Recognition Of Our Need For God’s Help

Speaker: Archbishop Loren Thomas Hines

May 12, 2026

in Spritual Growth

No Comments

182

WATCH

May 10, 2026

Readings: Isaiah 41:17-20
1 Peter 3:8-18
John 15:1-8

6th Sunday of Easter 2026 Homily – Abp. Hines

It’s the 6th Sunday of Easter, a time that hopefully we would realize the importance of God’s creation and the good things He has prepared for us. Everything that exists came from God. Nothing exists without coming from Him. He is the Source of all things. We should be a people of thanksgiving and if we are thankful for everything, we would most likely be living a different kind of life. God turns all things into good. Back in the Garden, God provided everything for man to live and enjoy. The plan has not changed. What God has planned is for man to have joy and peace, not stress and anxiety. Scriptures tell us that everything that has breath should praise the Lord, because our solution is God. Isaiah 41:18 “I will open rivers on the bare heights, and springs in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, And the dry land fountains of water.” God created Israel to be self-sufficient. Today, Israel is still blessed. As a nation, Israel is capable of so many things. They may have been in the wilderness, but God provided water for them. In the same manner, God has blessed us with so much and yet many times, we fail to see the blessings of God. 1Peter 3:8-9 “To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, loving, compassionate, and humble; returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you would inherit a blessing.”

God cannot lie. If He said He would do something, He would do it. When Israel was in Egypt for 400 years, God promised them that they would have their own land. Not only that, because when they left Egypt, even the wealth of Egypt was given to them. To this day, Israel remains being blessed by God. We see in today’s Gospel that God deals with the people in parables. And He does it to the understanding of the people and makes it simple. “I am the Vine. My Father is the Vine dresser.” In a farm, there’s the need to prepare the soil first before planting. The plant gets its energy from the soil. Then it grows and bears fruits. We get our energy from the soil, the ground. And its only God who can give us energy. Christ strengthens us. This should cause us to realize that whatever potential we have is not of our own. It comes from God.

God’s compassion and love for us is great. We get caught up with the flamboyance of the world when we should be acknowledging and recognizing the love of God. We must realize that we need help. What God wants from us is a relationship. He is always present to be a source of our energy. We’ve allowed ourselves to be so intimidated by the world’s system. God is in the midst of our lives, no matter what we find ourselves in. Christ is the vine and He gets His energy from the Father. He had a relationship with the Father. God planted Christ in the flesh so that we could have hope and the help we need to make our lives count. Many times, we don’t think we can do things and this doubt is hindering us to be what God intends us to be. Matthew 21: 33-41 “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it, and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and he leased it to vine-growers and went on a journey. And when the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine-growers to receive his fruit. And the vine-growers took his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they did the same things to them. But afterward he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the vine-growers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let’s kill him and take possession of his inheritance!’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers?” They said to Him, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end and lease the vineyard to other vine-growers, who will pay him the fruit in the proper seasons.”

God paid the price for our iniquities. He gave us gifts. He gives us wisdom to wisdom to conquer problems. Christ is there to answer our questions. The Holy Spirit will teach us all things. God will not fail.