Homily for the 5th Sunday of Easter

There is a story about a woman who attended a parish retreat. One of the evenings, the topic was forgiveness.

At the beginning of that evening, everyone attending was given a beautiful rock. At the end of the evening, everyone could walk up to the front of the church and place their rock in a basket. It was a way to signify that they were forgiving everything and everyone negatively affecting their life.

Well, this woman couldn't do that that evening. Instead, she kept that rock in her desk drawer at work every day for the next year and a half.

She was struggling to forgive herself for one of her past sins. She had gone to confession and spoken to her priest, but she just kept beating herself up. She couldn't understand how she could have committed this sin. She kept wondering how God could really forgive her. Through all these months, she kept praying and trying to trust God.

Finally, one Friday afternoon, she was sitting at her desk praying yet again when a voice in her head said, "Go to confession again tomorrow." So she did: She poured everything out, received some comforting words from the priest, and, for some inexplicable reason, emerged from the confessional feeling like a new person.

The moment of grace had arrived.

She got in her car, drove to the nearby beautiful riverfront, took that rock out of her purse, and threw it into the river as far as she could.

Finally, after 18 months of spiritual battle, she had received the grace to let go of her guilt and fully accept God's mercy and forgiveness.

We are all like St. Paul, full of rough edges that God is gradually polishing down. If we become impatient, we will only get in His way and may even give up on Him altogether.

But being patient doesn't mean we just sit around and twiddle our thumbs. In today's Gospel, Jesus makes it clear that we have to do our part for our lives to bear the fruit He wants them to bear.

One key way to do that is through loving obedience to God's will. St. John refers to this in today's Second Reading: "Children, let us not love one another in word or in speech, but in deed and truth."

It's easy to say pretty words and talk about being a good Catholic. But that talk has to translate into actions and the strength of virtues, into honesty, purity, faithfulness, courage, self-sacrifice, and obedience to Church teaching. Otherwise, we are no better than actors on a stage, making a show out of looking like Christ's followers but not really following Christ.

This loving obedience to God, our wise and all-powerful Father, in big things and little things, is the surest sign of humility, and humility is the shortcut to holiness, wisdom, and lasting happiness.