Homily: April 30, 2024, Tuesday of the fifth week of Easter (Power over Satan)

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"I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me..." 

Jesus is comforting His disciples before His passion and death. The disciples’ greatest fear was losing Jesus to the enemies. They needed Jesus to save them from Roman power and the abuse of the Jewish authorities.

But Jesus knew His time with His disciples was limited, yet He assured them that the ‘ruler of the world’ had no power over Him.

Jesus was speaking about Satan and his power. When Satan was an angel of God, he enjoyed power given to him to serve God. When he turned against God, God did not take back that gift. So, Satan retained power, but which can never overpower God who gave it to him originally. He has no power over Jesus.

When we look around, we see a lot of evil committed by people, and which seem to spread more evil around.

We see even believers, Christians, falling away, continuing in repetitive sin, giving in to addiction, giving up their faith. 

Why is evil so powerful in the world? Why do so many people prefer Satan over Jesus? It seems that the power of evil is dominating the world. Is it?

Will evil overshadow the whole world one day?

Jesus assures us that Satan has no power over Him. Darkness can never cover up light or ever stop it from shining. Darkness exists only in the absence of light, and light will always shine the dark out.

Do you trust Jesus? Do you believe in God’s plan of salvation? Do you trust that Jesus will deliver us and the world?

Do not be afraid of the power of darkness, or evil. It has no power over our Lord.

Jesus does ‘just as the Father has commanded’ Him, so similarly, let us do just as Jesus has commanded us – to love one another as He has loved us, to always stay connected to Him, as the branches are connected to the vine.

Love overcomes evil, the light of Christ overcomes the darkness of sin. Jesus wins. Amen.


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 "And how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to await His Son from heaven."  Thessalonica was a Greek city. Before the people encountered St. Paul’s preaching, they were practicing idol worshipping, they had numerous deities which they turn to for their needs and wants. They made statues to worship and accorded much superstitious powers to these statues of various deities.  They believed that many of their wishes and requests were answered through these. Such worship gave them much sensual satisfaction and immediate gratification. These heightened the worshippers’ reliance on the deities. As such, it was not easy for the people to give up idol worship. Although St. Paul’s preaching about Christ and the good news of eternal salvation were powerful in converting some of the Thessalonians, he could not remove them completely from the old habits of idol worshipping. They were living in the city which was still very much practicing the old ways. ...
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“The kingdom of God will be taken away from you  and given to a people that will produce its fruit.” We are now in harvesting season. Many months before this, we were planting and pruning, now we see the results, the fruits, the produce. Our two readings today are also about producing and harvesting fruits. In the first reading the vineyard produced wild grapes instead of good grapes. What went wrong? If the vineyard owner had done everything right, and yet the vineyard brought forth wild grapes, then the problem must have been the soil? Yet it was a land set on the fertile hillside. There is nothing the vineyard owner could do than to let it waste and be cursed. In the Gospel, the story is not about the soil which could not produce, but the tenants who refused to give the produce back to the vineyard owner. What went wrong? The produce must have been good, and the tenants might have become greedy, and wanted to keep all the harvest to themselves and even planned to kill to take ov...
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“This saying is hard; who can accept it?” “As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.” This weekend is the last of the five Sundays during which the Gospel readings were taken from chapter 6 of St. John, the Bread of Life discourse, exploring fully Jesus’ teachings on the Eucharist, beginning with the multiplication of loaves. Next week we will continue with the Gospel of Mark. So, what saying is hard to accept for the disciples? It is Jesus’ saying that His body is true bread, His blood is true drink and only those who eat and drink His body and blood will have eternal life with Him. Is it also hard for you to accept? There are many teachings in the Catholic Church which are hard to accept. And like many of the disciples who left Jesus and returned to their former way of life, even after seeing all His works and miracles, many present-day Catholics also leave the church because they could not accept the teachings. Sho...
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