Fourth Sunday of Easter Year C *Alternate* First Reading and Responsive Prayer

Our call to holiness is in reality a call to obedience. The word obedience comes from the Latin obaudiens, which means “to bend the ear” or “to listen intently.” We bend an ear to the divine sounds in our lives so that we might be able to discern how God is leaning toward us, listening to us. Thus the first call is to listen. We have here a lovely icon of the divine and the human listening to each other. Imprint that image on your mind!

And to what do we listen? God listens to the longings of the human heart. We listen to an innate and ancient call to become holy. We listen to our desire to be the person God is calling us to be, in Christ. Our faithfulness to this listening is the beginning of holiness.

When we look at holiness in this way, it is easy to see that holiness is a process. For human beings this involves a journey not so unlike the exodus journey of the Hebrew people. That memorial journey, exodus, involved a moving away from slavery into freedom.

The words of Macrina Wiederkehr

On tiptoe we stand, dear Jesus,
Eagerly awaiting your full revelation
Always expecting you to come some more.

ALL: On tiptoe we stand, dear Jesus.

Our hands and hearts are open to your grace.
Our lives still waiting for the fullness of your presence.

ALL: On tiptoe we stand, dear Jesus.

We are those who have been promised a kindom, and we can never forget.
Yet we have a foot in both worlds and so we stumble.

ALL: On tiptoe we stand, dear Jesus.

But still we stand on tiptoe. Owning our kindom-loving hearts
And our earth-eyes, we lean forward and hope – this Easter Season.

ALL: On tiptoe we stand, dear Jesus.