May 8, 2026
Friday of the Fifth Week of Easter
Lectionary: 289
Reading
I
The Apostles and
presbyters, in agreement with the whole Church,
decided to choose representatives
and to send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas.
The ones chosen were Judas, who was called Barsabbas,
and Silas, leaders among the brothers.
This is the letter delivered by them:
“The Apostles and the presbyters, your brothers,
to the brothers in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia
of Gentile origin: greetings.
Since we have heard that some of our number
who went out without any mandate from us
have upset you with their teachings
and disturbed your peace of mind,
we have with one accord decided to choose representatives
and to send them to you along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,
who have dedicated their lives to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So we are sending Judas and Silas
who will also convey this same message by word of mouth:
‘It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us
not to place on you any burden beyond these necessities,
namely, to abstain from meat sacrificed to idols,
from blood, from meats of strangled animals,
and from unlawful marriage.
If you keep free of these,
you will be doing what is right. Farewell.’“
And so they were sent on their journey.
Upon their arrival in Antioch
they called the assembly together and delivered the letter.
When the people read it, they were delighted with the exhortation.
Responsorial
Psalm
R.
(10a) I will give you thanks among the peoples, O Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
My heart is steadfast, O God; my heart is steadfast;
I will sing
and chant praise.
Awake, O my soul; awake, lyre and harp!
I will wake
the dawn.
R. I will give you thanks
among the peoples, O Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
I will give thanks to you among the peoples, O LORD,
I will chant
your praise among the nations.
For your mercy towers to the heavens,
and your
faithfulness to the skies.
Be exalted above the heavens, O God;
above all
the earth be your glory!
R. I will give you thanks
among the peoples, O Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia,
alleluia.
I call you my friends, says the Lord,
for I have made known to you all that the Father has told me.
R. Alleluia,
alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus said to his
disciples:
“This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.
No one has greater love than this,
to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command you.
I no longer call you slaves,
because a slave does not know what his master is doing.
I have called you friends,
because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.
It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you
and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain,
so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.
This I command you: love one another.”
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/050826.cfm
Commentary on Acts
15:22-31
Having decided that circumcision should no longer be imposed
on non-Jewish converts, the community leaders together with the whole church
gathered in Jerusalem to promulgate their decision to the wider Church. They
sent a delegation to Antioch in Syria, which was effectively the centre of the
Greek-speaking Christians (both Jews and Gentiles). Wisely, the delegation
included representatives from the Jerusalem community.
Among those from Jerusalem two leaders are mentioned: Judas,
also called Barsabbas, and Silas. It is not clear who Barsabbas is, but in the
first chapter of Acts we are told that a Joseph Barsabbas was one of the two
candidates chosen to replace Judas Iscariot. But as we know, “the lot fell on
Matthias”. Silas became a missionary companion of Paul and we will meet him on
the Second Missionary Journey. Silas is the same person known as Silvanus in
some of the Pauline letters. At this time, he was a leader in the Jerusalem Church
and called a ‘prophet’ (Acts 15:32) and, like Paul, was a Roman citizen (Acts
16:37).
But with them went Paul and Barnabas, who represented the
outer limits of the Church, and who had raised the issue in the first place.
Apparently there was unanimous agreement with both the choice of messengers and
the contents of the letter which they carried.
The letter comes from the “apostles and the elders
[Greek, presbyteroi]….leaders among the brothers” in Jerusalem and
is addressed to the “the brothers and sisters of gentile origin in Antioch and
Syria and Cilicia”. Antioch was the leading city of the combined and adjoining
provinces of Syria and Cilicia. It is significant that the Jerusalem leaders
call themselves “brothers” of the gentile converts, thus identifying all as
belonging to the same family.
They speak apologetically of the Jewish Christians who had,
apparently on their own initiative, gone to Antioch to complain about the
non-circumcision of gentile converts. That is why they are sending a delegation
from Jerusalem together with Paul and Barnabas, who have their full
endorsement. They are men who:
…have risked their lives for the sake of our Lord Jesus
Christ.
They then make a significant statement:
…it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us…
Not only are they speaking unanimously in their own name,
but they know they have the full endorsement of the Holy Spirit in their
decision. They then list the four exceptions mentioned yesterday (Thursday of
Week 5 of Easter)—Jewish practices which were still binding on all.
We should note the interesting process that is being
described during the past three days’ readings. The Spirit is with the whole
Church and communicates its faith with the centre. The centre then discerns and
recognises where the Spirit is working and issues an authoritative statement
giving confirmation under the guidance of that Spirit.
The Church still works this way. The Pope is not the one who
tells the Church what to believe; he tells the Church what it believes after listening
to the faith of the whole Church. This listening process on the part of Rome is
crucial for the growth and development of the Church in so many different areas
with very different needs and aspirations.
There is another element in today’s reading which at first
sight seems to be contradictory. Having ruled out the obligation to be
circumcised, they still forbid eating meat sacrificed to idols, and require
abstaining from blood, the meat of strangled animals and “sexual immorality”.
Yet this shows the need for a sensitive balance between the
feelings of the Gentiles and those of the Jews. Circumcision was a much more
sensitive (in every sense!) issue, involving as it did mutilation of the body
and in a particularly delicate area, relating to not only the body, but the
whole area of sexuality and generation.
The other Jewish traditions which were still being imposed
could be lived with without great difficulty. In the course of time they too
would fall away. All of these issues concerning inviolable principles and
acceptable areas of compromise are just as relevant in our Church today as they
were at the beginning.
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Commentary on John
15:12-17
Jesus, speaking to his disciples at the Last Supper,
continues to talk about the centrality of love. He expresses it in a central commandment—and
perhaps surprisingly to some—this commandment is not to love God, or to love
Jesus, but to love one another. God does not need to be mentioned because that
love is only possible when God is acting in and through us.
That is the touchstone of the genuineness of our love for
God. And the measure of that love is that of Jesus for us. If that is not clear
enough, he spells it out:
No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life
for one’s friends.
That may mean dying for others, but it can also mean living
for others; in either case, our primary concern is for the needs of the brother
or sister. And this is the only path to demonstrate that we love God and that
God’s love is in us.
Jesus shows that love by his own death for his friends. And
who are his friends?
You are my friends if you do what I command you.
And what he commands is that we love each other to the same
degree that he loves us.
Earlier, after washing their feet, Jesus told his disciples
that he was their Lord and Master, but now he also calls them his friends and
not servants. Jesus is our Lord, but he is also our Brother and our Friend.
Because of that he has shared with us all he has received from his Father.
Obviously, it is for us to share all we know about Jesus with others too.
Finally, he reminds them that they are his followers,
because he has chosen them—they have not chosen him. We do not confer any
favour on Jesus by following him. We are only answering a call that has already
come from him. And the response to that call is to “bear fruit”, lasting fruit.
Our lives must be productive in love, in caring, in justice, in compassion and
in building up the world of the Kingdom. And we need have no fear. God is with
us and everything we need will be given to us to become fruitful. Finally, once
again, he repeats the core commandment:
I am giving you these commands so that you may love one
another.
We need to ask ourselves, how much of all this is
descriptive of our own lives?
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/e1056g/
Friday,
May 8, 2026
Easter Weekday
Opening Prayer
Lord our God, loving Father,
you have given us your Son Jesus
Christ as the true vine of life and our source of strength.
Help us to live his life as living
branches attached to the vine, and to bear plenty of fruit of justice, goodness
and love.
Let our union with him
become visible in our openness to one another and in our unity as brothers and
sisters, that he may be visibly present among us now and forever.
Gospel Reading - John 15: 12-17
Jesus said to his disciples: This
is my commandment: love one another, as I have loved you. No one can have
greater love than to lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if
you do what I command you. I shall no longer call you servants, because a
servant does not know the master's business; I call you friends, because I have
made known to you everything I have learnt from my Father.
You did not choose me, no, I chose you; and I commissioned
you to go out and to bear fruit, fruit that will last; so that the Father will
give you anything you ask him in my name. My command to you is to love one
another.
Reflection
Today’s Gospel of John 15: 12-17 was already been meditated
on a few days ago
(or it
will be read again within a few
days). Let us take some of the points considered that day.
•
John 15: 12-13: To love one another as he has
loved us. The commandment of
Jesus is only one: “to love one another as he has loved us!”
(Jn 15: 12) Jesus exceeds the Old Testament. The ancient criterion was the
following: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lv 18: 19). The new
criterion is: “Love one another as I have loved you”. It is the phrase that we
sing even today and which says: “There is no greater love than to give one’s
life for one’s brother!”
•
John 15: 14-15: Friends and not servants. You
are my friends if you do what I command you”, that is, the practise of love up
to the point of the total gift of oneself! Immediately Jesus presents a very
high ideal for the life of his disciples. He says: “I shall no longer call you
servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. I call you
friends because I have made known to you everything I have learnt from my
Father!” Jesus no longer had any secrets for his disciples. He tells us
everything that he has heard from the Father! Behold the wonderful ideal of
life in community: to reach a total transparency, to the point of not having
any secrets among us and to have full trust with one another, to be able to
speak about the experience of God that we have and of life, and thus, be able
to mutually enrich one another. The first Christians succeeded to reach this
ideal after many years: “they had one only heart and one only soul” (Ac 4: 32;
1: 14; 2: 42-46).
•
John 15: 16-17: Jesus has chosen us. We have not
chosen Jesus. He met us, called us and entrusted a mission to us to go and bear
fruit, and a fruit which lasts. We need him, but he also wants to need us and
our work in order to be able to continue to do today, for the people what he
did for the people of Galilee. The last recommendation: This is my commandment:
to love one another!”
For Personal Confrontation
•
To love our neighbor as Jesus has loved us. This
is the ideal of every Christian. How do I live it?
•
All that I have heard from the Father I make it
known to you. This is the ideal of the community: to attain total transparency.
How do I live this in my community?
Concluding Prayer
My heart is ready, God, my heart is ready; I will sing, and
make music for you.
Awake, my glory, awake, lyre and harp, that I may awake the
Dawn. (Ps 57: 7-8)
