April 30, 2025
Wednesday of the Second Week of Easter
Lectionary: 269
Reading 1
Acts
5:17-26
The high priest rose up and all his companions,
that is, the party of the Sadducees,
and, filled with jealousy,
laid hands upon the Apostles and put them in the public jail.
But during the night, the angel of the Lord opened the doors of the prison,
led them out, and said,
"Go and take your place in the temple area,
and tell the people everything about this life."
When they heard this,
they went to the temple early in the morning and taught.
When the high priest and his companions arrived,
they convened the Sanhedrin,
the full senate of the children of Israel,
and sent to the jail to have them brought in.
But the court officers who went did not find them in the prison,
so they came back and reported,
"We found the jail securely locked
and the guards stationed outside the doors,
but when we opened them, we found no one inside."
When the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests heard this report,
they were at a loss about them,
as to what this would come to.
Then someone came in and reported to them,
"The men whom you put in prison are in the temple area
and are teaching the people."
Then the captain and the court officers went and brought them,
but without force,
because they were afraid of being stoned by the people.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm
34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
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.
Let my soul glory in the LORD;
the lowly will hear me and be glad.
R.The Lord hears the cry of the poor.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Glorify the LORD with me,
let us together extol his name.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
R. The Lord hears the cry of the poor.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Look to him that you may be radiant with joy,
and your faces may not blush with shame.
When the poor one called out, the LORD heard,
and from all his distress he saved him.
R. The Lord hears the cry of the poor.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The angel of the LORD encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.
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.
Alleluia
John
3:16
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might have eternal life.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
John
3:16-21
God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,
but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,
because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.
And this is the verdict,
that the light came into the world,
but people preferred darkness to light,
because their works were evil.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light
and does not come toward the light,
so that his works might not be exposed.
But whoever lives the truth comes to the light,
so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/043025.cfm
Commentary on Acts
5:17-26
In the passage immediately preceding today’s reading we are
told that many signs and wonders were being performed by the Apostles and more
and more people joined their community. Even Peter’s shadow falling on
the sick was enough to heal them. All this was causing great alarm among
the religious leadership who saw these men acting on the basis of a faith (a
Saviour risen from the dead) which they regarded as heretical. During the next
three days (Wednesday, Thursday and Friday) we will be hearing a description of
the leaders’ efforts to put a stop to the Apostles’ work.
Specifically, those upset were the high priest and the
Sadducee party to which he belonged. As we saw earlier, Caiaphas was the
high priest recognised by Rome, but the Jews considered his father-in-law Annas
still the high priest because it was an office held for life. The
Sadducees only accepted the first five books of the Bible (the Pentateuch) as
inspired, and rejected later teachings accepted by others. Nor did they
believe in a personal Messiah, but only in a Messianic age. They also were seen
to some extent as collaborators with the Romans, and it was partly because they
feared the reaction of the Romans that they wanted to get rid of this new
‘movement’ which could arouse the suspicions of the Roman
authorities. Caiaphas had said during Jesus’ trial:
You do not understand that it is better for you to have
one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed. (John
11:50)
Here was a similar situation.
We are told that the main motive for their displeasure was
jealousy. The Apostles were attracting large crowds, apart from the fact
that they were disseminating a doctrine which the Sadducees denounced. So
they had the Apostles arrested and thrown into the public jail.
But during the night an “angel of the Lord” opened the gates
for them and told them to go back and continue preaching in the Temple.
The phrase “angel of the Lord” appears four times in Acts: Stephen, during his
address to the Sanhedrin, tells of an angel speaking to Moses near Mount Sinai
(7:30-38); an angel guides the deacon Philip to seek out the Ethiopian eunuch
(8:26); an angel frees Peter from prison (12:7-10); and it is an angel who
strikes down Herod when he accepts being addressed as a god (12:23).
In today’s reading, was it really a divine intervention, or
was it the work of a secret but influential supporter? It does not
matter; it is clear that Jesus is with his Apostles. So the dawn finds
them back in the Temple preaching about Jesus.
The same morning, the Sanhedrin, the ruling council of the
Jews, was convoked and the prisoners summoned. The Sanhedrin was the
supreme Jewish court, consisting of 70 to 100 men (the proper number was
71). They sat in a semi-circle, backed by three rows of disciples of the
“learned men”, with the clerks of the court standing in front.
The temple guard found the jail locked and the guards at
their posts, but there was no sign of the Apostles. They were dumbfounded
and could not explain the situation. Then the council was amazed to hear
that the Apostles were back in the Temple teaching the people. They were
re-arrested, but with no show of force because the leaders feared the
opposition of the crowd.
We have here again a pattern that recurs throughout the
history of the Church and indeed among all those who fight in this world for
truth and justice. Untold numbers of Christians in every part of the world have
found themselves in jail for their faith. Across the world, there are
Christians in detention and labour camps right now. They have experienced
the protection of God who gives them courage and peace and a sense of
liberation (even if they are not always miraculously released).
As in today’s case, those in power are aware that they often
do not have the people on their side. Their only weapon is their power,
but not truth or justice. To keep their power and all that goes with it,
they will not hesitate to suppress truth and act unjustly and often violently.
As with the Apostles, we cannot acquiesce in a situation
where truth and justice are being attacked. There must be dialogue and
even resistance, but never violence. Our own dignity and that of our
opponents must be deeply respected. We oppose, not them, but their ideas
and their actions. We might pray today to have even a modicum of the
Apostles’ integrity and courage. Tomorrow, we will continue with this story.
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Commentary on John
3:16-21
Today we continue reflecting on the meeting of Jesus with
Nicodemus. The dialogue has given way to a theological reflection in
which the words of Jesus and of the author cannot easily be distinguished.
The theme is the relationship between God and the
world. A few very important statements are made:
- God
loved the world. He loves it so much that he gave his only Son, who
died a terrible death on a cross as proof of that love. God loves
the whole world and not just the “good” parts. God’s love is total
and unconditional for every one of his creatures. But to experience the
life that comes from God through Jesus, we have to believe in him, open
ourselves to him and give our whole selves to him in deep faith and trust.
- God
did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that
the world might be saved through him. We must constantly remind
ourselves of this. God’s first and only instinct is to love us and
for us to experience that love. We have been made by him and for
him. He made us to share his life and love forever.
- Those
who believe in him—in heart, word and deed—avoid judgement. But
whoever does not believe is already condemned. That does not
contradict what we have just said above. Judgment does not come from God,
but rather from our own choice. Today’s Gospel states it this way:
…the light has come into the world, and people loved
darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil
hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be
exposed.
It is not God who abandons or dumps us—it is we who abandon
him. We are our own judges when we deliberately choose darkness over
light. We put ourselves beyond the reach of his love, which is there and
only waiting for us to turn back. On the contrary, those who:
…do what is true come to the light, so that it may be
clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.
It is not God’s judgment that we are to fear. Rather it is
our own choices which can bring us closer to him or push us away from him. It
is our own decision whether we wish to live always in the light or instead
choose darkness.
It might be good for us to reflect today on those dark
corners of our life—present and past—which we keep hidden from others.
Why do we hide these things? The person who lives in the light, the
person of integrity and wholeness, has nothing whatever to hide.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/e1024g/
Easter Time
Opening Prayer
Lord our God, you loved the
world - that is us - so much that you gave us your only Son to save us from
ourselves and to give us eternal life. Do not condemn us, Lord, do not leave us
to ourselves and to our little schemes but give us your Son now to stay with us
and to make love and justice and peace ever new realities among us, your people
reborn in your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Gospel Reading - John 3:
16-21
Jesus said to Nicodemus:
"For this is how God loved the world: he gave his only Son, so that
everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. For God
sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but so that through him the
world might be saved.
No one who believes in him
will be judged; but whoever does not believe is judged already, because that
person does not believe in the Name of God's only Son. And the judgement is
this: though the light has come into the world people have preferred darkness
to the light because their deeds were evil. And indeed, everybody who does
wrong hates the light and avoids it, to prevent his actions from being shown
up; but whoever does the truth comes out into the light, so that what he is
doing may plainly appear as done in God.'
Reflection
John’s Gospel is like a
fabric or cloth made of three different threads, but similar. The three of them
are so well combined with one another that, sometimes, it is not possible to
understand when one goes from one thread to the other.
•
The first thread are the facts and words of
Jesus during the thirty years, preserved by the eyewitnesses who kept the
things which Jesus did and taught.
•
The second thread are the facts of the life of
the community. Because of their faith in Jesus and convinced of his presence
among them, the communities enlightened their path with the words and the
gestures of Jesus. This has some incidence or impact on the description of the
facts. For example, the conflict of the communities with the Pharisees at the
end of the first century marks the way of describing the conflicts of Jesus
with the Pharisees.
•
The comments made by the Evangelist are the
third thread. In some passages it is difficult to perceive when Jesus ceases to
speak and the Evangelist begins to weave his own comments. The text of today’s
Gospel, for example, is a beautiful and profound reflection of the Evangelist
on the action of Jesus. The people can hardly perceive the difference between
when Jesus speaks and when the Evangelist does. In any case, both of them are
Word of God.
•
John 3: 16: God loved the world. The word world
is one of those words used more frequently in the Gospel of John: 78 times! It
has several meanings. In the first-place world may signify the earth, the space
inhabited by human beings (Jn 11: 9; 21: 25) or also the created universe (Jn
17: 5, 24) World can also mean the persons who inhabit this earth, all of
humanity (Jn 1: 9; 3: 16; 4: 42; 6: 14; 8: 12). It can also mean a large group,
a numerous group of persons, as when we speak of “the whole world” (Jn 12: 19;
14: 27). Here, in our text the word world also has the sense of humanity, all
the human beings. God so loves humanity that he gave his only Son. The one who
accepts that God reaches down to us in Jesus, has already passed through death
and has eternal life.
•
John 3: 17-19: The true sense of judgment. The
image of God which appears in the three verses is that of a Father full of
tenderness and not of a severe judgment. God sends his Son not to judge and
condemn the world, but in order that the world may be saved through him. The
one who believes in Jesus and accepts him as the revelation of God is not
judged, because he is already accepted by God. And the one who does not believe
in Jesus has already been judged. He excludes himself. And the Evangelist
repeats what he had already said in the Prologue: many persons do not want to
accept Jesus, because his light reveals the evil which exists in them (cf. Jn
1: 5, 10-11). • John 3: 20-21: To practice truth: In every human being, there
is a divine seed, a trait of the Creator. Jesus, the revelation of the Father,
is a response to this deepest desire of the human being. The one, who wants to
be faithful to what he has deepest in him, accepts Jesus. It is difficult to
find a broader ecumenical vision than the one expressed in these three verses
in the Gospel
of John. • To complete the significance of the word world
in the Fourth Gospel. Other times the word world means that part of humanity
opposed to Jesus and to his message. There the word world assumes the meaning
of “enemies” or “opponents” (Jn 7: 4, 7; 8: 23, 26; 9: 39; 12: 25). This world
which is contrary to the practice of the liberty of Jesus, is directed by the
enemy or Satan, also called the “prince of this world” (Jn 14: 30; 16: 11). It
represents the Roman Empire and, at the same time, also those responsible of
the Jews who driving out the followers of Jesus from the Synagogue. This world
persecutes and kills the communities causing tribulations to the faithful (Jn
16: 33). Jesus will liberate them, conquering the prince of this world (Jn 12:
31). Therefore, world means a situation of injustice, of oppression, which
generates hatred and persecution against the communities of the Beloved
Disciple. The persecutors are those persons who have the power, the leaders,
both of the Empire and of the Synagogue. Lastly, all those who practice
injustice using for this the name of God (Jn 16: 2). The hope which the Gospel
gives to the persecuted communities is that Jesus is stronger than the world.
This is why he says: “In the world you will have hardship, but be courageous, I
have conquered the world!” (Jn 16: 33).
Personal Questions
•
God so loved the world that he gave his only
Son. Has this truth penetrated in the depth of your heart, of your conscience?
•
The more ecumenical truth that exists is the
life which God has given us and for which he has given his only Son. How do I
live Ecumenism in my daily life?
Concluding Prayer
I will bless Yahweh at all times, his praise continually on
my lips. I will praise
Yahweh from my heart; let the humble
hear and rejoice. (Ps 34: 1-2)
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