FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER –   2021

«  Starting with the 5th Sunday of Easter the church, through her liturgy, prepares us for the approaching celebration of the Ascension of the Lord.

«  The Gospels are taken from the discourses of Jesus at the Last Supper from the Gospel of John.

«  Today the Gospel reminds us, that Jesus has told us, that with him we can do anything and, that without him we can do nothing.    

 

 FIRST READING  – Acts  9: 26-31

-          In the Acts Luke narrates some events of the first communities.   

-          He is not interested in giving us information about historical deeds, which were already known by the communities since these events had happened 40 years before.   

-          Luke invites his addressees to look at these events and, reinterpret them in the light of faith and discover in them the presence of the Holy Spirit, who impels the church to live as Jesus lived. 

-          Perhaps it would help all our communities, parishes, and groups within them, to look at our communal history and discover in them the living presence of the Spirit, who is leading us through the events, which sometimes may seem to us unrelated to our faith and with one another.   

-          And not only the communities as such, but each one of us could do the same with our life as followers of Jesus and members of an ecclesial community. 

«  In the past Sundays we have heard Peter speaking of Jesus to the Jews.  

«  Today Luke introduces Paul who has come back from Jerusalem.  

«  As much as he wanted to be part of the community of believers, they were afraid.

«  But there is a disciple who allows the Spirit of Jesus to lead him and, tries to make real in his life the precept of “love one another as I have loved you.” And he trusts in Paul whom he met in Damascus.

«  This disciple is Barnabas, of whom Scripture says that his name means “person who gives encouragement”. In a commentary in the New American Bible, we read that Barnabas gave encouragement to the communities and to Paul.

«  Paul continues to be the man full of passion for the cause of God. He used to persecute the new sect called the “way” because, in his heart, he believed that this group offended YHWH, the God of Israel, the only true God.   Now his passion is oriented to make known Jesus, to be his witness.  

«  He already begins to suffer the mistrust of his Christian brethren and of his Jewish brethren.  

«  The former does not trust in him, the others want to kill him.     

«  Today’s reading ends with some words which are the

o   To progress and grow in numbers  

«  What is the progress which Luke describes in a summary.  

o   The church is in peace and this helps her 

o   The church progresses in the fear of the Lord in the loving faithfulness to her Lord, as we have heard in the reading for this Sunday. The infant church, which is being born and developing, tries to live the commandment of the Lord “love one another as I have loved you.”   

o   Because of all this the Church enjoys the consolation of the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ Spirit whom he has sent to his Church. 

o   This consolation comes from the certainty to be, as a church, immersed in the loving presence of the Spirit, although as in a shadow immersed in the life of the Trinity within the continuous exchange of love among the three Divine Persons.    

 

Responsorial Psalm. Ps 22:26-27. 28. 30. 31-32

 R. I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people.
 I will fulfill my vows before those who fear the LORD.
    The lowly shall eat their fill;
they who seek the LORD shall praise him:
  “May your hearts live forever!”
R. I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people.
 All the ends of the earth
    shall remember and turn to the LORD;
all the families of the nations
    shall bow down before him.
R. I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people.
To him alone shall bow down
    all who sleep in the earth;
before him shall bend
    all who go down into the dust. 
R. I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people.
 And to him my soul shall live;
    my descendants shall serve him.
Let the coming generation be told of the LORD
    that they may proclaim to a people yet to be born
    the justice he has shown.
R. I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people. 

Let us meditate on the first and last stanzas

First vv.26-27

·        I will fulfill my vows before those who fear the LORD. That is my behavior will be the transparency of my faith.

·        The lowly shall eat their fill. We may rephrase, those who fear the Lord will be satisfied. With what? With the joy that springs out and, which is contagious when we see other men and women faithful to their vows.

·        Those who seek the LORD shall praise him: because they see his work in those who fulfill their vows.

·        The psalmist invites to “have a joyful heart.” Why?

·        Because the Lord is amid his people, of his assembly, in all who fulfill the vows made to the Lord. They are joyful for the presence of the Lord in their lives.

Last vv. 31-32 

·           “my descendants” those who will come after me, those who are mine. Who are those who are mine?

·        Let the coming generation be told of the LORD, that they may proclaim to a people yet to be born     the justice he has shown. What is the meaning of this justice?

·        Thus, does the Lord act, thus, the faith is transmitted from one generation to the next, from one person to another. Thus, it has arrived to us and we cannot be obstacle in this transmission, we must be part, so that the next generation may proclaim, may praise our God for the wonderful deeds he has made and thus, the community of the faithful will increase and enjoy peace and joy. 

SECOND READING: 1 Jn 3:18-24

Before meditating on the fragment of this letter, let us say a few words about the author and the content of this letter. 

v  This letter is a short commentary of some themes we find in the Gospel of John, but here in the form of a letter

v  The author is unknown, but tradition attributes this letter to John.

v  It is believed that the date of composition is around the year 100

v  What is the content?

o   It is a poem on the Word of life

o   John speaks or teaches about God saying that He is love and truth.

o   He exhorts to love one another

o   It has some other themes of which we will speak some other time. 

      John invites his community to truly love and, not only speak of love.  

      The love we have assures us that we are dedicated to the truth. Let us remember that the Scriptures speak of God saying that God is love, God is Truth.  

      When our conscience accuses us, our consolation is to know that God knows us; all that is ours is known to Him. 

      And on the other hand, if our conscience does not accuse us, we can be sure to obtain whatever we ask for.  

      What does that mean? Is it something magical?    

      No, the answer is given to us in the next verse; it is because we keep his commandments.   

      Then this means that what is given to us is given as a reward for our faithfulness to the commandments?  

      No. If we are faithful in keeping his commandments this means that we have allowed the Spirit of the Lord to enter our heart, it is the Holy Spirit that makes us like Jesus. We have the same feelings of Jesus; thus, we ask for only what Jesus would also ask for.

      But none of this is magical, in our relationship with God there is the freedom of God and our own freedom. There is also what God knows is good for us and what I want. The relationship with God needs to be based on trust and unconditional love.     

GOSPEL - JOHN 15: 1-8

Ø  The theme of the vineyard reminds us that in the Old Testament Israel is called the “vineyard of the Lord.”    

Ø  Jesus says that He is the vine; he is the fullness of what Israel was called to be “the vine, the vineyard.”    

Ø  John describes God as the vine grower who takes good care of the vine: he takes away what is dead, prunes what is alive so that it may have abundant life.  

Ø  Jesus invites his own to live in Him, as He lives in us.  

Ø  He says that if we are not united to Him, we will not give fruit.    

Ø   When we become disciples of Jesus and we give fruit, we glorify the Father. The image of the vine should fill us with so much trust in the Lord, whom we contemplated last week as the Good Shepherd.

Ø  José A. Pagola says: The church will not be able to fulfill her mission in the world today, if those who called themselves Christians do not become disciples of Jesus, encouraged by his spirit and his passion for a more human world.   

Ø  And Karl Rahner said that in the future the Christian will be such only by being a mystic. Mystic means someone who has entered the intimacy of the Shepherd and Teacher, who allows the sap of life run through his/her veins.

Ø  All the Gospels during the Easter Season remind and invite us to enter the intimacy of the Lord, and to find our joy in this same intimacy with Him.  

 CLARETIAN CORNER 

J.M.J 

To M. Antonia de S. Pedro

                                                                                                                                                   Madrid, January 18 1865

Dear Mother in J.C.,  I have received your letter in which you say it gave you so much joy; I hope that this present letter will also give joy to you, because I had written to the Archbishop of Tarragona, as you told me, for the foundation of a house, and on the 16th of this month he says to me: I have received your letter in which you r3ecommend me the foundation of a Convent of the Teaching Sisters in my Diocese, according to the wishes of the Penitentiary. Giving for granted that it will not be in the Capital, where there are already other convents, you may count with all my protection.”    

You see, how you have the business resolved; give thanks to God and prepare the Nuns for the least expected time. My kind regards to all and you may count on your most devoted servant.    

Anthony Mary Archbishop of Trajanopolis

 

P. D.-The students of the Seminary at the Escorial progress very much in Virtue and in Sciences. Before Christmas I preached to them the Exercises of St. Ignatius and I had many opportunities to praise God.  In the Sciences they advanced very much. Besides the courses on Philosophy, Theology etc. they study languages; the day of the Epiphany, and in the next Sunday they sang the Gospel in one of the halls in ten languages. (Letter 235 in Letters of the Orígenes). 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

RR. de MARIA INMACULADA MISIONERAS CLARETIANAS. Cartas de los Orígenes (Letters from the Origins). 2009

FLOR SERRANO, Gonzalo. Los Salmos en Comentario al Antiguo Testamento II. La Casa de la Biblia 1997.

LITTLE ROCK – STUDY BIBLE. New American Bible, Revised Edition. 2019.

PAGOLA, JOSE A. Following in the Footsteps of Jesus. Meditations on the Gospels for Year B. Miami 2011

RAVASI, Gianfranco. Según las Escrituras. Año B. Ediciones San Pablo. Bogotá 2005.

SCHÖKEL, Luis Alonso. Comentarios en la Biblia de nuestro pueblo. Ediciones Mensajero. China 2010