HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 06 04 – Year II
Singing A New Song:
Optional Memorial of St. Philip Neri
(Acts 18:1-8; Ps 98: Jn 16:16-20)
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Are you singing a new song?
The readings today invite us to sing a new song, with a chorus that could be: “Jesus is risen, the Spirit is given, we are forgiven!”
In the first reading, we see Paul doing what Paul constantly did right after his encounter with the Risen Lord that involved the transformation of his whole belief system and indeed his whole life. From that moment on, he did nothing else but travel the known world singing a new song: Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus is Risen Lord, the Spirit is given, we are forgiven!
According to Bishop Robert Barron, the role of the messiah was fourfold: to gather all the nations to himself; to restore the temple; to defeat the enemies of Israel, and to reign as Lord over all of creation.
Paul realized that Jesus fulfilled all these roles, so he truly was the long-awaited Messiah: Jesus gathered all nations to himself, as people came from everywhere to him, rather than to the Temple. Jesus restored the Temple in his own body that he called the new Temple, raising it up again by his resurrection after it had been destroyed by the crucifixion. Jesus also overcame the real enemy of Israel, sin, suffering and death, through his resurrection. And now Jesus is reigning as Risen Lord over all of creation, through the power of his Spirit.
It is the gift of that same Spirit that would turn the apostles’ hearts from sadness to joy, as they realized the Spirit was the presence of Jesus within them and within the early Church – the Body of Christ. It is that Spirit at Pentecost that transformed them, like St. Paul. And as Richard Rohr likes to say, “Transformed people transform people!”
That Spirit would be both a witness to the resurrection of Jesus, and a teacher of this new way of life – a life of unconditional love, ability to forgive, redemptive joyful suffering, and profound hope in the future.
Examples of this new life abound: people sober for over 50 years; people who have forgiven their abusers from the heart; people who are willing to die for their faith all over the world; people who serve selflessly and who welcome strangers into their midst – whether from Syria or from Fort MacMurray. The French parish of St. Thomas d’Aquin put great effort into a fundraising concert to help bring two Syrian families to Edmonton – and did so with great joy and love. They were singing a new song.
Roger’s funeral at which I was invited to preside was all about singing a new song. There was sadness because of a great loss, but most of all, there was a sense of joyful celebration of his life, because of the way he sang that new song through his love for his family, friends, relatives, farming and sports, especially hockey.
Today the church invites us to honour St. Philip Neri, who was born in Florence in 1515 and educated by the Dominicans. Philip experienced conversion at the age of 18 and left for Rome, where he lived a life of seclusion and poverty. He studied philosophy and theology for three years before choosing to re-evangelize Rome, where Christianity had declined and was sadly, in need of reform. He spent his days talking to people about God’s love, and his nights in prayer, singing a new song. In 1548 he helped found a confraternity of laymen to minister to needy pilgrims, leading to the establishment of a now-famous Roman hospital, Santa Trinità dei Pellegrini. In 1551, his confessor insisted Philip be ordained. As a confessor himself, Philip Neri is the patron of home missions, supported in Canada through Catholic Missions In Canada.
So remember, “Jesus is risen, the Spirit is given, we are forgiven!” Let us be like St. Paul and St. Philip Neri, and respond to the invitation of today’s psalmist by “singing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvellous things.”
