5th Sunday of Easter, C May 18, 2025
Baccalaureate Mass
Fr. Alexander Albert St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville
“Nobody’s gonna know. Nobody’s gonna know. They’re gonna know. How would they know?” A few years ago, that little exchange became something of a trend on social media. People are still using it to make funny clips. So, let’s imagine for a moment that’s how today’s gospel plays out. Jesus is telling the apostles he’s about to leave them. He’s going to be “glorified;” the “glory” he’s talking about, by the way, is him being crucified and raised from the dead. After that, however, he’s going ascend into heaven and will no longer be physically present on earth. You can almost imagine the disciples worrying about that. If Jesus is gone, nobody’s gonna know! Nobody is gonna know that God became man, that he forgives sins, that he has given us this incredible gift of friendship and union with him. We’re disciples of God himself, but no one will know that because they won’t see you!
And what’s Jesus say? They’re gonna know. The disciples ask, “How would they know?” “This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” In the original video, the joke is that you don’t want other people to know whatever it is you’re doing. In this example, though, it’s the opposite. We do want people to know we’re following Jesus. But if people can’t see where Jesus is going, if they can’t see him, if they can’t see heaven, if they can’t see the path to heaven that Jesus is leading us on, how in the world will they know that we’re following him? If we have love for one another.
That’s your mission dear graduates. All of us, that’s our mission, to let people know we’re disciples of Jesus Christ, to let people know that “God’s dwelling is with the human race,” as the second reading from the book of Revelation puts it. In the first reading, we see Paul and Barnabas do exactly that. They “proclaimed the good news… and made a considerable number of disciples.” How? I don’t think it’s an accident that they are listed together in this verse.
I think that, too often, people picture evangelization like a lone wolf, special agent type of thing. Jesus by himself before a crowd; the one guy standing on a street corner preaching; the pastor in the pulpit; the author of books and articles about faith; the one-on-one arguments that change minds… as if these are the primary way of making disciples. Don’t get me wrong, every single one of those things is part of how we evangelize and they can be powerful expressions of faith. For those to be successful, however, they cannot stand alone. People might hear, watch, or read what they say, but they’ll also watch how they live and if what they live is not compelling, then their words will be mostly sterile.
Jesus sent his disciples two-by-two to evangelize despite the fact they wouldn’t have enough time to reach every town. In his final speech to the apostles before he dies, what does Jesus tell them to do? Wash each other’s feet and share a meal of his flesh and blood. It’s about love, it’s about communion. To be a disciple of Jesus Christ is not just a list of good things to do and believe, it is a network of relationships. Don’t be lazy about this! Relationships can also do a lot of harm, especially when they’re based on sin and abuse and greed. But if they are relationships of genuine love? People can quite literally see God in them.
St. Paul was an excellent writer, but he was apparently not very impressive in person. Yet he converted so many! How? Because he was always loving other disciples. Barnabas and Timothy and Titus and Aristarchus and Luke and Mark and Priscilla and Aquila and so many more. His love for them and their love for him was the real power.
That requires the love to be genuine! Not love as in “you make me feel good.” Not love as in “my biology forces me to care about you.” Not love as in “you’ve done good things for me.” No the love that we call agape, that we call charity. Love that means “to will the good of the other.” Love… charity is the choice, the habit, the virtue of choosing what is objectively good for another person regardless of whether or not that directly benefits me. It’s even greater when that love costs me something, like it did Jesus on the cross. That’s love, y’all. That’s the kind of love that creates relationships that means “they’re gonna know” about Jesus and his disciples.
You graduates… you’re about to embark on an important part of life, taking the next step deeper into what it means to be an adult who participates in the world. Most of you are stepping out of a vast network of relationships that have practically defined your life for the past several years. There are many things to do, to learn, to prepare for… out of all the things I could urge you not to forget, this is the one I think God is asking me to proclaim: love one another. Really, all of us would do well to examine your lives in the light of this command.
Do not go it alone. Yes, it’s good to enjoy some of the freedom and independence that comes from maybe getting out of your parents house or no longer answering to the tight bell schedule of high school, but you need other people and other people always come with some strings attached, some burdens and demands on your schedule.
I don’t mean you should desperately hang onto friends who will drift away. You’re going to lose touch with some people… every one goes through times when some relationships fade away – loss is part of life. If you can hold on to some that you have now, great! Even if you can’t, do not forget to look for people to love like Jesus and for people who are willing to love you like Jesus. Yes, common interests and hobbies are important, but is there also someone in your life who can call you out on your sin because they love you enough to want you to be better? Do you look for ways to inspire faith in the people around you and look for people who sincerely help to inspire faith in you? There are a lot of fakers and manipulators in the world, but true disciples of Jesus do exist. Find them. Love them. Let them love you.
I’ll tell you a good place to start: a church parish; maybe a college campus ministry or what we call a “church movement.” Most of you have primarily experienced “church” through youth ministry and special events designed for you. That won’t work anymore… or at least not for very long. It’s time to start looking at your church parish as something you commit to rather than as a service-provider. A church parish is not Walmart, Amazon, or some restaurant that you judge by how satisfied you are with their “product.” You don’t… or shouldn’t treat family that way and a Church parish is your spiritual family. St. Paul once fought with St. Peter. St. Mark literally wrote a gospel and Paul fought with him too. Yet St. Paul never stopped being one of the Apostles.
If you only ever expect the Church to prove itself to you, you’ll have a very hard time finding the kind of love Jesus asks of us. We’re going to mess up, we’re going to hurt you – that’s part of being a family, but don’t forget we literally killed Jesus and he just came on back to keep loving us. It’ll take time to get there and we absolutely should do our best to demonstrate Jesus’ love to you first, but part of being an adult disciple of Jesus is striving to love like him anyway. The truth is that, despite our flaws, there are already people in almost every parish who love like that… who will love you like that even when you hurt them. But if you just run away after a bad experience, leave a negative review, and keep looking for faith like it’s the perfect hamburger and you may never know what it is. Love one another… love the Church and be loved by the Church like Jesus… and then they’re gonna know… you’re gonna know who Jesus really is.