April 14, 2026
Tuesday of the Second Week of Easter
Lectionary: 268
Reading
1
The community of
believers was of one heart and mind,
and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own,
but they had everything in common.
With great power the Apostles bore witness
to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus,
and great favor was accorded them all.
There was no needy person among them,
for those who owned property or houses would sell them,
bring the proceeds of the sale,
and put them at the feet of the Apostles,
and they were distributed to each according to need.
Thus Joseph, also named by the Apostles Barnabas
(which is translated "son of encouragement"),
a Levite, a Cypriot by birth,
sold a piece of property that he owned,
then brought the money and put it at the feet of the Apostles.
Responsorial
Psalm
R. (1a) The
Lord is king; he is robed in majesty.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The LORD is king, in splendor robed;
robed is the LORD and girt about with strength.
R. The Lord is king; he is robed in majesty.
or:
R. Alleluia.
And he has made the world firm,
not to be moved.
Your throne stands firm from of old;
from everlasting you are, O LORD.
R. The Lord is king; he is robed in majesty.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Your decrees are worthy of trust indeed:
holiness befits your house,
O LORD, for length of days.
R. The Lord is king; he is robed in majesty.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia,
alleluia.
The Son of Man must be lifted up,
so that everyone who believes in him
may have eternal life.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus said to
Nicodemus:
"'You must be born from above.'
The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes,
but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes;
so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."
Nicodemus answered and said to him,
'How can this happen?"
Jesus answered and said to him,
"You are the teacher of Israel and you do not understand this?
Amen, amen, I say to you,
we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen,
but you people do not accept our testimony.
If I tell you about earthly things and you do not believe,
how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?
No one has gone up to heaven
except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man.
And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041426.cfm
Commentary on Acts
4:32-37
Today’s reading from Acts is one of three portraits of the
early Christian community. It is probably more the expression of an ideal than
a historic description, but it is no less valid for all that. The passage
emphasises the communal ownership and mutual responsibility of the community
members for each other.
We Christians are sometimes accused of being ‘socialists’.
Perhaps it is not an accusation of which we should be altogether ashamed. The
ideal of socialism as popularised by Marx is “from each according to their
ability, to each according to their need”. If this were the essence of
socialism, then it is hard to see how any follower of Christ could disagree
with it.
However, what people often do is to confuse this stated
ideal of socialism (and communism) with the way in which it was implemented, as
well as the atheistic materialism which it proclaimed. As we saw so clearly
during communism and Marxism at their height, an attempt to achieve justice
without love does not work. We Christians must also remember that there cannot
be true love without justice.
Four elements are mentioned in the first sentence of today’s
passage:
- The
believers form a community, a “group of believers”;
- They
are of “one heart and soul”, deeply united with each other;
- “No
one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they
owned was held in common”;
- They
gave “testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus” with great power,
through signs and healings “and great grace was upon them all”.
The reading tells us:
There was not a needy person among them, for as many as
owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold.
This was a voluntary sharing to provide for those who did
not have enough for the essentials of living. Each one’s aim was to ensure that
the needs (not necessarily the wants) of the others were met rather than each
one looking only to their own needs.
It is important to note that this was possible because:
…the whole group of those who believed were of one heart
and soul…
Their material sharing was simply an expression of the care
which they felt for each other at a much deeper level.
The passage concludes with a striking example:
There was a Levite from Cyprus, Joseph, to whom the
apostles gave the name Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”). He sold a
field that belonged to him, then brought the money and laid it at the apostles’
feet.
It is known that Jews had been living in Cyprus since the
time of Maccabees. Generally, Levites did not own inherited land in Palestine,
but the rule may not have applied in other areas. Or, the property may have
belonged to his wife. Barnabas will later become a missionary partner with
Paul.
Barnabas’ action will contrast with another couple, Ananias
and Sapphira, who claimed to be doing the same, but who in fact only gave part
of their possessions and kept the rest for themselves. They were severely punished.
One after the other, they both dropped dead. Their story is told in the
following chapter of Acts, but is not part of our Easter readings.
Do we find such sharing communities in our Church today? One
obvious example are the many different communities of religious life whose
misleadingly named “vow of poverty” is primarily, not a vow of destitution, but
one of total sharing of resources coupled with a life of material simplicity.
Clearly, some communities live this life more effectively than others. Additionally,
we have to admit that many Christians, including religious, can be caught up in
the individualism, hedonism, consumerism and materialism that dominates so many
of our prosperous societies today.
Perhaps today we could reflect on our own attitudes to
material goods: how we acquire them, how we use them, to what extent we share
our material blessings with those in genuine need, and not just that of our
surplus. This is something we need to reflect on as individuals, as families,
and in our parish community. There should not be any people in real need in our
parish communities; if there are, how can we speak of ourselves as a parish
community?
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Commentary on John
3:7-15
We continue today Jesus’ night-time dialogue with the
Pharisee Nicodemus. Nicodemus, while accepting in principle what Jesus
has said about being born again in the Spirit, now wants to know how it can be
brought about.
Jesus accuses Nicodemus and his fellow-leaders of a lack of
spiritual insight and a refusal to accept his testimony as coming directly from
God:
If I have told you about earthly things and you do not
believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?
Jesus does not speak simply on his own initiative. He
speaks of what he shares with the Father. It is the Father’s words and
teaching that he passes on to us—he is the Word of God. His is not just a
speaking Word; it brings all things from nothing, calls the dead to life, hands
on the Spirit, the source of unending life, and makes us all children of
God. To experience all this we need to have faith in Jesus as truly the
Word of God and to live our lives in love.
But the Word is not always easy to understand and it
requires, above all, an openness to be received and witnessed.* It is this
openness that Jesus is challenging Nicodemus to have. People respond to the
Word in so many ways. Some believe fully; others go away disappointed in spite
of the many signs. One is reminded of the parable of the sower. To
which group do I belong?
And up to now, only the Son has been “into heaven,” that is,
with God:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. (John 1:1)
It is from there that:
…the Word became flesh and lived among us. (John
1:14)
He is in a position, therefore, to speak about “heavenly
things”, that is, to speak of everything that pertains to and comes from God.
The only solution is to put all our focus on Jesus:
And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him
may have eternal life.
This is a reminder of the incident in the book of Numbers
(21:6-9) where, as a punishment for their sins, the Israelites were attacked by
serpents. God told Moses to erect a bronze serpent on a pole and all who
looked at the serpent were saved.
Jesus, in a much greater way, will also be “lifted up” both
on the cross and into the glory of his Father through the Resurrection and
Ascension. And he will be a source of life to all who commit themselves
totally to him. Only then will we be washed clean by the water from the
pierced side (see John 19:34 and Zech 13:1).
To what extent are we ‘looking at’ Jesus? Is it merely
a sideways glance when we think about him, or at certain fixed times (e.g.
Sunday Mass), or is he the centre of our attention in all that we do and say?
Let our constant prayer be:
Lord, grant that all my thoughts, intentions, actions and
responses may be directed solely to your love and service this day and every
day.
_________________________________________________
*For numerous references about vv 11-12 of
this passage, see the footnote in the New Jerusalem Bible.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/e1023g/
Tuesday, April 14, 2026
Easter Time
Opening Prayer
All praise and thanks
be to You, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
You have given us
Your risen Son to be alive in our communities.
Make us see Him with eyes of faith,
that He may unite us, heart and soul. May His dynamic presence among us
move us to become with Him, each other's bread
of life, that no one among us may hunger
for food or help when in need. We
ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Gospel Reading - John 3: 7b-15
Jesus said to Nicodemus: "'You must be born from above.'
The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where
it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."
Nicodemus answered and said to him, 'How can this happen?" Jesus answered
and said to him, "You are the teacher
of Israel and you do not understand this? Amen, amen, I say to you, we speak of what we know and we testify
to what we have
seen, but you people do not accept
our testimony. If I tell you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has gone up
to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven,
the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the desert,
so must the Son of Man be lifted
up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."
Reflection
Today’s Gospel speaks about the
conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus. Nicodemus had heard people speak
about the things Jesus did, and he was struck,
surprised. He wishes
to speak with Jesus to be able to understand better. He thought he knew the things of God. He lived with the
booklet of the past in his hand to see if this agreed with the newness
announced by Jesus.
In the conversation, Jesus says that the only way in which
Nicodemus could understand the things of God was to be born again! Sometimes we are like Nicodemus: we only accept as something new what agrees with our old ideas.
Other times, we allow ourselves
to be surprised by facts
and we are not afraid
to
say, “I am born anew!”
When the Evangelists recall the last
words of Jesus, they have in
mind the problems of the communities for which they write. Nicodemus’ questions to Jesus reflect the questions of the communities
of Asia Minor at the end of the first century. For this reason,
Jesus’ answers to Nicodemus were, at the same
time, a response to the problems of those communities. At that time, the
Christians followed the catechesis in this way. Most probably,
the account of the
conversation of Jesus with Nicodemus formed part of the baptismal catechesis, because
He says that
the people must
be reborn of water and the Spirit
(Jn 3: 6).
•
John 3:
7b-8: Born from above, born anew, again,
and born of the Spirit.
In Greek, the same word means
anew, again and from above. Jesus had said, “No one can enter the Kingdom of
God without being born of water and the Spirit” (Jn 3: 5). And He adds, “What is born of human nature, is human (flesh);
what is born of the Spirit is Spirit” (Jn 3: 6). Here “flesh”
means that which
is born only from our own ideas. What is born from us has our own mark, our own measure.
To be born of the Spirit is another thing!
And Jesus once again
reaffirms what He had said before: “One has to be born from above (born
again).” That is, one must be reborn
of the Spirit who comes
from above. And He explains that the Spirit is like the wind.
Both in Hebrew and in Greek, the same word is used to say spirit and wind. Jesus says, “The wind blows where it pleases; you can hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone
who is born of the Spirit.” The wind has within it a direction. We are aware of the direction of the wind, for example, the wind of the North and the wind of the South, but we do not know nor do we control the cause why the wind
moves in one direction or another. The Spirit is like this. “No one is the master of the Spirit” (Eccl 8: 8). That which best characterizes the wind, the Spirit, is liberty. The wind, the Spirit, is free; it cannot be controlled. It acts on others, and nobody can act on it. Its origin is the mystery; its destiny is the mystery. The fisherman has, in the first place, to discover the direction of the wind.
Then he should
place the sails
according to that direction. This is what Nicodemus should do and what all of us should do.
•
John 3: 9: Question
of Nicodemus: How is that possible? Jesus
does nothing more than summarize what the Old
Testament taught concerning the action
of the Spirit, of the holy wind, in the life of the People of God and which
Nicodemus, Teacher and
Doctor, should know.
And just the
same, Nicodemus is frightened in hearing Jesus’
response and acts as if he was ignorant: “How is that possible?”
•
John 3: 10-15: Jesus’ answer: Faith comes from witness and not from miracle. Jesus changes the question: “You are the Teacher of Israel and you do not know these things?” For Jesus, if people
believe only when things are according to their
own arguments and
ideas, then faith
is not perfect. Faith is perfect
when it is the faith of one who believes because
of the witness. He leaves
aside his own arguments and
gives himself, because he believes in the one giving witness.
Personal Questions
•
Have you had some experience in which you have had the
impression of being born again? What did it consist of?
•
Jesus compares the action of the Holy Spirit with the
wind. What does this comparison of the action of the Spirit of God reveal in
our life? Have you already set the sails of your life in sync with the wind of the Spirit?
•
The action of the
Holy Spirit, like the wind, is often not like
a hurricane, but rather like a small voice
(1Kgs 19: 11) – a whisper of the wind.
Am I attentive enough to hear when the Holy Spirit speaks to me so
softly?
Concluding Prayer
Yahweh is near to the broken-hearted; He helps those
whose spirit is crushed.
Though hardships without number beset the upright, Yahweh brings rescue from them all. (Ps 34: 18-19)
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