Year C / Eastertide / Week 6 / Sunday
Readings: Acts 15.1-2,22-29/ Psalm 66.2-3,5,6,8 (R/v 4) / Revelation 21.10-14,22-23 / John 14.23-29
Jesus blessed his disciples with His peace at the Last Supper. Who amongst us here doesn’t want this peace Jesus gives? It comforts. It assures. It encourages. I believe the disciples knew the kind of peace Jesus offered because they had seen its effect on those he miraculously healed or forgave them their sins. Even more, they had experienced this peace themselves; it was Jesus' calm and his calming presence when they were on that boat tossed about in the raging storm.
Now, Jesus wants to give us His peace. But will we truly be able to receive it? Peace, after all, cannot be simply handed over like an apple or a book. Jesus forces neither His peace nor His love on anyone; indeed, he cannot.
By their nature, such gifts cannot be imposed. They are gifts when the receiver accepts them gratefully and the giver offers them gratuitously. This is why Jesus’ peace is not like rain that falls on us and we suddenly find ourselves wet. To truly receive the peace Jesus wants to give us, we must really want to receive it. We can when we cooperate by opening our hearts to Him.
We need to hear this because today Jesus instructs us clearly, and again, that whoever keeps His word, His commandment of love, will enjoy the love of the Father. And the peace we all want can come only from loving as God loves. This is precisely why God created us – to love – and how God created us to live – in peace. Is this how we’re loving and living?
To do this, individually and as the Church, we need the Holy Spirit as the first reading proclaims. Hearing it, we find ourselves caught up in the intensely contentious and difficult debate between Christian Jews and Christian Gentiles in Antioch. They are arguing how best to live the Christian faith: should it be according to Jewish ways, like circumcision, or Gentile norms, like dietary customs?
Readings: Acts 15.1-2,22-29/ Psalm 66.2-3,5,6,8 (R/v 4) / Revelation 21.10-14,22-23 / John 14.23-29
“Peace I bequeath to you, my own peace I give you, a peace the world cannot give, this is my gift to you.”
Jesus blessed his disciples with His peace at the Last Supper. Who amongst us here doesn’t want this peace Jesus gives? It comforts. It assures. It encourages. I believe the disciples knew the kind of peace Jesus offered because they had seen its effect on those he miraculously healed or forgave them their sins. Even more, they had experienced this peace themselves; it was Jesus' calm and his calming presence when they were on that boat tossed about in the raging storm.
Now, Jesus wants to give us His peace. But will we truly be able to receive it? Peace, after all, cannot be simply handed over like an apple or a book. Jesus forces neither His peace nor His love on anyone; indeed, he cannot.
By their nature, such gifts cannot be imposed. They are gifts when the receiver accepts them gratefully and the giver offers them gratuitously. This is why Jesus’ peace is not like rain that falls on us and we suddenly find ourselves wet. To truly receive the peace Jesus wants to give us, we must really want to receive it. We can when we cooperate by opening our hearts to Him.
We need to hear this because today Jesus instructs us clearly, and again, that whoever keeps His word, His commandment of love, will enjoy the love of the Father. And the peace we all want can come only from loving as God loves. This is precisely why God created us – to love – and how God created us to live – in peace. Is this how we’re loving and living?
To do this, individually and as the Church, we need the Holy Spirit as the first reading proclaims. Hearing it, we find ourselves caught up in the intensely contentious and difficult debate between Christian Jews and Christian Gentiles in Antioch. They are arguing how best to live the Christian faith: should it be according to Jewish ways, like circumcision, or Gentile norms, like dietary customs?
Even more, we might feel the pain of how divided they are as a Christian community. They seem to have forgotten Jesus’ prayer at the Last Supper – that they may be one. Aren’t we like them when our disagreement divides us as a family, community or church?
At the heart of their conflict is how Christians ought to live in peace with one another, even with the differences they have. The Holy Spirit helps them resolve their differences. In prayer, they listen to the Spirit; He guides them to this teaching Jesus makes in the gospel reading: that those who love Him will keep His word and the Father, with Jesus, will love them and come to them. I believe the Spirit does more; He helps them interpret this teaching in the light of Jesus’ desire that his disciples remain in his love. Realising this, they renounce their differing demands in favour of the Church’s unity.
I can’t help but draw parallels between this episode in the early Church and the recent Conclave. Going into the Conclave, we saw differing factions of cardinals politicking and pushing their respective agenda, progressive, conservative or otherwise. We heard noisy lobby groups and outspoken lay and clergy broadcasting what's right and wrong with the Church and who should be pope. These contesting sides weren’t prepared to renounce their plans, prejudices and fixed ideas. This is what partisan theological hatred looks like; it can potentially destroy the Church.
The choice of Pope Leo was a genuine surprise. I believe the Holy Spirit worked in silent prayer to move the hearts of the cardinals to remember Jesus’ desire that we remain one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. This is how the Church remains together in Jesus’ love.
To do this, the Holy Spirit must have directed them to focus on the pope’s primary responsibility – which is, to keep and foster the unity of the church, not advocate partisan ideology or agenda. The word ‘pope’ means bridge builder. He is called to be the unifier, the shepherd who gathers the flock and even the pastor for the whole world as Cardinal Stephen Chow from Hong Kong suggests.*
Like those first Christians we hear about in the first reading, only by steeping themselves in the peace of Jesus could the cardinals listen to one another fruitfully as they discerned who amongst them could best unite them, even more, the motley mix that is the Church. Only in this peace could they also renounce their biased politicking and calmly consider the qualities of Cardinal Robert Prevost. In him, they saw a possible pope who could gather us to be that one, missionary Church Jesus commands us to be, that Vatican II affirms for our modern times and that Pope Francis challenged us to be truly pastoral for everyone, especially the suffering and marginalised.
It shouldn’t surprise us that unity and peace are central to how Pope Leo understands the Church and values its mission. At his Inauguration Mass last Sunday, he declared “that our first great desire be for a united Church, a sign of unity and communion, which becomes a leaven for a reconciled world” where there will be peace for all.
At the heart of their conflict is how Christians ought to live in peace with one another, even with the differences they have. The Holy Spirit helps them resolve their differences. In prayer, they listen to the Spirit; He guides them to this teaching Jesus makes in the gospel reading: that those who love Him will keep His word and the Father, with Jesus, will love them and come to them. I believe the Spirit does more; He helps them interpret this teaching in the light of Jesus’ desire that his disciples remain in his love. Realising this, they renounce their differing demands in favour of the Church’s unity.
I can’t help but draw parallels between this episode in the early Church and the recent Conclave. Going into the Conclave, we saw differing factions of cardinals politicking and pushing their respective agenda, progressive, conservative or otherwise. We heard noisy lobby groups and outspoken lay and clergy broadcasting what's right and wrong with the Church and who should be pope. These contesting sides weren’t prepared to renounce their plans, prejudices and fixed ideas. This is what partisan theological hatred looks like; it can potentially destroy the Church.
The choice of Pope Leo was a genuine surprise. I believe the Holy Spirit worked in silent prayer to move the hearts of the cardinals to remember Jesus’ desire that we remain one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. This is how the Church remains together in Jesus’ love.
To do this, the Holy Spirit must have directed them to focus on the pope’s primary responsibility – which is, to keep and foster the unity of the church, not advocate partisan ideology or agenda. The word ‘pope’ means bridge builder. He is called to be the unifier, the shepherd who gathers the flock and even the pastor for the whole world as Cardinal Stephen Chow from Hong Kong suggests.*
Like those first Christians we hear about in the first reading, only by steeping themselves in the peace of Jesus could the cardinals listen to one another fruitfully as they discerned who amongst them could best unite them, even more, the motley mix that is the Church. Only in this peace could they also renounce their biased politicking and calmly consider the qualities of Cardinal Robert Prevost. In him, they saw a possible pope who could gather us to be that one, missionary Church Jesus commands us to be, that Vatican II affirms for our modern times and that Pope Francis challenged us to be truly pastoral for everyone, especially the suffering and marginalised.
It shouldn’t surprise us that unity and peace are central to how Pope Leo understands the Church and values its mission. At his Inauguration Mass last Sunday, he declared “that our first great desire be for a united Church, a sign of unity and communion, which becomes a leaven for a reconciled world” where there will be peace for all.
Don’t we want this kind of unity for ourselves, as the Church, and this peace, for us and everyone? We do and we can have them when we are ready to put aside our differences, come together and find common ground to fulfil Jesus’ command that we remain in his love and that we be one.
The good news is that Jesus believes we can fulfil his command. All who were involved in that episode in the early Church and the Conclave did, with the help of the Holy Spirit. So, let us learn from them. To truly listen to one another with discerning hearts. To embrace silence to hear God’s will for us and the world. To do these by letting go of our wants and letting the Holy Spirit lead. Then, he can bind us in God’s love and lead us onward with his peace.
Our readings assure us that it is the Spirit who readies us to continue Jesus’ mission of God’s saving love. When we embrace this truth and go forth and proclaim this Good News well, with joy, we’ll be bold and brave, no longer troubled or afraid, to share the peace of God with one and all. Let’s do this, with the Holy Spirit, of course. Shall we?
* "Cardinal Chow on the conclave: We voted for a pastor for the world," America Magazine, 19 May 2025
Preached at the Church of the Sacred Heart
Photo: The National Herald
Preached at the Church of the Sacred Heart
Photo: The National Herald
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