V Sunday of Easter, Cycle C

Act 14:21-27
Ps 145:8-9, 10-11, 12-13
Rev 21:1-5a
Jn 13:31-33a, 34-35

Being the fifth week after Easter it may difficult to maintain the joy and spirituality of the season; much like during Lent it was difficult to maintain the penances and persevering in “somberness”.  Sometimes it is good to go back and examine where we’ve come, give our present joy some context of why we are joyful, why we must rejoice in the risen Lord.  Today’s readings help us in giving that insight.   All of you are in different places in your life.  You could be quite joyful because it is Easter, it is Spring, you might have a new job or something that is moving you in that way.   Or you could be in a not so good place.  Life isn’t going the way you would like it and you are undergoing some hardship with yourself or in the family.  The context of our readings will give us a deeper understanding to the events not only in scripture, but also in how we look at what is happening in our life.  In our readings today, it seems like what is not proclaimed helps us to understand what was proclaimed.

In the first reading we basically hear about the journey of St. Paul and Barnabas traveling around the Mediterranean; it sounds like a highlight reel of his vacation.  Paul says this one line to the people, exhorting them to persevere in the faith, “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.”  If someone was going through a tough time in their life and they came across just this one line, it would really provide little consolation.  It almost sounds like he is saying, “Life is tough… get over it.”  But if you look at a few verses before this passage you will see that Paul and Barnabas had just traveled into foreign Gentile territory, healed a man miraculously, and the pagan locals tried to turn them into gods calling them Zeus and Hermes.  As the two was trying to evangelize and turn them to the REAL God, some detractors showed up and convinced the locals to try and stone them.  They were stoned, dragged out of the city, and left for dead. They barely got out alive.  Suddenly Paul’s words of the necessity of undergoing hardship sound a little bit more realistic.

In the second reading from Revelation, we hear the beautiful account of the former heaven and earth passing away to make way for the New Jerusalem: God dwells with the human race; and He will be our God, and we His people.  That sounds like good news!!  Again this sounds all well and good but we don’t have the full picture.  This passage comes from the end of Revelation and as you know, the beginning and middle parts don’t quite sound as beautiful and majestic.  There are a lot of bad things happening before we get to the end!!  Basically a lot of suffering and tribulation – it isn’t over until the Second Coming and that is when the new heavens and the new are formed, with the New Jerusalem, the heavenly city.

Lastly, we come to the Gospel where I got stuck on the very first part of the first verse. When Judas had left them, Jesus said… Why include that?  What does Judas have to do with Jesus and the integrity of the passage about loving one another?  There has to be something significant to Judas leaving and Jesus continuing with His discourse saying, Now is the Son of Man glorified… Nothing is put into John’s Gospel without some sort of signification and so look at what happens up to this point.

If you will remember at the beginning of the Gospel, we hear about this Nicodemus, the Pharisee, coming to visit Jesus.  Nicodemus for fear of reprisal from his colleagues meets Christ in the dark of night and they begin to talk about salvation – being born again of water and spirit.  This is a beautiful passage of our faith in John’s Gospel.  But what makes it even more beautiful is the context in which it occurs. Nicodemus seeing Christ in the dark of night and then the scriptures say that he leaves in the light of day.  He was in darkness, he leaves in the light. We contrast this with Judas, a follower of Christ who is in the presence of the light who leaves Christ in the dark of night.

 [ASIDE:  In addition what does he do before he leaves?  He receives a morsel of food from Jesus Himself!!!  Scholarship is on the fence of this action of Judas receiving morsels from Christ because it is too close for comfort in the theology of the Eucharist and the Last Supper.  But if, for the sake of example, Judas receives the Eucharist from Jesus and then goes out into the dark of night to betray Christ, think of the implications.  But let’s not let this be a lesson on how bad Judas is, but rather be a lesson in what we do!  Don’t we do the same all the time?  We prepare ourselves to receive Christ, we fast one hour before receiving Holy Communion, we dress our best, and pay attention and say our prayers reverently and faithfully.  But after communion, what happens?

I know some of you want me to preach about the “Judas shuffle”.  You know the folks that go straight from the communion line to the parking lot?  But we are mature Christians and so making mature decision. I am give people the benefit of the doubt that those who leave early probably received a text that their house is on fire or that they have an acute IBS or something.  But seriously, my concern is beyond the parking lot.  I desire that all of you, when you get home or go to work, that you try to truly understand what you have received in Holy Communion: the body and blood of Jesus Christ.  What does that mean besides a nice warm fuzzy feeling of community?  It means actually living it out, being radically transformed and converted to Him.  To grow in likeness to Him, imitate Him, and bring Him closer to your life and to those around you.  But I digress… going back to Judas leaving. ]

In order for the Son of Man to be glorified, Judas had to betray Jesus.  Jesus had to be arrested, tried, found guilty though innocent, tortured, beaten, scourged, crowned with thorns, mocked, crucified and finally died.  Jesus had to suffer Good Friday before He could rise to Easter Sunday.  Sin entered the world through Adam, Christ redeems the world through His Cross.  Judas’ act of betrayal sets in motion the events that would lead to our redemption.  And so in His glory, He offers us the Eucharist and these beautiful words of exhortation:  Love one another as I have loved you. We have been chosen and we must choose to follow Christ every day.  We come to Christ, who is our Light, and leave in the light of day, not in the dark of night.   We love, not by our standards or the world’s standards that is the darkness.   But we love by Christ’s standards – He is the light that shines in our path and guides us.

The journey goes on every day.  Every day there should be a conversion to Him, there is a newness to your relationship with Christ.  I invite you all to encounter it.  In this way we can discover and experience the full meaning of Paul’s words, “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.”  And that the reward of the Kingdom is great – no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, where every tear will be wiped away.  We look back at how far we have come, we look forward to see how far we must go; knowing and hoping for the eternal reward of Heaven and a life with Him to move us onward.