The Word Of Peace
Homiletic Reflections On Peacemaking

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti

Fifth Sunday of Easter

John 14:1-12

The great composer Puccini wrote the operas " La Boheme and Madame Butterfly". It was during his battle with terminal cancer in 1922 that he began to write " Turandoe ", which many now consider his best work!

He worked on the score day and night, despite his friends advice to rest, and to save his energy. When his sickness worsened, Puccini said to his disciples, " If I don't finish Turandoe, I want you to finish it." He died in 1924, leaving his work unfinished.

His disciples gathered all that was written of " Turandoe ", studied it in great detail, and then proceeded to write the remainder of the opera.

The world premier was performed in the La Scala Opera House in Milan, Italy in 1926, and it was conducted by Arturo Toscanini, Puccini's favorite student. The opera went beautifully until Toscanini came to the end of the part written personally by Puccini. He stopped the music, put down the baton, turned to the audience, and announced:

" Thus far the Master wrote, but he died."

There was a long pause; no one moved. Then Toscanini picked up the baton, turned to the audience, and, with tears in his eyes, announced:

" But his disciples finished his work."

Philip, one of Jesus' disciples asked Jesus to show him the Father. Jesus' seems to be, at first, stunned by this question. His response is direct. " I have been with you all this time and still you do not know me ?" This small episode in John's gospel can catch us up short!  We too want to see the Father of Jesus Christ. We hear this even in a song by the singer, Sting, when he states: " If the Father of Jesus really exists, then why does he never come here?"  Jesus answers such questions by pointing out to Philip to look at the things Jesus has done. To listen to his words, to accept his company!  In Jesus' day it was understood that to look at a son was to see something of the father. This was especially true when the father and the son enjoyed a close bond. Therefore, to look at Jesus is to see the reflection of the Father on the face of his Son! It is to see the Father in Jesus' tender of forgiveness, his compassion for the oppressed and suffering, and his righteous anger over injustice ! Maybe Philip's question arises from what he may have expected God's Son to be like. Clearly the first letter of Peter points out the sense of the incomprehensibility that struck the people of Jesus' time concerning his ministry. " This is not at all what we expected !" We wanted a military Messiah of royal power--instead we get a crucified carpenter?

The point is well-taken, God acts in forms that are unexpected by many. In so doing, in Jesus, the cornerstone of the Kingdom, God reveals that this world, and our lives will transformed only by the power of a love that surrenders itself completely for others. Only a love that can embrace even the executioners is the power of the redeeming Christ--the reflection of the Father!

I Peter spells the meaning of this out for the Church. The letter's central concern is that all of the baptised are called to imitate Christ in this world. This imitation takes the form of suffering for others, especially when this suffering is apparently unmerited ! In doing this we help to reveal, make present, Jesus in our world. By this we reflect the Father in our faithfulness to Jesus Christ. The work of the Church in the world is to finish with the Living Master the work of the Kingdom of God. In Acts we see that the Apostles needed help in carrying out this work. So they appointed others to meet the needs of the community in appointing 7 deacons. They would be responsible for the serving the needs of the community, and bringing the needs of the poor and oppressed before the congregation. All of this patterned on the sacrificial model of Jesus himself. While deacons were officially appointed to certain tasks they were to serve as a model of Jesus' invitation to all the baptised to imitate him in the concrete situations of life. To imitate his way in the midst of the world his disciples live in at the time!

For parents it means a life of service to their children, the community and to the global family. It means providing as secure a home, community and world as possible, suitable for honoring each child as created in God's image. For teachers it means nourishing students with what they need to live and something to live for. For politicians it means sacrifices personal ambition to serve the common good, especially as it pertains to the poor and marginalized in this world. For the Church as a whole it means the willingness to risk to serve others. To be a community that truly imitates Jesus Christ in the meeting the demands and needs of the sometimes dangerous and demanding world. In so doing, the Church becomes an effective sign of Jesus' presence, nearness--attracting others to join our ranks!

Jesus summons us today to complete the work with him that he started in his ministry. In so doing, in imitation of his life and death of service and sacrifice the world will come to know the Son and see the reflect of the Father. The question of Philip and Sting will be given a convincing answer!

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti, D. Min.
Uploaded January 14, 2000