Homily: May 14, 2023, Sixth Sunday of Easter (Great Joy)

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“There was great joy in that city”.

Can you imagine a whole city of people with great joy? I can imagine it in my mind, but I can’t imagine it in our world. In our cities, there is great sadness, hatred, confusion, division. What can we do to experience the same joy that Samaria experienced?

Philip, was a newly appointed deacon, preached about Christ to the Samaritans, they accepted the word of God and received the baptism in the name of Jesus. They believed and they were saved. Thus, the great joy.

Are we too deeply joyful that we are baptized in the Lord? Are we also joyful when we witness new baptisms in our parish?

Lost souls find their loving God and accept His love to become His adopted children. What could be more joyful than this?

When the apostles heard about Samaria’s conversion, Peter and John went to pray over them for the Holy spirit to come down upon them. Their joy must have doubled at least. That event was known as the Samaritan Pentecost. 

In three weeks’ time, it will be the feast of Pentecost for the whole church, the day when the first disciples received the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. On this coming feast, 25 of our youths will be receiving the sacrament of confirmation, affirming their faith in the Lord. Will we, as one community, be celebrating with great joy with them?

The Apostles, the first Christians and the early church faced violent persecutions and risked tortures and brutal deaths to bring the good news to the world. We are the beneficiaries of their sacrifice. The early church has passed down everything we need for our salvation. And what do we really need to keep our faith alive and live a life of grace?

The sacraments. We have seven sacraments. Baptism and Confirmation are once-in-a-lifetime sacraments which many of us, if not all, have received. Reconciliation and the Eucharist are what we can and should receive as often as possible. They are like regular purging and daily nutrition for the soul, respectively.

Pope Benedict XVI said, “The happiness you are seeking, the happiness you have a right to enjoy has a name and a face: it is Jesus of Nazareth, hidden in the Eucharist.”

Do we really appreciate the privilege and realize the power of the sacraments we get to enjoy as modern-day Catholics?

Yes, the more we come to the sacraments, the more graces we receive, the greater will be our joy. Especially with the sacrament of reconciliation. Many people have shared with me how light, joyful and peaceful they felt after doing a good confession. I feel it for myself too.

Through the sacraments we receive the Holy Spirit. When we sin, we are distanced from the Holy Spirit. Sin blocks us from the grace of God, burdens our soul and darkens our spiritual world. We lose our joyfulness.

In today’s gospel text, Jesus says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows him.”

Jesus is telling us that the Holy Spirit is given to those who love Him and keep His commandments. The Holy Spirit is a spirit of truth, the truth as proclaimed in the scriptures.

The world rejects the word of God, rejects the truth of Christ, thus the world does not know nor accept this spirit. We cannot follow the world.

If we subscribe to worldly principles, political ideology and moral relativism, we will not be able to appreciate the teachings of the church, which are also the commandments of the Lord, based on natural law, derived from divine law. Inadvertently, we will be opposing the Holy Spirit.

That was how many people began by agreeing with the materialism and relativism of the world, then ended up disagreeing with the Church. 

Without a strong and firm understanding of the scriptures, the word of God, and without an intimate relationship with Jesus through prayer and the sacraments, many become confused and get misled into thinking that the church is wrong, and the world is right.

St. Peter reminds us in today’s second reading, “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope.” Do you know the reason for your hope? Would you be able to explain why?

If you don’t, you need to go back to your catechism, go back to the basics of the faith, the word of God and the beauty of the sacraments. Call on the Holy Spirit to help you. You may then discover the great joy of being a disciple of Christ. If all of us do that, there will be great joy in our parish.

Amen.


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