Homily for 6th Sunday of Easter by Msgr. Jameson
On the 6th Sunday of Easter, May 17, 2020, Msgr. Jameson delivered the following homily at the 11:30am Mass, livestreamed from the Cathedral's St. Anthony Chapel.
As we move closer to the great feast of Pentecost, now just two Sundays away, there is more and more talk in the readings about the Holy Spirit.
Today, in the reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we got the story of Philip going to Samaria, that hotbed of heretics (or so the Jews considered them) --- Samaria where, because the people hadn’t welcomed Jesus, his disciples had wanted to destroy them by raining down fire from heaven. But now it’s all different. Philip preaches there and works wonders, driving out unclean spirits and healing lame and crippled people, and the Samaritans listen to him and believe. And when word of this reaches “headquarters” in Jerusalem, the Jerusalem community responds by sending two of the apostles Peter and John to Samaria so they can do what only the apostles can do: lay hands on the new believers for an outpouring of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
This laying on of hands for the imparting of the gifts of the Holy Spirit was the practice of the early Church and it’s something the Church does to this day. It would have happened right here in this Cathedral in two weeks when Archbishop Gregory would have confirmed more than 100 adults from all over the Archdiocese --- were it not for coronavirus. Luke, the author of Acts, always connects the outpouring of the gifts of the Holy Spirit with the physical and prayerful laying on of hands by the apostles. And there was good reason for this. The apostles were the ones who had witnessed the risen Christ, touched him and ate and drank with him, so they were in a unique position to be the channel whereby new believers would be able to touch Christ and receive his life-giving Spirit.
But it’s worth observing that in today’s reading from John’s gospel, part of the Last Supper discourse, we got quite a different view about how people receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says nothing at all about the role of the apostles or the laying on of hands in passing on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Instead, he speaks about love and he says that it is love that will bring about the presence of the Holy Spirit. Listen again: “If you love me,” he says, “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.” In John’s gospel love is the key to receiving the Holy Spirit --- love, and the keeping of Jesus’ commandments, the greatest of which is love.
So what are we to make of this? Are Luke and John at odds? No, not at all. They had different purposes in writing and they were writing at different times for different communities. Luke had his own good reasons for stressing the need for order and organization in the community, and John had his own good reasons for stressing love. But order and love are not in opposition. They just need to be in balance because we need both!
Why make a point of this? Well, I think it’s timely. Timely because of this moment in which we find ourselves as a Church --- this Pope Francis moment. For a long time, we have tended to stress Luke’s side of the story: the organizational side of the Church, the hierarchical, carefully ordered side. Very often, in speaking of the ways the Spirit works in the Church, we have tended to start with the hierarchical structure of the Church, viewing the Church as a pyramid, with the bishops and priests at the top and everyone else at the bottom. Call it “trickle-down theology.” It has elements of truth but it has its limits!
Pope Francis tends to start at a different place. He starts with the whole Church --- lay people, priests, vowed religious, bishops --- all of us together, and he awakens us to our call to be missionaries, our call to live and preach the Gospel of Joy. He reminds us that Jesus was speaking to the whole Church when he said “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth…….You know this Spirit because he remains with you and is in you.”
So, my friends, the point I’m making is not an academic one. It’s quite practical and has practical implications. It explains, for example, why Pope Francis in preparing for the various synods, has always wanted to hear from the people in the pews. He is eager to hear firsthand their stories, their concerns, their joys and struggles. Pope Francis doesn’t presume to know what the needs and challenges of his people are. Makes sense, doesn’t it?
Let me return to where I began. To the Holy Spirit --- the one Jesus calls Advocate, Comforter, Teacher, Friend; the Spirit of love whom God is breathing into each of us even now, the Spirit of truth who enlightens the whole body of believers and who wants us to do a lot more than just pray, pay and obey, as the saying goes. What the Spirit really wants is to spark new life, a new hope, a new joy --- a sort of revolution. It is Easter lived out on a daily basis.