Third Sunday of Easter Cycle A

Welcome to read homilies for the Sundays of the year. These are sample homilies which you can read with devotion. You may use them in your own homilies without asking my permission. You may also change or edit these to fit them to your audience. A unique quality of these homilies is that they are Christ-filled. From beginning to end they present to us some aspect of Jesus so that beholding his glory we “are being transformed from glory to glory into his very image” (2 Corinthians 3:18 NAB).

Absent But Present

Today we study another quality of the resurrected body of Jesus. This quality is found in our Gospel reading. We heard it read, "And it happened that, while he (Jesus) was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight." Jesus vanished from their sight. His resurrected body, as it were, disappeared.

This seems like a minor detail in our Gospel but it has implications which have a very practical bearing in our daily life. But first of all let us analyze the meaning of the term "vanished" used here in the original Greek language of the Gospel according to Luke. This is another example of those passages in the New Testament whose meaning for us would be enriched if we study the meaning in the original Greek language.

The original Greek for the word translated here "vanished" is a unique word. This is because it does not appear in all the Bible except here. It appears often in Greek poetry but rarely in Greek prose and this only in the later stages of the Greek language. This word is aphantos. It is a combination of two Greek words “a” and “phantos” which is derived from “phainomai” which means to appear. Now “a” in Greek as a prefix means “not”, as in “anomalous” which means “not normal” or “not consistent”. So literally aphantos merely means not manifest, not visible.

But this aphantos is used with a verb. The verb is egeneto which means “became”. This is the same verb used in our Angelus, And the Word became flesh. So aphantos egeneto means he "became invisible."

Many translators translate these two words aphantos egeneto "vanished" because that was the effect upon the two disciples, Jesus vanished or disappeared from them.

But if we stick to the literal meaning of the Greek words, they merely mean that Jesus became invisible to the two disciples.

One reason why this meaning is not used by the translators is because of the following prepositional phrase after these two words. The prepositional phrase in Greek is ap autown, which usually means "from them", not "to them". Our translation, the New American Bible Revised Edition, renders this, "from their sight".

But now we are clear that according to Luke who was a Gentile and a native Greek speaker, Jesus became invisible. This has an important implication for us.

If Jesus became invisible, his risen body was still there but it could no longer be seen by Cleopas and his companion because that is what Jesus wanted it to be, unseen by them.

Hence another quality of Jesus' resurrected body was that it could become visible and invisible as Jesus wanted it. It became visible when Jesus joined in the conversation of his two disciples. It became invisible when they recognized it was Jesus in the breaking of the bread.

Now we add this to what we learned last Sunday. Jesus' body became visible in the room where the disciples were despite the fact that all doors to this room were locked. And after Jesus conversed with his disciples his body became invisible.

And that is what happened during the 40 days before Jesus' ascension to heaven. His body was still here on earth but it could become visible and invisible as Jesus wished.

This means that Jesus’ body was absent as far as the sight was concerned but it was fully present as far as the reality was concerned. He was really present there but absent to the sense of sight.

Now the question we ask is: Why did Jesus after his resurrection became visible and invisible to his disciples? Certainly he was not playing the game Hide and Seek: you hide and I seek you after I count some numbers, as some of us have played this during our childhood days.

It is strange that this is not commented upon by many commentators on our Gospel, that Jesus becomes visible and invisible. But it is a detail most important for us to consider.

The reason why Jesus after his resurrection appeared and disappeared although he did not leave the people around him, he just became invisible, was that he was training his disciples to perceive him in a spiritual way. He wanted them to consider him as a spirit to prepare for their reception of him as Spirit on Pentecost day.

For three or so years they had perceived him physically. They saw him in a place, they saw him walk and talk, they felt his touch, they gazed into his eyes. They saw him as a physical person. Now Jesus was training them to realize that he was there as fully as he was before his resurrection but this time they had to look at him in a spiritual way, as a person invisible but fully present.

This reality of Jesus being fully present but invisible is true for us in a similar manner. Now we know that Jesus’ body ascended to heaven, which we will celebrate later on. But he sent to us His own Spirit which is like his risen body. This Spirit of Jesus is invisible to us, but he is really there with us. This is why Jesus said at the end of Matthew’s Gospel, “And know that I am with you always, until the end of the world!.”

Some of you may have come across this plaque on the wall of a living room or sala. It reads Christ is the head of this house,

     The unseen guest at every meal,

     The silent listener to every conversation.

Yes, even today Jesus is the unseen, invisible quest at our every meal, as he did during the meal at Emmaus with his disciples.

Here is another plaque which I found in a business establishment of a Jehovah’s Witness.

CHRIST is the head of this business.

The unseen Manager in every department,

The silent Partner to every transaction.

Jesus is indeed the unseen, invisible manager in all Christian businesses.

Sue Towler wrote a poem entitled THE UNSEEN GUEST. It begins,

If Jesus spoke to you today

And asked if He could spend

Some time with you and your family

Over this next weekend

What would your reaction be?

The last four lines of this poem are very instructive for us:

Let's live our lives remembering

That Jesus is right there

In every situation

No matter when or where.

Yes, Jesus has become invisible as he did during that meal in Emmaus in order that he can be fully present with us as he was then to his first disciples. In fact he is nearer to us than our own skin, because he lives within us. That is the meaning of the phrase that we are the temple of God. God dwells within us as spirit.

Our first reading tells us that David saw Jesus at his right hand although Jesus was coming only centuries after him. He saw Jesus in spirit. This is our privilege now. We can see Jesus spiritually because He sent us His Spirit, we received this Spirit and this Spirit lives within us. As David says in our reading, He fills us with joy in his presence.

Peter was more explicit in our second reading. He says that Jesus is now revealed in the final time for us who through him believe in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that our faith and hope are in God. That is, Jesus is revealed to us in an invisible manner, through his Spirit.

Halleluiah! Jesus is risen! He now lives among us! We can talk to him anytime we want because although invisible to us, he is fully present to us as he was to his disciples after his resurrection. This was the reason why he said to his disciples, “It is much better for you that I go” (John 16:7) so that the Spirit can come to them and to us. Now we can have Jesus wherever we are, unlike before when we had to go to where he was physically in order to be with him. In fact Jesus is inside us, he lives inside of us, he is our life as he himself said.

  

Let us thank Jesus for fulfilling his promise of being with us always. We bow our heads.

Jesus, thank you for being with us always although you remain invisible to our physical eyes. Amen.

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Note for the readers:

The Mass readings are from the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE). This is where our Lectionary gets the readings.

NAB stands for New American Bible (before it was revised). This is the translation I use. Unless otherwise stated the text I use is from this translation.

AV stands for Authorized Version of the Bible. It is more commonly referred to as the King James Bible. It is the version most used in English literature, therefore it is the one known more by the English speaking world.

Second Sunday of Easter Cycle A

Welcome to read homilies for the Sundays of the year. These are sample homilies which you can read with devotion. You may use them in your own homilies without asking my permission. You may also change or edit these to fit them to your audience. A unique quality of these homilies is that they are Christ-filled. From beginning to end they present to us some aspect of Jesus so that beholding his glory we “are being transformed from glory to glory into his very image” (2 Corinthians 3:18 NAB).

The Second Creation Has Already Begun

According to the scientists, even those who believe that it was God who created this world, creation began some 13 billion years ago. This began with the famous Big Bang wherein a very great mass of matter exploded and ultimately became the stars with their planets including our own universe.

So the world was not created in 6 days as we read in the first chapter of the Bible. According to the commentary in our translation, the New American Bible, the reason why "God's creative activity is divided into 6 days (is) to teach (us) the sacredness of the sabbath rest on the seventh day in the Israelite religion." The creation of our world was actually accomplished in billions of years, not in 6 days.

That was the first creation. The second creation is nearer to us in time. It began only more or less 1,984 years ago. While we did not see how the first creation was done, we have an idea of how the second creation began. We are seeing the first creation in our everyday lives. We do not see the second creation, but we can feel it happening in our heart.

We know that the second creation has already begun because of a detail in our Gospel reading which is mentioned twice by John the writer of this Gospel. That detail is in verse 19 and again in verse 26. The doors were locked but Jesus came inside the room. How was he able to come inside the room when the doors were locked? John used the plural "doors". In other words all entries or passages to that room were locked. But Jesus came inside anyway. How was he able to do this?

He was able to do this because he had a new body already, one that could, as it were, pass through heavy objects. This body is the first object in the second creation. The second creation had begun in the resurrected body of Jesus. Actually Jesus did not need to pass through any door to come to that room. He was there all the time. We know he was there because he knew the conversation of the apostles and that Thomas had said, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe." Rather his body, a real body, became visible when he wanted to be seen by the apostles gathered there.

St. Ambrose, the bishop of Milan who baptized St. Augustine, has a beautiful description of the effect of Jesus' resurrection on our world. In his address on the Resurrection of Jesus he said, "The universe rose again in Him, the heaven rose again in Him, the earth rose again in Him, for there shall be a new heaven and a new earth." Notice the past tense used by St. Ambrose. The universe rose, the heaven rose, the earth rose. A new universe was formed within this old universe. And this began with the resurrection of Jesus, more or less one thousand nine hundred eighty four years ago.

The scientists propose 10 possible ways our world will end. Kier Harris has a very readable and interesting summary of the 10 theories on How the Universe Will End written online last April 11, 2014. He starts with the Big Crunch theory which is the opposite of the Big Bang and ends with the Eternal Universe theory which means that our universe will die and live again as it were in a never ending cycle. We do not bother ourselves with these ten theories on how the world will end. They are interesting but they are only theories, guesses backed by some kind of evidence.

Peter the Apostle of Jesus told us plainly how this world would end. He wrote, "The present heavens and earth are reserved by God's word for fire. . . . The day of the Lord will come like a thief, and on that day the heavens will vanish with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and all its deeds will be made manifest." (2 Peter 3:7, 10).

What is not known by many is that this process of ending this universe is already being done. Paul the Apostle comments in his first letter to the Corinthians that "the world as we know it is passing away" (7:31). Yes, this universe which we know is passing away and a new creation is ongoing.

A new kind of body has been introduced into this world, the resurrected body of Jesus. And that is the kind of body that we will have. The process of putting on this body has already begun, in Jesus completely and in us, partially. Paul in his second letter writes, "This means that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old order has passed away; now all is new!" (5:17)

Yes, the new creation is being formed now. The second creation has already begun. Jesus triumphantly declares, “See, I make all things new!” (Revelation 21:5). 

Actually Jesus is described as the first fruits of this second creation. We find this is the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians. He says, “Just as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will come to life again, but each one in proper order: Christ the first fruits and then, at his coming, all those who belong to him. (15:22-23).

And we who belong to him, who are now being transformed into his image in the second creation, rejoice. This is the evident in our first reading. The first Christians “ate their meals with exultation and sincerity of heart, praising God and enjoying favor with all the people.”

Our second reading is very explicit on this rejoicing. Peter tells even us several centuries after he wrote this letter, “Although you have not seen him you love him;

even though you do not see him now yet believe in him, you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, as you attain the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

That is the real reason why we rejoice during this Easter season. Jesus is risen! Yes, but this also means that we are being raised with him unto a completely new life. Our souls are saved, as Peter says.

Let us pray thanking God for raising Jesus from the dead and for raising us from our old life. We bow our heads.

Father God, you raised your son Jesus from the grave and started the second creation in him. By means of this you also begin to transform our life to be like his. Thank you for giving the resurrected body to your son Jesus. Thank you also for transforming our lives together with him. By the power of the Holy Spirit we respond to your creative action in our life. Amen.

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Note for the readers:

The Mass readings are from the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE). This is where our Lectionary gets the readings.

NAB stands for New American Bible (before it was revised). This is the translation I use. Unless otherwise stated the text I use is from this translation.

AV stands for Authorized Version of the Bible. It is more commonly referred to as the King James Bible. It is the version most used in English literature, therefore it is the one known more by the English speaking world.

Easter Sunday Cycle A

Welcome to read homilies for the Sundays of the year. These are sample homilies which you can read with devotion. You may use them in your own homilies without asking my permission. You may also change or edit these to fit them to your audience. A unique quality of these homilies is that they are Christ-filled. From beginning to end they present to us some aspect of Jesus so that beholding his glory we “are being transformed from glory to glory into his very image” (2 Corinthians 3:18 NAB).

Special Love

One of the obvious things we notice after the Lord was resurrected is that he was no longer seen by anybody as when he was not yet resurrected. Before Jesus was resurrected, that is, up to the time he died and was buried, anybody could see him. The disciples saw him, the soldiers saw him, the chief priests who condemned him to die saw him, the multitudes saw him. But after his resurrection Jesus was seen only by those to whom he wanted to be seen.

Our Gospel reading tells us that on the first day of the week early in the morning three persons went to the grave of Jesus: Mary of Magdala, Peter and John. They no longer saw Jesus in his tomb. In the later part of the Gospel which is not part of our reading we read that these very soon saw Jesus.

Of these three persons one is described as the disciple whom Jesus loved. Almost all scholars agree that this disciple was John the writer of this Gospel. This is not the only instance when John describes himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved. There are four other instances where John describes himself as the disciple whom Jesus loves. So there are five instances in all. The first is John chapter 13 where he describes himself as reclining close to Jesus (23). The second is in chapter 19 where John describes himself with the mother of Jesus at the foot of the cross. Then we have the passage in our Gospel reading. The fourth instance is in chapter 21 where John cried to Peter "It is the Lord" when he saw Jesus on the shore (7). And the fifth and final one is still in this chapter where he described himself as following Jesus and Peter (20).

Five times John identified himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved.

Does this mean that Jesus did not love the other disciples? He certainly did. John's description of himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved only tells us that John felt that he was the object of Jesus' special love, the kind of love which he described Jesus had towards the sisters Mary and Martha and their brother Lazarus.

John wrote, "Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus very much" (11:5).

Why did Jesus love them in a special way?

Before we answer this question we cite another incident where this time it was not John who noticed that Jesus loved someone in a special way. This was written by Mark. Presumably because Mark was Peter's disciple it was Peter who told Mark that Jesus loved this person in a special way.

This was the incident when someone came to Jesus to ask him what he must do to share in everlasting life. Jesus told him to observe the commandments. To which the man replied that he had kept all these commandments since his childhood. Then Mark wrote, "Then Jesus looked at him with love and told him" to sell what he had and to follow him. Jesus loved this man in a special way and Peter observed this and handed down this information to Mark who wrote the Gospel.

Now we go back to our question: Why did Jesus love certain persons with a special kind of love?

The cynic may answer, "We do not know, ask Jesus why he does so."

Our experience gives us the answer to this question. Do we not feel a special love for certain persons? If this happens to us, this could happen to Jesus who was a full human being like ourselves.

Even today Jesus still has a special love for certain persons.

How do we know that he has a special love for certain persons? I suggest three signs that tell us Jesus has a special love for a particular person. And these sings apply even today.

The first is found in Psalm 127:2. This verse says, “It is vain for you to rise early, or put off your rest, you that eat hard-earned bread, for he gives to his beloved in sleep.” The commentary on this in our New American Bible says, “Our Lord taught the same truth, that God’s blessings come to those who do not worry but trust in his loving providence.” Those loved by Jesus in a special way are enveloped by his loving providence. Their needs are provided for in providential ways, as though God is visibly there giving them what they need on time. Some of you can identify with this situation. You have experienced instances when God, although invisible, was there to give you what you needed at a particular time, such as food for the table, the money for the tuition fee of your child, or the amount for the hospital bill, etc.

The second sign is found in two psalms, Psalm 60:7 and 108:7. These two verses say the same thing word for word in our translation, “That your loved ones may escape; help us by your right hand, and answer us!” Those who are specially loved by Jesus escape calamities or sudden accidents. Again some of you can identify with this situation. You are prevented from riding a plane or a bus which later on you found out met an accident. Tradition tells us that of the twelve Apostles only John the specially loved by Jesus escaped a martyr’s death. Even when he was thrown into a cauldron of oil he escaped unhurt.

The third sign that a person is loved by Jesus in a special way I find in the first book of Samuel, chapter 16. The prophet Samuel and Jesse were looking for the person whom God chose as the next king of Israel. None of the sons of Jesse who were present qualified. Jesse called for his youngest son who was tending the sheep. When he appeared, the Holy Spirit remarked, “He was ruddy, a youth handsome to behold and making a splendid appearance” (12). This was God’s favorite, David, a man after God’s heart, we are told in another part of Scripture (Acts 13:22). The third sign is that there is a comeliness, an attractive quality in the person beloved in a special way by Jesus. Again many of you can identify with this sign. You have seen people who have a certain attractive quality in them. They may not be physically beautiful, but there is a comeliness in them very difficult to describe. They may be disabled or differently abled physically, even with no hands but their face shows a comeliness not of this world. They are specially loved by Jesus.

We here are all specially loved by Jesus. The proof that we are specially loved is not only by these three signs. We are loved specially because of all the persons in the world it is us with whom he shares his resurrected life. Jesus is risen, Alleluiah! He has resurrected, Alleluiah! And it is this resurrected life that he shares with us. We too are special in his eyes. In baptism he poured his resurrected life on us, in addition to our natural life given to us by him also through our parents.

Our second reading tells us this plainly. Paul tells us, “If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory.”

We have been raised with Christ because his resurrected life is in us. Christ is seated at the right hand of God. We are there in Christ. We have already died, and in a sense we are already resurrected. Our bodies are not visible as resurrected, but our spirits are living the life of resurrected Jesus. That is why Paul says, our resurrected life is hidden. It is not yet seen by all. But as the first reading tells us this is visible “not to all the people, but to us,the witnesses chosen by God in advance”. We possess these three signs I have spoken of a while ago. We are providentially cared for by God himself, we are preserved from all dangers, and we exhibit a comeliness in our manners. We are indeed specially loved by Jesus. He shares his very own resurrected life with us. This is the real cause of our rejoicing today.

Let us pray with bowed heads. Lord Jesus, thank you for resurrecting. Thank you for sharing your resurrected life with us. Thank you for making us your special friends, as you made John the Apostle your special friend. Help us to make this known to others to whom you have given the grace of baptism so that they too can enjoy the life you give. Amen.

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Note for the readers:

The Mass readings are from the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE). This is where our Lectionary gets the readings.

NAB stands for New American Bible (before it was revised). This is the translation I use. Unless otherwise stated the text I use is from this translation.

AV stands for Authorized Version of the Bible. It is more commonly referred to as the King James Bible. It is the version most used in English literature, therefore it is the one known more by the English speaking world.

Palm Sunday Cycle A

Welcome to read homilies for the Sundays of the year. These are sample homilies which you can read with devotion. You may use them in your own homilies without asking my permission. You may also change or edit these to fit them to your audience. A unique quality of these homilies is that they are Christ-filled. From beginning to end they present to us some aspect of Jesus so that beholding his glory we “are being transformed from glory to glory into his very image” (2 Corinthians 3:18 NAB).

Other Than INRI

We are familiar with INRI, the four letters on top of our crucifix. We learned during our catechism that the letters stand for Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews. The I stands for J in the English alphabet. In the original Greek it stands first for Iesous, that is Jesus, and the second I stands for Iudaiown, of the Jews.

As we grew we learned that this INRI was the crime ascribed to Jesus for which he was sentenced to death by crucifixion. In other words according to Pilate, the Roman governor who condemned him to death by crucifixion, this was the crime which Jesus committed which deserved the punishment of crucifixion. His crime was that he was the king of the Jews. The chief priests of the Jews wanted this to be changed to "This man claimed to be King of the Jews" (John 19:21-22) but Pilate told them, "What I have written, I have written."

But if we read carefully the Gospel reading for today which is the narrative of the passion of Jesus according to Saint Matthew we notice that according to the High Priest the crime which Jesus committed was not that he said that he was the king of the Jews. According to the High Priest the crime of Jesus was claiming that he was the son of man.

Notice the flow of Matthew's narrative in the trial of Jesus before Caiaphas, the High Priest.

Our Gospel reads "Then the high priest said to him, "I order you to tell us under oath before the living God whether you are the Christ, the Son of God." Jesus said to him in reply, "You have said so. But I tell you: From now on you will see 'the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power' and 'coming on the clouds of heaven.'" Then the high priest tore his robes and said, "He has blasphemed! What further need have we of witnesses? You have now heard the blasphemy; what is your opinion?" They said in reply, "He deserves to die!"

According to the high priest Jesus had committed blasphemy for answering affirmatively to his question whether he was the son of God and claiming to be the son of man and for this crime of blasphemy he deserved to die.

That is a very strange crime indeed, the crime of answering that he was the son of God and claiming to be the son of man.

Our reading tells us something of this son of man, why it was blasphemy to claim to be such. It was blasphemy because Jesus claimed to be the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power' and 'coming on the clouds of heaven.'" Jesus used the scriptural passage of Daniel 7:13-14 to tell the High Priest what he meant by this phrase “son of man”.

The high priest reacted violently, tearing his garments, because he knew Jesus was claiming to be the king who would receive dominion, glory, and kingship; nations and peoples of every language would serve him, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not be taken away, and his kingship will not be destroyed.

Caiaphas could not imagine that this man bound and a prisoner before him was in fact the ruler of this world. It was too much for him.

So today let us reflect on this phrase “son of man” claiming which for the high priest was Jesus' crime which deserved the sentence of death.

The phrase son of man was Jesus' favorite title. He most often referred to himself as the son of man. Bible scholars count 81 times when Jesus used this title referring to himself. In Matthew it occurs over 30 times, in Mark 15 times, in Luke 25 times, and in John a dozen times. It is always in the mouth of Jesus Himself that it occurs, except once, when the bystanders ask what He means by the title (John 12:34). Outside the Gospels, it occurs only once in Acts, in Stephen's speech (Acts 7:56), and twice in the Book of Revelation (1:13; 14:14).

What Jesus meant by this phrase is very clear in his reply to Caiaphas as recorded in our Gospel reading. Some scholars say that the phrase “son of man” merely means that Jesus was referring to himself as a human being, since man means a human being. But Jesus’ reply to the high priest leaves no doubt as to what Jesus meant by his use of this phrase. In his reply he quoted Daniel 7:13 and the sense of verse 14. These verses read, “As the visions during the night continued, I (Daniel) saw One like a son of man coming, on the clouds of heaven; When he reached the Ancient One and was presented before him, He received dominion, glory, and kingship; nations and peoples of every language serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not be taken away, his kingship shall not be destroyed.”

Caiaphas knew these verses. He knew that it was only God who could give such immense power to a man to govern this world forever and ever. For Jesus to claim that this power was given to him by God was blasphemy, arrogating to oneself a power which only God can give.

Caiaphas should have written above the head of Jesus on the cross, “This man committed blasphemy.” But he did not. Instead he let Pilate write those words, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”

But the question now arises: Why was this Jesus’ favorite designation of himself? Why did he use this title for himself most often among all the others?

To answer this question we have a statement from Wallace Wattles, a business man who was a convert to socialism, who gave a lecture entitled “Jesus: The Man and His Work” at the Auditorium, Cincinnati, November 11, 1905.

His explanation of this phrase “son of man” is that Jesus’ use of this phrase indicated that he was on the side of all humanity against the abuses committed by people against it, whether these people are religious, political or otherwise.

In other words according to Wattles Jesus chose this title “son of man” because he stood for the welfare of every man, every human being.

It is strange that I have not found a professional Biblical scholar who espouses this view, that Jesus called himself son of man because he came to save humanity from the evils of the powers that were then subjugating the peoples of his day.

My reflection is that Jesus used this phrase most often among the other titles, such as son of David or even son of God, because this title clearly identified him as the expected Messiah, the king expected by the Jews to succeed David whose kingdom would have no end.

It also shows that Jesus was most conscious of himself as the expected Messiah. He knew that his coming passion and death would pave the way for the realization of this role in his life.

When Jesus says that he is 'the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power' he meant that the rule and authority over this whole of creation was given to him. This is what is meant when we profess in our Apostles’ Creed, “and sits at the right hand of God”. He does not only sit there on the right hand of the Father as we see in some pictures of the Trinity. This phrase sitting at the right hand of God means that all dominion over all creation is given to Jesus and he actually is the one ruling this world. And his rule is effective and it cannot be overturned by any other force, whether physical or spiritual.

Jesus is in control of our world. During this Lenten season we reflect on the manner how this rule and authority was given to Jesus. It was through his obedience to God, obedience even to the sufferings and death he had to endure.

Our first reading in the Mass tells us about this obedience. Isaiah speaks for Jesus, “Morning after morning he opens my ear that I may hear; and I have not rebelled,

have not turned back. I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting.”

Our second reading is most explicit on how Jesus became the actual ruler and king of the whole creation. “Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Perhaps an artist will someday paint a crucifix with another inscription on top of his or her picture. This inscription will not read INRI but SOM for “son of man”, Jesus favorite title, for which he was condemned by the Jewish leaders to die. 

Let us pray as we bow our heads. Jesus, you are indeed the son of man. This title was your favorite. Impress on our minds this title so that we will not forget that in everything we think, say or do you are in control, always. Amen.

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Note for the readers:

The Mass readings are from the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE). This is where our Lectionary gets the readings.

NAB stands for New American Bible (before it was revised). This is the translation I use. Unless otherwise stated the text I use is from this translation.

AV stands for Authorized Version of the Bible. It is more commonly referred to as the King James Bible. It is the version most used in English literature, therefore it is the one known more by the English speaking world.

Fifth Sunday of Lent Cycle A

Welcome to read homilies for the Sundays of the year. These are sample homilies which you can read with devotion. You may use them in your own homilies without asking my permission. You may also change or edit these to fit them to your audience. A unique quality of these homilies is that they are Christ-filled. From beginning to end they present to us some aspect of Jesus so that beholding his glory we “are being transformed from glory to glory into his very image” (2 Corinthians 3:18 NAB).

The Shortest Verse

Do you know what is the shortest verse in the Bible? In the English translation the shortest verse in the whole Bible is in our Gospel reading today. We heard the reading of this shortest verse: "And Jesus wept." In other English translations there are only two words here, "Jesus wept." In the original Greek there are three words, Edakrusen ho Jesus.

We do not know if the man who divided the books of the Bible into verses knew the significance of what he did here, putting only these two words in one verse. This man was Robert Estienne (also known as Robertus Stephanus in Latin) who divided the Greek New Testament into verses in 1551. Prior to this Archbishop Stephen Langton divided the Bible into chapters in the early thirteenth century. Before these two persons there were no chapters and verses in the books of the Bible.

Robert Estienne had no idea that this verse would be called the shortest verse in the Bible and would cause questions in the minds of many scholars of all churches in the world. One commentator wrote that this shortest verse in Scripture becomes the most powerful when seen in the light of both the deity and humanity of our Lord.

The questions arose because these students of the Bible asked, Why? Why did Jesus weep?

I searched for the answers why Jesus wept and I found out 38 reasons given by commentators, preachers, writers, why Jesus wept. Trimming down these reasons because many were similar I came up with twenty four reasons why Jesus wept. The sources of these reasons are diverse. Time does not allow us to mention these sources. There is only one source which I will mention later on because his reason seems to be the one very close to the one we will discuss here as the real reason why Jesus wept.

Here they are. I do not comment about these reasons whether they are good or bad, valid or not at all. One of these reasons is funny.

The first answer to the question why Jesus wept is that we have no way of knowing why Jesus wept. We may never get to the bottom of the infinite meaning in these two words: Jesus wept. Why not ask Jesus with humility why he wept?

The second is because Jesus was reminded that sin destroys, sin kills, sin stinks.

The third reason listed is because of the unbelief that surrounded Him. He had given a promise that Lazarus would rise, but no one embraced or believed it. On the contrary, they were all mourning.

The fourth is because He knew He was going to pull Lazarus out of Paradise and bring him back to this planet. Poor Lazarus!

The fifth reason is because, although He knew everything would turn out well eventually, those around Him were hurting presently.

The sixth reason is that Jesus was still saddened by death. Death is always tragic, life is always precious. Since Jesus is truly compassionate, he must weep for Lazarus as we all weep for the dead.

Seventh, Jesus wept because he was like us in all things but sin. Humans cry at the loss of a loved one. Jesus loved Lazarus. He cried over the loss of Lazarus.

Eighth, Jesus was feeling the pain experienced by those around him who had not only seen Lazarus slowly die, but had also suffered the frustration of Jesus not being there to cure him.

Ninth, Jesus wept because of Mary and Martha's unbelief.

Tenth, Jesus may have wept for the death of Lazarus just as we too weep, even though we believe in eternal life.

Eleventh, Jesus was just being Jesus, our beloved and gentle, sensitive and kind Brother.

Twelfth, Jesus wept because he saw Mary and the others weeping.

Thirteenth, Jesus wept because the audience needed to know that he loved Lazarus.

Fourteenth, Jesus wept to illustrate the incredible empathy that he had for those who were in emotional distress.

Fifteenth, Jesus’ tears are not so much from empathy or sorrow as they are from frustration at lack of faith of the people around him.

Sixteenth, a large portion of everyone involved—especially Mary and a chunk of the crowd—declared that Jesus made the wrong move by not curing Lazarus. This hurt Jesus. It made him mad and, I am sure, also made him sad.

Seventeenth, Jesus wept to show the people that He was not just a prophet, but God who raises people up from the grave, the weeping prophet Jeremiah prophesied about. That is why Jesus wept and not because He felt sad about Mary and Martha feeling sorrow but to show them he was the weeping prophet.

Eighteenth, Jesus wept because he loved them (Martha and Mary) and felt their pain. When you love someone you share in their grief.

The nineteenth in our list is given by Abdul Abu. He says that the reason why Jesus wept was because of the spiritual destruction awaiting humanity that we couldn’t see with our physical eyes which is judgment.

Twentieth, Jesus wept because human cry is one of the sacred signs that the human soul is divine.

Twenty first, Jesus wept to give us a good example to follow by weeping with those weeping, thereby identifying with His people.

Twenty second, he wept because he was not being recognized as the Resurrection and the Life and only as a prophet. 

Twenty third, because of the cost of redemption, his father’s wrath on him. Lazarus' death showed that people had to be redeemed but the cost of this was that his own Father would be angry at him on the cross.

And the last one in our list, twenty four, Jesus wept because this raising would be the cause of his own death. When the religious leaders heard about this miracle they resolved all the more to kill Jesus.

Actually the reason why Jesus wept is very clear for us to see. This reason is in the word which is repeated in our Gospel reading, both in the two instances before Jesus weeps. That word is "perturbed".

The first time this word is mentioned is in this passage: "When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Sir, come and see." And Jesus wept.".

This word "perturbed" is repeated in this passage, just before Jesus commanded Lazarus to come out of the tomb. "So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay across it."

This word "perturbed" is the key to understanding why Jesus wept on this occasion. The original word used here comes from the Greek embrimaomai which in this context means "to be moved with anger". Simply put, Jesus was terribly angry. This anger led him to weep and groan.

So the proper question to ask is, What led Jesus to be so terribly angry that he wept?

And the simple answer is that he was terribly angry with the Jews, especially the Jewish authorities. He was angry because they were so blind, terribly blind.

Any normal person would recognize that this miracle, raising a person dead for four days already, was a work of God and would lead him to recognize the doer of this miracle as a servant of God. But the Jewish authorities reacted otherwise. They saw Jesus as the threat to their position of power because he could raise a dead man to life again. And they wanted to kill him.

Jesus was mad at the people, at their hardness of heart. He also was sad about what would happen to them because of the result of what they were to do to him. Abdul Abu gave the right reason. Listen to him. Jesus wept because of the spiritual destruction awaiting humanity that we couldn’t see with our physical eyes which is judgment. This spiritual destruction was caused by unbelief when he was doing something very plain to prove he was, at least, a servant of God, if not the Messiah they were eagerly waiting for for four centuries.

Jesus is very mad at us, very angry at us when he gives us all the helps to recognize him in the sacraments, in the altar, in the need of our neighbor, in the problems of our society and yet we turn a deaf ear to him and instead crucify him again.

Our first reading tells us when this anger of Jesus will end. It will end when people will be raised from their old, disobedient ways to a new life created by God's spirit. The prophet Ezekiel says that the LORD will open their graves and raise them up and he will put his spirit in them so that they will act according to his spirit and not according to their stubborn ways.

The second reading tells us how this is done. Paul the Apostle says that the Spirit of God dwells in them.

Lent is a time of reflecting upon this righteous anger of Jesus. He is angry at our disbelief of him. This causes him to weep for us, for our destruction if we do not turn our hearts around and believe in him completely for everything in our life.

There is a song worth pondering during this season. The title of this song is simply “He”. The last lines sing, Though it makes him sad to see the way we live he’ll always say I forgive.” Yes, Jesus forgives, even if he has to weep because of our hardness of heart.

Let us pray as we bow our heads. Lord Jesus, you wept at the occasion of Lazarus’ death because you were so angry at the Jewish authorities who did not believe in you. Put a new spirit in us, as prophesied in our first reading, so that we would live by your spirit and we would no longer cause you pain. Amen.

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Note for the readers:

The Mass readings are from the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE). This is where our Lectionary gets the readings.

NAB stands for New American Bible (before it was revised). This is the translation I use. Unless otherwise stated the text I use is from this translation.

AV stands for Authorized Version of the Bible. It is more commonly referred to as the King James Bible. It is the version most used in English literature, therefore it is the one known more by the English speaking world.