6th Sunday of Easter B
Readings: Acts 10:25-26,34-35,44-48 1 John 4:7-10 John 15:9-17
This Sunday’s readings celebrate God’s love for us in Christ which breaks through the barriers that separate us from God and one another. In the first reading, Peter learns that the old boundaries that divided Jew and Gentile have been erased by the gift of the Holy Spirit. And in the Gospel, Jesus announces to his disciples that they are no longer slaves but friends, if they live his command to love one another. In light of this good news, we can joyfully sing the refrain of the responsorial psalm: “The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power” (Ps 98).
The Acts reading recounts part of the long episode in which Peter for the first time takes the gospel message into the Gentile world by baptizing the household of Cornelius, a devout Roman centurion (Acts 10:1-49). Peter is simply responding to God’s initiative in this matter. Previously, an angel had told Cornelius that his prayers and almsgiving had ascended as a memorial offering before God and that now he should send messengers to Peter in Joppa (Acts 10:1-8). In the meantime, Peter has his own vision informing him that the foods considered unclean by the Jewish law are now declared clean (10:9-16). When Cornelius’ messengers arrive, Peter goes with them to Caesarea where he learns of Cornelius’ initial vision (10:17-33). This moves him to declare: “I begin to see how true it is that God shows no partiality. Rather, the man of any nation who fears God and acts uprightly is acceptable to him” (Acts 10:34-35).
After Peter’s sermon announcing the good news of forgiveness of sin in the name of the risen Jesus (10:36-43), the Holy Spirit descends upon all who were listening and the Gentiles begin speaking in tongues and glorifying God as the Jewish disciples had at Pentecost (10:44-46; Acts 2:1-13). Peter then again affirms God’s action by ordering that this Gentile household be baptized. “What can stop these people who have received the Holy Spirit, even as we have, from being baptized with water?” (10:47).
The reading from 1 John also highlights God’s initiative in sending his only Son to give us life through him. In the Johannine writings the command to love one another is not given as a starting point in the community’s relationship to fellow members and God. Rather, the love command follows as a response to God’s love in saving us from sin by the redemptive death of his Son. “Love, then, consists in this: not that we have loved God, but that he has loved us and has sent his Son as an offering for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
The Gospel reading continues the vine and branches portion of Jesus’ farewell discourse in John which was begun last week. This section also stresses God’s initiative in loving us in Jesus. Jesus says to his disciples, “It was not you who chose me, it was I who chose you to go forth and bear fruit.” God’s loving choice brings with it special gifts. Jesus informs his disciple that by their love of one another they now share in the very love of the Father and the Son. “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.” This love is also characterized by a sharing in the joy of Jesus himself in doing his Father’s will. “All this I tell you that my joy may be yours and your joy may be complete. This is my commandment: Love one another as I have loved you.” Finally, sharing in the self-sacrificing love of Jesus changes the disciples’ relationship to God from that of slaves, who do not know the master and serve only out of fear and duty, to that of friends, who respond out of love. “You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer speak of you as slaves, for a slave does not know what his master is about. Instead, I call you friends since I have made known to you all that I heard from my Father.”
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