Fr. Michael Williams

"Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice."


06th Sunday of Easter (Year C)

I only recently realised where the expression ‘Pearly Gates’ comes from: It comes from the book of the Apocalypse where the gates of heaven are described as being made of pearls! Which leads me to a pearly gates joke!

There was a man who became shipwrecked in the middle of the ocean. He was cast adrift floating on a piece of driftwood. He closed his eyes and started praying to God for the first time in years. ‘God, please get me out of this situation?’ Just then he thought he heard an airplane in the sky, but he refused to be distracted. His eyes were tightly shut and he continued to ask God for help. He continued. Just then he thought he heard a ships horn, but he refused to be distracted, and prayed ‘God, please get me out of this situation?’ Anyway the man died and went to the Pearly Gates, where he was met by St Peter. He stood before St Peter very disappointed and said, ‘When I was out in the ocean, I prayed to God to help me. I had so many plans to fulfill, but no one listened, and now I’m at the pearly gates!’ ‘Now hold on a minute!’ says St Peter, ‘We sent you and an airplane and a ship, what more did you want!’

The readings today are all about God sending. Jesus tells us that God, the Eternal Father, ‘sent me’. Earlier in St John’s gospel Jesus is even clearer about this when He says, ‘since I have my origin in God and have come from Him; I did not come of my own accord, but He sent me’ (8.42). So Jesus is sent into the world to bring people to the true knowledge of God; this why He is sent. He is sent to recover the lost sheep, which is us. Jesus continues to be sent today in many different ways. I was saying to someone recently that as a twenty year old searching for the meaning of my life, God sent me a Gideon Bible and through it He sent the Lord to me to speak to me.

Jesus goes on to say that the Father will send ‘the Advocate, the Holy Spirit in my name’. The Advocate is the counsel for our defence - our defender. Unfortunately, we do have an accuser. The Hebrew word for accuser is Satan. This fallen spirit, seeks destruction. He has had many successes. But as Our Lord says, ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid’ because we have an Advocate in Our Lord and His Spirit. And He’s constantly sending us what we require, which is not always the same as what we want.

Pope Benedict speaking of the Shroud of Turin recently said that it was a sign that ‘shows that suffering, evil and death do not have the last word…Because from death and suffering, life can spring up’. Again it’s a sign sent from God. There are so many, but so often we are not tuned into them. We are often on a different wavelength to God. We need to tune into Him more and more and allow Him to communicate Himself to us.

A couple of weeks ago I was on call for the Royal and I was called to a forty year old man

with leukemia. He wasn’t particularly religious, although his serious condition had got him thinking about God. He told me that he had a dream about the Pope who came to him and prayed with him and made the sign of the cross on his forehead. God had sent him this to strengthen him, even he wouldn’t survive this world he was sent this to strengthen his faith in the Lord, which it did. God is always sending us His graces to help us, so let us tune in and be attentive to what He is sending to us.