship to the sun. Our unity is totally dependent on one person, our lord Jesus.

Reflection: Do we love and accept all baptized Christians as our brothers and sisters in Christ?

PRAYER: Lord God, have mercy on your people and heal the divisions in the body of Christ. May all Christian people throughout the world attain the unity for which Jesus prayed on the eve of his sacrifice. Renew in us the power of the Spirit that we may be a sign of that unity and a means of its growth. Increase in us a fervent love for all our brothers and sisters in Christ. Amen

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