Greater Ones Than These

Fifth Sunday of Easter

By Rev. Joe McCloskey, S.J.

Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father. John 14:12

Piety

Come to him, a living stone, rejected by human beings but chosen and precious in the sight of God, and, like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 2:4-5

Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/042008.shtml

Whom do you see when you look at me? What a question to ask when you have been around someone for a couple of years. Christ told Philip that when he saw him, he was seeing the Father. Does anyone see Christ when they see me? How much do I trust Christ? When he says “Amen, amen, I say to you,” I know he is saying something important. And when I read that in the Scriptures, I know that Christ’s actual words are coming.

These are direct quotes from the teaching of Christ. He is challenging us today to believe in him. If we do, he says “whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father.” He is giving us permission to dream the impossible dreams. We do not have great enough expectations for the most part. Piety is the closeness to Christ we have. How much Christ do our friends see in us? Those greater than Christ works we do are sorely lacking in our world that has such incredible cruelty and lack of concern for brother and sister nations.

We need to take a good look at the world about us and begin to study where our contributions to a better world need to be made. Looking closely at Christ in our study challenges us to become what we see.

Action

Christ is willing to be all of us. How much a Christ am I willing to become? Knowing what others are reading and being impacted on by from their reading, gives me a good reason to study the same things. We need to learn from each other.

Our actions fall short of what is the need of Christ in our lives by those around us. We are a “Chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own” and we need to live up to our destiny in Christ. He needs to be our “way, truth and life” and thus we will be able to come to the Father. Our Apostolic actions need to be Christ-centered. We can not do it all. Like the Apostles we need to pray over our friends and call them to share in the work we are doing to make Christ an important part of our world. Then the number of Cursillistas will increase greatly and our work will be made easier. There are spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Christ and we too can be cornerstones by the people we invite to share our work in Christ. There are many dwelling places in the kingdom of God and there is a place for all of our friends if we are to live our Cursillo to its utmost.