Grant, almighty God, that we may celebrate with heartfelt devotion these days of joy, which we keep in honor of the risen Lord, and that what we relive in remembrance we may always hold to in what we do. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
First Reading Acts 15:1-2,22-29
Certain individuals came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2 And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to discuss this question with the apostles and the elders. 22 Then the apostles and the elders, with the consent of the whole church, decided to choose men from among their members and to send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leaders among the brothers, 23 with the following letter: “The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the believers of Gentile origin in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings. 24 Since we have heard that certain persons who have gone out from us, though with no instructions from us, have said things to disturb you and have unsettled your minds, 25 we have decided unanimously to choose representatives and send them to you, along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, 26 who have risked their lives for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27 We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. 28 “For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you no further burden than these essentials: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood and from what is strangled, and from fornication. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”
Responsorial Psalm 67:2-3,5,6,8
R/. O God, let all the nations praise you!
SecondReading Rev 21:10-14,22-23
In the spirit the angel carried me away to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. 11 It has the glory of God and a radiance like a very rare jewel, like jasper, clear as crystal. 12 It has a great, high wall with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates are inscribed the names of the twelve tribes of the Israelites; 13 on the east there were three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city has twelve foundations, and on them are the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. 22 I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb.
Alleluia Jn 14:23
Gospel Jn 14:23-29
Jesus said to his disciples: 23 “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me. 25 “I have said these things to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. 27 “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. “You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. 29 And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe.”
Catena Nova
After Christ had completed his mission on earth, it still remained necessary for us to become sharers in the divine nature of the Word. We had to give up our own life and be so transformed that we would begin to live an entirely new kind of life that would be pleasing to God. This was something we could do only by sharing in the Holy Spirit....When the time came for Christ to ascend to his heavenly Father, it was necessary for him to be united through his Spirit to those who worshipped him, and to dwell in our hearts through faith. (St. Cyril of Alexandria).
The city which John says is squared, he says also is resplendent with gold and precious stones, and has a sacred street, and a river through the midst of it, and the tree of life on either side, bearing twelve manner of fruits throughout the twelve months; and that the light of the sun is not there, because the Lamb is the light of it; and that its gates were of single pearls; and that there were three gates on each of the four sides, and that they could not be shut. I say, in respect of the square city, he shows forth the united multitude of the saints, in whom the faith could by no means waver. (Victorinus of Pettau)
What an honour it is to be ever in attendance in sight of the Creator; to contemplate the spectacle of truth present before you; to behold God face to face, associated with angelic choirs. There those involved are so filled with attendant joys that they are never concerned about future hardships. There, while the soul enjoys to the full the quiet pleasure of unlimited light, it is unspeakably happy over the rewards of its companions. There the thirsty drink fromthe fount of life, and as they drink, they thirst for more. There, indeed, it is impossible for either desire to beget lust or for gratification to turn into loathing. Here one discovers the eternal greening of the bloom of youth, the charm of beauty, and the unceasing vigour of good health. In effect, from this eternal source they acquire the power to live forever and to rejoice ineffably and, what is far more important, to grow into the likeness of the Creator himself…. Certainly, the reality of the everlasting happiness of the heavenly Jerusalem is incomparably greater than the mind of man can ever conceive, and the mind grasps more than can ever be put in words.(St. Peter Damian)
Why, then, are we sorrowful at times? Why are we troubled inwardly? Is it a matter of trying to find a fitting place for the Lord within ourselves? After all, which of us can provide Jesus with a really fitting place—He who is the Lord of Glory? Where is the place that is worthy of his majesty? I would count myself fortunate to be found worthy of worshipping at his footstool and being able to cling to his feet! Maybe I can at least cling to the feet of a saintly person who the Lord has chosen to be his dwelling place! Yet, the fact is that the Lord only needs to anoint me inwardly with the oil we call his mercy to enable me to cry out: “I have run the way of your commandments because you have enlarged my heart”! I may not be about to usher the Lord into a large place in my heart, one wonderfully furnished, and then invite him to refresh himself there together with his disciples. I only hope that I will be able to offer him a place to lay his head!(St. Bernard of Clairvaux)
No one is capable of seeing God, even in created things, if the eye of the soul is diseased. The inward vision has to be purified to perceive spiritual truth. This is what makes us worthy temples of the Holy Spirit. We must do all that we can to become so purified that we can see God in all things, when we have eyes only for God’s glorious beauty. That is how Jesus knows all things, and knows God. Jesus knows by loving because his heart sees God everywhere. If we let this be done in us then we dwell with God even as Jesus dwells with the Heavenly Father. Let the Spirit purify your loving so that you can be with God forever in the life that is unending joy and gladness.(St. Oger)
When the Paraclete comes, Jesus says, he will bear witness to me, he will reveal the meaning of my innocent death and of every innocent death, from the beginning to the end of the world. Those who come after Christ will therefore bear witness as he did, less by their words or beliefs than by becoming martyrs and dying as Jesus died. Most assuredly, this concerns not only the early Christians persecuted by the Jews or by the Romans but also the Jews who were later persecuted by the Christians and all victims persecuted by executioners. To what does it really bear witness? In my thinking it always relates to the collective persecution that gives birth to religious illusions.(Rene Girard)
TheParakletoswho will come will be sent in Jesus’ name (Jn 14:7). That is, he will bring into creative presence the person of Jesus through the loving imitation of his disciples. It is not that the Holy Spirit is simply a substitute presence, acting instead of Jesus, but rather it is by Jesus going to his death (and, by giving up his Spirit bringing to completion his creative work — “It is accomplished,”tetelestai— 19:30) that all Jesus’ creative activity will be made alive in the creative activity of his disciples…. This is the sense of the peace which Jesus leaves with his disciples: not the peace which is the result of the suppression of conflict, or the resolution of conflict, such as is practiced by the mechanism of expulsion of the world, but the creative peace that brings into being: the primordial peace of the Creator from the beginning.(James Alison)
Homily
Do you hear the tension in these words? The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you(G)? It’s the tension between past and future; the tension between what we have already learned from Jesus and what the Spirit has yet to teach us. Let’s call it the tension between memory and prophecy.
For one of the Holy Spirit’s roles is to teach useverything,both those things we don’t yet understand -- but will in the future -- as well as those things the things we’ve inherited from the past. It’s as though the church had a hard drive that could hold an infinite amount of data, as well as an infinite supply of RAM! Those of you who run computers know you can never have enough gigabytes of storage for future input or megabytes of memory. So the Spirit is always at work filling us to capacity with new data, yet making sure we have enough memory to remain stable.
So one of the first questions theology asks is whether God’s revelation is closed, once and for all, or if it is ongoing? To which the answer is, “Yes and no.” For on the one hand, JesusisGod’s final revelation to the human race -- period. On the other hand, this revelation continues to unfold from God’s fullness -- comma.
Hence we want to avoid the “liberal” tendency with that question, which is to focus one-sidedly on the comma -- prophecy over memory, the future over the past – on what the Spiritwill teachus. Sometimes, a liberal desire to be “open” and “progressive” makes it less-and-less apparent why one needs tokeep [Jesus’] wordabove all other words. I read an article once at a Catholic website by an Episcopalian entitled,Baptismal Ecclesiology Without Baptismin which the author bemoans a growing tendency in that denomination to disconnect baptism as a prior requirement for receiving the Eucharist – all out of a concern to be more “hospitable” and “inclusive” (Lizette Lardon;Pray Tell; May 12, 2022). Which reminded me of what an Anglican theologian I know once remarked, “What you end up with in liberal religion is the Cheshire Cat fromAlice in Wonderland. The cat keeps disappearing, bit by bit, until nothing is left but the smile.” That’s a failure of memory.
But on the other hand, we don’t want to get stuck in the “conservative” problem with the question, “Is revelation closed, or is it ongoing?” There the focus is on the period rather than the comma -- memory over prophecy, the past over the future -- what theSpirit reminds us of in all that Jesus has said to us. Sometimes, a conservative desire to be faithful to tradition makes the church look like a museum where everything is about preservation, whether of doctrine, or morality, or liturgy. The late Pope Francis once warned about liturgical traditionalism, saying
…. the celebration is recitation, it is something without life, without joy.... Indeed, those with closed mindsets use liturgical patterns to defend their own point of view....this is the drama we are experiencing in ecclesial groups that are distancing themselves from the church, questioning the council [and] the authority of the bishops [even as they claim] to preserve tradition(May 7, 2022).
In a similar vein, speaking to a conference of moral theologians on the need to avoid excessive legalism in church teaching, the Pope Francis once said,
There is a difference between wanting to go back in time and drawing inspiration from one's roots in order to move forward with Christ....But to go in reverse is to go back in order to have a form of defense, a safety measure that saves us from the risk of going forward, the Christian risk of carrying the faith, the Christian risk of journeying with Jesus Christ”(May 13, 2022)
All of which makes me wonder: “Was Jesus kidding when, a little further in John, he said,I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth(Jn. 16:12-13)? In other words, is there nothing new the Spirit would teach us -- so new it might seem like an experimental curriculum?
That’s exactly what happened at the Council of Jerusalem recorded in Acts, whenthe apostles and the eldersgathered to discuss the question of Gentiles keeping the Law of Moses. The partisans of tradition were quite sure,“Unless they were circumcised according to the custom of Moses, they could not be saved.” And there was plenty in the Bible to support their view. Yet, the innovators won the day, “for it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to them to impose on the Gentiles no further burden than a few essentials.”See, the Spirit led them into more truth. Prophecy did not fail. But the controversy was bitter:no small dissension and debate,as Luke puts it, mildly, no doubt (cf. I).
And so it goes down to our own day as the Spirit helps us bear new teaching on social justice, interreligous dialogue, the morality of capital punishment, and the roles of women and laity in the church. These things have developed in our own time, while we continue to preserve traditions that help us stay connected to our past. But let’s face it, some of us prefer the “old school” and others the “new.” For as Gilbert, of Gilbert and Sullivan fame, once wrote in an opera, “Every boy and every girl born into the world alive is either a little liberal or else a little conservative.”
Both of those schools have been trying to figure our where the new Pope Leo XIV might prefer to enroll. Is he matriculated in the school that favors expanding the Latin Mass, greater doctrinal clarity than his critics claim Pope Francis had; will his successor continue on the path of synodality promoted by Francis, will he share to the extent his concerns about the environment and the plight of immigrants? If the media outlets of the "traditionalist" faction of the church are any indication — not to mention their political counterparts — the alarm bells have been going off since the moment Leo appeared on the balcony of St. Peter's. They've only been heartened by his appearance in traditional papal grab eschewed by Francis and the (perhaps ) educated guess he votes for their preferred party in American elections.
On the other hand, many people think the choice of the name "Leo" is enough to indicate the new pope's preference for a progressive curriculum. And he has made it clear the name of the pope who issued the first modern social encyclicalRerun novarumsignalsa firm commitment to speaking out on behalf of the poor, the marginalized, the peripheral — like those he served as bishop in Peru and, let's not forget, the immigrant.
But whatever our natural disposition may be — or the pope's for that matter — we can expand our partial views, to see how Jesus Christ is both the “same, yesterday, today, and forever” (So remember!) as well as the One who “makes all things new” (So look to the future!). If we don’t do both, we’ll stop speaking and listening to each other, using the common language of faith, by which we understand each other, despite our different dialects and accents. And we’ll return to the days of Babel: the Church catholic born on Pentecost in ruins.
So don’t get a tension headache. After all, the new Jerusalem hasn’t comedown out of heaven from Godyet. That’s in the future -- when walls from the north and the south, the east and the west, will rise, and theglory of God will be [our] light, and [our] lamp will be the Lamb(cf. II).Who live and reign in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
Intercessions (Joe Milner; the Sunday Website)
For the Church: that we may always be attentive to the creative work of the Spirit so that many may encounter Christ without unnecessary burdens.
For Christian unity: that God will lead all believers to a deeper understanding of the Good News and guide us in working together to confront the evils of poverty, abuse, addictions, and illiteracy.
For discernment: that the Holy Spirit will remind us of all the Jesus taught and help us apply it in our lives and to the challenges of our society.
For all who are burdened by fear or anxiety: that the Spirit will free them so that they may live life fully and offer their gifts in the service of their brothers and sisters.
For all who await the fulfillment of God’s promises: that God will lead refugees to places of safety, protect those facing persecution, and give peace to those with terminal illnesses.
For all who are ill or recovering from injuries: that God will heal the sick, provide quick recovery for those who have been wounded, and heal hearts from painful experiences.
For all who are recovering from natural disasters: that God will protect those in dangerous situations, help those who are recovering to reestablish their lives, and guide all who are fighting fires, floods and devastating weather or assisting those who have suffered loss.
For world leaders: that God will guide those working for peace, open new ways to resolve disputes, and help them remember that all life is sacred.
For all who have died in the service of our nation: that God’s glory will shine upon them and that they may share in the peace of the heavenly kingdom.
Great and loving Father, your will for us in Jesus is the peace the world cannot give; your abiding gift is the Advocate he promised. Calm all troubled hearts, dispel every fear. Keep us steadfast in love and faithful to your word, that we may always be your dwelling place. Grant this through Jesus Christ, the firstborn from the dead, who lives and reigns with you now and always in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen. (ICEL; 1998)
Offertory Antiphon
Offertory Motet (Jn 14:27)
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
Communion Antiphon
Closing Hymn
Blessed city, heavenly Salem, vision dear of peace and love, who of living stones art builded in the height of heaven above, and, with angel hosts encircled, as a bride dost earthward move;
from celestial realms descending, bridal glory round thee shed, meet for him whose love espoused thee, to thy Lord shalt thou be led; all thy streets and all thy bulwarks of pure gold are fashioned.
Bright thy gates of pearl are shining; they are open evermore; and by virtue of his merits thither faithful souls do soar, who for Christ's dear Name in this world pain and tribulation bore.
Many a blow and biting sculpture polished well those stones elect, in their places now compacted by the heavenly Architect, who therewith hath willed for ever that his palace should be decked.
Laud and honor to the Father, laud and honor to the Son, laud and honor to the Spirit, ever Three, and ever One, consubstantial, coeternal, while unending ages run.
