May 7, 2026
Thursday of the Fifth Week of Easter
Lectionary: 288
Reading
I
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/050726.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 Peter 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. Nevertheless, 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 Gospels, 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 7, 2026
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 neighbour 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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