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).
Abundance Beyond Our Wildest
Dreams
Some
details are so minor that we almost do not notice them or we are not fully
aware of what they are. Like the period or dot at the end of a sentence. In
1980 a Filipino singing group called ASIN or Salt of the Earth produced a song
entitled Ang Tuldok, which in English, is The Period. It is a song about the
period at the end of a sentence. Here are some lines translated into English from
that song: The period has a story and meaning. . . . All things came from a period
and if you observe are returning to it.
Yes,
the period is important. Without the period we would not be able to get the
proper meaning of a passage. It is an important and essential detail in
writing.
In
our Gospel reading today there is a detail that is most important for our
Christian life. It is a detail that is greater than the punctuation mark period
and it makes a greater impact on our life if we understand its meaning. This
detail will make us understand better a third quality of the resurrected body
of Jesus.
To
make a very brief review of the first two qualities of the resurrected body
which we saw in our past homilies during Easter Sundays, the first is that the resurrected
body of Jesus is the first object in the new creation of God. The second is
that the resurrected body of Jesus can become visible and invisible as Jesus
wished it to be. And now we go to the third quality of Jesus' resurrected body.
The
detail I am referring to is the last word in our Gospel reading, the word
"abundantly". The full sentence reads, "A thief comes only to
steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have
it more abundantly."
In
our English version the last two words are in the comparative degree of the
adverb "abundantly". It is comparative because of the word
"more". In the original Greek it is not in a comparative degree. It
is not even an adverb. It is a simple adjective. That word in the original
Greek is "perisson". Its meaning is "more than sufficient",
"over and above", "abundant", "out of the
common", "pre-eminent", "superior". The clause has
this literal translation: "I came that they might have life and they might
have abundant." The context gives
us the meaning of this sentence, Jesus came that we, his sheep, might have life
and might have an abundance of it.
Now
the question we can ask is, Why is this word “perisson” or “abundant” important
for us? It is important because it tells us what kind of life Jesus was
referring to. He said that he came that we might have life. Well, we as human
beings have already our human life when he came. Certainly therefore Jesus did
not mean that he came in order to give us human life because we have this kind
of life already. The kind of life Jesus was referring to was a life of
abundance, a life "more than sufficient", "over and above"
our human life, "abundant", "out of the common" life, a
"pre-eminent" life, "superior" to our human life.
And
this is the life that Jesus had after his resurrection. His life was no longer
a mere human life, it was a life superior to his life before his resurrection.
There
is an axiom in philosophy which is common sense. In Latin it sounds, Nemo dat
quid non habet. Literally translated it sounds, No one gives what he does not
have. Or a better translation is, You cannot give what you do not have.
Jesus
cannot give this superior kind of life to us if he does not have it. He
obtained this superior kind of life by his resurrection. His body now was
superior to his former non-resurrected body.
Why
was the resurrected body of Jesus superior to his former non-resurrected body?
It was superior because now it was no longer subject to pain and decay. It was
a glorified body. It fully possessed the abundant life that Jesus promised for
us.
And
having obtained this superior kind of life he gives it to us. It is the life of
a resurrected body. This is the life Jesus gives us. And he is giving it to us
now, while we are still on this earth.
John
tells us in his letter, "See what love the Father has bestowed on us in
letting us be called children of God! Yet that is what we are. The reason the
world does not recognize us is that it never recognized the Son. Dearly
beloved, we are God's children now; what we shall later be has not yet come to
light. We know that when it comes to light we shall be like him" (1 John
3:1-2). We are God’s children now, as divine as God is, but we do not appear as
such.
Yes,
we are God's children now, with the resurrected life of Jesus but it does not
appear that we are so. When we shall appear as God's children we shall be like
Jesus with his resurrected life.
This
is the gift of the Holy Spirit referred to in our first reading. And Peter says
that this gift is for all those far off whomever the Lord our God will call.
This is the gift of the new life, a resurrected life, a life superior to our
natural life now, a truly abundant, superior kind of life.
Our
Responsorial Psalm is appropriately the Psalm about the Good Shepherd since
today is Good Shepherd Sunday. Here is described what Jesus does for us in this
new life we have with him.
The
LORD is our shepherd; we shall not want, because we have Jesus’ own resurrected
abundant life.
In
verdant pastures he gives us repose;
beside
restful waters he leads us;
he
refreshes our souls with his ever abiding Spirit.
He
guides us in right paths for his name's sake.
Even
though we walk in the dark valley
we
fear no evil; for Jesus is at our side.
With
his rod and staff that give us courage.
He
spreads the table before us in the sight of our foes, supplying us with
abundant heavenly food;
He
anoints our head with oil;
our
cup overflows.
Only
goodness and kindness follow us all the days of our life;
and
we shall dwell in the house of the LORD for years to come.
What
a beautiful assurance this Psalm gives us. It describes what Jesus in his
resurrected, exalted life does for us.
Our
second reading tells us the sad reality of our present life. We suffer now for
doing what is good. But Peter tells us in his letter to be patient. Because
Christ also suffered for us. leaving us an example that we should follow in his
footsteps. He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth. When he
was insulted, he returned no insult; when he suffered, he did not threaten;
instead, he handed himself over to the one who judges justly. He himself bore
our sins in his body upon the cross, so that, free from sin, we might live for
righteousness. By his wounds we have been healed. For we had gone astray like
sheep, but we have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of our souls. And
now that we have returned Jesus gives us the best, a foretaste of the
resurrected life through his own resurrected life in us.
What
a comforting thought! In the midst of our suffering, of our pains, of our
discomfort, of our lack of many things, Jesus is there as our shepherd and
guardian. And because he is already risen he is giving us his own risen life so
that we are filled with joy.
This
is the reality of our Christian life. As Psalm 23 tells us, Only goodness and
kindness follow us all the days of our life; and we shall dwell in the house of
the LORD for years to come.
Paul
the Apostle has a statement which provides us a glimpse of the abundance in
stored for us. He said, quoting some words from Isaiah the Prophet,
“Eye
has not seen, ear has not heard,
nor
has it so much as dawned on man
what
God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).
What
God has prepared for us is a body like the resurrected body of Jesus which has wondrous
capabilities, abundant in all possibilities which we cannot even imagine now. We
like to look at circuses which display the wonderful movements of the human
body, we gaze with wonder at the beautiful bodies displayed in magazines, we are
enthralled at the sight of bodies flying in space or diving into the ocean
depths. All these bodies we see will sooner or later die and be decayed. But
the resurrected body God gives us which has the same qualities as the
resurrected body of Jesus will never die, never decay. It will go on forever with
abundant capabilities beyond our wildest dreams.
Let
us pray. We bow our heads.
Father
God, by raising Jesus our Good Shepherd from the grave you gave him a new body
resplendent with possibilities which only you know. And the same kind of body
Jesus is giving us. Thank you for this wonderful gift of your Spirit. We glorify
you now and forever. Amen.
- - - - - - - - - -
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment