5th Sunday of Easter
Fr. Peter Robinson
Preached: April 28, 2024
This Tuesday past, our First Reading at Mass was from Acts 11 (19-26). There, we read these critical words: “Those who had escaped during the persecution that happened [in Jerusalem] … travelled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, but they usually proclaimed the message only to Jews. Some of them, however, … went to Antioch [in today’s Turkey] where they started preaching to the Greeks … and a great number believed and were converted to the Lord.”
And at that point in the Book of Acts, the gospel jumped into the non-Jewish world, which includes me … and maybe all of you. Up till then, you see, Jesus-followers were a sub-section in Judaism. They were a small sect, who accepted that Jesus of Nazareth was the long-awaited Messiah.
However, by the mid-first century AD, the lines in Judaism between those who accepted Jesus as Messiah, and those who did not, became ever starker. Thus, persecution began: Jesus-followers were ejected from synagogues, and sometimes were killed.
Yet an amazing thing happened — the Good News of Jesus then jumped to the non-Jewish world; first, to the Greek-speaking, eastern side of the Roman Empire; and then to the Latin-speaking side in the west — which is why we are in the Roman Catholic Church.
Who would be the premiere missionary as the gospel spread to us non-Jews? St. Paul. In today’s Reading, Paul has already received his vision of the Risen Christ. He has already joined the followers of Jesus, being baptized at the city of Damascus, in Syria. Then, according to Paul’s letters, he went off to Arabia for three years (perhaps to live in a desert setting). And then he went to Jerusalem. Paul’s fearless proclamation of the gospel message, both in Damascus and in Jerusalem, is a characteristic of the work of those early missionaries.
Now, we ought not to be surprised by this. We have already come across such fearless proclamation of the Jesus-message by St. Peter, when he stood before the Jewish authorities in Jerusalem. Even at the end of the Book of Acts, we see Paul proclaiming the message from prison in Rome.
Here then is a very important question: How are we to spread the gospel of Jesus, fearlessly today in Hamilton?
First, we are all called to live Catholic principles in our moral behaviour. Our Lord wants us to stand for the protection of life; for the rights of the poor and the disadvantaged; to fearlessly face the issues of justice, war and peace; to live pure lives in the sexual dimension.
Secondly, we are called to tell, to chat, the gospel of Jesus with those we meet through the week. In the Alpha Course which we offered in our parish this past autumn, we learned that telling someone about Jesus is as simple as 3 steps: 1) This is who I was; 2) This is how Jesus has been touching my life; 3) This is who I am becoming.
You see, you (sisters and brothers) have a story about Jesus from your life … that only you can tell.
