To Love in Deed and Truth
Easter Homilies • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 1 viewGod’s love for his people empowers an outreach from it’s recipients, ie, proclaim in deed and truth.
Notes
Transcript
God is greater than our heart, … we have confidence before God; 1 Jn 3:20, 21
Let’s have another think about all that has been proclaimed at Mass since Easter
from the Acts of the Apostles, the letters and gospel of John.
All together, they suggest:
A Trinity of Love
A Trinity of Love
God’s love overflows
God’s love overflows
Into a Trinity of Persons;
Into creation;
into redemption (us).
This, I suppose, is theology’s attempt to explain how it’s possible to maintain belief in the Trinity.
More importantly (I think) it helps to provide a way for us to appreciate the truly stupendous love of God, a thing as hard to comprehend as the Trinity itself.
A trinity of action
A trinity of action
God’s love blossoms into the life, mission and redemptive passion of Jesus;
He pours out the Holy Spirit
who propels the Apostles into their mission,
and who guides and impels the Apostles to reach out to all the world,
even where they don’t want to go.
Acts 10:37–43
Peter said:
“you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: how
God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power.
He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.
They put him to death by hanging him on a tree,
but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, … to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses,
who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead.
To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.””
This is what Jesus said:
This is what Jesus said:
Jesus and mission
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction.
and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.
and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
and have authority to cast out demons.
So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent.
And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.
Page . Exported from Verbum, 8:09PM May 4, 2024.
Reflection
Reflection
You and I grew up in a Church seemingly at peace,
You and I grew up in a Church seemingly at peace,
with apparently, little left to do beyond our comfortable circle:
Parish: with its sacramental life, organizations, clubs and societies;
CYO: basketball, ski trips, dances;
Parish shows and other entertainments;
the ‘clerical kaffee klatch’
You get the idea.
These are all good things, but they are all inward looking, a kind of navel gazing.
What was (is) missing is what made the early church so vibrant:
We lost the urgency for every Catholic to proclaim Christ Jesus,
to be witnesses to his life, person and work;
Isaiah 61:2 (ESV-CE)
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, …
to comfort all who mourn;
and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation,
For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,
Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel,
And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.