“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.” (John 15:1-5)
In the Farewell Discourse Jesus prepares his disciples for his new presence among them–in signs and sacraments. Some of those signs come from the human world. Jesus is the Shepherd who forever cares for his flock. Other signs come from creation. The vine is a sign of life that feeds and nourishes other life. Water, bread, light are part of the signs that reveal God’s plan. Learning to appreciate signs is part of the sacramental age we live in. Today, as Pope Francis reminds us, we need a greater appreciation of signs, schooled as we are by a world disposed to science and scientific thinking.
This icon, Christ the Vine, was painted by a famous fifteenth-century Cretan iconographer Angelos Akotantos (d.1450) before the Byzantine Empire collapsed, leading to the separation of Eastern and Western churches. The icon is a call for unity of the churches.
For this week’s homily please watch the video below.
In John’s readings from the Last Supper today and tomorrow, Jesus’ disciples , Thomas and Philip, appear unsure of the way and the power of Jesus himself. An important question raised in mystagogic catechesis.
St. Ambrose in the 4th century met the same uncertainty of signs as he spoke to the newly baptized of his time. They signify so much, but we find them hard to accept. “Is this it?” he hears them say as they approach the waters of baptism and the table of the Eucharist.
Encountering God through sacraments in weakened further today by a lack of a symbolic sense, Pope Francis writes in his letter Desiderio Desideravi . Now, more than ever, human beings, like Thomas and Philip, want to see. We want immediate experience.
Ambrose calls on stories of the Old Testament. The Israelites were saved as they flee from Egypt through the waters of the Red Sea, the cloud that guides them on their way–foreshadowing the Holy Spirit, the wood that makes the bitter waters of Marah sweet–the mystery of the Cross.
“You must not trust, then, wholly to your bodily eyes. What is not seen is in reality seen more clearly; for what we see with our eyes is temporal whereas what is eternal (and invisible to the eye) is discerned by the mind and spirit.” (On the mysteries)
The Assyrian general, Naaman, doubted as he stood before the healing waters of the Jordan, Ambrose reminds his hearers. There’s more here than you see or think.
So we’re invited into an unseen world. Still, we’re like those whom the gospel describes and the saint addresses. Is this it? Moreso now, schooled as we are in the ways of science and fact, we look for proof from what our eyes see. We live in a world that tells us what we see is all there is.
Faith is a search for what we don’t see. God desires to approach us through signs. Will he not help us approach him that way? Believe in me, Jesus says.
Readings here.
The Last Supper Discourse from John’s gospel, read as a mystagogic catechesis, begins appropriately in our lectionary today with Jesus washing his disciples’ feet– an act of mercy– and continues with a reminder of human sinfulness and betrayal. He did not call perfect disciples; he does not eat with perfect disciples, nor does he send out perfect disciples.
Jesus took the form of a slave when he came among us today’s gospel says. At every Eucharist he comes to wash away our sins we’re reminded in the initial rites of the Mass. At the same time we’re call to be merciful, following him.
“You were sent to heal the contrite, Lord have mercy. You came to call sinners, Christ have mercy. You plead for us at the right hand of the Father, Lord have mercy.”
When Jesus had washed the disciples’ feet, he said to them:
“Amen, amen, I say to you, no slave is greater than his master
nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him.
If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it.
I am not speaking of all of you.
I know those whom I have chosen.
But so that the Scripture might be fulfilled,
The one who ate my food has raised his heel against me.
From now on I am telling you before it happens,
so that when it happens you may believe that I AM.
Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send
receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.” (John 13:16-20)
The Last Supper Discourse is a wonderful way to reflect on the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.
“Is this it?” St. Ambrose begins one of his catechetical sermons to his newly baptized Christians as they begin their new life of faith. “Is this it?”The Christian life may not be the vision of Paradise they heard described in the scriptures. For now, Christian life is a life of signs, the signs of sacraments, and they are wondering “Is this it?”
St. Cyril of Jerusalem, another of the great catechists of the early church, heard the same question in his church when he was instructing catechumens. In his catechetical sermons after Easter he told them to look for Christ in the scriptures as Jesus told his first disciples to do. The Holy Spirit will reveal him to you. he told them..
Easter time is the church s time for mystagogic catechesis, a big word for remembering and reflecting on the presence of Jesus in sacraments. When Jesus rose from the dead, he appeared to his disciples and other witnesses and showed them he was alive. Yet even as he appears to them risen, Jesus begins to wean them away from knowing him physically. His resurrection appearances are occasional. None of them are long. All of them verify he is risen body and spirit. He’s alive.
Those who saw him bodily had to learn to see him in another way –through signs, like bread and wine, water, gathering together to remember him, in the scriptures that speak of him, in the poor and suffering who are wounded like him, in the signs of the times that unfold before them.
That’s the way Jesus will remain with them, and that’s the way Jesus remains with us. Ascending into heaven, he returned to the right hand of the Father, but it also ended one way of seeing him and began another.
From Easter to Pentecost this is the myste the liturgy unfolds so beautifully. In our readings these last few days we’re told we will hear the voice of the shepherd rather than see him. On Thursday, we’ll begin reading the Last Supper discourse from John’s Gospel for the remaining days of the Easter season.
Some commentators, like those in the Jesus Seminar, question whether Jesus actually spoke the words of the Last Supper discourse in John at the Last Supper; they claim it’s a prime example of the historical inaccuracy of the New Testament.
Should we see instead John’s Last Supper discourse arising from the new presence of Jesus in sacraments, and so an early mystagogic catechesis?
In Peter’s important discourse after meeting the Roman soldier Cornelius in Caesaria Maritime, he says: “This man God raised (on) the third day and granted that he be visible not to all the people, but to us, the witnesses chosen by God in advance, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.” (Acts 10:$0-41)
Peter and the others ate and drank with Jesus after his resurrection. He invites Cornelius and his household to be baptised. Doesn’t he also invite him to share in the continuation of the Last Supper meal, to eat and drink with Jesus who shares his body and blood in signs, whose voice is heard in signs? He is present. His presence is real, a sacramental presence.
For this week’s homily please watch the video below.
The Good Shepherd
During the Easter season the church remembers Jesus in symbolic ways, ways he speaks of himself in the gospel: “I am the vine,” “I am the Bread of Life,” and the description of himself he gives in our gospel today: “ I am the Good Shepherd.”
Jesus spoke of himself in these ways because they’re the ways we know the Risen Christ now, not by seeing him, but in signs and symbols. His own disciples had to learn to know him in these ways after his resurrection. We must learn them too.
You can see Jesus weaning them away from knowing him physically in the way he appears to them. How occasional and fleeting they are. None of them are long. All of them verify he is risen body and spirit. He’s alive. But besides proving he’s alive, Jesus in his easter appearances weans his followers away from seeing him bodily. “Do not cling to me,” he says to Mary Magdalene. “Stay with us, Lord,” the disciples say to him at Emmaus” but after breaking bread with them, he disappears from their sight.
Now, they’re going to see him in another way –through signs, like bread and wine, water, in gatherings where together they remember him, in the scriptures which speak of him, in the poor and suffering who are wounded like him, in the signs of the times that unfold before them.
That’s the way Jesus will remain with them, through signs, and that’s the way Jesus remains with us.
The Good Shepherd who cares for his sheep is a good description of Jesus with us today., He is the shepherd, we are his sheep. Most of us are not experts in shepherds and sheep but we do know enough about them to recognize ourselves in them and Jesus in the shepherd.
Sheep, at least those domestically raised, need to be cared for. They don’t seem to know the best places to graze. They need to be directed to good grazing land. Sheep seem to be animals that have their eyes fixed on the small plot of life before their eyes.
I’m sure most of you have seen pictures of those wonderful shepherd dogs that are raised to watch the sheep, to corral them, to keep them together.
Speaking for himself, Jesus says he is a shepherd who cares for his sheep. Not only does he care for them but if one is lost he goes in search of it. When he finds it he cradles it tenderly in his arms and brings it back to the flock, and rejoices. However far the sheep strays, he will go in search of it. However far we stray, he will search for us and lead us back to be safely in his presence.
Jesus was himself fulfilling that beautiful prayer we sang as our responsery song today.
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose;
beside restful waters he leads me;
he refreshes my soul.
He guides me in right paths
for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side.
With your rod and your staff
that give me courage
You spread the table before me
in the sight of my foes;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Only goodness and kindness follow me
all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.
That’s what Jesus does. He is our shepherd. He leads his sheep and guides us through “a dark valley” into experiences and ways we weren’t expecting. Robbers and thieves threaten our way. But we hear the voice of the shepherd, calling us each by name. We can hear his voice.
The short scriptural summaries in morning and evening prayers of the Liturgy of the Hours during the Easter Season are important teachers of the mystery of the Resurrection of Jesus.
Jesus, risen from the dead, takes his place at the right hand of the Father and as our high priest saves those who approach God through him, interceding for them. (Hebrews 7:24-27) We are saved by confessing him on our lips and believing in our hearts he is our Lord. (Romans 10:8-10)
Passages from the Acts of the Apostles repeat the message of those who first saw the Risen Christ. Two early sermons are especially important. Peter says to the Roman centurion Cornelius and his household that “ God raised (Jesus) on the third day and granted that he be visible, not to all the people, but to us, the witnesses chosen by God in advance, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commissioned us to preach to the people and testify that he is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead. (Acts 10:40-43)
Paul speaking to Jews and gentiles in a synagogue in Pisidian Antioch has a similar message: For many days after his resurrection, Jesus “appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. God raised him from the dead.These are [now] his witnesses before the people. We ourselves are proclaiming this good news to you that what God promised our ancestors he has brought to fulfillment for us, their children, by raising up Jesus, as it is written in the second psalm, ‘You are my son; this day I have begotten you.’” (Acts 13: 30-33)
Elsewhere Paul describes how the Risen Jesus, after appearing to the Galilean disciples, also appeared to him. “Last of all, as to one born abnormally, he appeared to me.” ( 1 Corinthians 15: 8)
The Resurrection of Jesus fulfills a promise God made long ago to save his people, the accounts insist, and now the promise is shared with the whole world.
Besides human witnesses, the Holy Spirit testifies to the Resurrection of Jesus by signs and wonders, Peter tells the crowds gathered in Jerusalem after Pentecost “God exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior to grant Israel repentance and forgiveness of sins. We are witnesses of these things, as is the holy Spirit that God has given to those who obey him.” (Acts 5:30-32)
In his Resurrection Jesus becomes a living stone enlivening a new creations , Peter says in a frequent reading in the Easter Season. “Come to him, a living stone, rejected by human beings but chosen and precious in the sight of God, and, like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2: 1-5 )
The short readings in the church’s morning and evening prayers and liturgy during the Easter Season invite us into the mystery of Jesus’ Resurrection . Jesus does not leave us orphans or forget us. “Son though he was, Christ learned obedience from what he suffered:” he knows our human ways and he carries our wounds in his risen body. We are branches on a vine that reaches from earth to heaven.
Liturgy is a patient teacher. The prayers and readings of the Easter Season introduce us gradually into the mystery of Christ. Like the first disciples we’re slow learners. We’re learners day by day, year by year.
We’re reading the story of St. Stephen these days in our liturgy. He’s the early church’s first martyr and, as I indicated in my previous blog, his death sparked a Christian persecution and drove others into exile. Yet, it led to a remarkable growth in the church.
A couple of years ago, I visited the Church of San Stefano Rotondo in Rome, built in honor of St. Stephen in the 5th century. You may be interested in the story of this church.
The Victor's Place 