5th Sunday After Easter Homily

“Be ye…not hearers only.”

In Mass we hear Sacred Scripture. At home we should study and pray with Sacred Scripture. We should know the Catechism. We should read and study the lives of the saints. We should commit ourself to a life of prayer.

All these are good, but we must commit them to heart and make them a way of life.

“Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only.”

Our life must be a reflection of these things of God. The faith does not call us to a mere motion where we sit, are instructed, and do nothing with it. As the Catechism instructs, “at every time and in every place, God draws close to each human person…In His Son and through Him, He invites people to become, in the Holy Spirit, His adopted children and thus heirs of His blessed life.”

Here would should see the invitation that has been extended to us by God. This invitation draws us into relationship with Him. Through relationship we are sent forth as His disciples into the world. We are sent to authentically live out the faith in the midst of a world which is filled with many struggles. Everything that we do should be done as a extension of Christ and all that He has given to us in this life.

There are many who call themselves Christian who outwardly live something contrary to what they have received from Christ. Christ calls each of us away from sin and into a relationship with His mercy. We must be willing to go out and live this mercy in the midst of a world that longs for it. Christ is truly the answer to all of the longings of our heart if only we would allow Him to be so for us.

This world is busy and filled with noise which causes us to be unable to hearers let alone doers of the word. We must be willing to spend time with Christ in prayer, so that He can cultivate our lives. For this reason the family must be a source of prayer. Within homes prayer and the study of faith is not at option among options, but is something which is life giving.

Let us be willing to enter more fully into this life giving relationship with Christ. Let us not only attentively hear the word, but be found willing to respond to the word. “Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only.”