{"id":1023,"date":"2018-04-19T15:23:06","date_gmt":"2018-04-19T15:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/?p=1023"},"modified":"2018-04-19T15:23:06","modified_gmt":"2018-04-19T15:23:06","slug":"homily-easter-season-week-03-04-yr-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/19\/homily-easter-season-week-03-04-yr-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 03 04 – Yr II"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Being Missionary Disciples<\/em><\/p>\n

(Acts 8:26-40; Ps 66; Jn 6:44-51)<\/p>\n

*********************************************<\/p>\n

Do you see yourself as a missionary disciple? That is what Pope Francis challenges us to be constantly.<\/p>\n

In today\u2019s first reading, Philip can serve as a model for us. His missionary activity presents four key elements: faith in Jesus Christ; attentiveness to the Holy Spirit, knowledge of scripture, and the courage to proclaim the good news of Jesus risen from the dead.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch<\/p><\/div>\n

In his challenge to be missionary disciples, Pope Francis insists the first step is a personal encounter with Jesus Christ. He even tells seminarians to postpone their ordination if Jesus is not the center of their lives.<\/p>\n

Jesus for me over the years has come to be expressed in my morning prayer of the Anawim, those who know they need God, as follows: \u201cLord Jesus Christ, totally receptive to the Father\u2019s love; humble, obedient, pure and faithful in response to that love; Son of God, Son of Man, Son of David; Savior, Redeemer, Word made flesh; sinless one, free from addiction, the Way, the Truth, the Life; the resurrection, suffering servant, crucified Messiah, sacrificial victim, risen Lord, victorious king.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next element for Philip was attentiveness to the Holy Spirit. When I was visiting years back on First Nations communities as a missionary Oblate priest, I would travel to the community praying to the Holy Spirit to guide me to the houses that I should visit, and twice that landed me right into the middle of couples having heated fights that I ended up refereeing to a peaceful conclusion.<\/p>\n

Over the years, the Holy Spirit for me has come to be expressed in that same Prayer of the Anawim as follows: \u201cHoly Spirit, Lord and giver of life, bond of love between the Father and the Son, life-giving creative Spirit, agent of forgiveness, giver of gifts, source of all life and love, exousia, dynamis, pneuma of the Father.\u201d<\/p>\n

The third element that Philip portrayed was knowledge of the scriptures. When the Ethiopian questioned him about a passage in the prophet Isaiah, Philip had no hesitation climbing aboard and explaining to him all the prophecies that were about Jesus, much as Jesus himself did to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. We need to continue to familiarize ourselves with the bible and the Word of God so that we also can connect scripture to the reality of everyday life.<\/p>\n

The last element Philip demonstrated was the courage to proclaim the good news, not just to the Ethiopian, but also to \u201call the towns until he came to Caeserea.\u201d That is perhaps the most challenging element for us \u2013having the courage to share our knowledge of scripture and our experience of Jesus Christ with others.<\/p>\n

I personally try to do that especially through the presentations on addictions awareness that integrate Christian, 12 Step and Indigenous spirituality, and reveal the Exodus Journey and Paschal Mystery Experience as central to the 12 Step program. I also find that biblical art is very effective in proclaiming the good news.<\/p>\n

One example is Esther, who saw herself as Peter in a painting about the washing of the feet, both resisting and acquiescing. Stunned, she realized that she wanted to heal a relationship in her life but was afraid to do so. Overnight, she morphed into Jesus in that painting, realizing now she had to go ahead and wash that person\u2019s feet \u2013 which for her meant to write her a letter trying to forgive her.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Ethiopian eunuch symbolizes God\u2019s desire, I believe, for the world\u2019s religions. He believed in the God of the Jewish people and had worshipped in the temple, which involved animal sacrifice, kept far from the Holy of Holies by a great curtain. His openness to understand the prophecies about a suffering servant of God led him to faith in Jesus as that suffering servant who fulfilled all the prophecies about himself in the Old Testament. His whole belief system came to full maturity \u2013 now instead of offering animal sacrifice to a distant God, he had a personal intimate relationship with God who was Father, Son and Holy Spirit dwelling within him. No wonder he went on his way rejoicing after Philip was snatched away by the Spirit!<\/p>\n

The Eucharist is a great act of faith, and our own encounter with the Risen Lord, through his Word, and his Body and Blood. Let us pray as we celebrate that our personal experience of Jesus may grow stronger, our attentiveness to the Spirit be keener, our knowledge of scripture continue to deepen and our courage to go out and proclaim the good news become like Philip\u2019s.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Being Missionary Disciples (Acts 8:26-40; Ps 66; Jn 6:44-51) ********************************************* Do you see yourself as a missionary disciple? That is what Pope Francis challenges us to be constantly. In today\u2019s first reading, Philip can serve as a model for us. His missionary activity presents four key elements: faith in Jesus Christ; attentiveness to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-easter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1023"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1026,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1023\/revisions\/1026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}