May 19, 2021

HOMILY for 7th Wed of Easter

Acts 20:28-38; Ps 67; John 17:11-19

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Christ is praying for his Church, and so he prays for each of us who baptised, that we will be consecrated in the truth”, that is to say, sanctified and made holy in the truth. What does this entail?

In the first place, Christ himself is the Truth. And so, the Church is made holy through its fundamental union with Christ, being in Him. Each of us, through the grace of Baptism, have thus been incorporated into the Church, and so we are united to Christ the Holy One. For he is the “Holy One of God”, and so the Church, and each of us as individual members of the Church, can be called ‘holy’ only when we remain united to him, sharing in Christ’s holiness, and receiving the grace of Sonship that flows from Christ the Head to his Body the Church. In other words, our Christian Baptism places us into a living relationship with God: through Christ God becomes our Father, and we his children. Often this essential relational notion of Baptism is neglected when we think of Baptism primarily as being about the washing away our sins, or being saved from perdition.

Hence in the Synoptic Gospels, St John the Baptist says that he has baptised with water, but Christ will “baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire” (cf Lk 3:16). A distinction is being made between the baptism of repentance for the remission of sin, and the effect of Christian Baptism, which is a vital relationship with God, established by the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, who inflames us with divine love. So, Baptism is a mark of God’s love for us – we belong to the Father and not to the world, says the Lord in today’s Gospel – and so we are called to respond to our heavenly Father with love and obedience, to be so-called baptised in the Holy Spirit.

However in the Gospel of St John this idea of belonging to the Father and of being called into a living relationship with him, of responding to his love by obeying his commandments and doing good works, is described as a consecration in the truth. For we have been given the grace of Sonship so that we can die to our sins and so rise to a new life in Christ, so that we can become as beautiful as Christ the Son is beautiful. St Bede thus comments: “we are baptized by the Lord in the Holy Spirit, not only when in the day of our baptism, we are washed in the fount of life, to the remission of our sins, but also daily by the grace of the same Spirit we are inflamed, to do those things which please God.”

To be consecrated in the truth, that is to say, to be sanctified and made holy as Christ is holy, is a work of the Holy Spirit. Thus the Synoptic use of the phrase ‘Baptism of the Holy Spirit’, which is literally an immersion in the Spirit of God, being bathed in the One who makes us holy. For the Holy Spirit is the Sanctifier, the one who is active in our hearts and in our lives, making us holy by watching over us, protecting us from the evil influences of this world, and moving us from within, causing us to love the things of God until we are truly united to the Father and the Son in love. Our Baptismal life, therefore, is relational: our daily life as Christians is all about deepening the love and trust we have in relation to God.

Hence Christ’s prayer today is a prayer that the Spirit who comes at Pentecost would be given to his Church and to each of us today and everyday. Thus at this time between the Ascension and Pentecost we observe a Novena, praying over these nine days for the Holy Spirit to come and renew our lives, our homes, and this parish. Through the gift of the Holy Spirit may we all be consecrated in the truth.

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    HOMILY for 7th Wed of Easter...Acts 20:28-38; Ps 67; John 17:11-19
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