SERMON/HOMILY FOR TUESDAY OF THE 4TH WEEK OF EASTER 23RD APRIL 2024

SERMON/HOMILY FOR TUESDAY OF THE 4TH WEEK OF EASTER 23RD APRIL 2024

Acts 11:19-26; Ps. 87; John 10:22-30

Accepting that Jesus is God

On several occasions, Jesus’ disciples witnessed Jesus preach the goodnews to non-Jews. This was to show that God’s salvation is not the exclusive property of anyone or group of people. However, they say that experience is the best teacher. The persecution that erupted after the death of Stephen dispersed the disciples across many nations. While it was their aim to continue to preach the goodnews wherever they found themselves, they did not expect non-Jews to welcome the gospel message. It became surprising when they experienced Greeks in Antioch accepting this message and God’s favour was upon them.

This experience was to again teach them that everyone is qualified to be saved by the goodnews of Jesus Christ. Salvation is not like some lucrative white collar Jobs that are available to only those who have connections. Since we all acknowledge God as our creator and Jesus as God, then whatever comes from Jesus is meant for all. The difficulty in understanding this truth formed the basis of the crisis in today’s gospel reading.

For some time now, Jesus has been teaching that he is the good shepherd. This did not go down well with the Jews because the image of the Good Shepherd they had was God himself. The Jews sought to hear from Jesus what form of relationship he had with God. Who is this Jesus to acclaim for himself what is exclusively reserved to God? Jesus simply taught them that he is not taking over the function of God, rather he is God himself.

In the crude form, we may not have much challenge today with believing that Jesus is God. But that does not exonerate us from the pitfall of the Jews. In the first reading, people saw how the life of Jesus was practically reflected in that of his followers and named them “Christians” : like-Christ. The perfect sign that we believe that Jesus is God is when we consider imitating him as a sure route to happiness.

Everyone wants to be happy and fulfilled, but not all take the same route in actualizing this common desire. Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. If we think that we can be happy and fulfilled without passing through Jesus, then we are like the Jews who do not accept Jesus as God. The laboratory where one’s acceptance of Jesus as God is tested, is not the Church but the outside world. Today, re-evaluate your goals in life and the processes you have map out in achieving them. If they are not saturated with the “Christ-like” spirit, then they are not worth it. Whatever will not save us should not occupy us.