Fifth Sunday of Easter
May 18, 2025
Acts 14:21-27 | Rv 21:1-5a | Jn 13:31-33a, 34-35
As someone who is just starting mission overseas, I have contemplated where my focus should be in relation to the promised Kingdom of Heaven. I try to be a conscious advocate for social justice today, which is why I am wary of a mentality that disregards the suffering of the present, setting sight on the future Kingdom of Heaven instead. It is tempting to give up on rectifying wrongs that will never cease until they are finally and perfectly resolved at the Last Judgment. But Christ calls us as missioners to walk alongside those who are suffering, and not simply offer hope that all will be made right in the end of times.
How do we digest the Scripture readings for this week? In the first reading, Paul and Barnabas travel and tell fellow followers of the faith, “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” The goal is to bear suffering until the end. The second reading illustrates what the end of time will be like. John sees the old pass away and something new emerge: a kingdom where God dwells among the human race and there is no more pain and suffering. These readings instill hope that all suffering is temporary, and the good that comes later far exceeds the evils of now. Maybe it would be better to spread that message, of the perfect future that awaits, as far and wide as possible. In fact, why should that not that be the sole focus of our ministry?
Thank goodness for Jesus, because focusing only on the end of times is not sufficient. We are called, right now, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick, and more. In the Gospel of Saint John this Sunday, Christ commands his disciples to love, just as he loved them. Christ is not one who lives upon the mountain away from his people, but one who stoops down into our humanity and dwells among us. He is the one died, rose, and declares that we are given new life, today. We realize that the proclamations made in the second reading are not just true for what will be at the end of time — they are true now. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. And we are building it.
I have begun to realize that we are a people of active hope. How fitting a realization for this Jubilee year! Yes, there will be a time where all will be made right, and a Kingdom will come in all its glory. The suffering we see all around us right now will no longer exists, and God will be glorified. But the Kingdom of Heaven is also here and now, in the people we encounter, walk with, and love. The words Jesus spoke to his disciples are for all of us now. We fight for justice and seek to be the presence of Christ to those who suffer. We love one another, and in living out that love we build the Kingdom stone by stone. With our love we declare our hope in the One who exclaims, now and in the future, “Behold, I make all things new.”
Maryknoll Lay Missioner Joshua Sisolak, who is the son of returned Maryknoll Lay Missioner Edward Sisolak (Thailand, 1995-1999), serves in Bolivia. A recent college graduate of Notre Dame University, he worked at St. Labre Indian School in his hometown of Ashland, Montana, before joining the lay mission organization in 2024.
To read other Scripture reflections published by the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, click here.
Featured image: Maryknoll Lay Missioner Joshua Sisolak receives Communion during a Mass and sending ceremony on Dec. 7, 2024, at the Annunciation Chapel of the Maryknoll Sisters Center in Ossining, New York. (Andrea Moreno-Díaz/U.S.)
