The Sixth Sunday of Easter – 1 May 2005 Acts 8: 5-8,14-17 1 Peter 3: 15-18John 14: 12-21 In his first homily Pope Benedict XV1 reminded us that we in the Church of today, especially the Church In the developed world, face many challenges. We have the task of evangelizing a world in which millions of people are swept along by the desire for more and more `things’, and the demand for less and less restrictions on personal freedom. `The claim of Jesus to be `the Way, the Truth, and the Life’ does not find a ready hearing in a world in which people claim the right to decide for themselves what it right and wrong, true and false, good and bad.

People claim that the Gospel isn’t `relevant’. The opposite is true. The message is very `relevant’ to the situations people find themselves in, but the reality is that masses of people have not heard the Gospel, or have heard it and chose not to relate it to their lives. Archbishop Fulton Sheen, in a wonderful book, `Lift up your hearts’, said the difficulty most people experience in accepting God’s existence is `their present way of life’. The Gospel demands change, and we are reluctant to make the effort required to change.

Faced with such attitudes it becomes all the more necessary for every Christian to keep before their minds the words of St. Peter in today’s Second Reading: `Reverence the Lord Jesus Christ in your hearts, and always have your answer ready for people who ask you the reason for the hope that you all have’. But give it with courtesy and respect and with a clear conscience, so that those who slander you when you are living a good life in Christ may be proved wrong in the accusations that they bring`.

Peter and John had Jesus in their heart when they went to the Samaritans.The Samaritans were not exactly open to the Gospel, but we are told in the First Reading, that when the Apostles in Jerusalem `heard that the Samaritans had accepted the word of God’ and been baptised `they sent Peter and John who laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit’.

If we are to face a world that `does not know the Spirit of Truth and cannot receive him’ then we need to be firmly rooted in Christ, who is in the Father (Gospel). We need Jesus in our heart if we are to fulfil our vocation to be `Christophers’, `Christ bearers’ to the world in which we live. You can find some useful ideas about how to be a `Christopher’, by logging on to this website: www.christophers.org

`The Christophers’ is a movement founded in 1947 by an American Priest, Father James Keller. It was set up to help every Christian fulfil their responsibility to be a `Christ bearer’. It has as it motto an old Chinese proverb: `It is better to light a candle that to curse the darkness’. Many years ago it produced a paperback full of ideas, ways in which you can `Change the World from Your Parish’. Ten times a year they publish `Christopher Notes’. Each issue of `Christopher Notes’ takes an idea, or an issue, and relates it to the Gospel. For each day there are `Inspirational Notes’, examples of what individuals have done to change with world. There are resources also for Young People. Plus a series of clips from films they produced many years ago featuring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and many others. They offered their services free to show viewers ways YOU can change the World, which is also the purpose of THE WORD MADE FLESH.

from http://www.catholic-bible-school.org...-readings.html

__________________