Easter V B

 

 

5^th Sunday of Easter B

 

Readings: Acts 9:26-31  1 John 3:18-24  John 15:1-8

 

The readings for the Fifth Sunday of Easter present a perennial challenge of Christian faith: how to maintain unity in a community frequently rent by division, suspicion, endless theoretical discussion, and lack of fidelity.  Only in the crucified and risen Christ, who joins us to the Father, do we find the strength to be united to one another in courageous and charitable deeds.  Having struggled with the divisions that mark our lives as Christians, let us find in the glorified Christ the power to pray the words of our responsorial psalm: “I will praise you, O Lord, in the assembly of your people” (Ps 22).

The first reading from Acts continues the twin Lucan themes of the Spirit’s guiding the apostles to fearless witness to the risen Christ and leading the Church to peace and unity, despite opposition.  Luke presents his version (contrast Galatians 1:18-20) of Saul/Paul’s potentially divisive return to Jerusalem as an example of how division can be overcome and lead to productive preaching of the gospel.  When Saul, the former zealous persecutor of the Church in Jerusalem (see Acts 7:58-8:3; 9:1-2), returns to the city after his call on the road to Damascus, the disciples there are understandably afraid of him and refuse to believe that he is a disciple of Christ.  To his great credit, Barnabas, who had earlier been an example of generosity in selling his farm and giving the proceeds to the apostles (Acts 4:36-37), now boldly takes the lead in introducing Saul to the Jerusalem apostles.  He explains that Saul “had seen the Lord (and) conversed with him” and had spoken out fearlessly in Jesus’ name in Damascus.  Barnabas’ courageous action bears immediate fruit.  Saul stays in Jerusalem with the apostles and continues to preach the gospel.  Ironically, he even takes up the mission of Stephen, in whose death he was something of an accomplice, by debating Greek-speaking Jews, who try to kill him as they did Stephen.  Again, communal charity triumphs over potential disaster when “the brothers” take Saul down to Caesarea and send him off to Tarsus.  The incident is followed by an idyllic summary of the peaceful growth of the church in Judea, Galilee and Samaria. “The church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria was at peace.  It was being built up and walked in the fearof the Lord, and with the consolation of the Holy Spiritit grew in numbers.”

The second reading from 1 John addresses the problem of the foundation for true Christian fellowship.  For some reason (incipient Gnosticism?), members of John’s community were debating how to “know” if they were still committed to the truth of salvation through the death and resurrection of Christ (1 John 3:18-19).  The author of 1 John cuts through their confusion by offering simple, straightforward advice based on the teaching of Jesus in the farewell discourse of John’s gospel (John 13-17).  He exhorts the community as “little children” to love “in deed and truth and not merely talk about it,” and he assures them that their consciences will have nothing to charge them with before God if they believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he commanded (John 14:13f; 13:34; 15:17).  Those who keep Jesus’ love command have the indwelling presence of God and the gift of his Spirit which he promised in the farewell discourse (John 14:11ff).  The signs of the Spirit’s presence are not the spectacular apocalyptic marvels usually associated with the Messianic age (e.g. Acts 2:17ff; Joel 3:1-5), but concrete acts of charity.  In the previous section (3:11-17) the author of 1 John illustrates what is meant by love of the brethren.  It is not an emotional feeling of affection, but simple communal charity modeled on Jesus’ love in laying down his life for us. “We too must lay down our lives for our brothers.”  Cain, who killed his brother, is the antithesis of Christian love, and “anyone who hates his brother is a murderer.”  The test of true knowledge of God is the answer to a very simple question: “I ask you, how can God’s love survive in a man who has enough of this world’s goods yet closes his heart to his brother when he sees him in need?” (3:17).

The Gospel reading from Jesus’ farewell discourse in John uses the beautiful allegory of the vine and branches to speak of another aspect of the mystery of Christian unity: Jesus brings about the union between his Father and his disciples, and they must abide in him in order to bear fruit.  Jesus proclaims to his disciples that the source of unity is “the word I have spoken to you” (John 15:3,7).  Reception of this word makes the disciples “fruitful” and “clean” branches in contrast to the barren ones who are pruned away by the Father (15:3).  Continued fidelity to this word assures the disciples that they will bear much fruit and not become withered branches to be cut off and thrown into the fire (15:8).

What is “the word I have spoken to you”?  The essence of Jesus’ word of revelation in John is that the Father has loved him and has extended that love to his disciples who are to now live in it by keeping his commandments. “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.  Live on in my love.  You will live in my love if you keep my commandments, even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and live in his love” (John 15:9-10). Love of Christians for one another is a sharing in the very love of the Father and the Son.

EASTER IV B

 

4^th Sunday of Easter B

 

Readings: Acts 4:8-12 1 John 3:1-2 John 10:11-18

 

The fourth Sunday of Easter is often called Good Shepherd Sunday because the gospel readings are taken from John 10, Jesus’ discourse proclaiming: “I am the good shepherd.”  This Sunday’s readings also provide a good opportunity for reflection on Church leadership, modeled on Jesus, the shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep (John 10:15).  This act of self-emptying love in obedience to the Father becomes the source of life and unity in the Church.  In the words of the first reading and our responsorial psalm, Jesus is “the stone rejected by the builders, which has become the cornerstone” (Ps 118:22).

The first reading from Acts presents us with Peter’s fearless leadership of the apostolic witnesses in Jerusalem.  He and John have been arrested by the priests and temple leaders for proclaiming that their healing of a crippled beggar was done in the name of Jesus, whom God had resurrected, although they had rejected him (see Acts 3:1-4:4).  Remember that Peter had denied Jesus three times before the people in the courtyard during his master’s arrest and trial (see Luke 22:54-62).  But now, transformed by the Holy Spirit into a courageous witness, Peter proclaims before a hostile Sanhedrin the resurrected Jesus as the source of salvation for the whole world. “. . . you and all the people of Israel must realize that it (the cure) was done in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean whom you crucified and whom God raised from the dead.  In the power of that name this man stands before you perfectly sound. This Jesus is ‘the stone rejected by you the builders which has become the cornerstone.’  There is no salvation in anyone else, for there is no other name in the whole world given to men by which we are to be saved.”

The second reading from 1 John graphically illustrates the tension that marks the life of the Church.  On the one hand, in Jesus the Father has bestowed his love on us so that we are, in John’s language, “children of God.”  But on the other hand, the Church finds itself, like the Son, at odds with the world (the evil forces who refuse to recognize God’s love manifest in Jesus).  The author of 1 John assures his readers in tender language that finally their resemblance to the Son will culminate in union with God. “Dearly beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall later be has yet to come to light. We know that when it comes to light we shall be like him.  For we shall see him as he is.”

The background for today’s Gospel reading is the Old Testament image of God and the kings of Israel as shepherds (see Ps 23; Jeremiah 23; Ezekiel 34).  Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel criticized the kings who have fleeced the flock of God’s people and caused them to be scattered in exile.  They looked forward to God’s tending the flock, gathering the scattered exiles and bringing them back to the land where they would be tended by a good shepherd king in the Davidic line.

The Gospel presents Jesus as the good shepherd in two ways that even go beyond the images in the prophets.  First of all, he “lays down his life for the sheep,” in contrast to “the hired hand,” who works only for pay and abandons the flock when he catches sight of the wolf coming.  Secondly, Jesus “knows” his sheep, that is, he loves them with the same love that the Father has for him.  The reason the Father loves Jesus is precisely because he will freely lay down his life for his sheep.  The result of this act of love will be that other sheep will be led into the one flock under the one shepherd.

Although John understood the image of the good shepherd as uniquely applicable to Jesus, in the Church’s tradition the self-sacrificing love of the Good Shepherd has also become a model for human pastors (see Gregory the Great’s Pastoral Rule).  One of the most memorable images of the faithful pastor is that provided by Chaucer in his description of the Poor Parson in “The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales.”  “Wide was his parish, with houses far asunder,/ But he would not be kept by rain or thunder,/ If any had suffered a sickness of a blow,/ From visiting the farthest, high or low/ plodding his way on foot, his staff in hand./ He was a model his flock could understand,/ for first he did and afterward he taught./ That precept from the Gospel he had caught. . .”

 

Duccio di Buoninsegna, Christ's Appearance to the Apostles, ca. 1308-1311

 

3^rd Sunday of Easter B

 

Readings: Acts 3:13-15,17-19  1 John 2:1-5  Luke 24:35-48

 

“In his name, penance for the remission of sins is to be preached to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem.  You are witnesses of this.”  This commission, given by the risen Jesus to the apostles in Luke’s resurrection accounts, provides the focus for this Sunday’s readings.  Our joyful Easter faith in Jesus’ victory over sin and death makes new life possible, even in the face of evil.  Each of us can pray in the words of today’s responsorial psalm: “O Lord, let the light of your face shine upon us,/ You put gladness into my heart” (Ps 4:7-8).

In the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Peter is testifying to Jesus’ resurrection before a crowd gathered in the Temple area at Solomon’s Portico after he has cured a crippled beggar “in the name of Jesus Christ, the Nazorean.”   The miracle gives him the opportunity to fulfill the mission he and the other apostles were given in our gospel selection: to preach repentance from sins in Jesus’ name.  Peter proclaims that the God of the fathers has glorified his servant Jesus, whom the Jewish leaders in their ignorance had put to death.  Their handing Jesus over to Pilate is not, however, cause for their rejection.  In Luke’s crucifixion account, Jesus himself had forgiven them at the cross in the words, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do” (Lk 23:34).  Now Peter assures the crowd, “Yet I know, my brothers, that you acted out of ignorance, just as your leaders did.”  In Luke’s theology, Jesus’ suffering was part of God’s plan, announced long ago through the prophets (see Lk 13:31 ff.).  Because God has glorified his Servant Jesus through the resurrection, Peter now witnesses to the offer of forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ name.  He ends by exhorting the crowd to repent.   “Reform your lives!  Turn to God, that your sins may be wiped away!”

The reading from 1 John also assures us that, even if we do sin, we have “in presence of the Father, Jesus Christ, an intercessor who is just.”  John’s community is divided by bitter hostilities, a sign of the presence of darkness and sin (see 1 John 1:5-10).  According to John, the way out of the darkness of division is not through purely intellectual claims of those who insist “I have known Christ.”  True knowledge of God is “keeping his commandments” of love for one another, even in the midst of hostilities.  “This is the way we know we are in union with him: whoever claims to abide in him ought to live (just) as he lived” (1 John 2:6).

The Gospel is Luke’s version of Jesus’ appearance to the eleven in Jerusalem on Easter night.  In his theology Jesus’ resurrection appearances prepare the apostles for their role in Acts by transforming them from disillusioned and panic-stricken cowards to believing and courageous witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection.  First of all, Jesus overcomes their fear and panic by wishing them “Peace” and offering convincing evidence that he has truly risen.  He invites them to look at his hands and touch him “and see that a ghost does not have flesh and bones as I do.”  He then eats a piece of baked fish in their presence.  Secondly, Jesus interprets his rejection in Jerusalem and his suffering death on the cross.  After he reminds the eleven that he had repeatedly spoken of this “when I was still with you” (see Lk 13:31-35; 18:31-34), he opens their minds to understand that according to the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms the Messiah’s destiny was to suffer and then rise from the dead.  In Acts the sermons of Peter, Philip, and Paul will use these Scriptures to explain the meaning of Jesus’ death and resurrection (see Acts, 2, 3, 9, 10, 13).  Finally, Jesus commissions the apostles to be witnesses who are to preach repentance and forgiveness of sins in his name “to all the nations beginning in Jerusalem.”  They are to stay in the city until they are “clothed with power from on high” (24:49) in the events of Pentecost (see Acts 2).  In the fifty days of the Easter season, the Church does well to remember that she is called, not to condemn the world, but to witness to the forgiving love of God “to all the nations” in Jesus’ name.

Octave of Easter (Easter II)

 

art: J Kirk Richards

2^nd Sunday of Easter B

 

Readings: Acts 4:32-35  1 John 5:1-6   John 20:19-31

 

During the Easter season the Church’s liturgy celebrates the effects of Jesus’ resurrection.  Today’s readings present the transforming gifts of resurrection faith on the life of the early Christian communities that were called to live in an often hostile world.  In gratitude we sing the words of this Sunday’s responsorial psalm: “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good,/ his love is everlasting” (Ps 118).

In the Easter season the first reading is taken from Luke’s Acts of the Apostles which recounts the work of the Holy Spirit in spreading faith in the resurrection though the witness of the apostles “in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).  Today’s reading is one of three idyllic summaries Luke gives of the life of the early Jerusalem community (see also 2:42-47 and 5:12-16).  Throughout his Gospel and again in Acts, Luke places special emphasis on the proper use of material goods.  In this summary, the community’s oneness in heart and mind moves them to share their material goods in common.  The apostles’ heroic witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus is accompanied by a life of charity for the needy in the community.  This life of service, rather than worldly power, brought the early community respect from would-be believers.

Throughout the Easter season in the B cycle, the second reading will be taken from 1 John, an exhortation addressed to a community divided by bitter conflict over how to understand the nature and role of Jesus.  Some in the community were apparently divorcing belief in Christ and love of God from charity for one another.  In this selection, the author insists that to believe in Jesus as the Christ changes our relationship with both God and with one another.  Belief in Christ as the revelation of God’s love makes us, in John’s words, “begotten of God.”  This new life implies that we now love both “the father” and “the child he has begotten.”  The sure sign that we love God is that we keep his commandments, and the only real command in the Johannine tradition is “love one another as I love you” (John 15:12).

The symbolism of Jesus “who came through water and blood” refers to the same issue.  At Jesus’ death in John’s gospel, a soldier pierces Jesus’ side and we are told that “immediately blood and water flowed out” (19:34).  By the life-giving water of baptism the Christian is “begotten” of God, but that rebirth implies a self-sacrificing life of love for others modeled on Jesus who is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

John’s account of Jesus’ resurrection appearances has two distinct episodes: an appearance on the first day of the week to the disciples with Thomas missing and a second appearance a week later when Thomas is with them.  In the first Jesus is fulfilling the promises he made to his disciples in the farewell discourse at the Last Supper (see John 13-17).  He gives them the gift of “peace” and the Holy Spirit/Paraclete as he sends them into the world, just as he was sent by the Father.  The Spirit enables them to forgive and bind one another’s sins. 

The appearance a week later to the disciples and Thomas reveals Jesus as the crucified one, who was wounded in his hands and side, who has triumphed over death and is now Thomas’s “Lord and God.”  The whole incident addresses the readers (us), who have not had the privilege of seeing the glorified Jesus.  Thomas is transformed from an unbeliever, who must see physical signs, to a believer, who confesses Jesus as “my Lord and my God” when he sees the glorified Jesus.  But Jesus’ last words praise those who have believed on the testimony of others, without having seen.“You (Thomas) became a believer because you saw me.  Blest are they who have not seen and have believed.”