SIXTH
SUNDAY OF EASTER – MAY 6, 2018
v We are approaching the Ascension of
the Lord, which we will celebrate next Sunday
v Two weeks ago Jesus told us that he
is the good shepherd, that he knows his own and his own know him
v Last Sunday Jesus said that he is the
vine and we are the branches. With this image he wanted to tell us that the
life which we have is his own life.
v Today we will hear him telling us in
the Gospel that we are slaves no more, but sons and daughters.
FIRST READING – ACTS 10:25-26. 34-35. 44-48
Ø Peter has had a estrange dream, by
means of which the Lord wanted to make him understand that nothing that God has
created is profane or impure or bad.
Ø At the same time that he awakens from
his sleep, some men sent by Cornelius knock at the door. They have a message for Peter; Cornelius wants
him to come to his home.
Ø Peter goes to Cornelius home and
there God makes the wonders we will read in this text.
o
On
arriving to the house Cornelius greets and pays homage to him.
o
Peter
tells him to stop because he is also a human being and not a God.
o
Then
Peter speaks to all and says that he realizes that God does not show
preferences, he treats all of us equally
o
What
an encouraging word, God loves all of us equally; he has created us and loves
whatever he has made. When we read the
creation account in Genesis we hear over and over the same refrain … and God saw that everything was good, very
good.
o
Anyone
who acts honestly pleases God.
Ø Peter is still speaking
o
When
the Holy Spirit comes down on all those present
o
The
Jews, who had been converted and had come with Peter, were astonished to
see that
o
The
gift of the Spirit which they had received, was also poured out on Cornelius
household
o
Because
they could hear them speak in tongues
§ I have many times asked myself what
is so important about speaking in tongues
§ Maybe it can be a way to describe the
wonders of the presence of the Holy Spirit.
§ But it could be also that God, in
performing this sign, wanted to let the little community of Cornelius household
know that they are part of the larger community of faith born after the
resurrection of Jesus.
§ When the Spirit is poured out on us
in the sacraments we do not see anything especial, any external sign, but in
the interior of each one of us something great is happening, something that
makes us speak new languages, that is to say, makes us act in new and surprising ways. .
§ But this does not happen overnight, it
needs time to change us and shape us into the image of the only Son of the
Father.
Ø
Peter asks
o
Can
we deny baptism to those on whom the Holy Spirit had been poured out?
o
The
answer is that Peter make them to be
baptized
o
All
the people in the household are baptized
o
Peter
does not baptize them but he asks those who have come with him to do it.
o
Sometimes
I think that here we have an explanation
to the difficulty that some of our Christian brothers have about the baptism of
children. Probably in that household there were children too and for what it is
written, they were baptized.
Ø Peter has just admitted the first
gentiles into the community of Jesus’ followers.
Ø How much we must be grateful to Peter
and to the first followers of Jesus that they were attentive to the signs that
Jesus, who was not with them in a visible way, was giving to them, to guide
them in the formation of the ecclesial community.
RESPONSORIAL
PSALM Ps 98: 1,2-3,3-4
. (cf. 2b) The Lord has revealed to the
nations his saving power.
Sing to the LORD a new song,
for he has done wondrous deeds;
His right hand has won victory for him,
his holy arm.
R. The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.
The LORD has made his salvation known:
in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice.
He has remembered his kindness and his faithfulness
toward the house of Israel.
R. The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation by our God.
Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;
break into song; sing praise.
R. The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.
Sing to the LORD a new song,
for he has done wondrous deeds;
His right hand has won victory for him,
his holy arm.
R. The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.
The LORD has made his salvation known:
in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice.
He has remembered his kindness and his faithfulness
toward the house of Israel.
R. The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation by our God.
Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;
break into song; sing praise.
R. The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.
v
This psalm has
the form of a hymn, an invitation to sing the wonders God has made.
v
Hymns spring from
a deep human need: to say in words the admiration before the divine works:
creation or the historical events, the city of God and even before God himself.
(commentary to
the psalms taken from the official version of the
Conference of Bishops from Spain, my translation.)
SECOND READING 1Jn 4:7-10
Tradition
says that John repeated, over and over
again to his disciples, that they had to love one another as the Lord has loved
us.
In today’s
reading John invites us to love one another because whoever loves has been
begotten by God.
In our mind this
is very clear, if God is love whoever is able to love is because he or she has
been begotten by God, and wants to be like him, wants to be faithful to his or
her nature. The difficulty comes in practice when our limitations interfere with
our behavior.
If all of us, who
call ourselves followers of Jesus, all who have been reborn in the baptismal
waters, made the commitment to live as the Lord has commanded us, took the resolution to be faithful to our nature of children of
God, what a different world we would have!
John continues
saying that the love of God has been revealed to us in that he has sent his Son
that the world could have life in him.
This is what love
is, not that we have loved God first, but that he has loved us first.
I think that even
if we meditate over and over again on this truth, we will never grasp it
completely.
GOSPEL Jn 15: 9-17
·
This reading is
taken from the words of Jesus after the Last Supper.
·
Jesus asks us to
remain in his love, as he remains in his Father’s love.
·
His joy will
remain in us, and thus our joy will be complete.
·
His commandment
is this: that we love one another as he has loved us.
·
Such is his love
that he has given his life for us, and in turn we are invited to give our life
for others.
·
Each one of us
can look at his or her own life, and discover in it how many ways we have had the
opportunity to give our life for others.
·
The opportunities
are always present, the invitations from the Lord are always present too, we
only have to listen to, stop, make silence inside of us and, then we will be
able to listen to the invitation: love as I have loved you.
·
It will help you,
if you do not see it as a burdensome commandment,
but if instead you look at me, how I
have lived among you, how I have treated you and then go and do the same.
CLARETIAN CORNER
|
I never sought any consolation, either interior or exterior,
from any creature; I always kept a profound silence of the graces that Our Lord
put in my soul. And I kept this silence even with my confessors, because I did
not have as a matter of consultation the Holy Law of the Lord; thus on speaking
of the acts I practiced, to fulfill with perfection the Divine Commandments, it
always seemed to me vanity or idle words, because I had the duty to fulfilled
them; and on the contrary it would have given me
great remorse of conscience to hide the smallest thing that I had omitted due
to my neglect or laziness, which, by the mercy of God, I was always very
careful to confess with clarity. María
Antonia París, Foundress. Memories and
Notes 9.
During the first two years, despite the
earthquakes and the cholera epidemic, we managed to visit all the parishes in
the archdiocese. In every one of them a mission was led either by myself or my
companions, and in rural parishes with a very large territory, several missions
were given. Every two or three leagues we would hold a mission in one of the
many large tobacco sheds. We would set up an altar, a pulpit, and a
confessional with the help of some chairs and gratings we brought along for
that purpose. Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary
Sisters, Autobiography 538.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CLARET, Anthony Mary. Autobiography.
PARIS, María Antonia. “Memories and
Notes” in Writings, with Commentaries
by Juan Manuel Lozano, cmf.
SAGRADA BIBLIA – Official translation
of the Episcopal Conference of Spain, 2012.
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