Our readings on this fifth Sunday of Easter present us with the themes of dwelling places and home. We Catholics are aware that the earth is not our permanent home. We are a pilgrims on a journey of faith here on earth. We are journeying toward eternal life with God in his heavenly kingdom.
We are called to make our dwelling here on earth during this lifetime. We are to live as disciples of Christ and to proclaim God’s kingdom on our journey of faith. As disciples, we form the Church, the body of Christ here on earth. But we are also to form a domestic church in the way we live out our faith each day in our personal lives. That is where the majority of our faith is lived out. When you go home to the free world, you will form a domestic church with your families. In a family, the words and actions of the family members form the faith of the family, the faith of the mother, father, and children. Your words and actions speak about your faith to your friends and to those people you interact with each day. Our faith begins at home. Our faith is reflected in how we live out our lives each day.
We see our faith reflected in the sacrament of baptism. We in the Catholic Church see the sacrament of baptism as the beginning of our life of discipleship in Jesus. In a Catholic family, a child is baptized as a baby, as the parents make a profession of faith, profess the vows of their own baptism, and take responsibility for raising their child in the faith.
How you live out the values of your faith each day is key to helping you grow in holiness. How you live out your faith each day is where you practice intimate and selfless love of God and other persons.
In John’s Gospel, Jesus speak as heaven as a home that is filled with many dwelling places. “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?” Jesus gives us this comforting image of the eternal life with God that awaits us in his kingdom. Jesus assures us of the personal love that God has for each one of us as he prepares for those who are faithful for him a place in the eternal kingdom.
Do you take your daily life of faith seriously? Do your treat the moments of the day as being a domestic church? Do you take time to read the daily Bible readings and to pray and to share your faith with others? We have men who come to mass when they think we are going to hand things out or when we have a meal, but then, when it is a regular mass or nothing special, then we don’t see them. We have some men who tell me they are too busy. One man even told me that he was too busy and did not have time for mass, that he was the hardest working man on the compound, yet he told me that as he was playing a video game and did not even have time to put the video game down and talk to me. We see men here at CMCF that waste their time all day long with things, but then don’t have an hour to go to Church.
As we celebrate the 5th weekend of Easter and as we hear this wonderful Gospel reading today, may we respond to this great love that God offers us by taking good, responsible care of our earthly dwelling, the everyday moments in our life of faith. In our dwelling place here on earth, may we honor and worship God with our prayers, with our thoughtfulness toward each other, and with our generous hospitality shown toward all.
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