Welcome Back! Here are the readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/042416.cfm
The first reading is about 20 verses past last week’s reading. The story that is “skipped” is dramatic and worth exploring.
Setup to Reading 1:
In the skipped verses, Paul and Barnabas keep going to the synagogues of new cities, preaching, experiencing rejection, and speaking out boldy for Christ. They perform miracles. In Lystra, Paul preached, a crippled man heard and believed. Paul “looked intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well” said, “Stand upright on your feet,” and the man walked! Now, the crowds saw this miracle! But it was a crowd of idol worshipping pagans. They thought that “their gods” brought down Zeus and Hermes in human form. They thought Barnabas was Zeus, and Paul was Hermes! They did not know that God the Father performed this miracle.
When Paul and Barnabas realized this, they tore their garments (a sign of protest and extreme distress) and rushed to the crowd saying, “Men, why are you doing this?! We are also men (not gods!), we are of nature with you (human). We bring you good news that you should turn of these vain things (false gods) to a living God (Jesus Christ)!” Paul and Barnabas do their best to persuade the crowd, but they have not ears to hear nor eyes to see the Truth. The crowds dragged Paul out of the city. They stoned him and presumed him dead. Paul is eventually surrounded by his disciples and goes on to the next city, Derbe, where he made many strong disciples for the Church. That’s where our reading starts today.
1st Reading: Acts 14: 21-27
In previous weeks, we’ve seen the apostles acquire a bizarre feeling of joy as they bear hardship for Christ. Remember when they felt joy after being imprisoned, freed by an angel and then beaten for the gospel? In the story above, there is ample reason to feel discouraged, but they go to the next city anyway. Today they speak this reality out loud: “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.”
The rest of the reading is uplifting. Despite having been labeled “Zeus” and “Hermes,” Paul and Barnabas kept traveling. They begin to see the church grow in number and in faithfulness. They were being witnesses to the ends of the earth. We should pause though, because there is so much reflection available in the reality they speak:
“It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.”
We, too, must undergo hardships to enter the Kingdom. These words ring as true for us today as they did for the disciples. This is why the Word of God is the Living Word. It is not old and irrelevant. It is old and new, living and eternally relevant, but never dead. We undergo hardships – physical, spiritual, mental, relational – and all are necessary. Hmmm…”Necessary.” Not only can they not be avoided, but they are necessary. To say they are necessary implies that we actually need these hardships. Like Paul and Barnabas, we will be spat upon, dragged around, and stoned. Hopefully not physically, but surely figuratively. But why is it necessary?
Jesus never promised us an easy road to Heaven. When he died on the cross, he opened the gates for us. Heaven’s gates are found at the end of a road that is peppered with hardships. So we must remember that hardships are not a matter of if, but when. We must share in the suffering Christ endured. We do that by undergoing hardships. And God will never let us travel the road alone. We have Him and the Saints and our loved ones to walk it with us.
Responsorial Psalm 145
“I will praise your name forever, my king and my God.”
“Let all your works give you thanks O Lord and let your faithful ones bless you” (like Paul and Barnabas). “Let them discourse of the glory of your kingdom” (see reading 2). Your kingdom is a kingdom for all ages (e.g. not just Jews, but Gentiles too), and your dominion endures through all generations.
2nd Reading: Revelation 21:1-5A
We’re in a beautiful part of Revelation today. It speaks to the new Heaven and the new Earth that await us when Jesus comes again. See, we’re in the “In-between” right now on Earth. It’s quite an interesting idea to ponder. Christ came as a human (Christmas). He walked the earth, preached, and then died for our sins, completely stomping out and conquering death – once and for all (Easter). And He said He would come again at the end of time. So He gave us this promise, this oath that He did indeed open Heaven for us, He did conquer death and we should take comfort in that reality. But we’re in the in-between for as long as we live (unless He comes again before then). We’re in the in-between of Christ’s first coming (as a human) and Christ’s second coming (at the end of time), when He will raise us up on the last day. When we get our bodies back. But for now, and in this “in-between” we have a very important job to do. We must gather as many souls as we can to the arms of Jesus. We exist to do this job, to be God’s witness to the ends of the Earth.
John is back in the throne room and he is getting a glimpse of what happens when Christ comes again. Thankfully, he took good notes! Because what a beautiful reality he sets before us: “I saw a new heaven and a new earth; the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea [represents chaos and destruction, death] was no more” (the world has ended).He goes on, “ I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem…prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice say, ‘Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people.”
This is what we are made for: The heavenly Jerusalem. At the second coming, God will deliver on His promise to unite His people to Him. That’s a promise He made back in Genesis when He first fashioned us in His image and then made His covenant with Abraham. We rarely get a glimpse of what happens after Christ comes again, but today’s reading invites us to see the beauty that is before us. So yes we must endure hardships for God (1st reading), but look at the glorious banquet that awaits us after the “in-between.”
Gospel: John 13: 31-33A, 34-35
Today we are back in the Upper Room at the beginning of the passion. Jesus foretells the suffering he is about to endure at the hands of the Jewish leadership. He leaves them with a new commandment: “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples. If you have love for one another.”
We skip verse 33B. That’s too bad. In that verse Jesus says to the disciples at the table, “Where I am going you cannot come.” He means that they cannot come with him to the Cross, that they cannot come to die and be raised. But I mention this because our second reading is about how we most certainly CAN come with Him into Heaven! We CAN share the glory of Heaven with Him in scripture:
In sum, if we want to share in the glory of Heaven (see reading 2), we must recognize the hardships we will bear for his sake (see Reading 1), and we must obey his command to love one another (gospel). Every morning, while we exist in this “in-between”, we are invited to wake up and sing psalm 145 in our hearts to ourselves and to God, and from our lips to those we meet in our words and actions: “I will praise your name forever, my king and my God.”
Banquet of the Word 