Fifth Sunday of Easter
Year A
Readings: Acts 6:1-7; 1 Peter 2:4-9; John 14:1-12
“Do not let your hearts be troubled.”
The very comforting words of Jesus in today’s Gospel give us some hope, dear friends, in our challenging world of today. The rapidly changing times and situations make us realise that nothing seems to be the same every day. The enmity between the nations is growing, the climatic changes are clearly evident, the number of people going hungry is increasing, the number of malnourished children is growing, the number of refugees and asylum seekers at our door is countless and there are all the other added disadvantages that are happening to us, to our families and neighbours alike.
In spite of all these situations, we are called to have ‘hope’ today. We are called to hold on gently yet strongly to the promise of our Saviour, who says, “I am going now to prepare a place for you.” Jesus is preparing a place for us. He is giving us hope that all is not at stake here. We are called to believe strongly that this is not the end. This is not the completion, rather it is a beginning of something new and beautiful.
Recently I was in an information night, for the parents, about the Preparation Programme for the Sacrament of Confirmation of our students. One of the questions I asked the students was, “what do you ‘confirm’ in the Sacrament of Confirmation?” As usual, typical teenagers (!), they had a blank look on their face as if to say “I don’t know” (again, typical teenagers (!)).* I did not give up on that, rather I asked them, what did their parents accept, on their behalf, on their Baptism day. Well, that was a tough one as they wouldn’t be aware of their Baptism ceremony as most of them would have been little babies then. So I turned to the parents and asked them the same question and fortunately I was able to get one answer that “we professed our faith and accepted that we believe in the Holy Trinity.” And yes! That is true. The Parents and Godparents professed the faith on our behalf on our Baptism day and now, on the Confirmation day, it is us, we ourselves, profess this faith and say boldly “I do.” And by saying “I do,” we begin to live this faith boldly, begin to express this faith joyfully and begin to show this faith in our actions: beginning of something new and beautiful, even though it has taken so much time to learn and accept this faith.
When Jesus says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled,” he invites us, once again, to re-live our Baptismal Promises. He invites us, once more, to re-commit our lives, especially the commitment that we consciously did on our Confirmation day.
There are a lot of things that will frighten us and make us lose heart. There are a lot of challenges which will stop us from moving forward and there will be a lot of disappointments which will make us feel useless. But we have one hope, one and only, and that is in Jesus Christ, who has promised us, “Whoever believes in me, will perform the same works as I do myself, he [she] will perform even greater works, because I am going to the Father” (Jn 14:12). So let us live with this hope and live a life filled with the promise of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
* Sorry for the stereotype, humour intended.