Homily for the Sixth Sunday of Easter
Homily delivered by Fr Nicholas King SJ
Scripture Readings: Acts 15:1-2,22-29; Apocalypse 21:10-23; John 14:23-29
What do we need at this stage of the Easter season? One way of expressing it might be this: a vision of the victory that Christ has won for us. And the victory can take many different shapes. In today’s first reading, the shape it takes is the remarkable one, exactly halfway through the journey that is Acts, of the “First Council of Jerusalem”, where they found a solution to the apparent impossibility of dealing with “what the Bible says”, in contrast to “what the pastoral situation requires”. (Always a battle in religion). You could do worse than read through the whole of Acts 15 during the coming week, and get the flavour of the debate. It must be said that if they had got it wrong, and mindlessly insisted on “what the Bible says” (about circumcision, in this case), then the Church would have been torn apart in those earliest days. But, thanks to a tactful and unexpectedly diplomatic intervention, by first, Peter, and then James, they come to an agreed solution. And they write to the Antioch church, where the trouble had started, a formal letter which charts for them the way of freedom: “they comforted and strengthened the brethren”, saying that they should not have any further burdens laid upon them. That is the shape, you see, of the victory of Christ.
The psalm sings of another kind of victory, that of a successful harvest, and God is being thanked for this victory. It starts with the petition for God to be “gracious and bless us”, and the refrain: “May the peoples praise you, O Lord; may all the peoples praise you”. The message of God’s victory (“the earth has yielded its harvest”) is one that we must carry to the world: “May God bless us still, that the ends of the earth may revere our God”.
In the second reading, we are almost at the end of the Book of Revelation, which has been guiding our steps all the way through these Easter Sundays. Here the vision of Christ’s victory is glimpsed from “a great and high mountain”, with “Jerusalem, the Holy City, coming down from heaven from God”. This is clearly a glimpse of the victory that is ours, or, rather, God’s. It has “the glory of God”, and it is “built on the 12 names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb”. Now if we have read the gospels, we know that they may be rather shaky foundations, these 12; but it is God’s victory all the same; for God is in charge. Quite extraordinarily, there is no Temple in this city, because God Almighty and the Lamb are its Temple. That is an amazing picture, for no city in the ancient world would be without a temple. But it makes sense if we recall that God has won the victory in Jesus.
Today’s gospel continues reading from Jesus’ “LSD”, delivered on the night before he died, and trying to prepare those fearful disciples for the awfulness of Good Friday. Here are some important words that describe the shape of the victory: “stay or remain or ‘dwelling-place’,” “Peace” (but not as the world gives it). Then comes the very important idea of “the Father who sent me”. That is what it is all about, you see: this is God’s project, and it cannot be stopped, involving those whom we call “Father” and “Son” and “Paraclete”. We hardly understand what we mean when we speak of God in this way, but somewhere in there is the sense of God’s victory. That is all that matters at this time.