FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER YEAR C

 FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER

 

31. Then, when he had gone out, Jesus said: Now the Son of man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32. If God has been glorified in him, then the God will also glorify him in himself, and he will glorify him without delay. 33.Little Sons, for a brief while, I am with you. You shall seek me, and just as I had said to the Jews, ‘Where I am going, you are not able to go,’ so also I say to you now. 34. I give you a new commandment: lone one another. Just as I have loved you, so also must you love one another. 35. By this, all shall recognize that you are my disciples: if you will have love for one another. (John 13:33-35)

“You should owe nothing to anyone, except so as to love one another. For whoever loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law” (Heb. 13:8)

We shall share together three points of departure

a) How many ways are there to love my neighbor?

b) What intention should we have in loving a neighbor?

c) How do we love our neighbors with deeds?

We can love a neighbor in many ways. We can love him or her in an ordinary way; or with love of interest; or loving him or her with love of the flesh; or love of the heart. But what kind of love is Jesus talking about in this Fifth Sunday after Easter? Let’s look into each love that has been mentioned.

Ordinary love (kawaida au la kimuambile)

That love which was put into us by God from the time of creation. This is the love we get from our parents, love between brother and sister and the family relatives. It’s that bond the family forges daily to be united in bad and in good times as our ancestors would say blood is thicker than water. “your own is your own!!!…it’s you who know your own!!!…” 

Love with interest/ strings attached

It’s that love where we love our neighbor with something to gain out of her or him. You love someone because there is something you are going to benefit out of that person. Nothing is for free, you will pay in the long run for that love, whether you know it or not, you will pay for it. This kind of love has no condition before God even the pagans do so. 

Love of the flesh

This love comes in the kind of pleasure you get from the flesh (concupiscence). You love your neighbor because of the way she looks or he looks. Your appetite is always in terms of flesh, the physical appearance and all that come along with what you want to see to please your appetite and desires. It is selfish love, it has no value before God, it is often dangerous even to your own heart and soul. 

Love from the Heart

This kind of love comes as a result of loving a neighbor because of the conception of God in you. You see the image of God in your neighbor, that love that was revealed in Jesus. This is the true love for the neighbor, it is the love that was commanded by God. 

The challenge that will come out in discovering the kind of love is that now comes with what intentions do you really have in loving? We are all created in the same image of God but what differs is the physical, intelligence, heart that makes the difference of loving this one or the other.

These reasons should not be too big that they cause a big rift between people in general. You love because you love, with no reason to love, because to love with reason is your own creation in your mind of what love, from the subjective level which has ought to develop into objective truth, for in Genesis we:

And he said: “Let us make Man to our image and likeness. And let him rule over the fish of the sea, and the flying creatures of the air, and every animal that moves on the earth”. (Genesis 1:26).

To love a neighbor in this way is to love the image of God in this person. If you think that you love God dearly then know that that God is seen in your neighbor. As an anecdote that says “God could not be everywhere that is why he made mothers”.

We need to love ourselves. For the Lord himself said “They will know that you are my disciples in the way you love each other”. St. Peter is very clear on this when he says “Before all things, have a constant mutual charity among yourselves. For love covers a multitude of sins” (I Peter 4:8).

Love pushes God to show us mercy if we ourselves do the same to our neighbor. We read this in the gospel of Matthew “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Mt 5:7). 

How do we love our neighbor with deeds?

In the first letter of St. Peter, it has something to teach us: And finally, may you all be of one mind: compassionate, loving brotherhood, merciful, meek, humble, not repaying evil with evil, nor slander, but to the contrary, repaying with blessings. For to this you have been called, so that you may possess the inheritance of the blessing (I Peter 3:8-9).

The truth of the matter is that to love a neighbor is all about wishing a neighbor well, and avoiding any evil intention from the beginning in our words and acts. Let us put in mind and practice the words of I John 3:18. “My little sons, let us not love in words only, but in works and in truth”.

Let’s us imitate the first Christians. Their love was really very genuine that even the pagans were heard saying “Look at the way the Christians love each other” Let our stand be of… if you have nothing to say about your neighbor, better to keep quiet.

If s/he has betrayed you, hurt you in anyway, forgive him or her from your whole heart, because we too also hope that he will do to us the same way. Love your neighbor the same way you love yourself.  

 

UNDERSTANDING REFORMS IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH:

VATICAN II TAKE

 

Vatican II council is one council that illicit many questions with often few answers because we never read. The culture of reading is a bit getting lost with modern technology, where things can be got with instant easy. The time to go to the library, to buy a historical book leave alone a church history book is next to none. These questions are usually addressed to historians. The question may not be necessarily whether there has been a reform in the Catholic Church? It’s all about what has been translated into action. How deeply have things changed? What kind of reform did the council initiate and how can its magnitude, or finitude, be assessed? These are questions that cross our minds whenever we hear about Vatican II council and its impact to the contemporary world.

Today no one with even the slightest knowledge about the history of the Christian Church denies that it has during its long course in the world undergone a number of significant changes. In its organization, in the styles of its theology, in the forms of its piety, in the ways it exercises its ministries. Changes do not jeopardize a deeper identity of who she is, the spirit to maintain her authenticity in the changing world. This is what Thomas Kuhn calls paradigm shift (Cf. The Structure of Scientific Revolution (2^nd Edition; Chicago Universy,1990). Those changes which have occurred in the church without being deliberately and self-consciously initiated by Church leadership, often by the kind of osmosis with them. Some developments have been repudiated as abuses, whereas others have been ratified and embraced.  Its only upon recognition, if it ever occurs, might developments therefore begin to assume some characteristic of reform or reformation. The Church has a right, and sometimes the duty, to initiate changes enacted within the Church that take place within a given frame of reference. They are within the system. They are “adjustments” or “emendations”. Terms which often describe how the Vatican II was all about. (Cf. John w. O’Malley., Reform, Historical Construction, 576). These are reforms that do not rock the boat; they steady it on its course.

Reformation is about self-consciousness that is based on ecclesiastical life or consciousness base on principles that tend to dislodge old ones. This should not be seen as puzzle solving, or mopping up. It creates a different way of looking at the universe and does not merely effect an adjustment within a prevailing view. It forces the abandonment of certain basic assumptions and it replaces them with new ones. The total shift of paradigm is by definition impossible. If we fail to understand the changes it is because we are in unreflective manner equate them with lesser ones. Some changes do not merely confirm and farther elaborate received ideas and institutions; they challenge and contradict them. The paradigmatic radicality comes with its angle components of being focused on issues. What exactly are we dealing with at hand, focusing attention on single problem or call it challenge.  One has to test for authenticity, Prove the authenticity of what kind of reform, are they perverted custom, an unwarranted development? Reformation is at the very meaning of life itself as today it correctly bears its name.

Reformation is means changing of set of ways and mentalities, which implies dislodging imbedded interest-groups and earning their hatred. The resistance to such change is inevitably enormous and requires heroic energies to overcome it. That comes clearly with the old axiom that it is more difficult to reform a religious order than to found a new one betrays a profound understanding of how institutions function.

Until the Council, Catholic thought on reform was based on what can be called a “classicist” mentality. According to such a mentality, the Church moved through history more or less unaffected by history. Men must be changed by religion, not religion by men was the concise articulation of the position, enunciated by Giles of Viterbo at the opening session of the 5^th Lateran Council, 1512. (Cf. John, O’Malley., Giles of Viterbo on Church and Reform, 1968, pp 179-91). This council too evinced a sense of freedom and flexibility in its interpretation of the tradition of the Church that was unprecedented. Religion had to change to meet the needs of the time. To initiate a new freedom of expression and action within the Church that certain Vatican institutions were now interpreted as having previous curtailed; to distribute more broadly the exercise of pastoral authority, especially by strengthening the role of the episcopacy and local churches vis-à-vis the Holy See; to , modify in people’s consciousness and in the actual functioning of the church the predominantly clerical, institutional and hierarchical model that had prevailed; to affirm the dignity of the laity in the Church.

In adjusting itself in this and other ways to a world consciousness the Council gave shape to its own paradigm of the Church. After recourse to its own tradition, the Council determined that the Church could and should in fact refashion its own paradigm to bring it more into accord with conditions which are out there. The need for the Church at present, a need legitimated by the tradition itself, was to accommodate to the present situation. Many profound changes that have taken place in the history of the Church were not the result, in the first instance, of self-conscious initiative on the part of the Church membership. There is no reason to believe that the situation is any different today, except perhaps more intensified because of the mass media and the fast pace of contemporary culture. The emergence of democracy as a favored political form, the world as global village, a new religious and cultural pluralism, and similar phenomena. The reality out there so ingrained into the way we think and judge, seems to be where the long-range grounding of the Council may lie. The new consciousness will persist and have its effects. No large institution will overnight transform its paradigm into something entirely different; no institution ever continues over a long period of time to operate wholly on the same paradigm, especially not an institution so deeply imbedded in human culture as the Roman Catholic Church.

The church is fully incorporated into human history, and changes that take place there deeply affect it. That is what the Council saw, and that perception is perhaps its best legacy. That is what it means to belong to the church that as the Council insisted, is truly a pilgrim in the world. That is the continuing challenge of the Council to us all.

FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER = VOCATION SUNDAY

 

FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER (VOCATION SUNDAY)

 

 

My sheep hear my voice. And I know them, and they follow me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall not perish, for eternity. And no one shall seize from my hand. What my Father gave to me is greater than all, and no one is able to seize from the hand of my Father. I and the Father are one (John 10:27-30)

JESUS THE GOOD SHEPHERD = VOCATION SUNDAY

In 1964 the Holy Father declared that the fourth Sunday after Easter should be called Vocation Sunday for priests and religious. All Christians are invited to offer themselves to pray for vocation, promote vocation to brotherhood, sisterhood, priesthood. The priests and religious come from our families and we present them to the church for the great service of evangelization and holiness.

What does the Holy Father want us to do this Good shepherd Sunday? That is our assignment today. The good shepherd teaches us many things, we shall just choose a few to guide us through.

What does this Sunday mean to us?

How do we associate ourselves with the sheep metaphor?

What is our obligation as Christians?

The invitation of the Holy Father what impact does it create in us to take seriously issues of vocation in the Catholic Church. We know that every human being has been created for a purpose. There is no worker in any field will do what he or she does without having any objective of what s/he does. That means that even when God created us, he made us for reason and purpose. What is that purpose? Do we know?

The Catholic Catechism teaches us very clearly on that. We are created so that we can know Him, we love Him, we serve Him, and we live happily here on earth in preparation to join Him in heaven. This is our call this Sunday, whether we know it or not this is our obligation this Sunday.

We are called to follow the same way did when he was with us on this earth. May be one may be asking which way is that? And which work? That is what we are being told in the Gospel of Today “I am the Good Shepherd…” my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they too know me (Cf. Pope Francis – the smell of the sheep). We are all the Lord’s sheep. We have to make sure that each other as the Lord’s sheep we take good care of ourselves.

Imagine your brother having a sheepfold would you allow invaders or foxes to attack it? Now this is the call the Holy Father is inviting us to. Let us take care of the sheepfold of our brother Jesus. Let us take care of our vocation and protect the ones we already have.

How can we take care of the sheep of Jesus? After Jesus going back to the Father, he left the keys to St. Peter to take care of the Church. They chose bishops, ordained other ministers so that they can continue with the work of Christ. This continues to-date. The care, administration and sanctification of the Church continues. We have spread all over as a church, but we have few laborers, as the number of Christians increase the ministers are few, hence we are still called to pray for vocation so that we may have many priests, religious in our local churches. The laborers are few, so we prayer for the laborer to send many in his vineyard. (Mt 9:36). This is our role and we have to take it seriously hence VOCATION SUNDAY. 

It’s the Lord who chooses, its him who consecrates. “You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. And I have appointed you, so that you may go forth and bear fruit, and so that your fruit may last. Then whatever you have asked of the Father in my name, he shall give you”. (John 15:16).

There are challenges that are found in the ministry, but what might be the obstacles? The hardness of heart and not having a generous heart to save a dear brother and sister. The other obstacle of selfishness and self-love, you simply love yourself so much that to give any support to the other is a challenge. Then not responding to the call, you hear the call and assume as if you have not heard, or that vocation is for someone else not me. That is where the invitation lies.

We know that these obstacles we can’t overcome them by ourselves, we need the help of the Lord overcome them. That is why Christ is telling us…” Pray for the Lord of the harvest to send more laborers to his vineyard”. The lord of the harvest to send laborers.

We pray that the youth can be found and that they may be generous to serve humanity, not selfish but generous in their sacrifice for their church.  We also pray for the parents to be able to release their sons and daughters to serve God. May parents not start bargaining with their children of what kind of work they want them to do but daily praying that their sons and daughters can follow the invitation of Christ who is daily knocking at their doors looking for servants and candidates to priesthood and religious life.

We pray for holy families that we can get good fruits of vocation, a good tree produces good fruits and a bad tree produces bad fruits (Mt. 7:17). Parents who are not good cannot expect to get good priests from their homes. Although God can also use a bad situation to bring the best out of it, but not always and it’s not his nature. How many send sons and daughters to religious life and priesthood for their own benefits?  How many seminarians whose parents still pester them to change their call for the sake of a better future and who consider priesthood as a wasted endeavor?

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” the book of Sirach advises us. The person who has no self-motivation and personal care can be dangerous to himself and to his community. A False vocation is that of a person not fearing God.

Pope Francis tells us that: “To be a saint is not a privilege for a few, but a vocation for everyone. God calls you to make definitive choices, and He has a plan and to respond to your vocation is to move toward personal fulfillment”.

Your True Vocation = Your Gifts+ Your Passion. As we have shared so far, your calling is not one specific magical job out there, but rather your unique talents, gifts, and capabilities-the things within you that you bring to a job. Thus, different jobs can tap your vocation to different degrees

ECCLESIA IN AFRICA

 

ECCLESIA IN AFRICA:  PROCLAMATION AND WITNESSING THE GOSPEL IN AN EFFECTIVE, EFICIENT AND RELEVANT APPROACH TO EVANGELIZATION

By Joseph B. Nyamunga

Reinstating the teaching of the Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Nuntiandi of Pope Paul VI, Ecclesia in Africa (EIA) asserts that the grace and the vocation proper to the church indeed her deepest identity and reason for existing, is to evangelize all people. (Pope JPII (1995) EIA, no.55). The two principal ways of carrying out this all important vocation. This will be true through the witness of life that is lived in the midst of the community, and sometimes that will end up into martyrdom. This re-echoes the earlier teaching of Pope Paul VI where he said:

In the church, the witness given by a life truly and essentially Christian which is dedicated with the utmost fervor of the soul to our neighbor is the primary organ of evangelization (Evangelii Nuntiandi, n.41)

This means that the men of our generation are most impressed by witness than teachers and if they listen to these it is because they also bear witness. The starting place of this evangelization starts from the Christian family, the first cell of small Christian community, a privileged place for evangelical witness, a place of human and spiritual growth for parents, children, the youth and the aged. (Cf. Maura Browne, 1996: 87-107).

The Word of God should lead each one into interior transformation of all people of the good will whose hearts are open to the action of the Holy Spirit. (EIA, n. 55). There are those especially who are not yet evangelized, and who practice the non-Christian religion (EIA, n. 47). This Word should raise hope of the life that is rooted in the Paschal Mystery and celebrated in the Eucharist. An encounter with the living person called Christ. It has to reach individual being, society in every aspect of their existence. Evangelization is not a theoretical experiment but a life, a meeting of love which radically changes our life today.  

This Word (Sacred Scripture) has to be translated to a language that is accompanied by study-guides for use in prayer and study in the family and community, through the scriptural formation of the clergy, the religious, the catechists and the laity in general, through the careful preparation and celebrations of the Word, and the promotion of the biblical apostolate (EIA, n. 58).

The good news proclaimed by word of life. There is no true evangelization if the name, the teaching, the life, the promises, the kingdom and the mystery of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God are not proclaimed

In other words, true evangelization takes place where the Good News is proclaimed in word and actions of life. For Jesus is the first communicator par excellence, who is by nature word, dialogue and communication. This communication has to be fostered from within and outside. The better diffusion of the information among the members of the church to be more advantageous position to communicate to the world the Good News of the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ. (EIA, n.122). 

This can be carried out through the traditional means such as songs, music, theatre, proverbs and fables in addition to the mass media. These are vehicles of the wisdom and the soul of the people and a precious source of material and inspiration for the mass media. 

The media has its own language, complete with its own specific values and counter-values. These are cultures that need to be evangelized. This will mean that the church has to train preachers of the Gospel, who must master the media style of communication, the readers – audience and print media, listeners- audiovisual media etc. (EIA, n. 71).

 All have to be trained in order to understand the kind of communication being made through the mass media and use it with discernment and critical mind. It’s our duty to ensure that Christian principles influence the practice of the profession, including the technical and administrative sector.

There should be more establishment of more communication technology, like radio, television, newspaper, good public address system, internet etc. The question here is the way ahead for the Church in Africa to establish her own religious media or not? EIA, n. 71 has recommended us:

The first Areopagus of the modern age is the world of communications which is unifying humanity and turning it into what is known as global village. The means of social communication have become so important as to be for many the chief means of information and education, to guidance and inspiration in their behavior as individuals, families and within society at large.

As we stand in the market place of ideas and listen to the views there is that immense variety of stories told, arguments presented and contemporary news interpreted daily, one must seek the ways and the means of being effectively present in order to project the teachings of the Church, present the Church and her leaders as major players in each country’s religious arena and provide the symbols that will enhance the identification and commitment of her members.   

As we establish radio stations, Catholic Magazines and newspapers, video production centers, internet facilities become important. Because these can reach a small portion of the population, the Church has to combine owning them with imbuing the general media culture with Christian values. The growing number of Catholic media practitioners perceive their profession as God-given vehicles for proclamation the Gospel values.

The media are not the magic wand that enables the gospel message to transform the lives of the audience, and they become powerful and effective in the process of evangelization if and when they reinforce the impact of the gospel already in operation in the lives of the people. The solid formation in faith starts right from the families, homes and places of work. 

We should recall that what conquered the cruelty of the Roman emperor who persecuted the Church was not the power of communication that was an alternative to Roman communication, but the witness of the martyrs, the presence of the fortress of the faith in the midst of fragility and weakness of human efforts to protect themselves and to announce their doctrine. (Ricardo Antoncich.,“Christian Witness as Communication” in The Church and Communication,(1994)  p. 150-151).

The families are assisted to see the language they use to bring up their children and the type of stories they share with them as veritable means of bringing them up as Christians and creating a Christian atmosphere in the homes. Even the types of posters and calendars they hang in their sitting rooms, the pictures they use as book-markers etc. Have a subtle way of filling people’s minds with things that are Christians and can elevate their thoughts to things that are holy and wholesome.

In this spirit therefore, parents should not abandon their responsibility for regulating the television and video viewing habit of their children. In 1994 during the World Communication Day Pope John Paul II called attention to this when he stated:

Forming children’s viewing habits will sometimes mean simply turning of the television set: Because they are better things to do, because consideration for other family members requires it, or because indiscriminate television viewing can be harmful. Parents who make regular, prolong use of television as a kind of electronic baby-sitter surrender their role as the primary educators of their children ( Joseph Oladeje Faniran., (1998) “Evangelizing the Media: A Challenge to the Church in Africa”, AFER, Vol 40, no.2:121).

The appropriate media include the liturgy the Liturgy and its various parts like songs, prayers, readings, the homily, and the offertory profession. Others are parish bulletin, the notice boards, the posters, the microphones, and the simple cameras, not to mention the video recorders. All can be creatively employed to communicate meaning, share experiences of faith. 

We need to invest in training and investing in communication skills for all those involved in preaching ministry in the Church, catechetical system in order to provide an ongoing solid formation in faith to the people and promoting Catholic family life as a foundation on which other forms of Christian formation can be built, vigorous promotion of Small Christian Communities to foster close human relationships, care and love.

Without a strong interior life of faith and prayer, and a message coming out of this experience, Christian communicators cannot really transmit the experience of Good News of redemption into the lives of the people who today sorely need that Good News. (Cf. Frans-Josef Eilers., “The Spirituality of the Christian Communicator” in Jacob Srampickal, et.al CrossConnections: Interdisciplinary Communications Studies at the Gregorian University, Rome (2006), p. 192.