YEAR B: HOMILY FOR THE 6TH SUNDAY OF EASTER (4)

YEAR B: HOMILY FOR THE SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

HOMILY THEME: GOD IS LOVE

BY: Fr. Gerald M. Musa

 

HOMILY:

Love that makes the world go round. This is why we love to listen to love stories. We love to talk, sing and write about love. Everyday we give and receive love. In fact, life is meaningful only when we are able to discover and experience authentic, unconditional and divine love is all.

One of the major obstacles that prevent us from loving other people is prejudice. Prejudice is the act of judging people before we encounter them. When we fall into the trap of prejudice we judge people (negatively or positively) by the way they appear, by their tribal or racial background, by what others have said or written about them, or we simply judge people at first sight. Our pre- judgment either opens us up to encounter other people or closes our hearts entirely. In other words, prejudice is pre-judgment, which is often misjudgment, having a mindset, narrow-minded, partial, one-sided, biased view about someone or something.

Problems of discrimination, xenophobia, segregation, partiality, nepotism, and stereotypes are all related to prejudice. In prejudice, we make general and sweeping statements about certain groups of people or persons even without encountering them. Prejudice makes us develop some fixed ideas about groups of people. For example some women have fixed perception about men, just as some men have some narrow- minded views about all women. In the religious circles, some people would have inflexible labels for all Protestants, fixed ideas about Catholics or unchangeable views about Muslims.

The Apostle Peter had a very serious problem of prejudice against Gentiles. Gentiles were people who were neither Jews nor Christians. The Jews considered themselves as a special race, descended from Abraham and chosen by God and they called everyone who is non-Jew a gentile. The Jews and early Christians considered Gentiles as uncircumcised people, unbelievers, unconsecrated and rebellious. Therefore, the gentiles were treated as second- class people, as dogs and as unrighteous people.

After the resurrection of Jesus, Peter and the rest of the early Christians were reluctant to reach out to the gentile people. Subsequently, there was a debate about whether or not to baptise the Gentiles. God appeared to Peter in a dream and instructed him to go to the house of Cornelius a Gentile and to accept him as a brother and as a fellow human being who is worthy to be loved and respected. Thereafter, Peter experienced a deep conversion from his negative prejudice against the Gentiles and so after his conversion he said: “In truth, I see that God shows no partiality. Rather, in every nation whoever fears him and acts uprightly is acceptable to him” (Acts 10:35). This experience of Peter goes to show that authentic love accepts others, even strangers and people who are outside our religious groups, tribes, race, ideology, party. Peter had to confront, jettison and unlearn his prejudices. Soon after he began to see people as God sees them and began to learn to love as God loves and he learnt to accept people impartially. He began to understand that the love of God is like rain that does not choose the grass on which it falls.

Scriptures tell us a profound truth about the nature of God and the Evangelist John puts it in a poetic way “God is love and whoever lives in love lives in God and God in him” (1 John 4:16). So, how does God love? A priest of the Order of Mary Immaculate, Fr. Ronald Rolheiser provides some insight about the love of God. He says: God’s love isn’t a reward for being good, doing our duty, resisting temptation, bearing the heat of the day in fidelity, saying our prayers, remaining pure, or offering worship, good and important though these things are. God loves us because God is love and cannot be discriminating in love.

Scriptures tell us the various ways in which God loves and he paints the picture of God as:

• A God who shares in the pains of his people and delivers them: In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old (Isaiah 63:9).

• A God who really cares: Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands (Isaiah 49:15-16).

• Forgiving and merciful God: Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon (Isaiah 55:7). This same loving attitude is expressed in the parable of the prodigal son where the Father celebrated over the return of his wayward son (Luke 15:23-24).

• He takes delight in his people: Besides, prophet Zephaniah shows us a beautiful dimension of God as one who takes delight in his people. He assures the people saying, “The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing” (Zephaniah 3:17).

• He lays down his life: What is more, he is a God who lays down his life for his friends and shares his eternal life with those who accept him (John 3:16). In his love he wants the best for everyone. He wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of truth (1 Timothy 2:3-4).

• He shows tough love: In addition, he shows tough love when the need arises as he disciplines those he loves. He trains them hard to produce a harvest of righteousness and share in his holiness (Hebrews 12:6-11). Consequently, Jesus challenges us to love as God loves us. He says, “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:12-13). We cannot really love if we are not connected with God who is the source of love, because he is the river from which love flows. We should remain in him, if our love must be fruitful.
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6th Sunday of Easter, Year B; Acts of the Apostles 10:25-26.34-35.44-48; 1 John 4:7-10; John 15:9-17

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