Do you call yourselves disciples of Jesus? What does make you believe that you can claim to be disciples of Jesus?
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! Let us look into the Word of God, given to us on the Ascension Day, to contemplate and to be confronted with the reality of discipleship. We are still reading the Gospel passages taken from post-Resurrection period. If you were among the people who chose to participate in the long Easter Vigil on April 15, and if your brain was still absorbing the words of the Gospel then after so many readings, Psalms and prayers during that night service, you may remember that back then we had the Gospel of Matthew too. In fact we were reading the beginning of Chapter 28 which begins and ends the account of the Resurrection events. St Matthew didn’t tell us much about appearances of the Risen Jesus, but what he did tell us is very moving. It is moving today as much as it was moving 2000 years ago. It was so moving that the Apostles didn’t have time to wipe tears of joy and hope from their eyes as they were set in motion. First Mary of Magdala and another Mary went to the sepulchre. There they saw an angel descending from heaven who told them three things: “Jesus has risen,” “go back to Jesus’ disciples” and “tell them to go to Galilee.” Three things rather easy to remember, aren’t they? However as the two women were running back the Risen Lord appeared to them in person. And he reduced the three pieces of news to just one; presumably to make sure that the most important message was to be delivered to the Eleven. Do you know what that one message the Risen Lord wanted to be delivered to his disciples was? “Tell my brothers that they must leave for Galilee.” What do we read today? “The Eleven disciples set out for Galilee.” What does it mean? It means that the eleven men listened to two women. By the way I can’t get when some people say that women don’t have a voice in the Church. Right from the beginning of the Christian era women have had a strong voice in the Church. It has been a voice of evangelising women, women brining the Good News to their fellow believers: women and men alike. In the Gospel for this Solemnity of the Ascension we read that the eleven men did come to Galilee. St Matthew described them as disciples in the post-Resurrection era because they listened to the Lord’s message delivered to them by another human being. They believed that a human being could be a messenger of the Risen Lord. That’s the fundamental credential of a disciple of Jesus, being able to hear the message of Christ from the mouth of another person.
What was the message the Eleven eventually received from the Risen Christ? Not much different to the message the two ladies got on Easter morning. On the day of the Ascension, Jesus told his disciples: “As you go make disciples of all the nations.” It means: Tell the world what you have seen. St Matthew who was there among those eleven disciples and who, as we know, was a tax collector, collected, this time, the words of Christ carefully. The Evangelist tells us that Jesus didn’t send his disciples to a specific place to preach the Gospel but he made it more urgent by saying: “As you go make disciples of all the nations.” Jesus meant: As you walk away from this place start making disciples of all nations. In the post-Resurrection era disciples make disciples. If you haven’t got it yet the post-Resurrection era is our era too. In the post-resurrection era disciples make disciples wherever they are. In the post-Resurrection era disciples find a mission field at home, at work, at school, at market etc.
If I wanted to find out if someone is a disciple of the Lord I would ask the person one question: Have you been to Galilee? And I don’t mean those who have been to Israel. On the contrary I mean the Christians who have a compelling desire to make disciples of all nations. A disciple who makes disciples is the one who has been to Galilee. Like the Eleven from the Ascension Gospel.

            156 years ago this Sunday, in the house of bishops of Marseille in the Southern France, a group of people gathered around a dying bishop whose name was Eugene de Mazenod. Among them were his Oblates whose Superior General he was for 35 years. Even when he was appointed a bishop he didn’t separate himself from the Oblates. He didn’t have to wear two hats. His bishop hat already meant plenty of work. But he loved his Oblates and wanted to be part of their journey even if it meant more work. Now we can understand why he said the day before his death: “Be sure to tell my Oblates that I die happy… that I die happy that God was so good as to choose me to found the Congregation of the Oblates in the Church.” The Oblates, who were gathered there, were making sure that they didn’t miss a word of their dying Founder like the Apostles in today’s Gospel, who were collecting all the precious words of Jesus from his final moment with them, as the Blessed Lord prayed. Sometimes I hear from people that prayer should be done in one’s private room so that no one could see because even Jesus said: “Go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” However that what Jesus said to the people, like Pharisees, who were making a show of praying. But he himself prayed publically as well. The passage from today’s Gospel is an excellent example. Jesus prays to his Father and he does so in such a way that the Apostle can witness it. As they hear his prayer they can hear what is filling the heart of their Master.
While dying St Eugene told his Oblates: “When I am no longer with you, there will be somebody who will take my place in authority, someone who will appreciate you according to your merits, but who will never love you as I have loved you.” He let them hear what was happening in his heart. How important it is that he didn’t keep it secret, that he allowed others to hear it.
            This is something I would like to reflect on with you my Dear Sister and Brothers. Believing in God is not a private matter. It is something that changes us to such an extent that we cannot contain it. It flows out of us. It radiates from us.
            Sometime ago I came across a T-shirt which had written on it: “I am a Christian. Ask me why.” I was so captivated by it that I couldn’t help but to buy it. Then I remembered what the first Pope, St Peter, wrote in his Letter: “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope you have.” If I had to answer why I am a Christian I would simply say: IT IS BECAUSE OF JESUS. There is no other reason that I have persevered in my faith. It is because of who he is. He is God but he is Emmanuel – God with us, God who loves being with us, not only when we are glorious but also when we are inglorious too, when we are crushed, hurting, etc. When Jesus prayed at the end of the Last Supper, as we could hear a few minutes ago, he revealed some great secrets. He was praying to his Father: “Eternal life is this, to know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” He didn’t mean some publications or the Internet where we could learn about him but he meant knowledge which comes from sharing his life.
When the Oblates heard Eugene saying about his love for them they already knew it. They knew that the Founder loved them because they experienced it over the years; still they were delighted to hear it because it is great to hear truth. And that’s a lesson we can take from the Word of God for this Sunday. If I find that I am loved by my Lord I want to tell the world about that because the world needs to know that Jesus is for real, that’s his love is for real.

            In the First Book of Kings we read of Solomon who had to make a judgment regarding two prostitutes. Each of them gave birth to a child, but one baby died within a few days. What happened next was that each woman claimed to be the mother of the surviving child. Solomon, as we can imagine, didn’t have a DNA test, but he still managed to identify the mother of the baby. “Cut the living child in two – said the king – and give half to one half to the other.” At this one woman said: “Give her the child; only do not let them think of killing it!” The other said: “Cut him up. He shall belong to neither of us.” Even without DNA test Solomon was able to establish then who the mother of the child was. He witnessed a personal loving connection displayed by one and indifference regarding the child’s fate shown by the other.
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! The conversation between Jesus and two of his disciples: Thomas and Philip, takes us back to the Upper Room and the Last Supper. Earlier the evangelist John told us that the night fell after Judas left them. The darkness was not only outside the building but they were sensing that something dark was invading. That darkness was to dominate over a few days, as within hours Jesus was to be arrested, then sentenced to death, then crucified and finally laid in the grave of Joseph of Arimathea. We know that they were not expecting a happy ending but as we could hear from the two disciples walking to Emmaus their hope was shattered. Whatever they hoped for was finished, was over. At least according to their judgment as they were prepared to believe only if God stayed within the frames of their own expectations and demands. They didn’t hope for God but they hoped to see their own narrow dreams come true. That’s why they didn’t see light shining at the Last Supper, the light shining on the way of the cross, the light shining from the cross, the light shining from the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. But as St John years later was able to acknowledge while reflecting on the events he witnessed: “All that came to be had life in Jesus, and that life was the light of men, a light that shines in the dark, a light that darkness could not overpower.” Like that woman who was prepared to give up her rights as the mother in order to save the child Jesus gave up his rights as God in order to save us. From the mocked, ridiculed, humiliated, scourged Jesus a divine light was shining. “To have seen me is to have seen the Father” Jesus told Philip. In the following hours and days they failed to recognise it as what became evident to them was mocking, ridiculing, humiliating, scourging. They couldn’t see beyond that. They needed time and the Resurrection to make their own judgment of the Holy Week in a new light. It was their Solomon moment to see in what was done to Jesus God’s loving connection with them. After the Resurrection and the Pentecost that confused community became the Church where they not only treasured Jesus’ words: “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life” but filled with the Spirit they boldly proclaimed to others: “Jesus is our Way, our Truth and our Life.”
            In a couple of weeks the Eastertide 2017 will be over, but still we are to celebrate the Ascension and the Pentecost in order to emerge out of our Resurrection celebrations with dreams and expectations reviewed in the context of the loving connection with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We need this review and even more we need the Christian skills to make such a review which goes beyond our perspective and includes the perspective of eternity. In my life I have met people who originally never thought of living outside their home country. Things changed when they fell in love with a foreigner and their perspective expanded. Not so much because of their curiosity to see the world but because of their love for the person. The love they found moved them outside the familiar shores.
If we are to find peace and heavenly joy in this world it is only when we incorporate in our living faith that is bigger than emergency department or dry philosophical argumentations. Let us pray that like that woman in front of Solomon we can display before the world the loving connection we do have with our Lord and Saviour even if things around us seem to prove the reign of darkness. Confronted with personal, family, community and world darkness we still profess “a light that darkness could not overpower” JESUS CHRIST.

            First I will read a few lines which were written after the death of a priest:
His outward being was but a shell of what he appeared to be; his inner man was quite another, living the inward life of Jesus Christ and hidden in Him, so that it was rather Jesus Christ living in Fr de Condren, than Fr de Condren living himself. He was a host on our altars; externally there are the accidents and the semblance of bread, but internally is Jesus Christ.
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! Today it is Good Shepherd Sunday and we turn in our prayers to the Lord for those He has called to minister in his Church but we also pray for new vocations to the ministry in the Church. I think that we all agree that we would like to have Church ministers like the one described at the beginning, people who are like the host on the altar, still looking like a host but being the Body of Jesus. I appreciate the thought of compering our ministers to a host because as some people can struggle to believe that it is Jesus Christ present in the host as others can struggle to believe that it is Jesus Christ present in our deacons, priests and bishops. As the earthliness of the host can leave us in difficulty believing in the Lord’s presence, as the earthliness of our ministers presents a similar challenge. However the Blessed Lord chose something as ordinary and common as food to be actively present among as. The same Lord chose not the angels to minister to us but the people whom we raise in our midst: in our families, parishes, neighbourhoods, schools, social and sport clubs, our Facebook and Snapchat friends. The people whom we equip for their future life of service with the beauty and goodness of the human nature God blessed us with but also with setbacks and sinfulness which are ‘preserved’ by us, in us and in our various communities. We may dream that the seminary should turn them into cherubim and seraphim but then they would be taken to heaven as heaven is the proper home for those pure spirits. It would leave us even with a bigger shortage of priests then we have now.
            As I was praying the readings for this Sunday I was struck, not by a seraph though, but by the Gospel which spoke about one Shepherd. The Shepherd, who as St Peter explained in the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, is the same Jesus who was crucified, the same Jesus who did lay his life for his sheep as he promised. Jesus, who also in his Resurrection, was made both Lord and Christ. Jesus, who “has come so that his sheep may have life, and have it to the full.” Maybe that’s why Jesus chose earthly ministers, who bear both the beauty and the sinfulness we all share, so that we may also remember that the source of our life, our hope, our faith and our love is in him; not in the perfect deacons, priests, bishops, popes, nuns, brothers etc.
As Christians we are people of faith but at the same time we are realistic people. We don’t expect from our Church leaders to replace God. On the contrary we can see that our secular society, where God has been denied his place, has got unrealistic expectations to have leaders who conduct themselves like God. It always leads to bitter disappointment of those who have such expectations and to a breakdown of those of whom it is expected to fill God’s shoes.
I believe that as followers of Christ we can say that as Jesus “was bearing our faults in his own body on the cross” as our ministers bear our faults, the faults of humanity, in their own bodies where the Spirit of the Risen Lords dwells as well. However as a priest I can confess that what lends me wings, not to fly away from this valley of darkness called the earth though, but to strive to be like Fr de Condren I mentioned at the beginning, is the faith of you my fellow believers. That in spite of my unworthiness and earthliness you keep coming to me to encounter the Lord. I treasure the memory of the day when an Archbishop laid his hands upon my head and consecrated me to serve God and his holy people but I also treasure and I am encouraged and challenged by the memories of the people who searching for God approached me. If I haven’t had a breakdown yet it is because of our common Christian faith and realism.