April 18, 2026
Saturday of the Second Week of Easter
Lectionary: 272
Reading
1
As the number of
disciples continued to grow,
the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews
because their widows
were being neglected in the daily distribution.
So the Twelve called together the community of the disciples and said,
“It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table.
Brothers, select from among you seven reputable men,
filled with the Spirit and wisdom,
whom we shall appoint to this task,
whereas we shall devote ourselves to prayer
and to the ministry of the word.”
The proposal was acceptable to the whole community,
so they chose Stephen, a man filled with faith and the Holy Spirit,
also Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas,
and Nicholas of Antioch, a convert to Judaism.
They presented these men to the Apostles
who prayed and laid hands on them.
The word of God continued to spread,
and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly;
even a large group of priests were becoming obedient to the faith.
Responsorial
Psalm
R. (22) Lord,
let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Exult, you just, in the LORD;
praise from the upright is fitting.
Give thanks to the LORD on the harp;
with the ten-stringed lyre chant his praises.
R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Upright is the word of the LORD,
and all his works are trustworthy.
He loves justice and right;
of the kindness of the LORD the earth is full.
R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
or:
R. Alleluia.
See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him,
upon those who hope for his kindness,
To deliver them from death
and preserve them in spite of famine.
R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia,
alleluia.
Christ is risen, who made all things;
he has shown mercy on all people.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
When it was
evening, the disciples of Jesus went down to the sea,
embarked in a boat, and went across the sea to Capernaum.
It had already grown dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.
The sea was stirred up because a strong wind was blowing.
When they had rowed about three or four miles,
they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat,
and they began to be afraid.
But he said to them, “It is I. Do not be afraid.”
They wanted to take him into the boat,
but the boat immediately arrived at the shore
to which they were heading.
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041826.cfm
Commentary on Acts
6:1-7
As the new community grew, so did its need to develop new
structures. With its growth came a more complex membership. It is
likely that some time had elapsed between today’s passage and those we were
reading during the past week.
For the first time, the word ‘disciples’ is used to describe
those who had become believers in Christ; up to this, it had only been applied
to those who had actually been with Jesus during his public ministry.
The issue in today’s reading is that the Greek-speaking
Jewish members began complaining that their needs were being neglected by the
Hebrew-speaking Palestinian members, from which the founding core came.
At this stage of its development, the Church was still
entirely Jewish in its membership. However, they were divided into two
distinct groups:
- The
Hebraic Jews, who spoke the Aramaic and/or Hebrew languages of Palestine
and kept strictly to Jewish culture and customs.
- The
Greek speakers (or Hellenists), who were “overseas Jews”, scattered over
the Mediterranean lands. They had often largely become culturally and
linguistically Greek (in the same way, for instance, overseas communities
become assimilated in the US or Western Europe). They would have had their
own synagogues (which Paul used to visit on his missionary journeys) where
the Bible would be read in Greek. Not surprisingly, it was from this
group that the main missionary initiatives would come, e.g. the Jews from
Antioch rather than those from Jerusalem.
However, it is possible that the Hellenists were not Jews
from the diaspora, but Palestinian Jews who only spoke Greek. The Hebrews were
Palestinian Jews who spoke Aramaic/Hebrew, but may also have known some Greek.
Both belonged to the Jerusalem Jewish Christian community.
In either case, it is possible that the Greek speakers were
to some extent looked down on by Aramaic/Hebrew speakers. Even at this early
stage in the life of the Church, we can see the ugly head of ethnic-cultural
divisions surfacing.
From its very beginnings, the Church has consisted of flawed
human beings. It should never cause us any surprise and it does not weaken the
central message of the Good News.
In general, however, the purpose of the passage seems to be
to introduce Stephen as a prominent figure in the community. We will meet
him again in the readings of Monday and Tuesday next week.
In particular, the Hellenists complained about the neglect
of the widows in their group. Widows were among the most pitiable groups
of people in Jewish society at that time. They were not necessarily old,
but they had lost their husbands, and remarriage for nearly all of them was out
of the question. In the absence of any kind of social welfare, their only
means of support was the charity of their community.
The Apostles felt that this kind of material responsibility
was not really theirs. In the beginning, the Apostles were responsible
for church life in general, which included both the ministry of the word
(evangelising) and the care of the needy in the community. As the
community grew, this clearly became more and more difficult a responsibility
for such a small number of leaders. It was time for delegation and
applying the principle of subsidiarity!
So it was suggested that the Greek-speaking community choose
carefully selected people from among themselves to take care of these
needs. This met with general approval and seven men were chosen.
Not surprisingly all of them have Greek names and all, except for one, Nicholas
of Antioch, who was a convert, were born Jews. It is significant that a
proselyte was included in the number, and that Luke points out his place of
origin as Antioch, the city to which the gospel was soon to be taken and which
was to become the “headquarters” for the forthcoming gentile missionary effort.
It is also worth noting that it was the community who chose
the seven men, but it was the Apostles who ‘ordained’ them by prayer and a
laying on of hands. These are the first recorded ‘ministers’ appointed in
the Christian community and the pattern of their formal initiation will become
the norm: the Apostles prayed and laid their hands on them—as we see in Acts
and the letters of Paul. This still is done in the conferring of ministries
today. At this stage they are not actually called ‘deacons’, but the word diakonia,
meaning ‘service’ is used twice in the passage.
Finally, as was mentioned, we will be hearing more about
Stephen next week and, later on, Philip also.
In the meantime, the number of Christians continued to
increase enormously. Now, even some of the priests, probably Sadducees,
were being converted to faith in the Risen Jesus. They were prepared to
give up the temple sacrifices and rituals around which their lives up to now
had been centred, and replace them with a new liturgical celebration centred on
the community Eucharist, celebrated wherever Christians gathered together.
Given the limited human and material resources of the early
community, it is amazing how its message was wholeheartedly accepted by so
many. The finger of God was certainly there.
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Commentary on John
6:16-21
We have today an epilogue to the story of the multiplication
of the loaves for the 5,000. Jesus had fled to the mountains to avoid the
misdirected enthusiasm of the crowd. Before that (according to Mark’s
version of this story), Jesus had packed the disciples off into their
boats. Very possibly they were much more ready to receive the adulation
of the crowd. They must have been quite excited to have been so closely
linked with the sensational act which Jesus had just done and which had stirred
up the excitement of the crowd.
The story that follows is much more than a mere account of a
storm at sea. There is a good deal of symbolism:
It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.
They might have been feeling quite disgruntled at being sent
off so unceremoniously when things seemed to be going so well for their
Master—and of course, them. Life without Jesus is a kind of darkness.
As they crossed:
The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing.
The strong wind and the rough sea can also be seen as a
symbol of the storms that can surround the Church and any Christian
community. The boat with the little group inside represents a Christian
community surrounded by a hostile sea which can be very threatening at
times. It still happens.
Suddenly they see:
…Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat…
Their first reaction is fear, until they hear his comforting
words:
It is I; do not be afraid.
“It is I” is not mere self-identification, like “It’s only
me.” Here it is translated “I AM” (Greek ego eimi), reminiscent of
the words spoken by God to Moses from the burning bush. It is a phrase
regularly on the lips of Jesus in John’s Gospel, and it identifies Jesus as one
with God.
The words “do not be afraid” occur regularly from the lips
of Jesus and in other parts of the Scriptures as well. With Jesus close
by, there is no need to be afraid. As the First Letter of John tells us:
…perfect love [Greek, agape] casts
out fear… (1 John 4:18)
The Apostles wanted to take Jesus into the boat with them,
but all of a sudden they found they had reached the shore and safety—some see a
miracle in this. On the other hand, in their fear the shore seemed far
away. With Jesus close by they find themselves there in no time.
The storm was over, their fears having evaporated with the presence of
Jesus. The peace that only Jesus can give has come.
We, too, can have the same experience.
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Saturday, April 18, 2026
Easter Time
Opening Prayer
Lord God, also in our day we need men and women filled
with the Spirit
of love and service who are
attentive to the needs of people.
Let them listen even to the
unspoken cries of people too timid to voice their poverty and distress and help without
condescension their brothers
and sisters of Christ,
for He is our Lord for ever. Amen.
Gospel Reading - John 6: 16-21
When it was evening,
the disciples of Jesus went down to the sea, embarked in a boat, and went across
the sea to Capernaum. It had already
grown dark, and Jesus
had not yet come to them. The sea was stirred up because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles,
they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they began to be afraid.
But he said to them, "It is I. Do not be afraid." They wanted to take him into the boat, but
the boat immediately arrived at the shore to which they were heading.
Reflection
Today’s Gospel narrates the episode of the boat on the agitated sea. Jesus is on
the mountain, the disciples in the sea, and the people on the land. By
his way of describing the facts, John tries to help the communities
discover the mystery which envelops the person of Jesus. He does
it by recalling texts from the Old Testament which refer to the Exodus.
At the
time when John wrote, the
small boat of the communities had to face
a contrary wind both
on the part of the converted Jews
who wanted to reduce
the mystery of Jesus to prophecies and figures of the Old Testament, and on the part of some converted Gentiles who
thought that it was possible to have an alliance between
Jesus and the Empire.
•
John 6: 15: Jesus on the mountain. Having seen the
multiplication of the loaves, the people conclude that Jesus is the awaited
Messiah, because according to the hope of the people of the time, the Messiah
would have repeated the gesture of Moses: feeding the people in the desert. For
this reason, according to the official
ideology, the crowds
thought that Jesus was
the
Messiah, and, because of this, they wanted to make Him king (cf. Jn 6: 14- 15). This request of the people was a temptation for Jesus as well as for the disciples. In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus obliges the disciples to get into the boat and go
on ahead to the other side of the lake (Mk 6: 45). He wanted to prevent them
from getting contaminated with this ideology. This is a sign that the “yeast of Herod and of the
Pharisees” was very strong (Mk 8: 15). Jesus faces the temptation with prayer on the
mountain.
•
John 6: 16-18: The situation of the disciples. It was already night. The disciples went down near the sea; they
got into the boat and headed toward Capernaum,
on the other side of the sea. John says that it was already
dark and that Jesus
had not arrived
as yet. On the one hand he recalls the Exodus:
to cross the sea in the midst of difficulties. On the other, he recalls the
situation of the communities in the Roman Empire: with the disciples, they were living in the dark, with a contrary
wind, and the sea was
agitated, and Jesus seemed to be
absent!
•
John 6: 19-20. Change of the situation. Jesus approaches them walking on the water of the sea of life. The
disciples are afraid. As happens in the story of Emmaus, they did not recognize
Him (Lk 24: 28). Jesus gets close to them and says,
“It is I! Do not be afraid!” For those who
know the story of the Old Testament, here again John recalls some very important
facts:
(a)
He recalls the crowd, protected by God, crossing the Red Sea without fear.
(b)
He recalls that God, when calling Moses,
declares His name, saying,
“I
am!” (Ex 3: 15).
(c)
He recalls also the Book of Isaiah
which presents the return
from exile as a new Exodus,
in which God repeats many times, “I am!” (cf. Is 42: 8; 43: 5, 11-13;
44: 6, 25; 45: 5-7).
•
For the People of the Bible, the sea was the symbol
of the abyss, of chaos,
of evil (Rev 13: 1). In Exodus
the people go across toward liberty, facing and conquering the sea. God divides the sea with
His breath and the crowds
cross the sea, which is dry land. (Ex 14: 22). In other passages the Bible shows God who conquers
the sea (Gen
1: 6-10; Ps 104: 6-9;
Prov 8: 27). The sea
was an immense part of
nature, more powerful than man, and at any time or turbulence could swallow up
those on it. To conquer the sea means to have control over even the most
powerful nature on earth. In this passage Jesus reveals His divinity by
dominating and conquering the sea, preventing the boat and His disciples from
being carried away by the waves. This way of evoking or recalling the Old
Testament, of using the Bible, helped the communities to recognize the
presence of God
in Jesus and in the facts of life.
“Do not be afraid”!
•
John 6: 22. They reached the desired port. They want to take Jesus into the boat, but
it was not necessary, because the boat touched the shore where they were
headed. They reached the desired port. The psalm says, “He reduced the storm to
calm, and all the waters subsided. He brought them overjoyed at the stillness,
to the port where they were bound.” (Ps 107: 29-30).
Personal Questions
•
• On the mountain: Why does Jesus seek to be alone to pray after the multiplication
of the loaves? What is the result of His prayer?
•
• How is life like the sea? Does it scare us?
•
• Is it possible today to walk on the water of the sea of life? How?
Concluding Prayer
Shout for joy, you upright;
praise befits the honest.
Give thanks to Yahweh on the lyre, play for Him on the ten-stringed lyre. (Ps 33: 1-2)
