5th Sunday of Easter May 18, 2025

Readings:  Acts of the Apostles 14:21-27; Revelation 21:1-5; John13:31-35

An essential part of being a follower of Jesus Christ is a willingness to love. How many times have we heard with our ears and our hearts the words in today’s Gospel passage, “I give you a new commandment: love one another. Such as my love has been for you, so must your love be for each other.”

The call to each of us is to imitate Christ day by day. It is not always easy to know just what to do in given circumstances of life, let alone have the courage and strength to put into practice what we sense we are called to do. But we are promised the abiding presence of God’s Holy Spirit, alive and active in the Church, in her Sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist, and in our lives, assisting us in our struggle to do good. 

Looking more closely at the scripture readings assigned to the fifth Sunday in Eastertide, we first of all see the realism of Saints Paul and Barnabas in their missionary activity, taking to heart the words of the Lord, “anyone who wishes to come after me must take up his cross.” As Christ had to die and so enter into his glory, so also every follower of Christ.

Suffering, in all its unattractiveness, is part and parcel of the Christian vocation. Tribulation leads to the kingdom and by our suffering we also become partakers in the glory which Christ won for us by the shedding of his blood. This was the experience of Paul and Barnabas as well and meant to be ours too.

The reading from the Book of Revelation, the second lesson for this Sunday’s Mass, speaks of Christ as Lord of the universe ordaining the course of history toward the final victory of, “a new heaven and a new earth.” This means a new creation which will last for ever, a life of endless fellowship with God, an end to all sorrow and finding unbounded joy in God’s presence. This takes place with the fellowship of believers, in communion with all the angels and saints of God.

In the meantime, we disciples are to carry on Christ’s messianic love. We must show to those entrusted to us by God, that is, everyone with whom we live and meet, a love extended to the sacrifice of our own good and life. As disciples in the service of Christ, we are called to never give up doing good, for the spread of God’s Kingdom on earth. This is the consequence of the Sacrament of Baptism that we have received as infants or at some other stage in our life, that invisible but indelible belonging to God and God to us. May the Lord enlighten our minds and hearts to be on fire for the things of God, today and always.

                                                                                                               Fr. Terry.