+I WILL COME TO YOU 6th Sunday of Easter(A) 2017
As the Easter season draws to a close, we are invited to open our hearts more and more to the life of the Spirit. As Christians we are called upon to realize that Christ is in the Father and we are in him and he in us. These are daring words from Christ and typical of the gospel of John who was Christ’s beloved disciple. It is as though we too are being called into this closeness to Christ if we are to be true to our faith and open our hearts to the power of God’s word.
From the letter of Peter, he tells us that we are to “be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks us for a reason for our hope, but to do it with a gentleness and reverence.” We live in a world where this is more important than ever for there are many aspects of our society that run contrary to the witness of our faith. The consumerism, the politicalizing of so much of what is going on, it is often hard to assert our Christian values, the values of practicing virtue, of respect for human life, of faith, hope and love, the value of caring for the sick and elderly, of reaching out to the poor and neglected of our society. If one member suffers, there is a way in which we all suffer.
In that great production that appeared on Broadway in the mid 60’s called Fiddler on the Roof, the father of a Jewish family Tevye asks his wife Golde whether she loves him. She finds it a foolish question for she had been his wife for twenty-five years, washed his clothes, fed the family day after day. When Tevye persists with his question, Golde finally says “I suppose I do” to which he responds, “It’s nice to know.” As I reflected on this story I became aware that this is the very question Jesus asked Peter three times after his resurrection: “Do you love me, Peter.” This is a reference to Peter’s having denied him three times but show that Jesus too needed to know.
We all have need of hearing those words “I love you” even when they come from others we know to be weak human beings. And when we say them, how crucial it is, that we truly mean them from our hearts. And yet, it is only through the gift of the Holy Spirit that we can really love God, only through the working of grace that we can love our neighbor as she or he deserves. And so our need to pray always and to gather here to celebrate this Eucharist, to be fed by the Bread of Life.