April 16, 2026
Thursday of the Second Week of Easter
Lectionary: 270
Reading
1
Acts 5:27-33
When the court
officers had brought the Apostles in
and made them stand before the Sanhedrin,
the high priest questioned them,
"We gave you strict orders did we not,
to stop teaching in that name.
Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching
and want to bring this man's blood upon us."
But Peter and the Apostles said in reply,
"We must obey God rather than men.
The God of our ancestors raised Jesus,
though you had him killed by hanging him on a tree.
God exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior
to grant Israel repentance and forgiveness of sins.
We are witnesses of these things,
as is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him."
When they heard this,
they became infuriated and wanted to put them to death.
Responsorial
Psalm
Psalm 34:2 and 9, 17-18, 19-20
R. (7a) The
Lord hears the cry of the poor.
or:
R. Alleluia.
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Taste and see how good the LORD is;
blessed the man who takes refuge in him.
R. The Lord hears the cry of the poor.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The LORD confronts the evildoers,
to destroy remembrance of them from the earth.
When the just cry out, the LORD hears them,
and from all their distress he rescues them.
R. The Lord hears the cry of the poor.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;
and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.
Many are the troubles of the just man,
but out of them all the LORD delivers him.
R. The Lord hears the cry of the poor.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Alleluia
John 20:29
R. Alleluia,
alleluia.
You believe in me, Thomas, because you have seen me, says the Lord;
blessed are those who have not seen, but still believe!
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
John 3:31-36
The one who comes
from above is above all.
The one who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of earthly things.
But the one who comes from heaven is above all.
He testifies to what he has seen and heard,
but no one accepts his testimony.
Whoever does accept his testimony certifies that God is trustworthy.
For the one whom God sent speaks the words of God.
He does not ration his gift of the Spirit.
The Father loves the Son and has given everything over to him.
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life,
but whoever disobeys the Son will not see life,
but the wrath of God remains upon him.
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Commentary on Acts
5:27-33
After having been miraculously released from jail and
returned to the Temple to continue their preaching in the name of Jesus, the
Apostles were re-arrested and brought again before the 71-member Sanhedrin, the
ruling council of the Jews.
They were accused of two things:
- They
had continued to preach in “this name” (their accusers could not bring
themselves even to mention the name of Jesus) all over Jerusalem, even
though they had been strictly forbidden to do so;
- They
were blaming the Jewish leadership for Jesus’ death (although we do need
to remember that the Apostles were themselves all devoutly religious Jews
whose Lord and Saviour was also a Jew).
The Apostles were not in the least fazed by these
accusations. The men who were so fearful at the time of Jesus’ death, and
immediately after, now spoke out boldly. They told their judges:
We must obey God rather than any human authority. The God
of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree.
Their accusers were undoubtedly accomplices in the death of
Jesus; their motives a mixture of religious narrow-mindedness and political
self-interest. But the Apostles believed that Jesus was now in glory as
Ruler and Saviour:
God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior
that he might give repentance to Israel [i.e. all their fellow-Jews] and
forgiveness of sins.
The title they give to Jesus corresponds to ‘Prince and
Redeemer’. It was applied to Moses (as a prefiguring of Christ) by Stephen in
his address to the Sanhedrin, where he said that Moses too was rejected by his
people (Acts 7:35). There is an implicit comparison here of Jesus with
Moses, something that the Apostles’ judges would certainly not have liked.
But the Apostles were witnesses to all that they were
saying. They could not say or do otherwise, no matter what others might
tell them. And the Holy Spirit was with them. Their testimony was
directed and confirmed by the:
…Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.
It reminds one of Thomas More in England who refused to
recognise King Henry VIII as head of the Church in England. More said,
“The king’s good servant, but God’s first.” For refusing to compromise
his faith and integrity, he lost his life. For Thomas More, too, there
was no other choice. And there have been many others like him down the
ages. Many Christians today languish in jails and camps for no other
reason.
Not surprisingly, the stance of the Apostles infuriated
their judges who wanted them put to death for what seemed blasphemous language.
Tomorrow we will see the completion of this story.
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Commentary on John 3:31-36
In rather abstract language, the Gospel today contrasts
Jesus with those who see the world with purely worldly eyes. Jesus is the One
who comes “from above”, although he lives in the world. The “one who is of the
earth” can mean any of us, but here seems to refer to John the Baptist, who
spoke of “earthly things” in the sense that he spoke simply as a human being,
as opposed to Jesus as the Word.
But the “one who comes from heaven” is above all and:
He testifies to what he has seen and heard, yet no one
accepts his testimony.
What Jesus has seen and heard comes through direct
communication with his Father.
But “no one accepts his testimony”. This does not mean
literally every single person (obviously not true), but all those who are
entirely immersed in this material world. Yet there are some who do listen and
who do accept what Jesus is saying, and they know that what God says is
trustworthy. When anyone fully accepts Christ’s witness, he accepts that Jesus
is truly from God and that God acted (and continues to act) through him for the
establishment of the Kingdom and the salvation of the world. For:
He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for he
gives the Spirit without measure.
He is the Word of God. But the sentence can be understood to
apply to everyone who has consciously become a disciple and Apostle for Jesus
and his message. Jesus is the Light of the world, but his followers are also
called to be the light of the world (Matt 5:14).
The Son, Jesus, is the perfect image of the Father, and
shares generously with us what he has received from his Father. Life without
end awaits all those who believe in the Son, who believe his words and accept
them as their way of life.
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever
disobeys the Son will not see life but must endure God’s wrath.
Notice that one who believes “has” eternal life.
Eternal life begins now with the response of faith.
We must not think that God takes vengeance on those who disobey
Jesus. God can never be angry in our normal sense of the word. But rather,
those who choose to go another way, the way of darkness and evil, can only
expect to meet death. They are the victims, not of God’s anger, but of their
own determination to live in darkness. Let us remember that with God’s help,
the choice is ours to make.
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Thursday, April 16, 2026
Season of Easter
Opening Prayer
Lord our God,
Your Son Jesus Christ came from You and bore witness
to the things He had heard and seen.
He could not but bear witness
to You.
Give us the Spirit
of Your Son,
we pray You,
to speak Your
word and to live it, that
we may show Christ, Your living Word,
to those who have not seen
Him.
We ask You this through Christ
our Lord. Amen.
Gospel Reading - John 3: 31-36
The one who comes
from above is above all. The one who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of earthly things. But the one who comes from
heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard,
but no one accepts his testimony. Whoever does accept
his testimony certifies that God is trustworthy.
For the one whom God sent speaks
the words of God. He does not ration his gift
of the Spirit. The Father
loves the Son and has given everything over to him.
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life,
but whoever disobeys
the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God
remains upon him.
Reflection
During the month of January, we meditated on John 3: 22-30, which shows us the
last witness of John the Baptist concerning Jesus. It was a response given by
him to his disciples, in which he reaffirms that
he, John, is not the
Messiah, but rather his
precursor (Jn 3: 28). On that occasion,
John utters that beautiful
phrase which summarizes his witness:
“It is necessary that He grow greater
and I grow smaller!” This phrase is the guide for all those who want to follow Jesus.
The verses of today’s
Gospel are again a comment
of the Evangelist in order to
help the communities to better understand the importance of the things that
Jesus did and taught. Here, we have another indication of those three threads of which we spoke before.
•
John 3: 31-33:
A refrain which
is always repeated.
Throughout the Gospel
of John, there often appears conflict
between Jesus and the Jews who challenge the words of Jesus. Jesus
speaks of what He hears from the Father.
He is total
transparency. His enemies,
not opening themselves to God and because they cling to their own ideas
here on earth, are not capable of understanding the deep significance of the things that Jesus lives, does and says. Ultimately, this is the evil one which pushes
the Jews to arrest and condemn Jesus.
•
John 3: 34: Jesus gives us the Spirit without reserve. John’s Gospel uses many
images and symbols to signify
the action of the Spirit.
As in Creation (Gen 1: 1), in the same way the Spirit descends on Jesus “like a dove, come from Heaven” (Jn 1: 32). It is the beginning of the new creation! Jesus repeats the words of God
and communicates the Spirit to us without
reserve (Jn 3: 34). His words are Spirit and life (Jn 6: 63). When Jesus is about to leave this earth, He says
that He will send another Advocate, another defender, to be
with us forever (Jn 14: 16-17). By his Passion,
Death and Resurrection, Jesus obtains for us the gift of the Spirit.
Through baptism all of us have received
this same Spirit
of Jesus (Jn 1: 33). When
He appeared to the apostles, He breathed on them and said: “Receive
the Holy Spirit!”
(Jn 20: 22). The Spirit is like the water which
springs from the people who believe in Jesus (Jn 7: 37-39; 4: 14). The first effect
of the action of the Spirit in us is reconciliation: “If you forgive
anyone’s sins they will be forgiven;
if you retain anyone’s sins, they are retained!” (Jn 20: 23). The
Spirit is given to us to recall and understand the full significance of the
words of Jesus
(Jn 14: 26;
16: 12-13). Animated by the Spirit
of Jesus we can
adore God in any place (Jn 4: 23-24). Here is fulfilled the liberty of the Spirit of which Saint
Paul speaks: “Where
the Spirit of the Lord
is, there is freedom” (2 Cor 3: 17).
•
John 3: 35-36: The Father loves the Son. He reaffirms the identity between the Father and Jesus. The Father loves the Son and places
all things in His hand. Saint Paul will say that the fullness of divinity dwells
in Jesus (Col 1: 19; 2: 9).
This is why the one who accepts
Jesus and believes
in Jesus has eternal life, because God is life. The one who does not accept and believe
in Jesus, places himself outside.
Personal Questions
•
Jesus communicates the Spirit to us, without reserve.
Have you had any experience of this
Spirit in your life?
•
He who believes in Jesus has
eternal life. What
does it mean
to believe? If one
proclaims someone is a king, but does not follow this king's commands, is there really
belief there is a king? Using this parallel, what
does it really
mean to believe?
Concluding Prayer
Proclaim with me the greatness of Yahweh; let us acclaim
His name together. Taste and see that Yahweh is good.
How blessed are those who take refuge in Him. (Ps 34: 3, 8)
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