April 28th, 2024 - Fifth Sunday of Easter

In today’s gospel Jesus lays out a basic spiritual principle for every one of his followers, including us. He says: “remain in me, as I remain in you.” Remaining in Jesus is a 24/7 challenge -- with all the temptations we face, all the conflicting emotions we feel, all the distractions that grab our attention, all the complicated situations that come our way. The First Letter of John has some good advice for us who want to remain in Jesus, and help others do the same. “Love in deed and in truth and not merely talk about it.” One of the recurring, insidious sins in our spiritual life is hypocrisy -- when our actions contradict our words, when our appearance says one thing and our performance says another, when our mouths speak platitudes and our behavior does not measure up.  Our lives need to be properly aligned, because our actions need to match our words.