Sixth Sunday of Easter. Year B -MOTHERS DAY -- Sunday, May 9, 2021 (EPISODE: 297)

Sixth Sunday of Easter. Year B -MOTHERS DAY -- Sunday, May 9, 2021
(EPISODE: 297)

Readings for Sixth Sunday of Easter. Year B
FIRST READING: Acts 10: 25-26, 34-35, 44-48 (diff)
Ps 98: 1, 2-3a, 3b-4. "The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power. "
SECOND READING: 1 John 4: 7-10
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION (John 14: 23). Alleluia, alleluia! All who love me will keep my words, and my Father will love them and we will come to them.
GOSPEL: John 15: 9-17

Image Credit: Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash
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Please listen to the audio-recordings of the Mass – (Readings, prayers and homily), for Sixth Sunday of Easter. Year B - Sunday, May 9, 2021 by clicking this link here: https://soundcloud.com/user-633212303/easter-6b-2021-episode-297  
(EPISODE: 297)
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* (Prologue:  Fr Paul Kelly)

All of the scripture readings this weekend say a lot about the core of Christ's message.  There are quite a few lines that jump out at me as we listen to the readings this weekend.
 
Lines such as these:
 
Saint Peter said to Cornelius: "Get up. I myself am also a human being."….. 
 
"the believers who had accompanied Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit should have been poured out on the Gentiles …."
 
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.
 
Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.
 
God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him. ,…..he loved us first and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.
 
Jesus said to his disciples: "As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love.
 
"I have told you  this so that my joy may be in you and your joy might be complete.
 
"No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.
I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends
 
It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another."
 
These lines from the readings this weekend are profound and important, and worth deeper thought and reflection.
 
 In summary, what these lines say to me is, we must keep in mind that our Christian faith is not ultimately about us, but it is about God. That might, at first glance, seem to be an obvious truism, however, we do acknowledge that in a world where ME, ME, ME  is often front and centre,  we as a whole, can sometimes forget that we are merely men and women and not 'little gods' in charge of our destiny, and we are ultimately not the centre of our own world or the world around us. 
 
How wonderful that the Holy Spirit of God took initiative and fell upon Gentiles even before they were baptised. God's Spirit blows where it wills and inspires and acts upon people in and outside the visible confines of religion and church and does what God wants.  That is also an important and humble corrective. We will never be able to limit God's generous and proactive activity in and among the peoples and cultures of the world. Nor should we ever want to stop this divine right of God to do as God wishes and act in and through whom God wants. (nor could we ever stop God anyway).
 
Also, the readings today remind us that God's very nature is LOVE. One cannot know God if we do not know love and do not show love. This love is to show itself in the way Jesus showed love. And the kind of love Jesus shows us is self-sacrificing love which gives and does not count the cost, and reaches out to give rather than grasping to possess. 
 
And in connection to this, God's desire and plan for us is to have joy to the full and to be not servants or slaves but friends who are willing co-workers and colleagues with God, in God's plans. We are indeed friends and colleagues with Jesus, but also friends who know our place; in the sense that we never get a 'big head' and think that since we are "co-workers" and "friends" of Christ, we could ever "play God for our own benefit" over others.
 
So, today's readings say to me: Be joyful, be loving, be free, be friends, be not slaves and nor ever be begrudging labourers, but rather,  be as Christ showed us, because God is all about self-giving, self-forgetting  love which reaches out to everyone without fear and favour, and which is about practical and joyful service and compassion which reduces ego and self-interest and acts and thinks more as a brotherhood and sisterhood of humanity rather than "them and us"    These are sound foundations upon which to build our true discipleship of Christ.   
 
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(Homily:  Fr Peter Dillon).
Wendy Mary Beckett (25 February 1930 – 26 December 2018), better known as Sister Wendy, was a British religious sister and art historian who became well known internationally during the 1990s when she presented a series of BBC television documentaries on the history of art. 

Her programmes, such as Sister Wendy's Odyssey and Sister Wendy's Grand Tour, often drew a 25 percent share of the British viewing audience. Her quaint and simple appearance had The New York Times described her as "a sometime hermit who is fast on her way to becoming the most unlikely and famous art critic in the history of television."

I became a great fan of Sister Wendy avidly following her instruction to "look deeper than what you first see, there are many layers of meaning to be discovered". Her particular passion was for religious paintings urging the viewer to try to get into the mind of the painter. To see and feel what they felt. The very same instructions certainly apply to the gospels and their authors.


Gospel always like those pictures with different levels of meaning. The underlying truth or picture is mean to be God. But that clarity is not always clear on first hearing the words. We sometimes need to let their intention sink in. We need to sometimes sit before the text and allow it to wash over us, again following the Sister Wendy method. How can we see or understand God, and how much of that meaning is influenced by our own circumstances at the time. Are we allowing God to speak to us through the descriptions of the ancient author?

The gospel gives us certain pictures that we can initially relate to. God is a rock, a king, a shepherd, a parent, a vine with branches. But God transcends all these images, visual and verbal, and in the end the mystery that is God cannot be limited.  Just like love, we are told today. True love has no limits and that is what God is. This must always be the starting point in trying to understand God. Because of love, God sent Jesus to save us. To do this by giving us an example of limitless loving, to the end, to death.

Mahatma Gandhi, the Hindu pacifist and admirer of Jesus, was asked once, 'Why don't you become a Christian?' He answered 'Because I have never met one'.

We often rack our brains in our struggle to encompass God and the ways of God, but the mystery of life consistently evades our grasp. John's message is that truth is both simpler and deeper than we imagine. It lies at the heart of the search.

The paintings of one of the great masters. But the secret to the mystery, to understanding the heart of the message, is to understand what love feels like. If we know what it is like to love one another, if we love our world in the way the Son revealed to us, then we unlock the mystery. The words give up their true picture, and the world takes on a sense we otherwise cannot see. If we don't know what love feels like, if we have never felt love, then it is impossible to grasp the depth of what Jesus is trying to convey through the Gospel writer. The parables become simply abstract stories with no place to settle in our own experience.

Imagining the audience 'in front of the text'. Why is the community of John being told so repeatedly about the centrality of love, over and over again? Have they not got the message? Are they slow to love others, especially strangers? It's the same issue in the first reading. Peter's dreams while asleep on the roof of the house of Simon the tanner (earlier in chapter 10) opened him to the possibility of admitting outsiders to the community of faith. Peter would have caused enough trouble by lodging with someone in an 'unclean' occupation, a tanner, without now saying that Gentiles were to be admitted to the Jewish Christian community. Peter comes to an understanding that God does not have favourites, but that anybody of any nationality who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to God. The Holy Spirit offers proof of this when he comes down on all the listeners, including the Gentiles, just as at Pentecost.

Our parish can suffer similar divisions and exclusiveness, and lay us open to the charge of Mahatma Ghandi. Do we really see Christ in one another? Do we even want to see Christ in each other? Do we see Christ in our pastor, does our pastor see Christ in us? If faith is deficient, failure to love will surely follow.

People often complain about sermons on love - unrelieved saccharine nonsense, with little or no practical application. Today's readings have a direct bearing on the survival and growth of our Christian communities. I commissioned you to go out and to bear fruit, fruit that will last.... what I command you is to love one another. If faith and love are not the basis of our pastoral endeavours, we shall achieve nothing, and as Sister Wendy might say "all we see is paint on a canvas".

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References:

Homily – fr peter Dillon

Prologue - Fr Paul W. Kelly

Image Credit: Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash


Sixth Sunday of Easter. Year B  (Sunday, May 9, 2021)  (EPISODE: 297 )

The Lord be with You

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!
Happy Mother's Day to all mums as we here in Australia celebrate Mother's Day. Different parts of the world celebrate mother's Day on different dates in the year, but whatever date it is celebrated; it is no coincidence that Christ used the image of an unconditionally loving parent to describe an essential characteristic of God's nature. What better example of unconditional love can be witnessed than the love of a Mother or a Father for their cherished child? Christ wants us to know and experience the deep and abiding love that God has for us, in calling us God's daughters and sons.  This weekend we pray for all Mothers, that they may be blessed for their goodness, kindness and self-forgetting love.


As one family in Christ, let us prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries by calling to mind our sins.  

Lord Jesus, you have revealed yourself as the way to the Father: Lord, have mercy

You have poured out on your people the Spirit of truth: Christ, have mercy

You are the Good Shepherd, leading us to eternal life: Lord, have mercy.

May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life.  Amen.
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Memorial Acclamation
3. Save us, Saviour of the world, for by your Cross and Resurrection you have set us free.
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Ps 98: 1, 2-3a, 3b-4. "The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power. "

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION (John 14: 23). Alleluia, alleluia! All who love me will keep my words, and my Father will love them and we will come to them.
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PREFACE: Easter V
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Let us pray in heartfelt thanksgiving to God, for all Mums on this Mother's Day weekend. That God bless them .  for their unconditional love and care. ………..(PAUSE)……. Lord hear us

For those who have passed into eternal life.....especially all dear-departed mothers, who have gone to their eternal rest and remain in cherished memory. That they now are enjoying the heavenly and eternal banquet feast of the Kingdom...... ………..(PAUSE)……. Lord hear us
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A Prayer in Gratitude and Blessing for Our Mothers.
 
Good and Gentle God, Lord of creation, we pray in gratitude for our mothers and for all the women who have joined with you in the wonder of bringing forth new life and nurturing with love, young lives. Jesus, you became human through the Blessed Virgin Mary. Grant to all mothers the grace and strength they need to face the uncertain moments that life often brings us all.  Give them the ongoing strength to love and to be loved in return. Give them the faithful support of family and friends and the wider community.  May they receive peace and joy through their family and friends.   Give them joy and delight in their families and friends, to sustain them through joys and sorrows. Most of all, give them the wisdom to turn to you for help when they need it most.  Bless all our mothers and grant them reward for their unconditional love and kindness. Through Christ our Lord.   Amen.

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{thank you so much for taking this time to listen to, and reflect upon  God's word and praising God's goodness and care. }

Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord.

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Archive of homilies and reflections:  http://homilycatholic.blogspot.com.au
To contact Fr. Paul, please email:  paulwkelly68@gmail.com

To listen to our weekly homily audio podcast, please click this link here:  https://soundcloud.com/user-633212303/tracks

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Further information relating to the audio productions linked to this Blog:
"Faith, Hope and Love - Christian worship and reflection"  - Led by Rev Paul Kelly

Prayers and chants  — Roman Missal, 3rd edition, © 2010, The International Commission on English in the liturgy. (ICEL)

Scriptures - New Revised Standard Version: © 1989,  and 2009 by the NCC-USA. (National Council of Churches of Christ - USA)

"The Psalms" ©1963, 2009,  The Grail - Collins publishers.

Prayers of the Faithful -   " Together we pray" by Robert Borg'.   E.J. Dwyer, Publishers, (1993) . (Sydney Australia).

Sung "Mass In Honour of St. Ralph Sherwin" -  By Jeffrey M. Ostrowski. The Gloria, Copyright © 2011 ccwatershed.org.

"Quiet Time."  Instrumental Reflection music. Written by Paul W Kelly. 1988, 2007. & This arrangement: Stefan Kelk, 2020.

- "Today I Arise" - For Trisha J Kelly.  Original words and music by Paul W. Kelly. Inspired by St Patrick's Prayer.  Arranged and sung, with additional lyrics by Stefan Kelk. 2019.

[ Production -  KER -  2021]

May God bless and keep you.
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