May 5, 2026
Tuesday of Fifth Week of Easter
Lectionary: 286
Reading
1
In those days,
some Jews from Antioch and Iconium
arrived and won over the crowds.
They stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city,
supposing that he was dead.
But when the disciples gathered around him,
he got up and entered the city.
On the following day he left with Barnabas for Derbe.
After they 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 presbyters 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.
Then they spent no little time with the disciples.
Responsorial
Psalm
R.(see 12) Your
friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
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. Your friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your
kingdom.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Making known to men your might
and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
Your kingdom is a kingdom for all ages,
and your dominion endures through all generations.
R. Your friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your
kingdom.
or:
R. Alleluia.
May my mouth speak the praise of the LORD,
and may all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.
R. Your friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your
kingdom.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia,
alleluia.
Christ had to suffer and to rise from the dead,
and so enter into his glory.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus said to his
disciples:
"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.
Not as the world gives do I give it to you.
Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.
You heard me tell you,
'I am going away and I will come back to you.'
If you loved me,
you would rejoice that I am going to the Father;
for the Father is greater than I.
And now I have told you this before it happens,
so that when it happens you may believe.
I will no longer speak much with you,
for the ruler of the world is coming.
He has no power over me,
but the world must know that I love the Father
and that I do just as the Father has commanded me."
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/050526.cfm
Commentary on Acts
14:19-28
We come today to the final description of Paul’s and
Barnabas’ first missionary journey. In the previous passage, they were in
Lystra, and in the embarrassing situation of being taken for gods because of
the cure of a paralysed man. But their glory was to be short-lived; their
enemies were on their tail.
Those Jews whose hostility they had incurred in the towns of
Antioch and Iconium turned up and successfully stirred up the feelings of the
people of Lystra against the two Apostles. But it’s important to remember that
there were also other Jews in these towns who had become Christian believers.
Reflecting the fickleness of crowds, the people who had just
been treating the Apostles as gods now had Paul stoned and left him for dead.
It seems this was done within the city rather than at the usual place of
execution outside the walls. This could indicate that it was a spontaneous
outburst of mob violence rather than a formal execution. But Paul was what we
would call a ‘tough cookie’ and, as soon as his disciples gathered around him,
he was suddenly back on his feet again (perhaps a hint of a miraculously quick
recovery in Luke’s description?). It is also possible that his future
companion, Timothy, was present. Timothy, as mentioned earlier, seems to have
been a native of Lystra. Paul’s experience might have had the same effect on
him as Stephen’s had on Saul (Paul).
With the courage that so often marks his actions, Paul went
back into the town the next day with Barnabas on his way to Derbe, their last
stop on this journey. Derbe was a border town in the southeastern part of the
Lycaonian region of Galatia. An inscription naming the city has been discovered
about 50 km (30 miles) east of what was previously thought to be the city site.
Here the two missionaries again proclaimed the gospel and “made many
disciples”.
Paul must have been quite an impressive preacher, judging by
his success in all the towns in which he spoke. One wonders if his being a
Pharisee did not have an influence on his Jewish listeners, although it is
clear that it also had a negative impact. If a devout Pharisee could be
converted to the Way of Jesus, then maybe there was something in it. At the
same time, others would see him as a total renegade to his Jewish faith.
Then they began their return journey going through each of
the towns they had originally evangelised—Lystra, Iconium and Pisidian
Antioch—and in which they had met such violent resistance. But one must
remember that they had also made many Christian converts among both Jews and
Gentiles. These would be the seeds of new churches in each place.
We are told that Paul:
…strengthened the souls of the disciples and encouraged
them to continue in the faith, saying, “It is through many persecutions that we
must enter the kingdom of God.”
He preached and warned them of the trials and difficulties
that they could expect to face—just as he did. This was a necessary condition
to enter the Kingdom.
In each church, a pastoral structure was set up for the
first time with the appointing of ‘presbyters’ (Greek, presbyteroi)
or elders. With prayers and fasting, they were commended to the Lord. The
elders (or presbyters) were community leaders chosen from among the communities
by a laying on of hands. In this case, too, the elders were chosen by the Apostles
and not by the community. While our modern word ‘priest’ is derived from this
word, they were not priests as we know the term now in the Catholic Church.
As the New Testament emphasises, we really have only one
Priest, Jesus Christ, who acts as Mediator and Bridge-builder (Greek, Pontifex)
between us and God (see Paul’s Letter to the Hebrews).
From Pisidian Antioch, Paul and Barnabas retraced their
steps through Pisidia, Perga in Pamphylia and down to the coastal town of
Attalia, the main port of Pamphylia. From there they went by ship back to
Antioch in Syria, the city from which they had originally set out.
On their return to Antioch, the two Apostles gave a complete
report of their mission experiences, and told of how God “opened a door of
faith for the gentiles” and how well they had accepted the message of the
gospel. In fact, Paul and Barnabas had left behind not just individual
believers, but functioning communities with their own leadership. After their
return, they stayed on in Antioch and “stayed there with the disciples for some
time”, probably a year at least. Paul now seems to be fully accepted into the
community which had been so suspicious of him earlier.
In our work for the Church, we also need to report to the
community what we are doing. We need to submit ourselves to their evaluation
and their encouragement. The work of the Church is never that of just one
person be it pope, bishop, priest, religious or lay person. Still less is the
church a ‘service station’ where I just go to fulfil my private needs.
Meanwhile, the way is being prepared for the next great
event in the history of the infant Church—the Council of Jerusalem, the
Church’s very first Council. It will also be a major turning point in the
direction the new community is taking.
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Commentary on John
14:27-31
As Jesus prepares to leave his disciples, he knows that they
are fearful and upset and they will be all the more so when they see what
people will soon be doing to him. His farewell, then, includes a gift of peace.
‘Peace!’ (Shalom) is the normal Jewish greeting and farewell, and Jesus
uses it when he appears to his disciples after the Resurrection. Originally it
meant soundness of body, but it came to signify perfect happiness and the
liberation which the Messiah was expected to bring. This is the very wholeness
which is the aim of Jesus’ mission.
But it is not the peace as the ‘world’ understands it. Peace
for Jesus is not simply the absence of violence; it is something much more
positive, much deeper. Paradoxically, it can exist side by side with times of
great turmoil. It is something internal, not external. It comes from an inner
sense of security, of a conviction that God is with us and in us and that we
are in the right place. It is something which not even the threat of death can
take away.
It is something that the going away of Jesus cannot remove.
Jesus tells his disciples:
If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the
Father…
It is always a sign of love when our first priority is the
well-being of the other person. He says:
…the Father is greater than I.
This is in the sense that as Father, he has a kind of
priority and is the ultimate source of all that is, though the Son does share
all that with the Father and the Spirit. The full divine glory of the Son in
Jesus is also veiled behind his humanity for the time being, but after the
Cross he will pass into the full glory of the Father.
It is obvious that Jesus’ place is with his Father. His
disciples, if they love him, will know that and not get in his way. Of course,
as Jesus points out, it is also in the disciples’ own interest that Jesus go
away, for only then will the Spirit come down on all of them.
The end is near:
…for the ruler of this world is coming.
But they are not to worry. The powers of evil are limited in
what they can do, and all that happens to Jesus is simply a manifestation of
his great love for his Father and his desire to follow his Father’s wishes.
That is, by undergoing what faces him, Jesus will be communicating to the world
the tremendous love of the Father for each one of us.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/e1053g/
Tuesday,
May 5, 2026
Easter Time
Opening Prayer
Lord our God, almighty Father,
you have absolute power over the
world, and yet you respect the freedom of people, even of those who persecute
your faithful.
Make us realize that our faith does
not protect us against the evil which people bring upon one another, but that
you want us to build according to your plan a kingdom of justice, love and
peace.
Help our faith to stand the test when our meager
efforts fail. We ask you this through Christ our Lord.
Gospel Reading - John 14: 27-31a
Jesus
said to his disciples: "Peace I bequeath to you, my own peace I give you,
a peace which the world cannot give, this is my gift to you. Do not let your
hearts be troubled or afraid.
You heard me say: I
am going away and shall return. If you loved me, you would be glad that I am
going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. I have told you this
now, before it happens, so that when it does happen you may believe. I shall
not talk to you much longer, because the prince of this world is on his way. He
has no power over me, but the world must recognize that I love the Father and
that I act just as the Father commanded. Come now, let us go.
Reflection
Here in John 14: 27, begins
the farewell of Jesus and at the end of chapter 14, he ends the conversation
saying: “Come now, let us go!” (Jn 14: 31). But instead of leaving the room,
Jesus continues to speak in three other chapters: 15, 16, and 17. If we read
these three chapters, at the beginning of chapter 18, we see the following
phrase: “After he had said all this, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed
the Kidron valley where there was a garden into which he went with his
disciples“ (Jn 18: 1). In Jn 18: 1, there is the continuation of Jn 14: 31. The
Gospel of John is like a beautiful building constructed slowly, rock on top of
rock, brick upon brick. Here and there, there are signs of rearrangement or
adaptation. In some way, all the texts, all the bricks, form part of the
building and are the Word of God for us.
•
John 14: 27: The gift of Peace. Jesus
communicates his peace to the disciples. The same peace will be given after the
Resurrection (Jn 20: 29). This peace is an expression of the manifestation of
the Father, as Jesus had said before (Jn
14: 21). The peace of Jesus is the
source of joy that he communicates to us (Jn 15: 11; 16: 20, 22, 24; 17: 13).
It is a peace which is different from the peace which the world gives us,
diverse from Pax Romana. At the end
of the first century the Pax Romana was maintained by force and violent
repression against the rebellious movements. Pax Romana guaranteed the institutionalized inequality between the
Roman citizens and the slaves. This is not the peace of the Kingdom of God. The
Peace which Jesus communicates is what in the Old Testament is called Shalom.
It is the complete organization of the whole life around the values of justice,
of fraternity and of equality.
•
John 14: 28-29: The reason why Jesus returns to
the Father. Jesus returns to the
Father in order to be able to return immediately. He will say
to Mary
Magdalene: “Do not cling to me,
because I have not yet ascended to the Father” (Jn 20: 17). Going up to the
Father, he will return through the Holy Spirit that he will send (cfr. Jn 20:
22). Without the return toward the Father, he will not be able to stay with us
through the Spirit.
•
John 14: 30-31a: That the world may know that I
love the Father. Jesus had ended the last conversation with the disciples. The
prince of this world wanted to impose himself on the destiny of Jesus. Jesus
will die. The Prince, the Tempter, the Devil, has no power over Jesus. The
world will know that Jesus loves the Father. This is the great witness of Jesus
which can impel the world to believe in him. In the announcement of the Good
News it is not a question of diffusing a doctrine, or of imposing a Canon Law,
or of uniting all in one organization. It is a question; above all, of living
and radiating what the human being desires and has deeper in his heart: love.
Without this, the doctrine, the Law, the celebration will be only a wig on a
bald head.
•
John 14: 31b: Come now, let us go. These are the
last words of Jesus, the expression of his decision to be obedient to the
Father and of revealing his love. In the Eucharist, at the moment of the
consecration, in some countries, it is said: “On the day before his passion,
voluntarily accepted.” In another place Jesus says: “This is why the Father
loves me: because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes
it from me: I lay it down of my own free will, and as I have power to lay it
down so I have power to take it up again, and this is the command that I have
received from my Father.” (Jn 10: 17-18).
Personal Questions
•
Jesus says: “I give you my peace.” How do I
contribute to the construction of peace in my family and in my community?
•
Looking into the mirror of the obedience of
Jesus toward the Father, on which point could I improve my obedience to the Father?
Concluding Prayer
All your creatures shall thank you, Yahweh, and your
faithful shall bless you.
They shall speak of the glory of your kingship and tell of
your might. (Ps 145: 1011)
