Welcome to the ULC Minister's Network

Arch Bishop Micheal Ralph Vendegna S.O.S.M.A.

Gospel/Homily

  • Liturgical day: Sunday 5th (C) of Easter

    Gospel text (Jn 13,31-33a.34-35): When Judas had gone out, Jesus said, «Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. God will glorify him, and He will glorify him very soon.

    »My children, I am with you for only a little while; you will look for me, but, as I already told the Jews, so now I tell you: where I am going you cannot come. Now I give you a new commandment: love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another».

    «Love one another»

    Fr. Jordi CASTELLET i Sala
    (Sant Hipòlit de Voltregà, Barcelona, Spain)

    Today, Jesus invites us to love one another. In our complex world, too. Complex because good and evil are being mixed and mingled together. We often feel tempted to look at our world as our misfortune, as a piece of bad news, whereas we Christians, instead, are responsible for bringing out, to this violent and unfair world, the Good News of Jesus Christ.

    Yes, indeed, Jesus tells us «love one another. Just as I have loved you» (Jn 13:34). And, a good way to love one another, to put God's Word into practice, is to announce, always and everywhere, the Good News of the Gospel, which is nothing else but Jesus Christ!

    «But we have this treasure in clay vessels», Saint Paul tells us (2Cor 4:7). But, what treasure is this? That of the Word, that of the very God, and we happen to be its clay vessels. Yet, this treasure is too precious for us to keep for ourselves. We have to divulge it: «Therefore go and make disciples of all nations (...) and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age» (Mt 28:19-20). In fact —as the Holy Father has written— «Those who have come into genuine contact with Christ cannot keep him for themselves, they must proclaim him».

    With this confidence in God, let us announce the Gospel and, let us do it with all our available means and wherever we can: by word of mouth, by our deeds and thoughts, through newspapers, Internet, in our work and with our friends... «Your kindness should be known to all. The Lord is near» (Phil 4:5).

    Therefore, and as His Holiness John Paul II emphasizes, we must use the new technologies, openly, without beating around the bush, to spread as much as possible the Good News of the Church today, because only if our kindness is known to all, only by changing our heart, we shall achieve that our world changes too.