Witness to Jesus | Fifth Sunday of Easter
Here is the prepared text of the homily delivered on May 17 at St. John Vianney Church, Kailua; and on May 18 at St. Ann Church, Kaneohe, and the Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa, Honolulu, in celebration of the sacraments of confirmation and first holy Communion.
I counted seven places mentioned in today’s first reading where St. Paul and St. Barnabas went to preach the Good News of Jesus. They really moved around! And although you may never go to Pisidia or Pamphylia or Antioch, there are lots of places you do go.
You go home, to school, to sports activities or dance classes. You go to visit friends and family. Maybe you go on vacation every now and then. You obviously come here to church.
So, if we made a list of places you go, they would be different from the places St. Paul and St. Barnabas went, but they might be just as many or even more. But the question is, do you do where you go what they did where they went?
They had had an encounter with the risen Jesus, who died and rose again from the dead. When Paul heard of this, he was outraged that faithful Jews could fall for what he considered a nonsensical fairy tale.
But one day, as he was off to persecute the followers of Jesus, he actually encountered Jesus as a real and living person. He could no longer deny that he was risen from the dead, and more importantly, he fell in love with Jesus, because now he knew he was a real and living person.
This is exactly what we pray will happen to you today — that you recognize the real presence of Jesus as a person who is alive now and loves you now.
Just as the risen Jesus breathed out the Holy Spirit on his followers, and just as they were so overjoyed that they went out to all these places in the world to tell others of the wonders of the love of the risen Jesus, so Jesus breathes out his Holy Spirit upon you today in the sacrament of confirmation.
This is a way of the risen Jesus kissing you on the forehead to tell you how much he loves you and wants to live with you forever.
But just as St. Paul and St. Barnabas experienced the risen Jesus, you will experience him physically when you receive your first holy Communion.
If you are away from someone you love for a while, you know how exciting it is to see that person. And even though you have known Jesus and he has already loved you, you will now have Jesus within you in this intimate and holy communion.
This is how he shows his love for you, and he wants so much to do that. But he wants you also to go out to many places with his love.
In the church we find a tabernacle, which is where we place the consecrated hosts that are left after Communion, so that later we can take them to the sick, or so that we can go into the presence of Jesus to adore him and pray to him.
We bow before the tabernacle or genuflect before it, because it contains the very Body of Christ. But think about this: After you receive holy Communion, you are like a tabernacle, a dwelling place for Jesus.
But this is not so that people can genuflect toward you; no! It is so that you can take Jesus out to the many places that you go.
Jesus wants to live in your home, to go to your school, to be on your sports team, to go where you work — and he can do this, because he is in you. Like Paul and Barnabas, you are called to take Jesus and his love to the many places you go, so that the Good News of his great love can spread everywhere.
