5th Sunday of Easter A - Homily 4

Homily 4 - 2017

Today’s First Reading from the Acts of the Apostles dealt with an important “break-through” moment in the life of the early Church. Up until now, the story had focused mainly on the activities of a few Apostles – Peter and John, specifically, though the apostles acting as a group had also been briefly mentioned. Only one layman had really figured in the story. That was Barnabas; and he was mentioned, perhaps not too surprisingly, because he had donated all he owned to the support of the developing Christian movement.

The background to today’s incident was provided by the fact that the number of disciples had been steadily increasing. It seems that there were two noticeable groups among them. There were Jews who had grown up in Jerusalem and knew nothing other than Judaism; they were called the Hebrews. But there was another sizeable group of disciples, Jews who had been born and brought up in the surrounding Greek culture, who had come to Jerusalem from overseas. While in Jerusalem, they remained Jews, but had become converted to the Christian movement. Their first language was Greek, not Hebrew, and they came to be called the Hellenists.

Not surprisingly, with different backgrounds and different first languages, misunderstandings arose and tensions sharpened between them. The specific complaint was that the Hellenist widows, women without male support and therefore apparently voiceless and poor, were not being looked after well enough by the Apostles [who would probably all have been regarded as Hebrews]. So the Twelve called an Assembly to address the issue. After discussion it was decided by common consent that the situation had developed to such an extent that the Apostles could no longer run everything. So they would withdraw from the practical day-by-day running of the community to devote themselves “to prayer and the service of the word”. Another group of disciples would be chosen to take care of the practical organization of the community. Seven of them were elected by the community.

More significantly, the seven were all what we today would call lay-people. They were authorized by the apostles, but chosen by the people from the community to look to the practical running of the show.

Luke, the author of the Acts of the Apostles, made the relevant observation that, once the underlying tensions were faced and resolved, and unity re-established, “the number of disciples was greatly increased, and a large group of [Jewish] priests made their submission to the faith”.

Today’s Second Reading from a letter of Peter also contained a highly relevant comment. Peter was writing to ordinary disciples, that is, to everyone, including especially lay people, and he repeated to them what God had instructed Moses to say to the escaping Hebrew slaves in the Sinai desert, “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood …”

You are a royal priesthood; and that came about through your baptism. You share in that royal priesthood; I share in that royal priesthood. I also share in the ministerial priesthood [but that would be pretty useless for me unless I also share in the royal priesthood with you].

What does our baptismal priesthood mean? It means that we can all directly offer to God our daily lives and all we do, as expressions of our love. Because of the ordained priesthood, that offering of our lives can be united with the offering that Christ made of his love during his life and especially through his death on the cross.

So the lives of everyone in the community and all that you do can be directed to God, and are meant to be. As disciples, no one is simply a consumer. You are all called to pull your weight – in the world around you, and within the faith community of which each of you is a vital member.

All of which are interesting, indeed encouraging, issues as you face the reality of being a parish without a resident priest.