For this week’s homily please watch the video below.

Today’s Readings: www.usccb.org

If we look carefully at our readings at Sunday Mass we can always find ourselves and the world we live in. . Today, for example, in our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we see a church rebuilding after the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead, rebuilding from a failure.

They’re rebuilding from a scandal created by Judas, who betrayed Jesus and then killed himself. Peter says to the early Christian community, that it’s time to deal with Judas,

“who was the guide for those who arrested Jesus. He was numbered among us and was allotted a share in this ministry. “ We need someone to take his place.

Judas must have been a problem for the early church. The gospels  put him at the end of the list of apostles and tell us  he’s the one who betrayed Jesus, but Judas must have been an important disciple, not one of the least. For one thing, the gospels indicate he was in charge of their money. Which means he was someone they trusted. He must have been a talented man.

He certainly knew what was going on at the time. He could see the handwriting on the wall. The enemies of Jesus were going to put him to death. Judas must have been a shrewd judge of the time, a smart man. Yet,  despite all the good he had seen Jesus do, despite all the words he had heard say,  whatever went on his mind, he betrayed Jesus. 

He wasn’t the only one. All of Jesus’ disciples failed him.  When his enemies arrested him and put him to death, they all left him and fled.  Peter, who in our first reading is calling for a replacement for Judas in our reading today, cursed and swore that he never knew Jesus.  He could have just as well call for a replacement of himself.

The other disciples also failed him.  They all knew they  were involved in the massive scandal of the Cross. I think that any corporation today experiencing a scandal like that  would fire its president and its board of directors and get somebody else. 

I wonder if we could see in the way they elected a successor to Judas the sense of  insecurity that all the disciples had.  They were all involved, they were all complicit, in the death of Jesus. They’re not sure who they should chose, so they cast lots.

But Jesus didn’t fire them, he gave them new life and new responsibilities and a new vision.

I said at the beginning, we can always find ourselves and the world we live in in our readings at Mass. This certainly can apply to our church with its scandals and failures.  

But also there are scandals and failures in our world and so many of the institutions in our world. Right now, for example, the world is spending trillions of dollars on arming itself with every kind of instrument of war and mass destruction. We’re perfecting the art of war and throwing peace away, while so many die of starvation and lack of the common supports of life. We are living in a world filled with scandals and failures.

That’s why it’so important to listen to our gospel today, another reading that tells us about ourselves and the world we live in.

Jesus prays for his disciples at the Last Supper, even as he knows they will fail him.  When he rises from the dead and ascends into heaven he still prays for them and for us and for all the world. When Jesus ascends into heaven he doesn’t forget us. “I will not leave you orphans,” he told his disciples and he tells us.  He remembers  the church he founded and the world he came to save. He prays and his restoring grace is given.

When we come to church to pray we enter into the prayer of Jesus. He is praying for us and the world we live in. He prays for us in heaven as he prayed for us on earth. 

“Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me,

so that they may be one just as we are one…

I do not ask that you take them out of the world

but that you keep them from the evil one…

As you sent me into the world,

so I sent them into the world.

And I consecrate myself for them,

so that they also may be consecrated in truth.”