Homily: April 17, 2024 Wednesday of the Third Week of Easter (Jesus does not Reject)

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Holy family School Mass 

“Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me”. 

Isn’t this wonderful? Jesus says that He will not reject anyone who comes to Him. This means that whoever goes to Jesus, whether they are naughty or nice, good or bad, He will accept them all and love them all.

So, every one of you here, no one excluded, as long as you go to Jesus, He will accept you. This is truly good news!

And this is what we are celebrating for Easter, Jesus died to save not just some people, but the whole world.

During this season of Easter, we take readings from the Acts of the Apostles. We see how the Apostles were fervent and fearless in the way they go around to preach this good news and how thousands and thousands of people believed and were baptised.

But it was not smooth and easy, we see in the first reading, how the early church was being persecuted. The enemies have killed Jesus, and they continue to kill those who believed in Him.

In this reading, we hear of a man named Saul. He was an enemy of the Christians. All he wanted to do was to kill and wipe out all those who believe in Jesus. And he really did that very well. Many Christians suffered badly under his persecution.

But something amazing happened to Saul soon after, do you know what?

Yes, he had an unexpected encounter with Jesus, the risen Lord, and Saul became a believer too! He became a Christian like those whom he had been killing. And He changed his name from Saul to Paul.

Saul, who was once a fearful persecutor became Paul the fervent preacher! Jesus did not reject him, although he killed so many Christians. Indeed, Jesus will not reject anyone who comes to Him, no one. Paul is a good example.

Jesus accepts both sinners and saints, good and bad people, He accepts everyone as long as they go to Him and believe in Him.

So, my dear beloved children of God, when you do something wrong or disobey God’s commandments, are you going to run away from Jesus?

No, because Jesus wants you to go to Him, especially when you do something wrong. He wants you to believe in His forgiveness, believe in His love, believe that He will help you become better. He wants you to always go to Him.

So, please always remember, never turn away from Jesus, always go to Him, in good times and in bad times, anytime. He will never reject you.

Jesus loves you. Amen.


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"But Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked up intently to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.” Can you visualize this scene? His enemies were ready to stone him to death, but he was not at all afraid. He even seemed joyful to be dying, he was fearless as he continued to preach and give witness to Jesus with his dying breath. Such unwavering faith, such unshakable courage! I too wish to have faith and courage like that. I wonder if all the martyrs who died for Jesus could have seen with their own eyes the glory of God, like Stephen did, just before their death. That would have given them the strength because at that moment, nothing else mattered, they knew without a doubt who was there waiting for them and what they would gain from their dying - the glory of heaven. To become a martyr like Stephen, would imply living a life not compromising to the ways of the world. In fact, it would mean living a life in conflict with the world. Jesu
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