Fifth Sunday of Easter (2024)

This is a great story about Joseph, who is a Masai Warrior,

One day, Joseph was walking along a hot, dusty African road when he met someone who shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with him.

Right then and there, he accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior. The power of the Spirit began transforming his life.

Filled with such excitement and joy, he felt compelled to return to his village and share the good news with his own tribe.

Joseph began going from door to door, telling everyone he met about the Cross, its suffering, and the salvation it offered.

He expected their faces to light up as his had, but to his amazement, the villagers not only didn't care, but they became violent.

The men of the village seized him and held him to the ground while the women beat him with strands of barbed wire.

He was dragged away and left to die alone in the bush.

Somehow, Joseph managed to crawl to a water hole.

After days of passing in and out of consciousness, he found the strength to stand.

He wondered about the hostile reception he had received from people he had known all his life.

Deciding he must have said something wrong or left something out of the story of Jesus, he rehearsed his message and resolved to go back and share it again.

Joseph limped into the circle of huts and began to proclaim Jesus.

“He died for you so that you might find forgiveness and come to know the living God,” he pleaded.

Again, the men of the village grabbed him and held him while the women beat him, reopening wounds that had just begun to heal. Once more, they dragged him unconscious from the village and left him to die.

To have survived the first beating was remarkable.

To live through the second was a miracle.

Days later, Joseph awoke in the wilderness – bruised and scarred, but determined to return.

However, this time the villagers attacked him before he even had the chance to open his mouth.

As they flogged him for the third and possibly final time, he spoke, “Jesus Christ the Lord.”

Before he passed out, the last thing he saw was the women who were beating him begin to weep.

This time he awoke in his own bed.

Those who had so severely beaten him were now trying to save his life and nurse him back to health.

The entire village came to Christ.

Joseph found so much joy – not simply from following Jesus, but from abiding in Him. In His Word, in His love, fulfilling the commandments was no a burden. It appeared naturally and organically, changing his life totally.

In the Gospel, we read: "Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.

So let me ask this first question: What does it mean to abide in Jesus?

What is the meaning? “Abide in me and I in you”.

There are clear words.

But what do they mean? “Abide in me”—seems like a strange thing for one person to say another.

How many times do you walk up to a friend and say, “Hey, abide in me, and I in you”?

Obviously, it’s some kind of metaphor, here, but what does it refer to?

In Greek, "abide" is the word “menó”—meaning “to remain, to stay, to continue in.” So this is a picture, at least, of staying in close proximity.

But more to the point, and as the vine-branches metaphor suggests, Jesus is talking, here, not just about close proximity—we all know that Judas had that.

Jesus is talking about a vital connection, a living connection, a vital spiritual union with Christ.

That's what this gospel is about: abiding means union with Jesus. That kind of union transforms us internally.

I will give you an example. My best friend, since he was 12, started to smoke. I could not, because of my asthma. When we were in high school, many times I talked to him about how he was just wasting his health, his money, etc.

What do you think, did it work?

Nope. But he stopped smoking in a very short time when he fell in love with a girl, who is his wife today. Logical arguments didn’t work, but his connection with her transformed him.

The same holds true for all of us: the rules and commandments we have as Catholics can seem like mere traffic regulations until we are abiding in Jesus.

When we are in union with Jesus, those rules become more than just restrictions; they become gifts that protect us and help us to grow.

His WORD - does not fear us anymore - it make us to share it with others, like Joseph.

"Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me." (John 15:4)