Homily 5^TH Sunday of Easter A 2020
The 5 ^th Sunday of Easter this year coincides with the celebration of Mother’s Day. So to all of you who are mothers, I wish a Happy Mother’s Day full of love and blessings, under the patronage of the Blessed Mother, Virgin Mary, Mother of God and role model of Mothers. I hope that despite the difficult time of confinement and social distancing, you will still be the spotlight of all attention and love you deserve on behalf of your children and family. Again Happy Mother’s Day! To help you understand better today’s Gospel, it seems important to consider its real context and setting. The Last Supper of the Lord in the Cenacle Room is the setting of this Gospel. It’s an excerpt of the last speech of the Lord Jesus to his apostles, after the last Supper, just before suffering his passion. It’s what is also called the Speech of Farewell of Jesus to his apostles. In my homily, I’ll focus on two main points.

1. Jesus strengthens the faith and hope of his apostles and us.

Knowing that his passion was near and he was having his last Supper with his friends, Jesus talked intimately to his apostles to prepare them, psychologically, to face the coming tragic events of his passion and death with faith and hope: “ Do not let your hearts be troubled. Have faith in God and faith in me.” As it happened with the apostles, today, we hear the Lord Jesus saying the same words to us to reassure us: “ My dear brothers and sisters of Placerville and Georgetown, do not let your hearts be troubled. Have faith in God and faith in me.” Let us open our hearts to welcome these words of faith and comfort. These words are addressed to our world today, in this time of tribulation and fear, when we’re facing the Covid-19 pandemic whose death’s toll has reached over 260 thousands so far. These words are then addressed to the sick affected by the coronavirus, and all families who have lost a loved one or a friend during this time. These words are also addressed to all of you parishioners of Placerville and Georgetown who are sick and are getting a surgery in the coming days, all of you who are worried and frightened by your health. Finally, these words are also addressed to all of you who have lost your job and are worried with unemployment and any financial issue. To all, Jesus says, “ Do not let your hearts be troubled. Have faith in God and faith in me. You’re not alone. I am here with you. With Me Jesus your God, nothing is impossible.” As Saint Thomas Aquinas said, “ One who always possesses God cannot be disturbed. To have faith means to live a filial adherence to God beyond what we feel or understand.”

1. Jesus identifies himself to the Way, the Truth and the Life.

What a positive tone of the words of Jesus when he says, “ I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life”. This is central to our faith. To be trying to know the truth means that we are already on the right way. So Jesus is the Way, the way of light, love, forgiveness and happiness. He is the right way to follow in our life, which leads to salvation. He is the surest way that inexorably leads to God the Father. As Saint Thomas Aquinas said, “ When He, who is the way, goes to the Father, He is the way for himself. He is the way, and the one who goes by the way, and the destination of the way. Thus he goes to himself through himself. And so Christ, who is our way, became the way even for himself.” In addition, Saint Augustine invites us to follow Jesus as our best way that leads us to Heaven. He says, “ Parishioners of Placerville and Georgetown, walk like this Man (Jesus) and you will come to God. It is better to limp along on the way than to walk briskly off the way.” Christ is our way to everlasting life. This way is open to all who are willing to become disciples, that is, learners who follow in the footsteps of the Master, knowing that his footsteps lead through the cross and the grave to happiness we cannot even imagine in God’s unfailing friendship. Moreover, when Jesus says that He is the Truth, the truth he refers to is his own Person. His Gospel is word of truth and liberation. His Person and Gospel are eternal truth that will never pass, the truth that reveals us the true nature of the unique God in three Persons: The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit. Finally, Jesus is the Life. He is the source of life and gives life to everyone who comes to him. He is the only one able to give us life in plenitude, inasmuch as he is the resurrection and the life. As Saint Paulinus of Nola wrote, “ Jesus is the Light of truth, the Path of life, the Power and Mind, Hand and Strength of the Father. He is the Sun of justice, Source of blessings, Flower of God, God’s Son, Creator of the world, Life of our mortality, and Death to our death. He is the Master of the virtues. He is God to us and became Man for us by stripping off his nature and assuming ours, forging eternal relations between man and God, while he himself is both. So when has flashed his rays over our hearts, he cleans the enfeebling foulness from our sluggish bodies and renews the dispositions of our minds to give us eternal life.” Let us follow the way of Jesus. Let us accept the truth of his Gospel as eternal wisdom that came from God the Father. And let us welcome the plenitude of life he gives us. Therefore, I will conclude my homily with the wonderful quote of Saint Ambrose when he said, “For Christ, to will is to do! Let us set out on this Way, let us hold fast to Truth, let us follow Life. It is the Way that leads us, the Truth that strengthens us, the Life that is restored to us through him. Yes, Lord Jesus, we do follow you, but we can only come at your bidding. No one can make the ascent without you, for you are our Way, our Truth, our Life, our Strength, our Confidence, our Reward. Be the Way that receives us, the Truth that strengthens us, and the Life that invigorates us.”
 
Rev. Pepin W. F. DANDOU
Georgetown CA, May 9, 2020.