Homily for 5th Sunday of Easter

Homily for the
5th Sunday of Easter

May 15, 2022
John 13: 31-35
Rev 21: 1-5
Ursulines, The Fountains, Tuckahoe, N.Y.
St. Joseph, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“Jesus said, ‘Now is the Son of Man glorified’” (John 13: 31).

When Judas leaves the Last Supper, he’s committed to betraying Jesus, and so Jesus’ fate is sealed.  Jesus will complete the work his Father gave him to do, and for that the Father will glorify him.

Last week the British government and the monarchy staged an annual ritual, the opening of a new session of Parliament.  It’s a grand ritual, loaded with pomp and circumstance—with all the glory that the British have been able to conceive and put on display during their long history.  The only piece of glory lacking was the presence of the Queen, for just the 3d time in her 70 years on the throne.  On 2 earlier occasions, pregnancies prevented her; this time it was her frail health. 

Instead, Prince Charles took a seat next to where his mother should have sat, and the royal crown rested on that empty throne.  It was all glorious enuf with ceremony, regalia, speeches, and homage.

Such is worldly glory.  Soon enuf Elizabeth’s glory will end at a tomb in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor.  Boris Johnson’s glory will end with some new election or a no-confidence vote in the House of Commons.

That’s not the glory that the Father will bestow upon the Son of Man, his divine Son who is at the same time the son of the Virgin Mary.  When the Son glorifies the Father by his complete obedience, by his preaching and demonstrating God’s universal love, and by his sacrificial love for fallen humanity, the Father will glorify the Son as no human being has ever been glorified.  The Son of Man will be raised from the grave, the ignominy of his shameful death on a cross turned into an unimaginable victory, the cross turned into a sign of triumph.  “God will glorify him at once” (13:32)—no tarrying in the tomb, as Elizabeth Windsor and the rest of mankind must wait until Judgment Day.  Moreover, once raised to life again, he’ll be exalted to the right hand of God to reign over creation and to continue his mission of interceding for sinners.

From church of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, Prague

The victory of the Son of Man, his glorification by the Father, isn’t for him alone.  It’s for all his disciples, all those who’ve done the work the Father gives us to do, all those who have “loved one another” (13:34-35).  On Judgment Day these shall enter the new Jerusalem (Rev 21:2), and God will dwell with the human race (21:3).  The disciples of Jesus who have loved one another “will be God’s people, and God himself will always be with them as their God.  He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain” (21:3-4).  We shall all share in the glory of the Son of Man if we “persevere in the faith” as Paul and Barnabas exhorted the disciples to whom they’d brought the Gospel (Acts 14:22).

May the power of Jesus’ resurrection keep us faithful to him in our love for one another and in our hope of participating in his glory.  As we prayed a little while ago, “under [God’s] protective care, may [we] bear much fruit and come to the joys of life eternal” (Collect).