May 18, 2025

Fifth Sunday of Lent Cycle C

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

In 1968, a college sophomore named Kent Keith was inspired to produce a booklet on student leadership. Because it is well written and truly inspirational, it was well received, but the fame of some of what he wrote became world famous when a nun put it on the wall of her orphanage. This is what Mr. Keith titled his Paradoxical Commandments [ https://www.paradoxicalcommandments.com/ ]:

“People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway.

“If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway.

“If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.

“The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.

“Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.

“The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds. Think big anyway.

“People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

“What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.

“People really need help but may attack you if you do help them. Help people anyway.

“Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.”

As you may have guessed or maybe already knew, the nun in question is now called Saint Teresa of Calcutta. Because she was an incredibly wise woman, she recognized a great synopsis of Christian ideals and leadership challenges when she saw it. And because she was also an incredibly holy woman, she added her own lesson she drew to the bottom of the copy she hung on the wall. She added this: “You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God; it was never between you and them anyway.”

We hear this same theme from our readings. The first reading from Acts has the apostles Paul and Barnabas telling us: “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God” [Acts 14:22b NABRE]. This is nothing new. Jesus had told his disciples that “whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” [Matthew 16:24b]. No one should underestimate the challenge that Jesus gave his disciples; he asked a lot of them and by extension us as well. On the other hand, we need to square this with another statement that Jesus made to his disciples: “my yoke is easy, and my burden light” [Matthew 11:30]. These seem to also be paradoxical, that is to say holding opposite ideas to be true at the same time, a seeming impossibility. We could say that life is just like that, and this would be true enough, but we would miss a larger lesson if we stopped there. The best way to square these statements is found in today's Gospel. It is found in just one word: love.

Once again we can turn to Saint Mother Teresa for a practical example, one that has been often repeated. She was tending a person on the street who was filthy and diseased when a passerby commented, “I wouldn't do that for a million dollars.” Mother Teresa reportedly replied: “Neither would I” [ https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/02/02/what-mother-teresa-woul... ]. She never did it for the money. She did it for God. For a Christian, Jesus changes the value equation that our world puts on things. Our secular society tells us that we will gain joy and personal satisfaction based on the amount of power, money, or personal possessions that we are able to accumulate. Jesus tells us that, to be his disciples, we must show love in such a way that it is visible to others, that they will know we are Christians by our actions alone. And this is then what makes the yoke easy and the burden light: it brings the inner peace and satisfaction of knowing we are at one with the will of the Father, the example of the Son, and the prompting of the Holy Spirit. The world says that this gets you nothing. Jesus says that it gives you everything. This would have been even more clear to the apostles since today's Gospel from the evangelist John comes immediately after Jesus washes the feet of those in the upper room the night of the Last Supper. Jesus has just shown in action what he is saying now in words: service to others is love, love is service to others.

This takes us back to the first reading. It is from the Acts of the Apostles, and we see Paul and Barnabas making disciples by bringing them the good news. This is exactly what our diocese has set for a goal this year for all of the faithful of South Carolina: to bring the good news to others. In fact, this month the bishop has suggested, and one of the prayers of the faithful that we will proclaim in just a second, will be to share inspiring stories from the bible to those who might draw some inspiration from them, ultimately bringing them closer to God and the Church. We also see our parish intention for the week at work in this way. This week we pray as a parish for Catholic confraternities, those groups who organize themselves to provide service to our Church. They do this through prayers, such as the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary, or through service to the poor, such as the St. Vincent de Paul Society, or through spread of the gospel, such as the third order branches of major orders such as the Benedictines or the Franciscans. These groups carry out the mission of Jesus for service to society in various ways, and therefore are answering the call to love one another. We too are called to find what ways that God is calling us to serve our fellow human beings based on the talents that we each have been given. It may not make us a million dollars, but then again what we get from it isn't worth a million dollars. As paradoxical as it may seem, it is worth so much more than that.

As we continue with the celebration of our Mass, let our Eucharistic celebration bring us nourishment for the hardships that we will encounter living out the gospel in our daily lives. May we always remember Saint Mother Teresa's wise words that it is between us and God, and not between us and them, whoever “them” might be. It is then that we will understand the true value of service and love to one another, the priceless relationship of living out the love to God.