This Sermon is prepared by

Rev.Fr.Peter Jayakanthan sss
Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament
Corpus Christi Catholic Church,
Houston, Texas, US



ஞாயிறு மறையுரைகள்

மதிப்பிற்குரிய அருட்பணியாளர்களே, துறவிகளே, அருட் கன்னியரே, உங்கள் ஞாயிறு மறையுரைகளை எமது இணையத்தளத்தின் ஆன்மீக வலத்தில் பிரசுரித்து, ஆண்டவர் இயேசுவின் நற்செய்தியை எல்லோருக்கும் அறிவிக்க விரும்பினால், info@tamilcatholicnews.com என்ற எமது மின்னஞ்சலுக்கு உங்களுடைய ஆக்கங்களை அனுப்பிவைக்கவும். உங்கள் மறையுரைகள் உலகெங்கும் இருக்கும் அனைத்து தமிழ் உள்ளங்களையும் சென்றடையும்.



இதோ! ஓநாய்களிடையே ஆடுகளை அனுப்புவதைப்போல நான் உங்களை அனுப்புகிறேன். எனவே பாம்புகளைப்போல முன்மதி உடையவர்களாகவும் புறாக்களைப்போலக் கபடு அற்றவர்களாகவும் இருங்கள்.
(மத்தேயு 10:16)

நீங்கள் போய் எல்லா மக்களினத்தாரையும் சீடராக்குங்கள்; தந்தை, மகன், தூய ஆவியார் பெயரால் திருமுழுக்குக் கொடுங்கள். நான் உங்களுக்குக் கட்டளையிட்ட யாவையும் அவர்களும் கடைப்பிடிக்கும்படி கற்பியுங்கள். இதோ! உலக முடிவுவரை எந்நாளும் நான் உங்களுடன் இருக்கிறேன்
(மத்தேயு 28:19-20)

நீ அவற்றை உன் பிள்ளைகளின் உள்ளத்தில் பதியுமாறு சொல். உன் வீட்டில் இருக்கும்போதும், உன் வழிப்பயணத்தின் போதும், நீ படுக்கும்போது, எழும்போதும் அவற்றைப் பற்றிப் பேசு.
(இணைச்சட்டம் 6:7)








5th Sunday of Easter

My network….Is connected…. To HIM…….!

Acts9: 26-31; 1Jn3:18-24; Jn15: 1-8

Dear sisters, Brothers and Children, I welcome you to participate and celebrate in today’s Eucharistic Celebration. We shall bring our experiences and expectations and offer these at the altar along with bread and wine, that they may be transformed into the ever strengthening grace of Our Lord, with the Eucharistic presence of Our Lord. Our Sunday Eucharist connects us with the Lord, with all our community members and with the whole Church. We witness through our community involvement that we belong to Him. We pray that our children, and the broken and troubled, that they may abide with the Lord and bear fruit. Realizing the importance of our community, we must identify the worldly challenges that claim our time and purposes of communication.

“Choose Your Network…. it is connected 24 hours, 24-7, 367 days, and you can travel anywhere… we stay with you, we remain with you and we are connected to whole world.” This is the attracting advertisement wherein we are drawn to choose our network connection because we want to be connected…always. We seek this connection not to stay in touch with our loved ones, rather mostly to remain with Google, to belong to you tube and to abide with Face Book.

I was asked to support a family whose 14 year old son went into a coma because of a viral fever. In spending time with his parents, they expressed their feelings of guilt for not checking early with his suffering with long days of sickness. I was shocked to hear why the three siblings were so broken and feeling guilty; they said that they had not called him for the past eight months. Failing to be in connection is denying the sense of belonging. A recent medical study reveals that a person’s steady and smooth recovery after a major surgery partly depends on the presence of the family members in the process.

The readings tell us that we can be connected to our loved ones and our friends happily and gratefully only when we remain with the Lord… only when we are connected to the Lord. The Gospel passage is part of five chapters of Jesus’ Farewell Speech; these are John13-17. John is the only Evangelist who communicated this long discourse of Jesus from the Upper Room. Jesus expresses His intimacy with the Father and reveals His intimacy with His beloved disciples. The seven “I Am” sayings: “I Am the Way, the Truth and the Light”

“I Am the Gate”
“I Am the Resurrection and Life”
“I Am the Good Shepherd”
“I Am the Bread of Life”
“I Am the Vine”
“I am the light of the world”
tell us how Jesus identifies with the Father that He is from the Father and He is the Fulfillment, He is the Promised One and He is The Messiah connected to Father.

Secondly, Jesus discloses His intimacy with the disciples, calling them to abide, to remain and stay with Him. It is an invitation to be connected to Him at all times in order to bear fruit. The Greek word for remain is “menon,” meaning to live and to abide. This intimacy is called “emcinan.” Jesus did not want them to be isolated, or ever be disunited and divided. Knowing the disconnection of Judas and foreseeing the post-Ascension fear and anxieties of the Apostles, Jesus felt the need at the Upper Room, to offer this encouraging and supporting word of bearing fruits only when we are connected to Him.

How does He explain this connection, the sense of belonging and remaining with Him? People in the Middle East possessed fig trees, olive trees and vines in their gardens and orchards. The expressions of vine and vineyard are common in Old Testament: Isaiah5, The Song of the Vineyard; Jeremiah5:10, 12:10, Vine of Judah; Ezekiel15:1-8, 17:1-8, 19:10-14, Useless Vines; and Psalm 80, Restoring Israel. So far, the concept of vine was used negatively to show the unfaithfulness of Israel. The vine-dresser was the father and Israel was the vine. God the Father liberated them, made the Covenant offering land and prosperity. Prophets, leaders, kings and Judges were sent to guide and lead the People of God, but they went astray, following false gods and thus bearing bad fruits. They did not remain, they failed to stay and abide with the Lord of Yahweh. So Jesus affirms that He is the True Vine, always abiding with the Father and wanting to be connected to His disciples and us.

If you look at the vine orchard, the branches are woven round the vine; the branches are inextricably wound around one another. As the vine grows, its young green tendrils grasp and cling to other branches for support. Gradually the twisted branches grow entangled while producing grape sized fruits. There is intimacy and there is connectedness. The branches receiving water and minerals from the main trunk, they transport food prepared in the leaves to the main trunk and to the roots. Jesus wants this type of intimacy and connectedness to bear fruits of Good News throughout the world. John is writing this almost at the end of First Century (90 AD), facing the challenges of Jews, Greeks and Gentiles; he recalls this great Farewell Discourse of Jesus and assures that they were able to bear fruit because they abided with Him. If we remain with Him, He will prune our branches without leaving us at any time.

We have Paul in the first reading, who cries out the need to belong to this new community of Christians. He wanted to be part of the family of disciples. The disciples hesitated to accept him because Paul was known as a religious terrorist who visited synagogues and killed Christians. Paul shares his experience of conversion, how he was touched by Christ, and the way he became connected with Him as he ministered in Damascus. He was then accepted into their family in Jerusalem, and was then sent to Tarsus to proclaim the Gospel, because of the emerging threat for his life in Jerusalem.

The image of the vine also helps us to understand the unity of the Church. St. Paul explains that we are Christ's Mystical Body in which all the members are intimately united with the head and united to one another (1 Cor 12:12-26; Rom 12:4-5; Eph 4: 15-16). When Pope St. John Paul II was in his last painful moments of his life in bed, there were various comments about his inactive and immobile situation. He then said, “I am touching Jesus and connected with Jesus.” His funeral service was an historical one, where highest numbers of world leaders attended; because since He remained with Jesus and lived connected with Christ, he was able to bring so many to Jesus to bear fruit. Blessed Mother Teresa said, “I know I am touching the Living Body of Christ in the broken bodies of the hungry and the suffering.”

Eucharist, sacraments, community involvement and reaching out to those in need will sustain my connection with the Lord, with community and with the whole church. Christ, the Eternal Vine, supports and sustains us in our ability to bear fruit, growing in divine love and in our ascent toward heaven. The Vine of the Gospel reaches out to all humanity to become grafted onto Christ, who gives Himself to become our Food of Love, our Drink of Eternal Life, blessed gifts of Truth and Light. As we belong to Him, He calls us, He calls me to be His presence to others, offering them a sense of belonging to someone in my community. Is there someone I could help become connected to the Lord, offer my time and presence to? If our Network connection only leads us to Google and other worldly interests, but keep us isolated from our loved ones, let us open our hearts to The Promised One who leans in to our lives, and offers us our only eternal connection. To bear fruits of fulfillment, peace and sharing, let us remain, stay and abide with Him-Amen.