Based on the first reading (Acts 14:21-27) and the Gospel (Jn 13:31-35). "Glory is only obtained through sacrifice".
Fr. Adam Voisin's Stuff
Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Easter
Today in the readings we are confronted with a very deep mystery, a very profound mystery, a mystery that we find at the very heart of God's plan for the world and for each of us individually and personally. It's a mystery that impacts so many aspects of our spiritual lives and even our ordinary human lives. It is at once both difficult to understand and yet also readily understood from our daily experiences. It's both abstract and concrete, both a theological idea and an existential reality and something that we experience in our day-to-day life, and it's this, that glory is only obtained through sacrifice. Glory is only obtained through sacrifice. By glory, I mean all good things, things that are good, things that are worthy, things that are noble, good things are obtained through sacrifice, through undertaking difficult measures to obtain them through those hardships that we embrace to attain good things, those things that are worthy. We're told in the Acts of the Apostles today that Paul and Barnabas have returned to Antioch where just a few days before today's passage, Paul had been stoned, dragged out of town, outside of the city walls and left for dead because of his proclamation of the gospel. You can imagine how those Christians there in Antioch, those first Christians, you can imagine how they were feeling, what they were thinking, are probably scared out of their wits wondering if they too would be captured, if they too would suffer the same treatment that Paul had suffered for his faith, if they would suffer the same thing for their new Christian faith as well. So Paul and Barnabas have returned after this stoning event. They've returned to these first Christians and were told that Paul and Barnabas strengthened their spirits. They strengthened the spirits of the disciples there and exhorted them to persevere in faith. With words that strike me as very unusual, they said, "It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God." Perhaps those Christians in Antioch scared out of their wits, terrified, perhaps they were expecting something more comforting, something more consoling, like, "It's going to be okay, everybody. It's going to be okay, trust in God, pray, etc." Or maybe they'd expect Paul to come back and say, "Well, maybe we should dial down the gospel a little, tone it down until things cool down a bit, and then we'll proclaim the gospel," or maybe we could go to a different city where they're less hostile to us. But he exhorted them, "It is necessary for us to undergo these kind of treatments to enter the kingdom of God." The glory of heaven is obtained only through sacrifices on earth. This principle is also played out in the gospel that we just heard. We're told that Judas had just left the last supper. He's gone out into the night, we're told. We know that he's gone out to betray Jesus into the hands of his executioners. He's just left the room, there's eleven apostles left, presumably he's just closed the door, he's gone out into the night. Jesus' first words after Judas' departure are, "Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him," again, very unusual words that he seems to be associating what Judas is about to do with his glorification. You see, Jesus knows what Judas is going to do, just a few moments before he told John the beloved disciple that the one who he hands the morsel to will be the one that betrays him. Jesus knows what he's going to do, but he also associates this betrayal, the conviction, his passion, the great suffering, and his death. He associates that with his glorification as well, with the glory of the resurrection, because the resurrection can only happen through that suffering, through that sacrifice. Friends, if we look closely at our own lives, we'll find this pattern played out all over the place, not only in the plan of God, not only in our spiritual lives, but in our human lives as well. We see it in the Acts of the Apostles today, we see it in the gospel, we see it in our ordinary lives as well. Imagine an athlete training for a great competition. That athlete has to make all kinds of sacrifices to train, right? To deny him or herself certain foods, and you've got to work extra hard and train and exercise, et cetera, et cetera, to achieve, we could say, the glory of the victory, right? In the competition, or even our own health, if we want better health, if we want the good of better health, we need to deny ourselves all kinds of things, right? Make sacrifices. We can't eat Kentucky Fried Chicken seven days a week, right? We can't eat all the food we want. We have to reduce the sodium and the salt, et cetera, et cetera. We see even on our ordinary lives, parents do this all the time for their children, incredible sacrifices they make for the good of their children. Good things always happen come about through sacrifice. We could go on and on. We could find all kinds of examples of this in our experience of life. This principle that glory is only obtained through sacrifice. Good things only come about through these kinds of sacrifices. It's a principle that when we look carefully, we see it. We understand it. We get it. We recognize it. And yet, and this is a big and yet that I know from my own experience, when it comes to the radical demands of the gospel, the teachings of Jesus Christ that come to us in the scriptures and the teachings of the church, I know how easy it is to forget this principle. It's easy to forget that in order to enter the kingdom of God, it is necessary to undergo many hardships. I know it's easy to rationalize in the moral life, the spiritual life, corner cutting, finding loopholes, softening the demands of the gospel, the teachings of the church, in order to make life more easy, to make them all kind of conform more to the way I want to live. Perhaps we make compensation compromises. We think, well, I'm a pretty good person. I'm living the faith pretty well. God won't really mind if I cut corners here a little bit and cheat on this little moral demand. God won't mind that much. That doesn't really apply to me, it's for other people. I'm living a good life. It's easy to make these kinds of compensation compromises. I know this in my own life really, really well, believe me. But the problem is, if we do that little by little, we create actually a different gospel. We change the gospel itself so that the gospel we begin to follow isn't actually the gospel. It's the gospel I've created to make my life easier. Instead of making sacrifices to conform ourselves more to the gospel, we sacrifice the gospel to make it conform more and more to ourselves. The problem is, this is the opposite of what the Lord wants us to do. He's the one who said, "Take up your cross daily, follow me, follow me." He's the one who said, "Enter by the narrow gate." For the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, but the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life and those who find it are few. This past Wednesday in Rome, Pope Francis spoke about the importance of keeping the final judgment before our eyes, and he stresses that this is not to terrify us. This isn't to scare us, but it's rather to impel us forward in living our Christian lives with greater vigor and authenticity and enthusiasm, striving more to conform ourselves to the gospel more, being vigilant in prayer, and being vigilant in love for our brothers and sisters. Friends, let us be like those people in Antioch that heard Paul, that received his encouragement and exhortation. Let us be encouraged, exhorted to persevere in our faith, to be vigilant in prayer and in love, knowing that it is necessary to undergo many hardships in order to enter the kingdom of God.