2023 6th Sunday of Easter

Deacon Tim's Homily from the 6th Sunday in Easter on May 14th, 2023.

Transcript

Unknown: 0:21

God who loves me will keep my word says My Lord, and my PA will love him, and we will come to Him. God

Tim Stout: 0:53

the Lord be with you. And with a reading from the holy Gospel according to John, glory. Jesus said his disciples, if you love me, you will keep My commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another advocate, to be with you always the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it neither sees, nor knows him. But you know him, because he remains with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you. In a little while the world will no longer see Me. But you will see me because I live, and you will live. On that day, you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in Me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments, and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me, will be loved by My Father. And I will love him and reveal Myself to him. The Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Unless you've been living under a rock for the last three decades, the world we live in today is a lot different than 30 years ago. We are a polarized society that is typically at least today defined by two words, liberal or conservative. Those two words frame everything that occurs in public. Don't believe me? Turn on your TV, read the Internet, or attempt to have a conversation about current events with the people around you. It isn't always said but it's implied. And the undertones are always there. Immigration, abortion, inflation, pandemic transgender, just saying those words, starts your mind moving in a direction. By the way, the church itself is not exempt from its list of polarizing topics and words. Senate sexual abuse, gay marriage, even Pope Francis in a world where our technology has advanced so far, where our communication and access to information is lightning quick. Our society and our culture is in chaos. We are inundated with violence, hate disrespect, and news that you're not sure if you can believe we used to call that back in the old days spin. Now we just call it fake news. And here's another newsflash that didn't start with Donald Trump. Interestingly enough, this week, I was away for a leadership retreat at work and this discussion actually came up. There was a debate about where it all started, and what the root cause of this chaos truly is. And it was during that discussion that I latched on to one proposed cause and you may agree or disagree, but hear me out. Ever since the boomers and these current generations, and I include myself in one of these, I'm not sure which one though, Gen X, Gen Z millennials, and the newest one I had to look up, it's called Alpha. I think we've lost our ability as a whole. Not everyone, but as a whole, we've lost our ability to think critically. And when I say think critically, it starts with listening. To really hear a viewpoint, evaluate the different arguments and question and evaluate the worthiness of the words for themselves. You know, this ability, this technique, it used to be taught in schools. It's called philosophy. Logic, argument, reason, philosophy. And for the most part, you would be hard pressed to find it taught in our schools today, specifically, not in high schools, you may find it in secondary education, as electives are that one person in that one class that has a degree in philosophy? Not in the priesthood, though. But the lack of philosophy. It's affecting all of us. And you may be wondering, why are you talking about philosophy today? And why is that affect the state of our culture, and our society? And my answer is simple. Love. Today's Gospel puts one word front and center, a word that is complex. The word that is debated, a word that has started and ended wars, and a word that our God commands us to pursue. Love. And according to the church, it's also the purpose of our lives. For those of you listening to the Catechism in a year, with Father Mike Schmitz, you've got to go all the way back to day one. You see, the church thinks it's so important that the Catechism starts with a purpose of life, which is for man to seek God to know Him and to love Him with all his strength. But what does that mean? When you hear Jesus say, If you love me, you will keep my commandments, or you read in the catechism and know the purpose of life is to love God. What goes through your mind? Is it the love? Is it the action of loving? Or is it the commandments? The things that define the way we should live? I want to go back to philosophy and the purpose like just for a minute, one of the things I like to do when I'm having conversations with people, especially people I don't know very well. And I think the conversation may go a little deeper, I asked the question, what do you think the purpose of life is? Like, liked the question for two reasons. One, because it helps me to get a sense whether the person is a Christian or not, without asking them, do you believe in God? And second, I get a sense if they've ever studied philosophy, or have ever been challenged to think critically. And I've heard a whole lot of different answers. But I can tell you without any doubt, the purpose of not life is not pleasure. It's not to have a good time. It's not to make the most money. And it's not to be famous. And it's a tough question to ask, specifically, depending on where someone lives. And what I mean by that is where they live mentally, spiritually, and yes, even financially. And sometimes it's even an harder question to answer. Because if it was easy to answer, we wouldn't need a savior. We definitely wouldn't need a church. See, that's why God sent Jesus to this earth, the world for God, how to live, and how to love. And it's a predicament in which we still find ourselves today. You see, God in his infinite wisdom, gave us a Savior. And our Savior established His church. And Jesus left us with the advocate, the Holy Spirit. And through these three gifts to Savior, the church and the Holy Spirit. God has given us a foundation has given us support and has given us a great example, to know what we need to do to come to know Him and to love Him. And we all fail at it. If you're like me, I do it every day. I consider myself a subject matter expert and how to sin But I know that because of Jesus and the gift of His life on the cross, through that gift, we are able to receive forgiveness, the forgiveness that we need to start fresh when we all fail at loving God, and those around us. And through the gift of the Holy Spirit, we are able, hopefully, to better navigate the world in which we live. This advocate Jesus tells us will help us to recognize help us to see not as the world sees. But as Jesus sees. And then we get the greatest gift, we get to know what the Father looks like to see God. Because God is love, and we see love around us, we see love in the people that we encounter. You know, Jesus established this church to help us on this difficult journey. And the church has been helping, helping lots of people for over 2000 years, helping us to figure out how we love one another. What that means, helping us to know right, from wrong, helping us to know the truth. And it's a truth, the gospel against us today, the world doesn't accept, because it doesn't see or know Him. And so that brings us back to those commandments. If you're like me, you're trying to figure out is it the two commandments is that the 10 commandments, which which ones are is Jesus talking about today. The two are pretty simple, right? Love, love God and love your neighbor, the 10 commandments on the stone tablets and the subsequent to the rules and laws established by the Church throughout the centuries. They're all connected. And we should focus on the two had minimum. Love God, and love your neighbor. Because all the other commandments, they all are contained in those two. When we are unsure of how to love someone, we can dive deeper, and ask the church for help, whether that's the person sitting next to you in the pew, maybe it's your pastor, maybe it's a support group. Maybe it's somebody in the Knights of Columbus, all of these resources, all of them are put in place by a church, and a spirit that loves you. And that spirit wants to guide you to eternity with God. And while the church over the years has had its fair share of scandals, it's still the Church that Jesus established a church and a structure to help us to think about our lives, to think about our choices day in and day out the situations that we're in, and it gives us a resource to contact when we are unsure. The church helps us recognize truth, through its structure through its catechism and yesterday, it's canon law, yes, through its commandments. And again, while the church may not be perfect, it's here to help us. It's here to assist us in being the best people we can be. We have a God that loves us unconditionally, a God that is merciful and a God that is forgiving. And we can only see that and experience that through his church, through its sacraments, and yes to the people sitting next to you. And through that we become equipped with what we need to come to know and love God, that one true God that wants us to be with him in eternity. So I offer you these three things to consider. To help us all follow Jesus's commandments. First, come to church, and fight someone to come to church with you be with a community of believers. We are called to walk with each other, to encourage, to help aid to listen, to care, to support and just to love. It's here that we experienced the true love of God through the cross of Jesus Christ celebrated on this altar and that love reflects back out on all of us. All of us gathered here tonight to study your faith. If you only come to church, one hour a week and that's that's your faith. Try a little harder. Pick up a book, read the Bible. Maybe listen to a podcast there's a few good ones out there catechism in a year is a great one. You don't have to listen to it every day. You don't have to read every day. Take your time. Commit the 30 minutes a week. Only through studying, discerning about our faith can we know the truth behind it? teachings of the Church. And lastly, pray. Pray to God that He will accompany you will strengthen you, and will open your eyes to His truth. The truth is taught by the church for 1000s of years. Your prayers will lead you to a deeper love of God into your neighbor. And so on this sixth Sunday of Easter, go forth. Love, as Jesus taught us to by following His commandments, and being a source of love, and a beacon of hope to those you encounter. God bless