21 May 2025 - Wednesday of the 5th week of Easter

Acts 15:1-6; John 15:1-8 

Homily

          Having read chapter 14 of Saint John in its entirety, today we begin chapter 15, and we find once again in full evidence the theme of ‘abiding’ so often evoked in the previous chapter. ‘Abide in me, as I in you... He who abides in me, and I in him, he bears much fruit.’

Thursday, 22 May 2025 - 5th week of Easter

Acts 15:7-21; John 15:9-11

Homily

          Jesus' last recommendation to his Apostles, during the last meal He shared with them, is a call to brotherly love. In the same way, the accounts in the Acts of the Apostles that we read during this Easter Season show us how this fraternal love is lived out in concrete terms, within a community, through relationships that are not necessarily always easy. This love is even lived out at times through the resolution of conflicts.

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          The reading from the Book of Acts that we have just heard is a fine example of this. This text describes part of the deliberations of the first ecumenical council, that of Jerusalem.

   The theme of this Jerusalem Assembly was, to translate it into contemporary language, that of inculturation. The Christian faith is necessarily inculturated. It is not simply an assent of the mind to revealed truths. It is the translation of the Gospel message into everyday life.   And since the Gospel message is not addressed to isolated individuals but to a community of believers, faith necessarily has a cultural dimension. So inculturation, far from being a modern preoccupation, is an essential dimension of faith. Jesus had lived and exercised His ministry in the Jewish cultural universe. As soon as His message was transmitted to the Gentiles, the problem of inculturation became acute, right from the start; and the Acts of the Apostles describes the first solution to this problem.

          On the Day of Pentecost, the Apostles spoke to the Jews of Jerusalem and to those who had come from all parts of the Diaspora, who heard them each in their own language. It was only after the death of Stephen and the start of the first persecution that Philip, the deacon, took the Gospel to Samaria. When Paul began his preaching, he inconvenienced everyone, so much so that from Damascus he was taken by night to Jerusalem, and from Jerusalem he was sent to Tarsus where he had come from. Then Peter's vision at Joppa before his meeting with Cornelius revealed to him that the Law of Israel was outdated and could not be applied to the Gentiles, on whom the Spirit of God was also descending. Finally, when news reached Jerusalem of the marvelous results of the first evangelization in Antioch, Barnabas was sent there, where he had the brilliant idea of going to Tarsus to look for Paul, who had been sent back in a cavalier manner. The whole history of Christianity would undoubtedly have been radically different had Barnabas not taken this initiative.

          There is one final element that needs to be mentioned to complete the picture of the story we have just read. From the beginning, the head of the Church in Jerusalem was not one of the twelve Apostles, but a certain James, the Lord's brother - no doubt a cousin of Jesus - who embodied the proclamation of the Gospel to the Jews just as much as Paul embodied the proclamation to the Gentiles. We now have all the people involved. What was the problem?

          A conflict had arisen in Antioch, where Christians of Jewish origin from Jerusalem wanted to force converts from paganism to follow the Law of Moses and be circumcised. In Jerusalem, we find the Apostles around Peter, then Paul and Barnabas delegated by the Christians of Antioch, and finally the Elders of Jerusalem around James, brother of the Lord and bishop of Jerusalem. The discussion had become heated, Luke tells us in his account. It was then that Peter intervened, with all the weight that his primacy gave him. His intervention was followed by a moment of silence, and then his position was confirmed by Barnabas and Paul, who recounted the signs and wonders worked by the Spirit of God among the pagans. Yet Peter's opinion was not followed. The Assembly's final decision was not the one proposed by Peter, who did not want to impose anything on the converts from paganism; rather, it was a compromise proposed by James, halfway between Peter's position and that of the faithful from Phariseeism, who wanted to impose the application of the Law of Moses on everyone.

          This example is instructive for us all. First of all, it teaches us that discussions - even heated ones - are part of the oldest ecclesial tradition. It also teaches us that, contrary to what all fundamentalisms would have us believe, the rules of Christian life - and therefore also of monastic life - cannot be deduced in a purely logical and mathematical way from abstract principles. The art of compromise is not simply an exercise in opportunistic politics; compromise is often demanded by evangelical respect for differences.

          Let us ask the Spirit to establish and maintain this open-mindedness and sense of dialogue within our Order, each community of our Order, our Church and our Society.

Armand VEILLEUX

21 mai 2025 – Mercredi de la 5^ème semaine de Pâques

Actes 15:1-6; Jean 15:1-8

Homélie

          Après avoir lu à peu près en entier le chapitre 14 de saint Jean, nous commençons aujourd'hui le chapitre 15 et nous retrouvons en pleine évidence le thème de la "demeure" évoqué si souvent dans le chapitre précédent. "Demeurez en moi, comme moi en vous… Celui qui demeure en moi, et moi en lui, celui-là porte beaucoup de fruit."

May 20, 2025 - Tuesday of the 5th week of Easter

Acts 14:19-28; John 14:27-31a

Homily

The first reading tells us about a particularly eventful period in the apostolic ministry of Paul and Barnabas. Nothing discouraged them, even when they were subjected to violence and Paul was stoned and left for dead. If such violence was directed against them, it was precisely because not only did they refuse to use violence themselves, but they preached the Good News to everyone, without exception, thus recognising that every person has the same dignity and the same vocation as a child of God, beyond all differences.

20 mai 2025 – Mardi de la 5^ème semaine de Pâques

Actes 14:19-28; Jean 14:27-31a

Homélie

La première lecture nous raconte une période particulièrement mouvementée du ministère apostolique de Paul et Barnabé. Rien ne les décourage, même lorsqu'ils sont l'objet de violence et que Paul est lapidé et laissé pour mort. Si une telle violence s'acharne contre eux, c'est précisément que, non seulement ils refusent d'utiliser eux-mêmes la violence, mais qu'ils prêchent la Bonne Nouvelle à tous, sans exception, reconnaissant ainsi à toute personne la même dignité et la même vocation d'enfant de Dieu, au delà de toutes les différences.

18 May 2025 - 5th Sunday of Easter “C”

Acts 14:21...27; Rev 21:1-5; John 13:31...35

Homily

          Jesus' last words to his disciples at the Last Supper have rightly been called his “spiritual testament”. Jesus does not give His disciples a final set of precepts or detailed recommendations about what they should or should not do. When He says: ‘A new commandment I give you, that you love one another’, the Greek word (entolè), which we translate into French as ‘commandment’ for want of a better term, has, in John's language, a doctrinal rather than a moral or legal meaning. In this context, it is much more a question of a ‘mission’ than a commandment. The word ‘mission’ implies that we are sent by someone to achieve something (unfortunately this word ‘mission’, so rich in meaning, tends nowadays to lose its richness, being frequently used to express the goal that a group gives itself). Loving one another is the mission we have received from Jesus. And this is how people will know we are His disciples; this is how we will be His witnesses.