It sounds so easy.\u00a0 Jesus says that all we have to do to experience eternal life with God is to believe in him, listen to his word and follow him.\u00a0 If we do that, then Jesus, the good shepherd, will protect us from anything and everything; and we cannot be snatched away by anything the devil throws at us.\u00a0 It sounds easy; but in reality, it is the challenging path.\u00a0 Because it takes fortitude to do all three of the required things- believe in, listen to, and follow Jesus.<\/p>\n
First, there is the belief part.\u00a0 That\u2019s kind of what the first reading is about.\u00a0 You see, right after Jesus\u2019 resurrection, there were hundreds of eye witnesses to the Resurrection.\u00a0 And these people were fearless in the Lord; they were truly zealous witnesses of all the Jesus said and did.\u00a0 And, as the story in the first reading shows, they met with great success in the synagogues.\u00a0 Why? Because the Apostles and the Disciples told their story with conviction.\u00a0 The witnessing that Paul and Barnabas did was so effective that thousands of people believed.<\/p>\n
They believed that a poor carpenter led an inspired life; performed miracles; claimed that he was the son of God made man out of God\u2019s love; preached repentance and conversion of heart to do God\u2019s will; suffered because of his message; died, was buried, and rose from the dead to eternal life to show us the way to eternal life if we followed him.\u00a0 These people believed all this on the basis of the Apostles\u2019 word alone.\u00a0 That took real faith for the folks of the time.\u00a0 And it takes great faith for those of us separated from these events by 2000 years.<\/p>\n
But you know what? \u00a0Paul, Barnabas, and the Apostles are present today to all of us; they are the Church.\u00a0 And the Church preaches with the same conviction.\u00a0 What we are to believe is called the Creed, which we will all recite in just a few minutes.\u00a0 That Creed has all of the elements I mentioned above and a few more.\u00a0 Yes, it is a challenge to believe all of it just on the word of the Church.\u00a0 But that is what all of us are called by God to do- to first of all believe.<\/p>\n
And then there is the \u201clisten\u201d part.\u00a0 That\u2019s maybe the hardest part of all for us- to listen to the word of God.\u00a0 Perhaps it\u2019s because we are so busy with life; and perhaps it\u2019s because we don\u2019t really want to know.\u00a0 Ignorance, after all, is bliss; but listening means more than just coming here on Sundays for an hour a week.\u00a0 Listening means taking time out for really getting in tune with God.\u00a0 How can you do the last part, following the Lord, if you don\u2019t know what you are following?<\/p>\n
Now all of you here today are part of a family.\u00a0 Indeed, you are Holy Family; but aside from that greater family, all of you are part of a nuclear family.\u00a0 Are you listening to what God wants for your family?<\/p>\n
Pope Francis has just issued an Apostolic Exhortation to all of us on the Family.\u00a0 It is based on the results of the Synod of Bishops that has been meeting to discuss Family matters in Rome over the last couple of years.\u00a0 And let me be clear about this-\u00a0 what you hear on radio and TV and the press about the document is probably not accurate.\u00a0 Because, despite what you might have heard, the document reaffirms all of the traditional teachings of the Church on the family.\u00a0 It does recognize that times have changed \u00a0\u00a0So that the Church must present these traditional teachings in a way which is relevant in today\u2019s society; and it exhorts the Church to always, always, be pastoral in dealing with persons who have gone astray.<\/p>\n
But it doesn\u2019t change any of the traditional positions of the Church.\u00a0 In fact, the document strengthens them by giving justifications for the church\u2019s classic positions on controversial topics such as gender identity, gay marriage, cohabitation; and divorce.\u00a0 It is well worth reading; and I encourage all of you to read it.\u00a0 It is a free download on the internet and, \u00a0although it is 257 pages long, the type is large and one single column..\u00a0 Reading it would be a big part of what it takes to listen to the Lord on what his pattern is for families.<\/p>\n
And lastly, we are called to follow.\u00a0 With respect to the teaching that the Pope issued on the family, that means a lot of challenges to all of us.\u00a0 For example, when you read the document you will see that the primary responsibility for educating children rests with the parents, not the Church; and that the primary purpose of marriage is procreation of children out of mutual love; and that the family includes the elderly and those who are marginalized with infirmities.\u00a0 These later categories of people are opportunities for all of us to learn patience, humility, and a spirit of service.<\/p>\n
In the second reading, we hear about those called to the heavenly wedding feast of the Lamb.\u00a0 There is cause for great rejoicing in those words from Revelation, words such as the fact that those saved are: \u201cA great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue\u201d; and: \u201cFor the Lamb who is in the center of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of life-giving water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yes, this is what is in store for all of us who follow- and it is a great throng of people.\u00a0 And it includes all of us who believe in, listen to, and follow the Lord Jesus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fourth Sunday of Easter Acts 13: 43-52; Rev 7: 9, 14b-17; John 10: 27-30 By Deacon Larry Brockman It sounds so easy.\u00a0 Jesus says that all we have to do to experience eternal life with God is to believe in him, listen to his word and follow him.\u00a0 If we do that, then Jesus, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[407,408,61],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=854"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":855,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854\/revisions\/855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}