SIXTH
SUNDAY OF EASTER – 2021
v We are approaching the Ascension of
the Lord, which we will celebrate on Sunday next week.
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
v Before meditating on this reading,
let is see who was Cornelius and how God acts in completely unpredictable ways.
v The author of Acts says that
Cornelius was
o
A
religious man who feared God
o
A
prayer person
o
Generous
toward the Jews
v His desire to know the true God moves
him to seek Peter.
v When we read this passage, we
discover other aspects of this man
o He serves as a bridge between two
worlds
o In one of the two worlds the
covenant is only for those who obey the law of Moses
o In the other the covenant is for all
who receive the gifts of faith, every human being, because these gifts are
offered by God to all, it is up to us to accept or reject it.
v Cornelius helps to remind that God
acts in unpredictable ways.
******************
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 find 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,
which was being born, on whose members the Holy Spirit was poured upon, are
part of the larger community of faith born after the resurrection of
Jesus.
§ When the Spirit is poured out upon 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 ponders
o
Can
we deny baptism to those on whom the Holy Spirit had been poured out?
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 the explanation to the difficulty that some of our
Christian brothers have about the baptism of children. Probably in that
household there were children too.
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 lead them
in the formation of the ecclesial community.
RESPONSORIAL
PSALM Ps 98: 1,2-3,3-4
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
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.
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.
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 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
has 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 can 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.
In this is love,
not that we have loved God, but that he loved us.
I think that even
if we meditate repeatedly on this truth, we will never grasp it completely.
Pope Francis like the Apostle John invites us to a universal love that includes all our brothers and sisters, all the human beings,
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 must 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.
·
This is my
commandment, but what will help you to live it is, if you do not see it as a
commandment, but that you look at me, how I have lived among you, how I treated
you and then go and do the same.
Prayer to the Mother of the Divine Love (St. Anthony M. Claret)
Mary, my Mother, Mother of the divine love!
I cannot ask anything more pleasant to you
And easier to grant
That the divine love.
Grant it to me my Mother
My Mother, I am hungry and thirsty of love.
Help me! Satiate me!
.
Marian Text
– (Venerable Maria Antonia París)
… I told the
Captain of the ship (that almost capsized on our way to Cuba) to have
great confidence in God and in Mary Most Holy
and not be afraid… not to doubt that God and the most Holy Mary could save us. (Aut 149)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CLARET,
Anthony Mary. Autobiography.
LITTLE
ROCK CATHOLIC STUDY BIBLE – 2019
ORAR CON CRISTO ORANDO. Oraciones
Claretianas (Claretian Prayers) – Roma 2004
PARIS, María Antonia. Autobiography in
Escritos con comentarios e introducciones (Writings with commentaries and
introduction by) Juan M. Lozano. 1980.
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