Homily for 4th Sunday of Easter

Homily for the
4th Sunday of Easter

April 16, 1989

Rev 7: 9, 14-17
St. Theresa, Bronx, N.Y.

This weekend of 2019, I'm visiting our SDB works in Tampa, my hometown.  These works and some of the particular confreres here fostered my vocation.  I also paid a visit to my old home parish, Nativity in Brandon.  Since I didn't have an opportunity to preach at Mass, here's an old homily.

“I, John, saw before me a huge crowd which no one could count” (Rev 7: 9).

During the Easter season, the Church always puts before us in the 1st reading the Acts of the Apostles.  Acts is the story of our Christian beginnings in the 1st enthusiasm of Easter and Pentecost, the story of St. Peter’s and St. Paul’s leadership, the story of the 1st persecutions of our ancestors in faith.

The 2d readings this year come from the book of Revelation.  They tell us where our Christian faith is taking us:  tribulation, perseverance, judgment, and heavenly glory.  Revelation was written at the end of the 1st century, a time of intense persecution, and it was meant to encourage believers, to give them hope.

Like 1st-century Christians, you and I need hope.  We aren’t dragged into court and ordered to worship idols or an emperor, as early Christians were.  We undergo more subtle persecution.  We suffer double taxation to support our schools.  We’re mocked for clearly teaching that human sexuality is sacred.  We are taken to court for defending human life.  A very distinguished priest is appointed director of the public library, and the Times is flooded with letters of protest and bigotry.  The media portray every bishops’ meeting as some kind of confrontation.  Turn on your TV or your radio, and everything you believe and want to pass on to your children is under assault.  If we protest any of this lunacy, we’re labeled ayatollahs.

So we too are in a “great period of trial” (Rev 7:14).  Trials are part of being disciples of a crucified master.  “If they persecuted me,” Jesus warns, “they will also persecute you” (John 15:20.

The 144,000 elect (Blessed Osma, 11th c.)

But what does John tell us today?  The crowd of triumphant believers is too huge to be counted!  They’re dressed in white robes, baptismal robes, of victory over all trials, over all temptations.  They carry palms of victory.  “They” include us—if we keep our eyes on the Lamb of God, if we continue to wash our sins white in his blood, if we persevere in our faith and in our discipleship of good deeds.

At the Last Supper Jesus promised us not only persecution in this life but many places in his Father’s house (John 14:2).  Before God’s throne we will always have shelter; neither the rent nor the taxes will go up, and the sewers won’t break down.  We won’t hunger, have our water rationed, or worry about the ozone layer.  God’s Lamb has become our shepherd, and he’s leading us to eternal life, eternal youth, eternal health, eternal joy.  The Shepherd tells us that we shall never perish; no one shall snatch us out of his hand (John 10:28).

So no matter what trials we face in our Christian lives, no matter how we struggle each day to know what’s right and then do it, we have great hope.  Christ our Shepherd has gone ahead to prepare a place for us, for a numberless crowd of us.  If we follow him, no lasting harm can touch us, and we shall not be lost.