Today, children at both our worship sites are receiving the gift of the Eucharist for the first time. This is a day of great rejoicing for them and for their families. It's also an opportunity for the whole community to deepen our understanding of this precious gift, and to grow in our appreciation for God's great love, shown in the Bread of Life that he confides to our care.
Listen to this week's homily, or read it for yourself:
Jesus’ love at work in us
There are twenty children in our parish who are celebrating today. They have reached another milestone and it is right that we should celebrate, because they will receive the precious gift of Jesus in the Eucharist for the first time today.
The Eucharist is one of those milestones that we call Sacraments, visible signs and moments of grace that mark our progress in life, and the deepening of our commitment to follow Jesus. When we were young children, our parents brought us to the Church and asked that we be baptised. In doing so, they introduced us to a Jesus, and since then he has been at work, loving us. As time passes, we learn about the important people mentioned in the bible: about Jesus and his miracles, about the others who were present, from whom he learned, and to whom he called with an invitation to follow him. Because of our baptism, each one of us is also a disciple, invited by Jesus to follow him, to learn from him. Some of us are able to answer this invitation quite readily. Others of us struggle at times but we answer as best we can.
The good thing is that there is room for all of us to gather around the table. Each time we come, Jesus provides food to satisfy our hunger, but the food that Jesus gives is not meant only to satisfy physical hunger. Jesus gives us food, and then asks us in turn to share it with others. In today’s gospel reading, he challenges us with the words If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Now we can understand this challenge in terms of literally keeping the commandments as they are passed down to us in the Old Testament, but I have a feeling that to do so would be to narrow the scope of Jesus challenge. Keep in mind that when he spoke these words, his disciples were listening intently, like we are today. They couldn’t understand why he was using such strange words, language usually reserved for those who know that their time is limited. They knew nothing of the events of his suffering and death that were to come, so of course they were concerned. We all would be.
Only after his death, and after they had encountered him in his risen form did they perhaps understand what he meant when he said The one who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me, and the one who loves me will be loved by my Father. In fact, it was this profound knowledge that the Father loved them that allowed the disciples to go out to the world and to tell others about Jesus. The first reading we heard today tells us about Phillip who traveled to the foreign land of Samaria to share the good news. Samaria was also the place where Jesus encountered the woman at the well, so I wonder whether she had begun to spread the good news even before Phillip arrived.
That’s the thing about this good news. Once you hear it, it grabs hold of you, it changes you, it makes you want to tell others about it, but how do we do that. The apostles began by telling others about the good things they themselves had encountered. Because these words are always spoken with gentleness and reverence, people then want to hear the story of Jesus, and once they are introduced to him, they’re hooked. They too want to do their part: to do good, to be his disciples.
A few months ago, we began working with a number of children in this parish, helping them to deepen their understanding about who Jesus is, how he calls us to share in the gift of his forgiveness, and how he invites us all to be his disciples. These young friends have learned about our practices of prayer, and about the special gift we receive each week, called the Eucharist. They have also learned that we do not receive this gift just so we can feel good about ourselves. Instead, this gift is given to us so that we can go out into the world to continue telling others about Jesus. We do this in all kinds of ways: helping those in need, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick, encouraging the lonely, and rejoicing with those who have already discovered the face of Jesus. Today, our friends will receive Jesus in the Sacrament of the Eucharist for the first time. With joy, we celebrate this special day with them, we pray for them, and we encourage them to continue every day to grow in love with our friend Jesus.
Listen to this week's homily, or read it for yourself:
Jesus’ love at work in us
There are twenty children in our parish who are celebrating today. They have reached another milestone and it is right that we should celebrate, because they will receive the precious gift of Jesus in the Eucharist for the first time today.
The Eucharist is one of those milestones that we call Sacraments, visible signs and moments of grace that mark our progress in life, and the deepening of our commitment to follow Jesus. When we were young children, our parents brought us to the Church and asked that we be baptised. In doing so, they introduced us to a Jesus, and since then he has been at work, loving us. As time passes, we learn about the important people mentioned in the bible: about Jesus and his miracles, about the others who were present, from whom he learned, and to whom he called with an invitation to follow him. Because of our baptism, each one of us is also a disciple, invited by Jesus to follow him, to learn from him. Some of us are able to answer this invitation quite readily. Others of us struggle at times but we answer as best we can.
The good thing is that there is room for all of us to gather around the table. Each time we come, Jesus provides food to satisfy our hunger, but the food that Jesus gives is not meant only to satisfy physical hunger. Jesus gives us food, and then asks us in turn to share it with others. In today’s gospel reading, he challenges us with the words If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Now we can understand this challenge in terms of literally keeping the commandments as they are passed down to us in the Old Testament, but I have a feeling that to do so would be to narrow the scope of Jesus challenge. Keep in mind that when he spoke these words, his disciples were listening intently, like we are today. They couldn’t understand why he was using such strange words, language usually reserved for those who know that their time is limited. They knew nothing of the events of his suffering and death that were to come, so of course they were concerned. We all would be.
Only after his death, and after they had encountered him in his risen form did they perhaps understand what he meant when he said The one who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me, and the one who loves me will be loved by my Father. In fact, it was this profound knowledge that the Father loved them that allowed the disciples to go out to the world and to tell others about Jesus. The first reading we heard today tells us about Phillip who traveled to the foreign land of Samaria to share the good news. Samaria was also the place where Jesus encountered the woman at the well, so I wonder whether she had begun to spread the good news even before Phillip arrived.
That’s the thing about this good news. Once you hear it, it grabs hold of you, it changes you, it makes you want to tell others about it, but how do we do that. The apostles began by telling others about the good things they themselves had encountered. Because these words are always spoken with gentleness and reverence, people then want to hear the story of Jesus, and once they are introduced to him, they’re hooked. They too want to do their part: to do good, to be his disciples.
A few months ago, we began working with a number of children in this parish, helping them to deepen their understanding about who Jesus is, how he calls us to share in the gift of his forgiveness, and how he invites us all to be his disciples. These young friends have learned about our practices of prayer, and about the special gift we receive each week, called the Eucharist. They have also learned that we do not receive this gift just so we can feel good about ourselves. Instead, this gift is given to us so that we can go out into the world to continue telling others about Jesus. We do this in all kinds of ways: helping those in need, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick, encouraging the lonely, and rejoicing with those who have already discovered the face of Jesus. Today, our friends will receive Jesus in the Sacrament of the Eucharist for the first time. With joy, we celebrate this special day with them, we pray for them, and we encourage them to continue every day to grow in love with our friend Jesus.
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