May 18, 2025
Fifth Sunday of Easter
Lectionary: 54
Reading I
After Paul and Barnabas had proclaimed the good news
to that city
and made a considerable number of disciples,
they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch.
They strengthened the spirits of the disciples
and exhorted them to persevere in the faith, saying,
“It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships
to enter the kingdom of God.”
They appointed elders for them in each church and,
with prayer and fasting, commended them to the Lord
in whom they had put their faith.
Then they traveled through Pisidia and reached Pamphylia.
After proclaiming the word at Perga they went down to Attalia.
From there they sailed to Antioch,
where they had been commended to the grace of God
for the work they had now accomplished.
And when they arrived, they called the church together
and reported what God had done with them
and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.
Responsorial Psalm
R (cf. 1) I will praise your name for ever, my king
and my God.
or:
R Alleluia.
The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to
anger and of great kindness.
The LORD is good to all
and
compassionate toward all his works.
R I will praise your name for ever, my king and my God.
or:
R Alleluia.
Let all your works give you thanks, O LORD,
and let your
faithful ones bless you.
Let them discourse of the glory of your kingdom
and speak of
your might.
R I will praise your name for ever, my king and my God.
or:
R Alleluia.
Let them make known your might to the children of Adam,
and the
glorious splendor of your kingdom.
Your kingdom is a kingdom for all ages,
and your
dominion endures through all generations.
R I will praise your name for ever, my king and my God.
or:
R Alleluia.
Reading II
Then I, John, saw a new heaven and a new earth.
The former heaven and the former earth had passed away,
and the sea was no more.
I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
“Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race.
He will dwell with them and they will be his people
and God himself will always be with them as their God.
He will wipe every tear from their eyes,
and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain,
for the old order has passed away.”
The One who sat on the throne said,
“Behold, I make all things new.”
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I give you a new commandment, says the Lord:
love one another as I have loved you.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
When Judas had left them, Jesus said,
“Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.
If God is glorified in him,
God will also glorify him in himself,
and God will glorify him at once.
My children, I will be with you only a little while longer.
I give you a new commandment: love one another.
As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.
This is how all will know that you are my disciples,
if you have love for one another.”
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/051825.cfm
Commentary on Acts
14:21-27; Revelation 21:1-5; John 13:31-33,34-35
Easter is the time when we both remember and celebrate the
new life which has come to us through our Risen Lord. What do we mean by this
‘new life’? Can you say that you have experienced ‘new life’ this Easter or,
for that matter, in any previous Easter? Are you aware of becoming changed in
any way—for the better—over the years? Or has the Easter experience simply
passed you by?
The word ‘new’ appears several times in today’s readings.
The passage from Revelation speaks of a “new heaven”, a “new earth” and a “new
Jerusalem”. Jesus in the Gospel speaks of a “new commandment”. What’s supposed
to be ‘new’?
A new life in Christ, of course, is something that can come
early or late into the life of a person. For many saints it came after quite a
long period of loose and immoral living without God—St Augustine and St
Ignatius Loyola come to mind. For others, like Therese of Lisieux, it came
relatively early. She was already a saint when she died at the tender age of
24. For most of us, it is something that may come in waves. In other words, it
will not be a once-for-all experience, but something that comes at different
stages in our life, each time bringing us to a deeper level of understanding,
insight and commitment.
Conversion
The “new life” that the Scripture speaks of is also referred to as
‘conversion’, a turning round (Greek, metanoia). It means a radical
change of vision and of our priorities in life. It means new attitudes, new
values, new standards of relating with God and with people and indeed with our
whole living environment of which we are a synergistic part.
In the Gospel Jesus speaks of the foundation and heart of
his teaching and message. These are his parting words to his disciples before
he goes to his Passion and death. What is this message? Is it to be faithful in
keeping the Ten Commandments and leading a moral life? Not exactly. Does he
warn us to be sure to be in church every Sunday and to go to confession
regularly? Not really. Does he tell us to use all our energies in loving God?
Surprisingly, perhaps, no!
What he does tell us is to love other people—and to love
them as he has loved us. This, he says, is a “new commandment”. The Hebrew
Testament told us to love God with our whole heart, our whole mind and our
whole soul, and to love our neighbours as ourselves. Jesus has added a new
element in telling us that the true test of discipleship is to love other
people in the same way that he has loved us. And we might remember that these
words lead the way to the greatest possible love that a person can show, that
is, by letting go of one’s very life for others. This Jesus will very
dramatically portray in the terrible suffering and degradation which he will
submit to out of love for us—out of love for me.
The only valid test
To incorporate that level of love in my life will surely call for a new way of
thinking, of seeing, of behaving and of interacting with other people. And it
will be the test, the only valid test, of whether I truly love God as well. Is
this really the way, is this the frame of mind in which I live my normal day?
Or rather, let me say, is this the way we—who dare to call ourselves
Christians—live our normal days?
For it is clear that the disciple of Christ is not primarily
an individual person, but an ‘inter-person’. I am defined as a disciple not by
how I individually behave—my personal moral life—but by how I ‘inter-act’ with
other people. The ‘solitary Christian’ is a contradiction in terms because the
Christian is only to be measured by the way he/she loves and that love, by definition,
involves other people. I am my relationships.*
What is love?
The word ‘love’, of course, can lead to misunderstandings. The word is used by
us mainly in contexts which imply deep affection, emotional attraction and a
good feeling when the beloved is around or even just thought of. That is not
quite the meaning of the word in this context. The word that is used by John in
this passage is the Greek word, agape.
This is not, strictly speaking, love in the mutual or
romantic sense. Rather, it implies a reaching out to others in a caring
attitude for their well-being, irrespective of whether there will be a similar
response by the other. It is the compassion that Jesus shows for the sinner and
the evil person. It would be impossible for me to love a Hitler or child abuser
in the first sense. It would have no meaning and Jesus does not expect me to
create such an artificial attitude.
Loving enemies
On the other hand, in terms of deep caring for the good of another, I can
certainly ‘agape-love’ an evil person or any other person who causes me
difficulties—who I believe has hurt me or failed me or who simply behaves in a
way which I cannot accept as good. This is what makes it possible for me to
‘love’ my ‘enemies’ and to pray for them and to wish God’s blessings on them so
that they may change their ways (not to suit me, but for their own well-being
and to bring them back into harmony with God’s way).
It is why the true Christian disciple does not in fact have
enemies. This is what Jesus is doing in praying for forgiveness for those who
were nailing him to the cross. He loves them then not as close friends
(obviously), but as people who truly needed enlightenment about what they were
doing not just to him, but to themselves. Jesus cared; he had a deep sense
of agape-love at that moment.
In the First Reading, from Acts, we see another form
of agape on the part of two early missionaries, Paul and
Barnabas. They went through all kinds of hardships and misunderstandings so
that the message and vision of Jesus might be communicated to as many people as
they could reach. And to those who were already Christians they gave support
and encouragement to persevere in their Christian convictions.
In this sense then, can people say of me that I am a truly
loving, caring and forgiving person? Can they say that I am a redeeming person,
a person who makes hurt people whole again? It is all that Jesus, on the
threshold of his suffering and death, asks of me and nothing else. It is not
impossible, it is not hopelessly idealistic and it does not require massive
willpower and self-control. What it does require is a change in attitude and in
the way I see the world, others and myself.
Where do I fail?
I might reflect today on the ways I personally fail to be a loving, caring,
compassionate and understanding person. Who are the people I really love and
care for? Who are the people I cannot bring myself to love and care for—and why?
Who are the people I never even think of loving and caring for—and why? Do I
only love the people of my own race, my own class, my own religion?
Do I care for anybody outside the circle of my family and
immediate friends? Do I love and care for my family members? Whom do I regard
as my friends and why? Do I love and care in any tangible way for people who
need my care—however indirectly—even though I do not know them and they can
give me nothing in return, e.g. the poor, the addicted, the exploited and marginalised
in my own and other communities?
Finally, do I really love myself? A great deal of our
difficulty in extending love and especially forgiveness to others is our own
insecurity and the fragility of our egos, which can be so easily hurt. Only
those persons who are fully convinced that they are themselves lovable can
reach out comfortably and unconditionally to love those who themselves cannot
love, but can only hurt and hate and destroy.
It is through this constant love-centred interaction among
each other that the “new heaven and a new earth” and the “new Jerusalem” can
begin to come into existence. It is in our hands, and we have a perfect example
in Jesus our Lord.
As disciples of Jesus, imbued with his message of agape,
loving in the way that he loved us, we are called to do the same—to give
support to our fellow disciples and to share our faith and our love with as
many people as possible. The words of the Second Reading from Revelation apply
very suitably here:
See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them and be their God;
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
It is precisely by our being an agape-filled
people that God will come into people’s lives in this way. It is through this
constant love-centred interaction among each other that the new earth, the new
heaven and the new Jerusalem can begin to come into existence—not at some
unknown future time and in some other place, but here and now. Today. It is in
our hands. All we have to do is follow the lead of Jesus the Lord.
___________________________________
*This, it could be said, is the vital distinction between
being a Christian and being involved in other religious or quasi-religious
activities such as yoga, secular meditation or other ‘New Age’ practices to
which many ex-Christians turn. However, most of these are ‘inner-centred’,
aimed at personal peace of mind and developing coping skills in order to
survive in a surrounding society.
Christianity is primarily concerned at reaching out, at
building communities whose main concern is together to work for the
transformation of our whole society in the vision of the Kingdom. It might also
be said that all the other great religions, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam
and Judaism, are also community-centred. Further, all of these religions
include as integral parts prayer, meditation and contemplation. In truth, the
aim of these religions is not limited to just helping the individual cope. And
in the case of Christianity, the aim is to help with strengthening one’s
understanding of and commitment to the common vision of the Kingdom.
Comments Off
https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/ec051/
Sunday,
May 18, 2025
Fifth Sunday of Easter
Lectio
Opening Prayer:
Lord Jesus, help us understand the mystery of
the Church as community of love. When you gave us the new commandment of love
as the charter of the Church, you told us that it is the highest value. When
you were about to leave your disciples, you wished to give them a memorial of
the new commandment, the new statute of the Christian community. You did not
give them a pious exhortation, but rather a new commandment of love. In this
“relative absence, jwe are asked to recognize you present in our brothers and
sisters. In this Easter season, Lord Jesus, you remind us that the time of the
Church is the time of charity, the time of encounter with you through our
brothers and sisters. We know that at the end of our lives we shall be judged
on love. Help us encounter you in each brother and sister, seizing every little
occasion of every day. Gospel Reading –
John 13: 31-35
31 When he had gone, Jesus said: Now has the
Son of man been glorified, and in him God has been glorified. 32 If God has
been glorified in him, God will in turn glorify him in himself, and will
glorify him very soon. 33 Little children, I shall be with you only a little
longer. You will look for me, and, as I told the Jews, where I am going, you
cannot come.
34 I give you a new commandment:
love one another; you must love one another just as I have loved you. 35 It is
by your love for one another, that everyone will recognize you as my disciples.
A Moment of Prayerful Silence:
The passage of the Gospel we are about to meditate,
recalls Jesus’ farewell words to his disciples. Such a passage
should be considered a kind of sacrament of an encounter with the Person of
Jesus.
Meditatio
Preamble to Jesus’ Discourse:
Our passage is the conclusion to
chapter 13 where two themes crisscross and are taken up again and developed in
chapter 14: the place where the Lord is going; and the theme of the commandment
of love. Some observations on the context within which Jesus‟
words on the new commandment occur may be helpful for a fruitful reflection on
their content.
First, v. 31 says, “when he had
gone», who is gone? To understand this we need to go to v. 30 where we read
that «as soon as Judas had taken the piece of bread he went out. It was night.”
Thus, the one who went out was Judas. Then, the expression, “it was night,” is
characteristic of all the «farewell discourses», which take place at night.
Jesus‟ words in Jn 13: 31-35 are preceded by this
immersion into the darkness of the night. What is the symbolical meaning of
this? In John, night represents the peak of nuptial intimacy (for instance the
wedding night), but also one of extreme anguish. Other meanings of the dark
night are that it represents the moment of danger par excellence, it is the
moment when the enemy weaves plans of vengeance against us, it expresses the
moment of desperation, confusion, moral and intellectual disorder. The darkness
of night is like a dead end.
In Jn 6, when the night storm takes place,
the darkness of the night expresses an experience of desperation and solitude
as they struggle against the dark forces that stir the sea. Again, the time
marker "while it was still dark" in Jn 20: 1 points to the darkness
which is the absence of Jesus. Indeed, in John’s Gospel, the
light of Christ cannot be found in the sepulchre, that is why darkness reigns
(20: 1).
Therefore, “farewell discourses” are rightly
placed within this time framework. It is almost as if the background color of
these discourses is separation, death or the departure of Jesus and this
creates a sense of emptiness or bitter solitude. In the Church of today and for
today’s humanity, this could mean that when we desert
Jesus in our lives we then experience anguish and suffering. When reporting
Jesus‟ words in 3: 31-34, concerning his departure and
imminent death, John recalls his own past life with Jesus, woven with memories that
opened his eyes to the mysterious richness of the Master. Such memories of the
past are part of our own faith journey.
It is characteristic of “farewell discourses”
that whatever is transmitted in them, especially at the tragic and solemn
moment of death becomes an inalienable patrimony, a covenant to be kept
faithfully. Jesus’ “farewell discourses” too
synthesize whatever he had taught and done so as to draw his disciples to
follow in the direction he pointed out to them. A Deepening:
As we read the passage of this Sunday of
Easter, we focus, first of all, on the first word used by Jesus in his farewell
discourse: “Now.” «Now has the Son of man been glorified.” Which «now» is this?
It is the moment of the cross that coincides with his glorification. This final
part of John‟s Gospel is a manifestation or revelation. Thus,
Jesus‟ cross is the «now» of the greatest epiphany or
manifestation of truth. In this glorification, there is no question of any
meaning that has anything to do with “honour” or “triumphalism”, etc.
On the one hand there is Judas who
goes into the night, Jesus prepares for his glory:
When he had gone, Jesus said: “Now has the
Son of man been glorified, and in him God has been glorified. If God has been
glorified in him, God will in turn glorify him in himself, and will glorify him
very soon” (v. 31-32). Judas’ betrayal brings to maturity in Jesus the
conviction that his death is “glory.” The hour of death on the cross is
included in God’s plan; it is the “hour” when the glory of the Father will
shine on the world through the glory of the “Son of man.” In Jesus, who gives
his life to the Father at the “hour” of the cross, God is glorified by
revealing his divine essence and welcoming humankind into communion with him.
Jesus’ (the Son’s) glory consists of his
“extreme love” for all men and women, even to giving himself for those who
betray him. The Son’s love is such that he takes on himself all those
destructive and dramatic situations that burden the life and history of
humankind. Judas‟ betrayal symbolizes, not so
much the action of an individual, as that of the whole of evil humanity,
unfaithful to the will of God.
However, Judas’ betrayal remains an event full of mystery. An
exegete writes: In betraying Jesus, “it is revelation that is to blame; it is
even at the service of revelation”
(Simoens, According to John, 561).
In a way, Judas’ betrayal gives us the chance of knowing Jesus better; his
betrayal has allowed us to see how far Jesus loves his own. Don Primo Mazzolari
writes: “The apostles became Jesus’ friends, whether good friends or not,
generous or not, faithful or not, they still remain his friends. We cannot
betray Jesus’ friendship: Christ never betrays us, his friends, even when we do
not deserve it, even when we rebel against him, even when we deny him. In his
sight and in his heart we are always his “friends.” Judas is the Lord’s friend
even at the moment when he carries out the betrayal of his Master with a kiss” (Discourses 147).
The New Commandment:
Let us focus our attention on the new commandment.
In v. 33 we note a change in Jesus‟
farewell discourse. He no longer uses the third person. The Master now
addresses “you.” This “you” is in the plural and he uses a Greek word that is
full of tenderness “children” (teknía).
In using this word and by his tone of voice and openness of heart, Jesus
concretely conveys to his disciples the immensity of the tenderness he holds
for them.
What is also interesting is another point
that we find in v.34: “that you love one another as I have loved you.” The
Greek word kathòs (as) is not meant
for comparison: love one another as I have loved you. Its meaning may be
consecutive of causal: “Because I have loved you, so also love one another.”
There are those who like Fr. Lagrange see in this commandment an eschatological
meaning: during his relative absence and while waiting for his second coming,
Jesus wants us to love and serve him in the person of his brothers and sisters.
The new commandment is the only commandment. If there is no love, there is
nothing. Magrassi writes: “Away with labels and classifications: every brother
is the sacrament of Christ. Let us examine our daily life: can we live with our
brother from morning till night and not accept and love him? The great work in
this case is ecstasy in its etymological sense, that is, to go out of myself so
as to be neighbor to the one who needs me, beginning with those nearest to me
and with the most humble matters of everyday life’ (Living the church, 113).
For our reflection:
•
Is our love for our brothers and sisters
directly proportional to our love for Christ?
•
Do I see the Lord present in the person of my
brother and sister?
•
Do I use the daily little occasions to do good
to others?
•
Let us examine our daily life: can I live with
my brothers and sisters from morning till night and not accept and love them?
•
Does love give meaning to the whole of my life?
•
What can I do to show my gratitude to the Lord
who became servant for me and consecrated his whole life for my good? Jesus replies:
Serve me in brothers and sisters: this is the most authentic way of showing
your practical love for me.
Oratio
Psalm 23: 1-6:
This psalm presents an
image of the church journeying accompanied by the goodness and faithfulness of
God, until it finally reaches the house of the Father. In this journey she is
guided by love that gives it direction: your goodness and your faithfulness
pursue me.
Yahweh is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
In grassy meadows he lets me lie.
By tranquil streams he leads me to restore my spirit.
He guides me in paths of saving
justice as befits his name. Even were I to walk in a ravine as dark as death
I should fear no danger, for you are at my side.
Your staff and your crook are there to soothe me.
You prepare a table for me under the
eyes of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup brims over.
Kindness and faithful love pursue me every day of my life.
I make my home in the house of Yahweh
for all time to come. Praying with the
Fathers of the Church:
I love you for yourself, I love you for your gifts, I love you
for love of you
And I love you in such a way, That if ever Augustine were God
And God
Augustine,
I would want to come back and be
who I am, Augustine, That I may make of you who you are,
Because only you are worthy of being who you are. Lord, you
see,
My tongue raves,
I cannot express myself, But my heart does not rave.
You know what I experience And what I cannot express.
I love you, my God,
And my heart is too limited for so much love,
And my strength fails before so much love, And my being is too small for so
much love. I come out of my smallness
And immerse my whole being in you, I transform and lose
myself.
Source of my being, Source of my every good: My love
and my God. (St. Augustine: Confessions)
Closing
Prayer:
Blessed Teresa
Scrilli, seized by an ardent desire to respond to the love of Jesus,
expressed herself thus:
I love you, O my God, In your gifts;
I love you in my nothingness, And
even in this I understand, Your infinite wisdom;
I love you in the many varied or
extraordinary events, By which you accompanied my life…
I love you in everything, Whether painful or peaceful; Because
I do not seek,
Nor have I ever sought, Your consolations;
Only you, the God of consolations. That is why I never gloried
Nor delighted in,
That which you made me experience entirely gratuitously in
your Divine love,
Nor did I distress and upset myself,
When left arid and small. (Autobiography, 62)
