Fifth Sunday of Easter

In many of our Easter stories, there are messengers of encouragement.  We find Paul and Barnabas retracing their missionary steps, going back to the cities where they first proclaimed the gospel.  Because they knew that, despite their new faith, those Christians were undergoing trials in their lives and needed to be encouraged.  The name Barnabas, by the way, means “son of encouragement.”

In our second reading, John writes of his vision to the seven churches of Asia Minor who were suffering persecution because of their faith.  He encourages them by offering them the final vision of the heavenly Jerusalem where cruelty, pain, and opposition will be banished forever.

In today’s gospel, Jesus is saying farewell to his friends at the Last Supper.  Even as he begins his own trial that will lead to the cross, he leaves his disciples with a word of encouragement: Love one another, as I have loved you.  It’s my own mother’s last note to her children: “My love to all of you, share it with each other, and take good care of one another.  That will be your gift to Dad and me.”

How can we expect our children to know what love is if they first have not experienced it in their homes and in their parish?  It begins with a husband’s gentle word of encouragement to his wife.  It begins with a mother’s firm but gentle word of encouragement to her child.  In a sense, it is true that charity begins at home.

It begins with this parish family, in which we renew our baptisms and journey with Luca, Hazel, Eli, Lisa, along with their parents and godparents.  It begins with this Eucharist, where we remember that Jesus not only encouraged us to love one another, but laid down his life for us.

Paul A. Magnano

Pastor