May 22, 2025
Thursday of the Fifth Week of Easter
Lectionary: 288
Reading 1
After much debate had taken place,
Peter got up and said to the Apostles and the presbyters,
"My brothers, you are well aware that from early days
God made his choice among you that through my mouth
the Gentiles would hear the word of the Gospel and believe.
And God, who knows the heart,
bore witness by granting them the Holy Spirit
just as he did us.
He made no distinction between us and them,
for by faith he purified their hearts.
Why, then, are you now putting God to the test
by placing on the shoulders of the disciples
a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear?
On the contrary, we believe that we are saved
through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they."
The whole assembly fell silent,
and they listened
while Paul and Barnabas described the signs and wonders
God had worked among the Gentiles through them.
After they had fallen silent, James responded,
"My brothers, listen to me.
Symeon has described how God first concerned himself
with acquiring from among the Gentiles a people for his name.
The words of the prophets agree with this, as is written:
After this I shall return
and rebuild the fallen hut of David;
from its ruins I shall rebuild it
and raise it up again,
so that the rest of humanity may seek out the Lord,
even all the Gentiles on whom my name is invoked.
Thus says the Lord who accomplishes these things,
known from of old.
It is my judgment, therefore,
that we ought to stop troubling the Gentiles who turn to God,
but tell them by letter to avoid pollution from idols,
unlawful marriage, the meat of strangled animals, and blood.
For Moses, for generations now,
has had those who proclaim him in every town,
as he has been read in the synagogues every sabbath."
Responsorial Psalm
R.(3) Proclaim God's marvelous deeds to all the
nations.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all you lands.
Sing to the LORD; bless his name.
R. Proclaim God's marvelous deeds to all the nations.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Announce his salvation, day after day.
Tell his glory among the nations;
among all peoples, his wondrous deeds.
R. Proclaim God's marvelous deeds to all the nations.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Say among the nations: The LORD is king.
He has made the world firm, not to be moved;
he governs the peoples with equity.
R. Proclaim God's marvelous deeds to all the nations.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord;
I know them, and they follow me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus said to his disciples:
"As the Father loves me, so I also love you.
Remain in my love.
If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love,
just as I have kept my Father's commandments
and remain in his love.
"I have told you this so that
my joy might be in you and
your joy might be complete."
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/052225.cfm
Commentary on Acts
15:7-21
Today we have the second and final part of the ‘Council of
Jerusalem’. The issue at hand (see Acts 15:1-6) has been discussed in depth and
we now are given the conclusions of the assembly. We will see the
implementation of these conclusions in tomorrow’s reading.
The Council of Jerusalem can be said to be divided into
three parts:
- the
speech of Peter, head of the Apostles;
- the
statement of James, the leader of the Jerusalem church;
- an
‘encyclical’ letter (the first of many!) sent to the churches, which we
will see tomorrow.
First, Peter speaks up. This is significant. One would have
expected Paul to do so. But Paul has had his say and presented his case. Peter
now speaks, primarily as leader of the apostolic college but, also because of
his personal experience in this sensitive issue.
It is now for him to make the final decision. He has special
credentials for doing so as leader of the Apostles, the inner core of the
Church’s leadership. But he was also the one to whom God had explicitly
revealed that the Christian community should be opened to the Gentiles, and
that many of the ritual obligations of the Jews, such as those involving
unclean foods, were no longer relevant. This happened when he had the vision
about all the different kinds of animals (see Acts 10:9-16). And it was Peter
who had played a leading role in the baptism into the community of Cornelius,
the first gentile Christian.
Peter now tells the assembly how God had chosen him to be
the instrument for bringing Christ’s message to the Gentiles and how they had
received the gift of the Spirit, just as the first Christians did. The
receiving of the Holy Spirit was always taken as the irrefutable proof of being
accepted by God. That was seen clearly in the case of Cornelius and his
household. Peter says:
God, who knows the human heart, testified to them [the
Gentiles] by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us.
Then, says Peter, isn’t it only provoking God’s anger to
place:
…on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our
ancestors nor we have been able to bear?
The ‘yoke’ here is the Mosaic law. Paul writes in his letter
to the Galatians:
For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm,
therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. (Gal 5:1)
Paul has to say this because many Jewish converts were going
back to full observance of the Mosaic law.
All that is needed is to “be saved through the grace of the
Lord Jesus”. Again from Galatians:
…we know that a person is justified not by the works of the
law but through the faith of Jesus Christ…no one will be justified by the works
of the law. (Gal 2:15-16)
This ‘faith’ is not just an intellectual acceptance, but a
total commitment of the self to the Way of Christ.
The Jewish way is not, says Peter, a specially privileged
one, and circumcision, by itself, means nothing. Of course, for many Jews,
circumcision represented their total dedication to God.
The assembly then fell silent after this presentation. Was
that because they were overwhelmed by what Peter had said, or was it that there
had been some loud disagreement from legalists while he spoke? In any case,
Barnabas and Paul, on their part, confirmed all that Peter had said by
describing their wonderful experience of evangelising the Gentiles and seeing
God working so evidently among them (note that here Barnabas’ name comes before
Paul’s, perhaps because he had more status in the Jerusalem community).
We now come to the second part of the Council’s discussions.
James, the leader of the Jerusalem community and a relative of Jesus himself,
speaks. He clearly represents the Jewish members of the Christian community and
so, like Peter, but in a different way, his words carry special weight. He will
contradict the demands of some of his fellow-Jews in the community.
He endorses the words of Peter, confirming them with a
passage from the prophet Amos:
I will return, and I will rebuild the dwelling of
David…so that all other peoples may seek the Lord… (Amos 9:11-12)
The text is quoted according to the Septuagint (the Greek
version of the Old Testament), and the argument partly depends on variants
peculiar to that version. It probably comes from Greek-speaking believers,
although here it is ascribed to the leader of the Hebrew Christians.
In view of this statement that God wishes all to belong to
him, James goes on to say that no unnecessary burdens should be put on Gentiles
who wish to convert.
He does make a few exceptions, however, and says that a
letter should be sent out to this effect. Although they are not bound by the
Mosaic law in general—and especially circumcision—he lists four things gentile
Christians should avoid. These are:
1. Pollution from idols
2. Unlawful marriage
3. Meat of strangled animals
4. Blood
The first point forbids the eating of food which had been
offered to idols because it might imply some ambivalence about fidelity to
one’s Christian beliefs. However, Paul, in writing to the Romans, says this
does not bother him personally, as he does not believe in those idols anyway.
However, he would not eat such food if he was in the presence of a more
scrupulous person who might misunderstand his action.
The second prohibition is given is because many
Gentiles—like many people today—took sexual activity rather lightly. Temple
worship, too, sometimes involved intimacy with temple prostitutes, male and
female. Apart from the immorality involved, this could be a source of scandal.
The third and fourth conditions are presented because Jews
only eat the meat of animals from which the blood has been drained and, as we
see in the Gospel, contact with blood was seen as a form of religious
contamination. This seems to contradict what has been said earlier, but it
should really be seen as a plea at this stage in the church’s life to respect
the sensitivities of the more traditional Jewish converts. It is a matter of
compromise in non-essentials. For us, this would be like agreeing to eat fish
on Fridays when with Catholics who cannot bring themselves to change their old ways.
Or perhaps like not insisting that people take Communion in the hand.
Again, we can learn from this discussion. On the one hand,
we have to be careful not to impose on people practices which are not central
to our faith and, at the same time, to be willing to bend in areas which are
not essential. This is a principle of mutual tolerance which should be observed
by both conservatives and progressives alike in the church, and St Paul has
many wise things to say about it (see especially his Letter to the Romans, chap
14).
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Commentary on John
15:9-11
Jesus continues speaking to his disciples at the Last
Supper. After giving them the parable of the vine, he now goes on to give its
real meaning: the Father, the Son and his followers are all to be united in
love. As the Father pours out his love on the Son, so the Son pours out his
love on his disciples. They, in turn, are to pour out the same love on their brothers
and sisters everywhere. That is how we keep the ‘commandments’ of Jesus; all
his commandments can be summarised in that one word ‘love’ (Greek, agape).
As someone once described it, the love of Jesus is like an
electric current. If the current does not pass through you, it cannot enter
into you. Similarly, if the love of Jesus does not pour through us to others,
it is a sign that his love is not really in us. The love of God has to be
recognised, responded to and passed on. It is not just a ‘given’.
And the fruit of that love is joy, the same joy that Jesus
himself experiences. The normal situation of the Christian disciple should be
joy and consolation. After all, as St Teresa of Avila said, “A sad saint is a
sorry saint”. It is a contradiction in terms. Some Christians are incredibly
‘serious’ about their faith. One might wonder if they have yet experienced the
love of Jesus. If they did, wouldn’t that love be joyfully flowing out to
others?
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/e1055g/
Thursday,
May 22, 2025
Easter Time
Opening Prayer
Lord our God, you want your
Church
to be open to all persons and
all nations, for your Son was available to all and you love all people. God,
give us open minds and open hearts.
Save us from our narrow prejudices
and stop us from trying to create people in our own image and likeness.
We ask you this through Christ our Lord.
Gospel Reading - John 15: 9-11
Jesus said to his disciples: "I have loved you just as
the Father has loved me.
Remain in my love.
If you keep my commandments you
will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain
in his love.
I have told you this so that my own joy may be in you and your
joy be complete.
Reflection
The reflection around the parable of the vine
includes from verses 1 to 17. Today we will mediate on verses 9 to 11; Day
after tomorrow, the Gospel skips verses 12 to 17 and begins with verse 18,
which speaks about another theme. This is why, today, we include in a brief
comment verses 12 to 17, because in them blossoms the flower and the parable of
the vine shows all its beauty.
Today’s Gospel is
formed only of three verses which continue on yesterday’s Gospel and
give more light to be able to apply the comparison of the vine to the life of
the community. The community is like a vine. It goes through difficult moments.
It is the time of the pruning, a necessary moment in order to be able to bear
more fruit.
•
John 15: 9-11: Remain in my love, source of
perfect joy. Jesus remains in the love of the Father, by observing the
commandments which he receives from him. We remain in the love of Jesus by
observing the commandments which he has left for us. And we should observe them
in the same way in which he observed the commandments of the Father: “If you
keep my commandments you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my
Father’s commandments and remain in his love.” It is in this union of the love
of the Father and of Jesus that the source of true joy is found: “I have told
you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy be complete.”
•
John 15: 12-13: Love one another as I have loved
you. The commandment of Jesus is only one: “To love one another, as he has
loved us!” (Jn 15: 12). Jesus goes beyond the Old Testament. The ancient
criterion was: “You will love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev 18, 19). The new criterion
is: “That you love one another, as I have loved you.” Here he says the phrase
which we sing even until now: “Nobody has greater love than this: to give one’s
life for one’s friends!”
•
John 15: 14-15: Friends and not servants. “You
are my friends if you do what I command you”, that is, the practice of love up
to the total gift of self!
Immediately after, Jesus adds a very
high ideal for the life of the 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 had no more secrets for his disciples. He has told us everything
he heard from the Father! This is the splendid ideal of life in community: to
attain a total transparency, to the point of not having any secrets among
ourselves and of being able to have total trust in one another, to be able to
share the experience of God and of life that we have, and in this way enrich
one another reciprocally. The first Christians succeeded in attaining this
ideal during several years. They were “one only heart and one soul” (Acts 4:
32; 1: 14; 2: 42, 46).
•
John 15: 16-17: Jesus has chosen us. We have not
chosen Jesus. He has chosen us, he has called us and has entrusted us the
mission to go and bear fruit, fruit which will last. We need him, but he also
needs us and our work in order to be able to continue to do today what he did
for the people of Galilee. The last recommendation: “My command to you is to love
one another!”
•
The symbol of the vine in the Bible. The people
of the Bible cultivated the vine and produced good wine. The harvest of the
grapes was a feast with songs and dances. And this gave origin to the song of
the vine, used by the prophet Isaiah. He compares the people of Israel to the
vine (Is 5: 1-7; 27: 2-5; Ps 80: 9, 19). Before him, the prophet Hosea had
already compared Israel to an exuberant vine, the more fruit that it produced,
the more it multiplied its idolatries (Ho 10: 1). This theme was used by
Jeremiah, who compares Israel to a bastard vine (Jer 2: 21), from which the
branches were uprooted (Jer 5: 10; 6: 9). Jeremiah uses these symbols because
he himself had a vine which had been trampled on and devastated by the invaders
(Jer 12: 10). During the slavery of Babylonia, Ezekiel used the symbol of the
vine to denounce the infidelity of the people of Israel. He told three parables
on the vine: 1) the vine which is burnt and is good for nothing (Ez 15: 1-8);
2) the false vine planted and protected by two waters, symbols of the kings of
Babylonia and of Egypt, enemies of Israel. (Ez 17: 1-10). 3) The vine destroyed by the oriental
wind, image of the slavery of Babylonia (Ez 19: 10-14). The comparison of the
vine was used by Jesus in several parables: the laborers of the vineyard (Mt
21, 1-16); the two sons who have to work in the vineyard (Mt 21: 32-33); the
parable of the wicked tenants, who did not pay the landowner, beat the servants
and killed the son of the landowner (Mt 21: 33-45); the barren fig tree planted
in the vineyard (Lk 13: 6-9); the vine and its branches (Jn 15: 1- 17).
Personal Questions
•
We are friends and not servants. How do I
consider this in my relationship with persons?
•
To love as Jesus has loved us. How does this
ideal of love grow in me?
Concluding Prayer
Proclaim his salvation day after
day, declare his glory among the nations,
his marvels to every people! (Ps 96: 2-3)
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