Most Reverend Vincent Long Van Nguyen OFM Conv DD STL, Bishop of Parramatta
Homily for the 5th Sunday of Easter
Readings: Acts 14:21-27; Apocalypse 21:1-5; John 13:31-35.
Living witnesses for the fragmented and self-preoccupied world.
Dear sisters and brothers,
We have lived through one of the most momentous periods in the history of the Church. Three weeks ago, Pope Francis’ passing left us orphaned – for a while. We felt like a ship without a captain. We were anchorless and adrift on the turbulent waters. Then in the midst of grief, uncertainty and apprehension, the conclave delivered an election result that few of us had expected: the new Pope who is steeped in the rich spirituality of St Augustine, who has spent decades sharing the Good News of Christ among the poor in a country far from his own. Though born in the USA, he is a global citizen having served as a missionary in Peru, visited many countries as the head of his Order and lived in intercultural settings for most of his adult life. He took the name of Leo XIV, in honour of the Pope who is renowned for his social teaching on the rights of working poor.
The moment he stepped out onto the balcony of St Peter’s, we felt a sense of relief, jubilation and hope. We are once again given a spiritual father. Though there are great challenges ahead, we are encouraged by this sure sign of God’s accompaniment. Under the leadership of Pope Leo XIV, may we be the living witnesses of the Gospel for today’s fragmented and self-preoccupied world.
The Word of God this Sunday calls us to share in the mission of making the Good News of Christ known to all peoples. We are to be the force of leaven and the catalysts for a new heaven and new earth. It is by imitating the self-emptying love that Jesus exemplified by his life, death and resurrection that we fulfill this call.
The Acts of the Apostles tells us how incredibly generous, courageous, outward-looking and boundary-breaking the early Christian community was. In today’s account, we are told of a watershed moment. They were no longer a Jewish sect. They had done something quite momentous. Paul and Barnabas were the first missionaries who had crossed the geographical and racial confines of their known world in Palestine. They shared the Good News with the Gentiles in Antioch and even made them equal members within their group.
This ground-breaking event was not without controversy as we learn later of the dispute between Paul and Peter concerning circumcision and admission of non-Jewish converts. The Christian movement would have been irrelevant if it had not had the courage to take the vision of Jesus beyond its cultural and historical settings. Today, that same vision of radical love, acceptance, embrace, compassion, and solidarity must guide us.
In the Gospel, Jesus speaks to his disciples in an intimate way about what it means to follow him. “Love one another as I have loved you” he told them.
The disciples had seen this love of Jesus in action. It was shown in his embrace of the poor, the marginalised, the sinner, the foreigner, the social outcast. It was powerfully illustrated by his gesture of foot-washing which was a symbolic act of self-negation and a subversion of worldly glory, power and status. But it was only through his suffering and death on the cross that the command to love one another crystallised as the ultimate act of kenosis. It was through this prism that the disciples understood the essence of Christian discipleship.
Dear brothers and sisters,
There is much that we can learn from the early Christian community. As we lose much of what we have accumulated over the centuries, including our strength and resources, let us not be afraid to learn anew the trust and love without limits. St John in the second letter speaks of the passing of the old and the emergence of the new heaven and new earth. It may be understood as a metaphor for what we are going through. The Church must die to whatever is unworthy of the Gospel and rise to new and fresh ways of being companion to people of today. Like our pioneers, we are called to witness at the margins and thresholds of vulnerability.
Come to think of it, the Church has lost and continue to lose much of its worldly power, wealth and possessions. The Vatican City State is only the remnant of what was once known as the Papal States and Christendom.
Yet paradoxically, it is the loss of things temporal that enables us to grow more in our power of witness.
We have seen this hidden power of the papacy during the last few weeks.
Like Israel during the time of the exile, let us be drawn into the furnace of cleansing, even dying so that God the potter can refashion us into his effective instruments. It is the security of insecurity exemplified by our spiritual ancestors that is often what we are called to embrace. It is the discipleship of vulnerability, humility and powerlessness that we are called to live each day. As we join our new Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, in his Petrine ministry, let us live the security of insecurity and the uncertainty of faith. Let us embrace the command of laying down our lives for the sake of the God in whom alone we trust.
