HOMILY FOR SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER May 17, 2020
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child,
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child,
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child,
A long way from home.
This 19thCentury black spiritual captures a feeling that you may be having during this time of pandemic, of sickness and death, of isolation and distance from friends and church community and relatives, of economic hardship and great loss. To feel like a motherless child is to feel abandoned, vulnerable, lost.
In contrast in the Gospel today Jesus assures us “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” With Jesus we are never, ever alone. We are never like a motherless child. We are deeply loved and cared for.
Jesus declares to us in the Gospel, “In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live.” Jesus is not talking here about normal physical life, but a much greater, deeper and more wonderful life: life in the Holy Spirit.
Jesus continues: “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father / and you are in me / and I in you.” Jesus is speaking of very deep intimacy. Of spiritual union. This is what the life of the Holy Trinity is like: Jesus in the Father, the Holy Spirit in Jesus and in the Father, the Father in all. Jesus is inviting us into the intimacy of God’s own inner, Trinitarian, life.
Jesus tells us: “Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me.” Love is not about words, not about protestations, not about feelings. Love is about DOING. Observing the Lord’s commandment to love one another is the way to love the Lord.
Jesus promises us: “And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them, and reveal myself to them.” We come to know Jesus in loving Him, and the more we truly know Him, the more we love Him. That overcomes any pandemic.
Jesus give us great assurance in the Gospel today. “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” Simple, but great news, GOOD NEWS. AMEN.
