What is My God-Given Mission in Life? Fifth Sunday of Easter
Sermon by Emmanuel Suntheni OSB – Fifth Easter Sunday
Sermon And Christian Act In The Word
Theme: A Successful Completion of Mission! What is my God-given mission in life?
Point of Reflection: Why did God create you? Have you done the mission God send you to do here on earth? Or you have not yet started and even maybe you do not know your mission? The completion of God’s work is always a joyful and hopeful moment. Barnabas and Paul completed their first missionary journey laying foundations for the expansion of Christianity into the Gentile world.
The book of Revelation anticipates and describes the completion of God’s salvific work at the end of time, to give hope and strength to his suffering people on earth. Jesus, looking ahead to the cross, declared his work on earth as completed. He left his disciples the final instruction on how to complete their journey to the fullness of discipleship through the practice of love. In all these cases, the completion of God’s work is, in fact, the beginning of something even greater.
The faithful, while completing their God-given work, wait in joy for the completion of God’s salvation project, while praying with the Psalmist, “all your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your faithful shall bless you”.
First Reading: Acts 14:21–27
Psalm: Psalm 145:8–13
Second Reading: Revelation 21:1–5
Gospel: John 13:31–33, 34–35
Sermon (Reflection): The Gospel passage comes from the account of Jesus’ last supper with his disciples. Immediately after Judas left the room to complete his treacherous plan, Jesus declared that his own work of salvation has been completed. He used the expression, “now the Son of Man has been glorified and God has been glorified in him”. In John’s Gospel, the term “glorification” has a special meaning. Jesus uses it in reference to his death, resurrection, and return to the Father. Jesus’ statement that he “has been glorified”, used in the perfect tense, means that, with Judas’s betrayal and his own decision to go to the cross, his mission has been completed. Nothing can now stop his glorification, soon to happen on the cross and in the resurrection.
Jesus adds that his glorification is also the glorification of God. This means that Jesus acts in complete accordance with his Father’s will and purpose. This mutual glorification highlights that Jesus and God act in complete unison, and for the same purpose of giving life to the world. By fulfilling his Father’s will, Jesus glorifies God by completing his salvific work.
Jesus’ glorification on the cross means that his disciples will remain in this world to complete their own tasks. Therefore, Jesus gives them his final instruction – a new commandment to love one another. This instruction points out to them the way to complete their mission of becoming his mature disciples and worthy successors. They were prepared for discipleship by listening to his words and witnessing his works. But the process of becoming mature disciples will be completed only when they will be able to offer their lives to one another in love, as Jesus did when going to the cross.
The first reading presents the final stages of the first missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas. Having been driven out of Pisidian Antioch and, subsequently, Iconium and Lystra, by the hostile synagogue leaders, the two apostles eventually arrived in Derbe. Their mission in the city was a resounding success. They met no opposition there, with many Gentiles believing their proclamation and converting to the new faith. At this point, the apostles decided to return to their home city, Syrian Antioch, and the community which sent them (Cf. Acts 13:1-3). Significantly, they decided to retrace their steps and to return home visiting the same cities they were driven out of, despite obvious dangers. They knew that it was essential to strengthen the communities they had founded with words of encouragement and further instruction.
Their message to the new believers was, “it is through many persecutions that we must enter the kingdom of God”. The apostles knew full well that the opposition and hostility to this new and revolutionary faith were unavoidable. They did not hide that fact from the new converts but made them aware that, since Jesus was opposed and killed, they too might meet a similar fate. In the course of these visits, the apostles also set in place basic leadership structures. When they finally arrived home, to Syrian Antioch, the apostles reported “all that God had done with them”. They were keenly aware that their mission was God’s work, not their own enterprise.
The successful completion of this first missionary journey by Paul and Barnabas laid the foundations for the spread of Christianity into the Gentile world. Their faithful execution of God’s work, in the face of rejection and danger, opened the door for the inclusion of the Gentiles into the Christian movement on a large and systematic scale. Paul and Barnabas successfully completed their work. However, their achievement was, in fact, only a starting point of a new era of explosive growth and expansion of this new faith.
The second reading contains a splendid vision of the completion of God’s work of salvation at the end of time. As usual in the book of Revelation, this vision employs symbols to convey its message. The first symbol is that of a new heaven and a new earth, related to the final statement in today’s reading that God makes “all things new”. It means that salvation involves a fundamental transformation of creation into a new reality, radically different from its former self. The rest of the passage specifies what this change involves.
This vision was intended for God’s faithful facing various afflictions because of their faith. By depicting the completion of God’s work of salvation which lies in the future, the vision seeks to give hope and motivation to those suffering in the present. It assures them that the current world order will give way to a new creation where evil and its works, suffering, and death will be no more. It gives the afflicted ones hope for the final union with God. Above all, the vision reveals that God’s work is, in a sense, already completed, because God has already designed and decided on the shape of this future new world. All that remains for his people is faithfully to await its arrival.
Christian Act in Word of God “Completing my Mission”
Like Paul and Barnabas, everyone has a mission on earth, and the Lord is glorified when we fulfil our mission. The mission of Jesus was the salvation of the world. Thanks to him we have all been saved from a meaningless life, and eternal death. We are made a part of the new creation, so beautifully described in the second reading. Our mission as Christians is to live out an active witness to the salvation offered to us by Christ. In Christ, we become new people who see a future filled with hope for the final union with God.
The fifth Sunday of Easter calls to our attention the importance of completing the mission entrusted to us by Christ. Through the liturgy of Eastertide, the Church helps us to make an evaluation of our missionary work as disciples of the risen Lord, through which Christ is glorified and so is the heavenly Father.
First, we recognise the power of the resurrected Christ working in us, a power that urges us on in love and grace to go out and be people of joy, love, and fraternity. The first reading presents to us the powerful image of the glorification of God through the mission carried out by Paul and Barnabas. Paul and Barnabas show us the power and effectiveness of a mission characterised by generosity, humility, and selflessness, even amid rejection and struggles.
The Gospel reminds us of the characteristics of a person who has become a new creation, and what helps in carrying out this mission. The main requirement is love, love that is modelled on that of Christ. Love is accompanied by a readiness to lay down one’s life for others and the sharing of the love received from Christ.
To sustain the newness of life in Christ we need a radical commitment to living like him with selfless commitment to the good of others, through which we accomplish our mission.
Eastertide is a time to evaluate our journey of faith and see if the love that was in Christ still drives us forward towards the victorious completion of our mission.
Action: I will complete the Mission God gave me
Prayer: Jesus Christ our saviour and friend, thank you for this season where we embrace your mission for our salvation. After suffering, you successfully completed your mission, and that is why we are Easter people today. May we never take your salvific mission for granted, but may we appreciate and live this reality in simple acts of love towards each other. We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord who lives and reigns with you, one God forever and ever, Amen.
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