(For the audio version of this blog, please visit: https://brothersinchristcmf.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Mass-Blog-for-the-6th-Sunday-of-Easter-2026.mp3)
Imagine geography being redefined for us this Sixth Sunday of Easter. The visible world is no longer a planet, but a soulless state of mind. Its cities are boundaries in search of something worthy to fill them. And the populations claiming those boundaries embrace their empty world, mistaking it for the ultimate source of fulfillment. But in truth, the Spirit this world’s slaves crave can only become visible and attainable once their world’s delusion of grandeur is diminished to reveal the real thing.
Even Phillip, the disciple who in John’s Gospel asked Jesus to show him the real thing in the form of God the Father, had to be chastised into realizing that he was already in His presence. Then, through God the Son’s power, he and his brothers in Christ would share God the Spirit with the world via words and works that Samaria’s boundaries could never contain and the evil spirits haunting it could no longer bear.
“With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip when they heard it and saw the signs he was doing,” our first reading from Acts tells us (Acts 8:5-8, 14-17). “For unclean spirits, crying out in a loud voice, came out of many possessed people, and many paralyzed or crippled people were cured.”
Peter gives this process a name in our second reading (1 Peter 3:15-18): Sanctification. It happens within the boundaries of one’s heart then bursts through it to reveal the otherworldly truth of God’s Word to this World.
“Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts,” Peter advises. “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope.”
But the truth can hurt, as proven by the exodus of the unclean spirits exposed to it in the cities and towns through which Peter and the apostles traveled. That’s why Peter reminds us to be ready to face those evil spirits who stick around to inflict the same suffering on us that they once did on Jesus during his passion and death.
Once.
“For Christ also suffered for sins once,” Peter concludes, “the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous, that he might lead you to God. Put to death in the flesh, he was brought to life in the Spirit.”
Jesus sent his Spirit to the apostles so they could rise above a world whose capital is death. That Same Spirit is offered today to this world’s citizens—many of whom couldn’t find eternal life if they had an Atlas. That’s because the only Atlas that will show it to them is called a Bible—a reference book they can’t understand. If they did, they’d joyfully accept the promise Christ gave his apostles in John’s gospel (John 14:15-21):
“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows him. But you know him, because he remains with you, and will be in you.”
Within you is God’s capital: His Kingdom. It’s invisible to a world that worships facades—artificially beautiful surfaces hiding truths it finds ugly. It’s up to us to replace our world’s facades with the face of God. The more of us who do that wherever we go, the more familiar God will become to this world and the faster His Kingdom will replace it. How will we know when we’re there? When God’s will is the will of the world.
Jesus concludes:
“On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me.”
Look to your heart. Has his Kingdom come?
–Tom Andel