HOMILY OF YEAR B 5TH SUNDAY OF EASTER
HOMILY THEME: “REMAIN IN ME”
BY: Fr. Justus Oruma
(a) Remain in me”, Jesus calls on all the faithful. This call even today meets us well and very topical to our time as we see how some people abandon their faith and return to paganism, and naturalism; or return to a “tradition” which unfortunately rejects and abandons the Faith in Christ. The rejection and abandonment of Christ did not start with our time. Even as Christ was preaching and doing good among the people, He was rejected and made mockery of. Some of his disciples even “unfollowed” Him. To all the faithful, Jesus Christ calls, “remain in me”
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(b) When Christ calls on his faithful to remain in Him, it means He is aware of the challenges which could come in form of false teachings, deceptions, persecutions, mockeries, doubts of the faith and disappoints in life which have the tendency of making us to leave and abandon the Faith. St Paul in Romans 8 asks; “what can separate us from the Christ… neither hight nor depth, neither principalities nor powers, neither persecutions or doubts…” Christ call us to remain in Him despite the challenges
(c) The act of Remaining is a virtue of patience and which depicts Faith. This virtue of “remaining” is usually from the both sides. Just as the disciples from Emmaus prayed to Christ, “remain with us O Lord”, Christ prays on us today, “remain in me”. That is why Christ brought the both sides together, “If you remain in me, I will remain in you” We remain in Christ through keeping His Words. He who remains is present. This speaks of the presence of God in us by the indwelling, “I will remain in you”. “If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit”. In this presence there is joy in full. This is one of the fruits, another is the peace of the soul, etc. but the greatest of the fruits is God’s presence in us, dwelling in us and radiating in and through us. The fruits meant here are not necessarily the worldly fortunes but the fruits of the Holy Spirit and God remaining in us. There is nothing greater than this. “Remain in me for cutt-off from me, you can do nothing”
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