Being the Reason for your Hope: The Sixth Sunday of Easter 2026

                                            Being the Reason for your Hope:

The Sixth Sunday of Easter 2026 

May 10, 2026

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Acts 8:5-17; Psalm 66; 1 Peter 3:15-18; John 14:15-21

 

The readings let us know of the coming and power of the Holy Spirit. It is easy for us to dismiss the significance of the conversion of the Samaritans. This was a major event for they were a people at odds with the Jews from earliest days. Philip showed great courage to go to a hostile land to bring the message of Jesus and it was astonishing that they said “yes.” We have to realize the Holy Spirit is at work in places that we do not see. This is one reason Popes Francis and Leo asked Jesuits to go to the frontiers.

 

In the second reading, Saint Peter tells people to “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for the reason for your hope…” Let us keep in mind an important subtlety. It is in your being. It is in the way your live your life. It is not what you say but how you are that invites people to ask this question of you. In other words, they are asking, “Why are you happy? How can I trust in God like you do?” “What is it that you see and know because I want what you have.”

 

It is important for us to realize that the answer is not in what we say. It is not what we assert as our ideas and opinions. It is the way you encourage trust and give people space to be natural around you. Your way of being tells people that they are heard in your presence, even before they speak. 

 

The Church today is evolving its style of being. Priests, pastors, and laypeople must be able to receive the questions, struggles, tensions and objectives of others. They have to be able to receive each other with gentleness and reverence. We sometimes see differences in parish styles. Some pastors create an atmosphere of collaboration and stewardship while others create a version of worship and liturgy that represents their particular belief system. To an observer, one way seems open and the other closed.

 

The Church’s adopted style is one of listening. The proclamation of the Gospel cannot be done without listening. Real dialogue is not being silent and waiting until it is your turn to speak; Real dialogue allows you to be changed by what you hear. To become a church known for gentleness and reverence, as Peter suggests, means showing real strength. Some see gentleness as meekness or being weak. It is a power whose strength is realized at a later time. Being gentle suggests restraints where a person holds back the impulse to correct, to fix, or to win. Being reverent suggests seeing the person in front of you as a saint and a holy person of dignity. We are able to see each person’s story as unique, interesting, and surprising even with one’s suffering and wounds. We cannot be Church unless we approach each other without gentleness and reverence because we may be in a position to speak about Christ without knowing who he is. Our role is to reflect the Christ who is within me to another person. 

 

What if we approached one another with curiosity, discovery, and adventure. We then do not start from a position of defense, but one of engagements. We say: Tell me about yourself. Help me understand who you are and what you have experienced. This is a type of listening that strengthens faith and gives is credibility.

 

The Church gives reasons for hope not only by speaking authoritatively, but by listening deeply. When we listen with gentleness and reverence, we make space for Christ—who is always already in dialogue with every human heart, desiring to explore more deeply, and yearning to rejoice in what God is doing with your soul.

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

Monday: (Acts 16) Paul and Barnabas set sail for Philippi, a leading city of Macedonia, and a Romany colony. Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth, listens to their preaching and opens her heart to them. She is baptized and invites them to stay with her.   

 

Tuesday: (Acts 16) Paul is brought to the Areopagus in Athens and tells them of the Unknown God he and Barnabas worship. 

 

Wednesday: (Acts 17) At the Areopagus, Paul declares that this unknown God is the same one Christians worship and has brought about salvation, including the resurrection of the dead. This concept unsettles some who find it a difficult teaching to accept.

 

Thursday: (Acts 15) Paul travels to Corinth and meets the Jews, Aquila and Priscilla, who were forced to leave Rome because of Cladius’ dispersion edict. He learns the tent-making trade and preaches to Jews who reject him. He encounters Titus Justus and Crispus, a synagogue leader, who comes to believe. The entire congregation believes the news of Jesus Christ. 

 

Friday (Acts 18) While in Corinth, Paul receives a vision from the Lord urging him to go on speaking as no harm will come to him. Others are harmed, but Paul escapes injury. 

 

Saturday (Acts 18) Paul travels to Antioch in Syria. Priscilla and Aquila meet Apollos, a Jewish Christian, who is preaching the way of Jesus, but of the baptism by the Holy Spirit he is not informed. They take him aside and teach him the correct doctrine. He then vigorously refutes the Jews in public, establishing from the Scriptures that the Christ is Jesus.

 

Gospel: 

Monday: (John 15) Jesus tells his friends that the Advocate will come and testify to him. Meanwhile, they will be expelled from the synagogues and harmed – even unto death.  

 

Tuesday: (John 16) The Advocate, the Spirit of truth, will guide his friends to all truth. Jesus confuses them by saying, “a little while and you will no longer see me, and again a little while later and you will see me.”

 

Wednesday (John 16) The Spirit of truth will guide you and will declare to you the things that are coming. The Spirit will glorify. Everything the Father has is mine. 

 

Thursday (John 15) Remaining close to Jesus will allow us to share complete joy with one another. 

 

Friday (John 16) As they debate, he tells them their mourning will become joy – just like a woman who is groaning in labor pains. 

 

Saturday (John 16) As Jesus tells them again that he is part of the Father, he instructs them to ask for anything in his name and God will grant it because Jesus is leaving the world and is going back to the Father. The Father loves them because they have loved him. The Father will reward them for their generosity.

 

Saints of the Week

 

May 10: Damien de Veuster of Moloka'i, priest (1840-1889), was a Belgian who entered the Congregation of the Fathers of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. He was sent on mission to the Hawaiian Islands and was a parish priest for nine years. He then volunteered as a chaplain to the remote leper colony of Moloka'i. He contracted leprosy and died at the colony. He is remembered for his brave choice to accept the mission and to bring respect and dignity to the lepers. He was canonized in 2009. A statue of him stands in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol.

 

May 12: Nereus and Achilleus, martyrs (early second century), were Roman Imperial soldiers who converted to Christianity. They left the army and were martyred when they refused to sacrifice to idols during Emperor Trajan's reign.

 

May 12: Pancras, martyr, (d. 304)was a Syrian orphan who was brought to Rome by his uncle. Both soon after converted to Christianity. Pancras was beheaded at age 14 during the Diocletian persecution and buried on the Via Aurelia. A cemetery was named after him, but his remains were sent to Northumbria in England where six churches are dedicated to him.

 

May 13: Our Lady of Fatima is a name given to Mary after she appeared to three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal between May 13 and October 13, 1917. During her appearances, Mary stressed the importance of repentance, ongoing conversion, and dedicated to the heart of Mary through praying the Rosary. 

 

May 14: Matthias, Apostle (first century) was chosen after the resurrection to replace Judas who committed suicide. In the Acts of the Apostles, Peter, quoting a psalm, told 120 people who gathered that they were to choose a new apostle - someone who had been with them from the baptism of Jesus until the resurrection. Two names were put forward and the assembly cast lots. Matthias was chosen.

 

***Please note that the Ascension is celebrated in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Newark, Hartford, and Omaha on Thursday. Most of the world celebrates the feast on  Sunday.

 

May 14: Ascension Thursday is a holy day of obligation. It marks the event in the life of the Resurrected Christ who departed from this temporal earth to return to God. It celebrates Jesus’ visible absence while recognizing his invisible presence to the world. It is the event in the life of Christ when his physical appearances came to an end so he could resume his place at the right hand of the Father in heaven. St. Ignatius was so desirous of learning about the historical Jesus that he traveled to the places in the Holy Lands where Jesus walked and lived. As he was getting kicked out of the Holy Lands, he desired to return to the place of the Ascension to see the direction of Jesus’ feet as he ascended to God. A novena is prayed beginning on this day as we await the arrival of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.

 

May 15: Isidore (1070-1130), was born in Madrid to a family of farm laborers. With his wife, he worked on an estate and became known for his piety and generosity. His remains are the cause of several miracles most notably the cure of King Philip III who became his sponsor for canonization. 

 

May 16: Andrew Bobola, S.J., priest martyr (1591-1657), is called the Martyr of Poland because of his excruciatingly painful death. He worked during a plague to care for the sick, but he became "wanted" by the Cossacks during a time when anti-Catholic and anti-Jesuit sentiment was high. His preaching converted whole villages back to Catholicism and he was hunted down because he was termed a "soul-hunter."

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• May 10, 1773. Empress Maria Teresa of Austria changed her friendship for the Society into hatred, because she had been led to believe that a written confession of hers (found and printed by Protestants) had been divulged by the Jesuits. 
• May 11, 1824. St Regis Seminary opens in Florissant, Missouri, by Fr. Van Quickenborne. It was the first Roman Catholic school in USA for the higher education of Native American Indians 
• May 12,1981. A letter of this date, from Secretary of State, Cardinal Casaroli, speaks positively of Teilhard de Chardin in celebration of the centenary of his birth (May 1,1881). 
• May 13, 1572. Election of Gregory XIII to succeed St Pius V. To him the Society owes the foundation of the Roman and German Colleges. 
• May 14, 1978. Letter of Pedro Arrupe to the whole Society on Inculturation. 
• May 15, 1815. Readmission of the Society into Spain by Ferdinand VII. The members of the Society were again exiled on July 31, 1820. 
• May 16, 1988. In Paraguay, Pope John Paul II canonizes Roque Gonzalez, Alfonso Rodriguez, and Juan del Castillo.