• Home
• >
• News & Events
• >
• News Articles
• >
• 2025
• >
• May
• >
• 5/4 Bishop Homily 3rd Sunday of Easter
• >

News Articles

Bishop's Homily for the Third Sunday of Easter

May 4, 2025

(Davizro Photography / Shutterstock.com)

Homily of the Most Reverend Larry Silva, Bishop of Honolulu
[St. John Vianney Church, Kailua (with Rite of Institution of Lector for Seminarian Deepak Bobbarala)]

As we celebrate the Rite of Institution of Lector today for our seminarian, Deepak Bobbarala, I recall a lector at one of the parishes where I was pastor.  She went up to do the reading one day from the Prophet Isaiah, and this is what it sounded like:  [extremely blandly]  “The Lord has given me a well-trained tongue that I might speak to the weary a word that would rouse them.”  [Snore!]  I decided I needed to do something about this.  I spent some time with her, coaching her to give a little more expression to the reading, but to no avail.  I thought about asking her to do some other ministry and to no longer serve as a lector, but I decided not to do that.  She was well known in the parish as a very humble and holy woman, and even though her reading skills were in need of much improvement, everyone knew that she knew and loved the Word of God and understood it not just as words on a page but as a person, the Word of God who became flesh for us.  This loving encounter with Jesus in her life was something that everyone knew and admired, so she continued to proclaim the Word of God.

I have to admit that when I was the pastor of a parish, I was tempted to run things more efficiently.  First of all, lectors have to be trained and scheduled, and sometimes they just don’t show up or are late.  Sometimes they do not articulate very well, do not project their voices enough, or seriously mispronounce words.  (As on the Epiphany when the reading referred to “dromedaries,” which are camels, and the lector read, “dormitories”!)  I always thought it would be much more efficient to have a professional speaker record the reading, and then, at the proper time, play the recording.  Of course, I never gave in to this temptation, because there is something more important than technical excellence.  It is not some dead letter that is being proclaimed, but the living Word of God, who is the risen Jesus himself, and it can be more effectively proclaimed when the lector is someone who knows the Good Shepherd, can say that they love him, and know that the Word takes flesh in others by the example of the one who proclaims the Word.

Sometimes relationships are more important than mere skills, though skills are important.  This principle can be applied in many areas of life.  I think of my mother’s chocolate chip cookies.  They were really good, but it is possible you could have found better cookies in a bakery, but these cookies were made with love, and you could almost taste that love.  I think of a gas station I used to frequent, not because it was closer to home or because the prices were lower, but because the staff was always so friendly and obviously enjoyed what they were doing.

We see the seven disciples of Jesus going fishing.  At least three of them were professional fishermen, Peter and the sons of Zebedee, James and John.  Yet despite their superior skills, they caught nothing all night long.  But when Jesus enters the picture, everything changes, and they are literally overwhelmed by the results.

Then we see this beautiful scene of the risen Jesus, sitting with Peter, who had denied him three times.  He wants to entrust him with the task of feeding the lambs and tending the sheep of his holy Church.  But he speaks nothing of the skills that are needed to do this task.  Instead he asks, three times, “Do you love me?”  That is the most important quality for Jesus.  And because of this expression of his love, we then see Peter not just catching fish in a net, but catching men and women with the Word of God.  It was a Word he knew intimately and personally.  It was a Word he proclaimed fearlessly, even rejoicing that he suffered for the sake of the name of Jesus.  Yes, I am sure he developed preaching skills and pastoral skills as he went along, but the skills were only effective because of his love for Jesus.

Here we are, invited to breakfast with Jesus this morning.  Here we experience his love, and we bond with him in love by taking into ourselves his very Body and Blood.  We all go forth from here with different responsibilities.  Some will need skills to be good spouses or parents; others will need abilities to be good and faithful citizens of our land; others will need skills to contribute positively through our professions.  It is this experience that is the ground for all we do, not only to build the skills we need for proclaiming the Word wherever we go, but most of all for expressing and renewing again and again our love for Jesus, who is the Living Word of God.