May 16, 2026
Saturday of the Sixth
Week of Easter
Lectionary: 296
Reading 1
After staying in Antioch some time,
Paul left and traveled in orderly sequence
through the Galatian country and Phrygia,
bringing strength to all the disciples.
A Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria,
an eloquent speaker, arrived in Ephesus.
He was an authority on the Scriptures.
He had been instructed in the Way of the Lord and,
with ardent spirit, spoke and taught accurately about Jesus,
although he knew only the baptism of John.
He began to speak boldly in the synagogue;
but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him,
they took him aside
and explained to him the Way of God more accurately.
And when he wanted to cross to Achaia,
the brothers encouraged him
and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him.
After his arrival he gave great assistance
to those who had come to believe through grace.
He vigorously refuted the Jews in public,
establishing from the Scriptures that the Christ is Jesus.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (8a) God is king of all
the earth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
All you peoples, clap your hands;
shout to God with cries of gladness.
For the LORD, the Most High, the awesome,
is the great king over all the earth.
R. God is king of all the earth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
For king of all the earth is God;
sing hymns of praise.
God reigns over the nations,
God sits upon his holy throne.
R. God is king of all the earth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The princes of the peoples are gathered together
with the people of the God of Abraham.
For God’s are the guardians of the earth;
he is supreme.
R. God is king of all the earth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I came from the Father and have come into the world;
now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.
Until now you have not asked anything in my name;
ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.
“I have told you this in figures of speech.
The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures
but I will tell you clearly about the Father.
On that day you will ask in my name,
and I do not tell you that I will ask the Father for you.
For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me
and have come to believe that I came from God.
I came from the Father and have come into the world.
Now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.”
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/051626.cfm
Commentary on Acts
18:23-28
Today we begin the third, and final, missionary journey of
Paul. After leaving Corinth, Paul, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila, crossed
over to Ephesus on the west coast of present-day Turkey. He separated from them
there and went to preach in the local synagogues. In spite of the unwelcome
reception he so often got from his fellow-Jews, he always made a point of
approaching them first when he arrived in a new place. He apparently did well
there, because they asked him to stay longer. However, he was clearly anxious
to get back to Syrian Antioch, but he promised that he would return—and he did.
On reaching Palestine, he landed at Caesarea where he
greeted the local church before going on northwards to Antioch, and it is at
that point that today’s reading begins.
He stayed in Antioch for an unspecified length of time
before setting out on his third—and final—missionary journey. He began by
revisiting the places where he had planted the church almost 10 years
previously. He followed the same route he had taken when beginning his second
journey, but in the reverse order. The only place mentioned is the “region of
Galatia and Phrygia”, which is in the southern part of present-day central
Turkey.
We are then introduced to Apollos, who had just arrived from
Ephesus in Lydia, on the west coast. He was a Jew and a native of Alexandria,
which was on the north coast of Egypt and, at the time, the second largest city
of the Roman Empire. It also had a large Jewish population.
Apollos is spoken of very highly as a man of eloquence,
well-versed both in the Hebrew Scriptures and:
…instructed in the Way of the Lord…
Apollos also:
…spoke with burning enthusiasm and taught accurately the
things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John.
He was a clearly deeply spiritual person. It is strange
though, that in spite of all that Apollos knew about Jesus, he had not yet been
properly baptised in the name of Jesus. Basically, like John the Baptist, he
was still looking forward to the coming of the Messiah. His baptism was based
on repentance for sin rather than full incorporation through the gift of the
Spirit in the Christian community.
In Ephesus, he became an enthusiastic preacher and spoke
fearlessly in the Jewish synagogue there. Here he drew the attention of Paul’s
friends, Priscilla and Aquila, who took him to their house and gave him a
deeper understanding of the new Way.
Perhaps because of what he had heard from Priscilla and
Aquila, Apollos was anxious to go across to Achaia, in other words to Corinth,
and letters were written to guarantee him a warm welcome. There he gave great
encouragement to the believers while continuing to debate with his fellow-Jews,
proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was indeed the Messiah.
It is clear that Apollos had a very special charism for
evangelisation, so much so that cliques began to form in the community where
some were for Paul and others for Apollos. These developed into quarrelling
factions. Paul would later deplore this development in one of his letters (see
1 Cor 1:12 and 3:4-11).
These remarks about Apollos have something in common with
the description of what we find in the next chapter (chap 19) that describes
Paul’s arrival in Ephesus. Here, we are told that the disciples there were only
baptised:
…into John’s baptism [and had] not even
heard that there is a Holy Spirit.
Paul had all these people baptised in the name of Jesus.
Despite the quarreling factions that arose, we should take
inspiration from the insights and zeal of Apollos for the Way of Jesus in the
context of evangelisation today.
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Commentary on John
16:23-28
We are coming now to the end of John chapter 16 in Jesus’
discourse at the Last Supper. Today Jesus makes a solemn promise that whatever
his disciples ask the Father in Jesus’ name will be given to them. Up to this,
of course, they have not been praying to God through Jesus. That will only
happen after the resurrection and ascension. But then it will become the normal
way for the Church to pray to the Father, as we do in all the prayers in the
liturgy of the sacraments.
Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be
complete.
As we have pointed out before, this is not a carte blanche
for us to make any request that comes into our heads. It is understood that we
will be praying, first of all, for what we genuinely need and not just for what
we want.
And what we need most of all is to be close to our God, and
to be equipped with all those things and do all those things which will bring
us closer to his will—things which will enable us to work with him for the
building of the Kingdom. Those prayers will be answered, although not always
exactly in the way we might envisage. It may not be until much later that we
will realise just how our prayers have been answered—often in very unexpected
ways.
Jesus says a strange thing at this point, when his disciples
ask for something in his name:
I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your
behalf…
And the reason he gives is:
…for the Father himself loves you because you have loved
me and have believed that I came from God.
Our Father already knows all our needs and he wants to
satisfy them for us in his love. He will not need the intercession of his Son.
And, when we are already closely related in love and faith
with the Father and Jesus, mediation is hardly necessary: our relationship is
the mediating factor. Our prayer through Jesus is not to tell God something he
does not know already. Rather it is to help make us aware of what our real
needs are and to go to where those needs will be answered.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/e1067g/
Saturday,
May 16, 2026
Easter Weekday
Opening Prayer
Lord God, merciful Father, it is hard for us to accept pain, for we know
that you have made us for happiness and joy.
When suffering challenges
us with a provocative "why me?" help us to discover the depth of our
inner freedom and love and of all the faith and loyalty of which we are
capable, together with, and by the power of, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Gospel Reading - John 16: 23b-28
Jesus told to his
disciples: “In all truth I tell you, anything you ask from the Father he will
grant in my name. Until now you have not asked anything in my name. Ask and you
will receive, and so your joy will be complete. I have been telling you these things
in veiled language. The hour is coming when I shall no longer speak to you in
veiled language but tell you about the Father in plain words. When that day
comes you will ask in my name; and I do not say that I shall pray to the Father
for you, because the Father himself loves you for loving me, and believing that
I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world and now I
am leaving the world to go to the Father.”
Reflection
•
John 16: 23b: The disciples have full access to
the Father. This is the assurance that Jesus gives to his disciples: they can
have access to God’s paternity in union with Him. The mediation of Jesus takes
the disciples to the Father. It is evident that the role of Jesus is not that
of substituting himself to “his own”: He does not assume it by means of a
function of intercession, but he unites them to himself, and in communion with
Him they present their needs.
•
The disciples are certain that Jesus can dispose
of the riches of the Father: “In all truth I tell you, anything you ask from
the Father in my name, he will grant it to you” (v.23b). In such a way, it
means, in union with Him, the petition becomes effective. The object of any
petition to the Father has to be always joined to Jesus, that is to say, to his
love and to his commitment to give his life for man (Jn 10, 10). The prayer
addressed to the Father, in the name of Jesus, in union with Him (Jn 14: 13;
16: 23), is listened to.
Until now you have not asked anything in the name of
Jesus, but they will be able to do it after his glorification (Jn 14: 13s) when
they will receive the Spirit who will fully enlighten them on His identity (Jn
4: 22ff) and will create the union with Him. His own will be able to ask and
receive the fullness of joy when they will go from the sensitive vision of Him
to that of faith.
•
Jn 16: 24-25: In Jesus the direct contact with
the Father. The believers are taken into the relationship between the Son and
the Father. In Jn 16: 26 Jesus once again speaks about the link produced by the
Spirit and that permits his own to present every petition to the Father in
union with Him. That will take place “on that day”. What does this mean: “On
that day you will ask?” It is the day when He will come to His own and will
communicate the Spirit to them (Jn 20: 19.22). And it is then that the
disciples knowing the relationship between Jesus and the Father will know that
they will be listened to. It will not be necessary for Jesus to intervene
between the Father and the disciples to ask in their behalf, and not because
his mediation has ended, but they, having believed in the Incarnation of the
Word, and being closely united to Christ, will be loved by the Father as He
loves his Son (Jn 17: 23, 26). In Jesus the disciples experience the direct
contact with the Father.
•
John 16: 26-27: The prayer to the Father. To
pray consists, then, to go to the Father through Jesus; to address the Father
in the name of Jesus. The expression of Jesus in vv. 26-27: “And I do not say
that I shall pray to the Father for you; because the Father himself loves you”,
merits to be given special attention. The love of the Father for the disciples
is founded on the adherence of “his own” to Jesus on faith in his provenance,
that is to say, the acknowledgment of Jesus as gift of the Father.
After having assimilated the disciples to himself Jesus
seems to withdraw from his condition of mediator but in reality, he permits
that only the Father to take us and to seize us: “Ask and you will receive and
so your joy will be complete” (v.24). Inserted into the relationship with the
Father through union in Him, our joy is complete, and prayer is perfect. God
always offers his love to the whole world, but such a love acquires the sense
of reciprocity only if man responds. Love is incomplete if it does not become
reciprocal: as long as man does not accept it remains in suspense. However, the
disciples accept it at the moment in which they love Jesus and thus they render
operational the love of the Father. Prayer is this relationship of love. In
last instance the history of each one of us is identified with the history of
his prayer, even at the moments which do not seem to be such: Longing, yearning
is already prayer and in the same way, research, anguish...
Personal Questions
•
Do my personal and community prayer take place
in a state of calmness, silence of peace and of great peace?
•
How much effort or commitment do I dedicate to
grow in friendship with Jesus? Are you convinced of attaining a real identity
through communion with Him and in the love for neighbor?
Concluding Prayer
God reigns over the nations, seated on his holy throne.
The leaders of the nations rally to the people of the God
of Abraham. (Ps 47: 8-9)
Fr. Roger J. Landry
Visitation Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan
Saturday of the Sixth Week of Easter
May 7, 2016
Acts 18:23-28, Ps 47, Jn 16:23-28
The following points were attempted in the homily:
- In
this Decenarium of the Holy Spirit between the Ascension and Pentecost —
which is far more like a “retreat” under Mary’s guidance awaiting the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit than a “novena” in which we simply add a
prayer or two to the Holy Spirit — there’s a need for us to learn how to
grow in the ways that the Holy Spirit is seeking to give us growth.
- In
the first reading, we see that growth in the person of Apollos. He had
grown up a Jew in Alexandria, Egypt, the real learning center of the
empire with its great library and one million Jews. The Jews in Alexandria
produced the Greek or Septuagint version of the Old Testament three
centuries before and were tremendous scholars of it. Philo taught in
Alexandria during this time and perfected the allegorical method of
Scriptural interpretation, attempting to show how the entire Old Testament
was a true but extended allegory pointing to its fulfillment in the life
of the Messiah. It’s very likely that Apollos was trained in this school
and when he eventually discovered that the Messiah had come in the person
of Jesus, he was extremely effective in proving to Jews how Jesus was in
fact their long awaited.
- But
St. Luke tells us that by the time he arrived in Ephesus, this eloquent
speaker and authority on the Scriptures, who “with ardent spirit, spoke
and taught accurately about Jesus,” who “began to speak boldly in the
synagogue,” knew “only the baptism of John” the Baptist. He had only
received a baptism of repentance. He hadn’t yet even received the Baptism
instituted by Christ to which John’s baptism pointed, the Baptism by the
Holy Spirit and by fire that would actually do what John’s baptism
foretold: take away our sins. There were so many graces that he was still
waiting to receive. And Saints Priscilla and Aquila were the saints to
help him. This lay couple, friends of St. Paul by this point, “took him
aside and explained to him the Way of God more accurately.” St. Luke
doesn’t tell us exactly what that entailed, but I think it involved a
deeper understanding and reception of the Sacraments, depending far more
on God’s grace than his own Scriptural erudition. Having gone from
“accurate” to “more accurate,” he desired to go to Achaia, the
northwestern region of Greece to continue his preaching. He eventually
spent a great deal of time in Corinth and was so effective in his
preaching that, as we see in St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians,
some put him on the same level as Paul, Cephas (Peter) and even Jesus.
Paul needed to correct them: “Each of you is saying, ‘I belong to Paul,’
or ‘I belong to Apollos,’ or ‘I belong to Cephas,’ or ‘I belong to
Christ.’ Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you
baptized in the name of Paul?” (1 Cor 1:12-13). Then he answered:
“Whenever someone says, ‘I belong to Paul,’ and another, ‘I belong to Apollos,’
are you not merely human? What is Apollos, after all, and what is Paul?
Ministers through whom you became believers, just as the Lord assigned
each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth.” Apollos
became God’s instrument to water the seeds he had used Paul to plant, but
God used Priscilla and Aquila to water in Apollos the seeds that God
through John the Baptist and Scripture study had planted.
- That
brings us to three lessons for this annual ecclesial retreat.
- The
first is that God wants to help us to learn the Way of God more
accurately. The Christian life is not a classroom but a pilgrimage, a
journey, an exodus, a Passover. Jesus came to us and said, not “Take good
notes of what I say,” but rather “Follow me.” He identified himself as
the Way and said that no one can come to the Father except through him,
by following his footsteps. And the means he sends us to help us to learn
this Way of God more accurately is the Holy Spirit, who will lead us into
all truth and remind us of everything Jesus has taught us.
- The
second is that the Holy Spirit does this work for us through people like
Priscilla and Aquila. They were not rabbis or even apostles. They were a
lay couple, instructed by Paul, who were not intimidated to help the
eloquent Apollos grow in faith. God reveals his wisdom not to the wise
and clever of the world, he told us once, but to the childlike, and they
helped Apollos become more childlike. We’ve all had Priscillas and
Aquilas in our life, people who have helped us learn the way more
accurately. Parents. Godparents. Elderly sisters. Recent converts.
Strangers. Simple catechists. We give thanks to God for them!
- The
third is that the Holy Spirit wants us to become like Priscilla and
Aquila for others, including for those whom we think are far more
advanced along the way than we are. Sometimes those who are brilliant
like Apollos can miss the forest for the trees. I think of the great
Lacordaire’s comment after having heard St. John Vianney
preach. After Lacordaire had preached Vespers, Fr. Vianney was
ebullient and pronounced himself converted. He later asked someone, “Do
you know the thought that came to me during Father Lacordaire’s visit? It
was this: he who is greatest in knowledge came to humble himself before
the one who is lowliest in ignorance. The two extremes met.” But
Lacordaire’s impression of hearing the Curé of Ars preach at Mass earlier
in the day was even more memorable. Vianney preached about the Gifts of
the Holy Spirit and Lacordaire listened in a spirit of humble
recollection to the pastor, commenting later that Fr. Vianney “uttered in
a striking way a thought in connection with the Holy Spirit that I myself
have been pondering for a long time.” The greatest and most eloquent
preacher in 19th century France was helped to walk more accurately in the
Way of God by this simple parish priest. Please know, Sisters, that the
Holy Spirit will use you to help Superiors, help priests, help
theologians, help bishops and who knows even help popes and saints at
some point to know and follow the Way of God more accurately, just like
God used Priscilla and Aquila to help Apollos, just like he used the
Blessed Mother to instruct the Apostles and all the members of the early
Church.
- The
most important area of growth of all is with regard to our divine
filiation. In the Veni Creator Spiritus, we pray to the
Holy Spirit, Per te sciamus da Patrem, noscamus atque Filium, “It’s
through you we come to know the Father and the Son.” He is the means by
which we enter into the communion among the persons of the Trinity in the
One Godhead. That’s what Jesus speaks about in today’s Gospel. We have
this passage fundamentally because of it’s connection to Jesus’ ascension,
the words he says at the end of the passage, “Now I am leaving the world
and going back to the Father.” But the main message is about our
relationship with the Father through the Son, which is the work of the
Holy Spirit. Jesus says that he wants us to pray to the Father in his
name, which means to ask in his very person, promising that what we ask
for we will receive, because the Father cannot deny the Son. To pray in
Jesus’ name means to accord our will to his as we ask, like Jesus accorded
his will to the Father’s in the Garden of Gethsemane. And Jesus promises
that if we do so, our joy will be complete, complete not because we have
the transient good for which we ask, but complete because we will
experience in the Father’s hearing our prayer the joy of his love for us
as he gives himself to us, together with the Son and the Holy Spirit, in
response to the prayer. Jesus makes this explicit: “I do not tell you that
I will ask the Father for you. For the Father himself loves you,
because you have loved me and have come to believe that I came from
God.” The Father loves us! He loves us with the heart of the Father in the
Parable of the Prodigal Son. He loves us just like he loves Jesus. And he
says to us at our baptism what he said about Jesus at his: “This is my
son, my beloved, in whom I am well-pleased.” This is the most necessary
way we’re called to grow during this decenarium, to open ourselves up to
the Holy Spirit’s guidance as he leads us into the mystery of God’s
personal love for us and to become Priscillas and Aquilas he can use to
lead others to that same life-changing awareness.
- The
Way of God always leads us in two fundamental directions. It leads us
first to greater Communion with God and second out to others to seek to
bring them into greater Communion with God and us. That’s why the Holy
Spirit always leads us to the Mass and seeks to help us convert our whole
life into a Mass. To be instructed more accurately in the Way is to become
more and more aware of how the Mass is the source and summit of the
Christian life and the launching pad for our cooperation with the Holy
Spirit in evangelizing the world. Today the Holy Spirit has brought us
here. Today we thank him for the Priscillas and Aquilas he has given us.
Today we ask him to help us to draw others to be with him here by the
eloquence and joy of our life, so that eventually one day with Jesus we
may “leave the world and go back to the Father” with him!
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