Readings for Sunday, May 20th-2012 + Catholic Matters

B-Saint Max Bible Study meets at the back of the church in the Mother Cabrini Room Fridays 9AM to 10AM…Please join us! http://facilitator-stmaxbiblestudy.blogspot.com MAY 20, 2012 | SEVENTH SUNDAY OF EASTER « May 19 | May 21 » Seventh Sunday of Easter Lectionary: 60 READING 1 ACTS 1:15-17, 20A, 20C-26 Peter stood up in the midst of the brothers --there was a group of about one hundred and twenty persons in the one place --. He said, "My brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand through the mouth of David, concerning Judas, who was the guide for those who arrested Jesus. He was numbered among us and was allotted a share in this ministry. "For it is written in the Book of Psalms: May another take his office. "Therefore, it is necessary that one of the men who accompanied us the whole time the Lord Jesus came and went among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day on which he was taken up from us, become with us a witness to his resurrection." So they proposed two, Judas called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias. Then they prayed, "You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this apostolic ministry from which Judas turned away to go to his own place." Then they gave lots to them, and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was counted with the eleven apostles. RESPONSORIAL PSALM PS 103:1-2, 11-12, 19-20 R.(19a) The Lord has set his throne in heaven. or: R. Alleluia. Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all my being, bless his holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. R. The Lord has set his throne in heaven. or: R. Alleluia. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he put our transgressions from us. R. The Lord has set his throne in heaven. or: R. Alleluia. The LORD has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all. Bless the LORD, all you his angels, you mighty in strength, who do his bidding. R. The Lord has set his throne in heaven. or: R. Alleluia. READING 2 1 JN 4:11-16 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us. This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us, that he has given us of his Spirit. Moreover, we have seen and testify that the Father sent his Son as savior of the world. Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him and he in God. We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him. GOSPEL JN 17:11B-19 Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying: "Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one. When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me, and I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you. I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely. I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth." Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses FIRST READING: Acts 1:15-17; 20-26. Peter stood up among the brethren (the company of persons was in all about a hundred and twenty), and said, "Brethren, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David, concerning Judas who was guide to those who arrested Jesus. For he was numbered among us, and was allotted his share in this ministry. For it is written in the book of Psalms, 'His office let another take.' So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us---one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection." And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. And they prayed and said, "Lord, who knowest the hearts of all men, show which one of these two thou hast chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside, to go to his own place." And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias; and he was enrolled with the eleven apostles. EXPLANATION: According to the account of the Ascension given in Acts, Christ told his Apostles to wait in Jerusalem for the descent of the Holy Spirit before beginning their missionary activity. The eleven Apostles, together with a large number of disciples as well as Mary the Mother of Jesus and some of his cousins and some other women, met frequently for prayer. During the ten days that they awaited the coming of the Holy Spirit, Peter, the recognized head of the group, decided it was necessary to elect a man who had been with Christ during his public life, to fill the apostleship vacated by Judas. Peter...brethren: Brothers or brethren was a title for Christians; it was in use at the time Acts was written, and perhaps from the very beginning (see Acts 11: 1; 12: 17-18). about one hundred and twenty: Most, if not all, of the seventy-two disciples who had followed our Lord were still faithful to him and some others had evidently joined since. scripture...fulfilled: The verses from two psalms quoted by St. Peter refer to the treatment an enemy deserves, and God is invoked to see that this punishment is carried out. Holy Spirit spoke: Peter accepts these psalms as Davidic and as inspired by the Holy Spirit. Judas guide: Peter sees Judas as the enemy who deserves God's punishment. His office...take: Psalm 69: 25 is omitted in the reading here, but psalm 109: 8 is given. It is interpreted by Peter as requiring to be fulfilled, for Judas lost his position as a member of Christ's Apostles. That place must be filled. beginning...John: The man to be chosen to take the place of Judas must be one who has been with Christ from the very beginning of his public life. witness to his resurrection: This was to be the central and basic point of the apostolic preaching, as it was the crowning point in the Christian event. If Christ had not risen there would have been no apostolic ministry and no Christian Church. The candidate to be chosen then must be able to testify to the resurrection and also to the preaching and miracles of Jesus. put forward two: Those present presented two men who fulfilled the qualities demanded by Peter. prayed and said: They now request the Lord (Christ) to decide for them which of the two men: "thou hast chosen" as Apostle. Judas...place: The reference is to the desertion of Judas, who turned aside from the ministry and went his own way. they cast lots: This would be in accordance with ancient Jewish custom. When an answer was wanted from God, the high priest cast lots for a "yes" or "no" with the Urim and Thumim. It was firmly believed that God would bring out the right answer. Here the Apostles and disciples had no hesitation in attributing the choice to Christ. The lot fell on Matthias and he was immediately enrolled with the eleven Apostles. APPLICATION: The only activity (apart from prayer) taken by the Apostles and disciples between the Ascension and the descent of the Holy Spirit was, according to Acts, this election of a successor to Judas. It was an important step, for the Apostles saw themselves as chosen by Christ to be the twelve Patriarchs of the New Israel. Christ had for this reason (so they understood) chosen twelve and it was necessary that that number should be complete. Secondly, what was very important in this action taken by Peter as head of the Apostles was the question of who should replace Judas. It was necessary that he should have been an eye-witness of Christ's public ministry from the baptism by John until his Ascension. The reason for this was that this new Apostle should, like the other eleven, be able to teach all that Christ had said and done, be an eye-witness, in other words, to the Christian faith, the basic truth and proof of which was the resurrection. Here we have the solid basis for teaching by Tradition, a doctrine always held by the Church, laid down from the very beginning of Christianity. There were not as yet, nor for years afterwards, any written accounts of the teaching and the doings of Jesus. But the facts and the truths of the Christian faith were preached by men who had been eye-witnesses of what they preached---the first and second generation converts accepted their word without questioning, and rightly so. These Apostles had nothing to gain, but everything to lose, by preaching this gospel. They brought on themselves hardships, imprisonment, tortures because they preached Christ. No sane men would take on such a campaign unless absolutely convinced of the truth of what they preached and the necessity of its acceptance by all who heard them. One by one, the Apostles gave their lives gladly for their faith in Christ, but before their departure the torch had been handed on to others who in turn devoted their lives to carrying it further. At least thirty-five years later the first gospel, and almost seventy later St. John's gospel, incorporated this teaching of the Apostles. It was but a faithful account of what Jesus said and did, put in abbreviated form into our four gospels under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and so we got the double stream that flows from the same source---Sacred Scripture and Tradition. In order to fulfill their commission of preaching the true Christian message to all nations the Apostles had, of necessity, the power and authority to interpret and explain what they preached, as well as the compelling duty to correct or condemn any false meaning attributed to what they preached. This power, essential in the Church of Christ for all ages, was handed on by them to their successors and so we have the living teaching authority of the Christian Church stemming from Christ himself. Such an authority was necessary during the first two generations---the age of oral tradition alone when at least some of the Apostles were alive. However, it was even more necessary when the written word came into common use. By then the authoritative voices of the Apostles themselves were silenced. But Christ had provided for the safe-keeping of his doctrine in his Church. In itself the election of Matthias to replace the traitor Judas, may not be of great interest to us. There is not a single mention of this Matthias after that. But the providence of God which, working through Peter, assured us and the Church of Christ for all time that the true faith would be handed down to the Church and preserved in all its purity, is of the greatest importance to us and is a convincing proof that while we follow the definite teaching of the Church we are on the right road laid down for us by our Savior. In an age like ours, an age of doubt, vacillation, agnosticism in matters of faith and morals, it is surely a consolation and a security to know that while we believe and act with the Church, we are believing and acting with Christ. We are living our lives as Christ wants us to live them, in a way, that is, which leads eventually but securely to heaven. ________________________________________ SECOND READING: 1 John 4:11-16. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his own Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we know and believe the love God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. EXPLANATION: These verses read today are a continuation of those from the same Epistle read on the Sixth Sunday of Easter. If God...us: John has described how God's love for us went to the extreme of sending his beloved Son on earth as man. He concludes from this that surely we should give our little bit of finite love to God in return, but the way to prove this gift of ours is to love our fellowman. has...God: God is a pure Spirit not visible to human eyes. We shall be able to see him in our glorified bodies, after our resurrection, with the aid of the grace of the beatific vision. if we...another: Even though we cannot see God on this earth, we can experience his presence and feel the true love for him expand in our hearts if we love one another. God...us: God is in our wills and intellects, urging us on to live according to the truth and to choose what is good always. He is thus proving his loving interest in us and moving us to love him more and more. given...Spirit: On the first Pentecost day the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles and made his presence manifest not only to them but to all the Jews who gathered around the Cenacle. He came (visibly by his powers) on all the early Christian converts (see Acts passim; 1 Cor. 12). He is still present to every Christian who is in the state of grace, urging him to what is right and good. Son...world: This is the highest imaginable act of love for us. The Father asked his divine Son to endure the humiliation of the incarnation and the torture of crucifixion so that we, his creatures, could have everlasting life. Jesus...God: To confess this, the central doctrine of the Christian faith, requires the gift of faith which God alone gives. He who makes this confession of faith does so because he is moved to do so by the special gift of God---faith. God is love: His very nature is to love with an infinite, an unlimited love. who...love: The Christian, or he who through no fault of his own has not heard of Christ and his message, who loves his neighbor out of unselfish love, or because he is a fellow-child of God on the road to heaven, is in close intimacy with God. APPLICATION: This teaching of St. John on the necessity of loving our fellowman is well known to all of us but how many of us really and truly practice this kind of unselfish love? Is there one among us who really loves his neighbor as he loves himself? Yet, this is the criterion by which our love is judged. Far too many Christians are so preoccupied with their own difficulties in life that they have little or no time to stop and help a fellowman who is lying idly or helplessly by the roadside. Yet it is exactly by helping our fellowman in need that we successfully overcome our own difficulties. For when we practice charity toward our neighbor "we abide in God and God abides in us," as St. John tells us, and if God is with us it matters not who is against us? Yes, it is God's plan that we travel to heaven in groups, in pre-arranged parties. God wants the whole group there, and in his plan some are less capable of making the journey so that the able-bodied members and the more qualified ones, should have an opportunity of paying for their own passage by helping their needy fellow-travelers. This is part of God's love for us; he puts in our way the opportunity to prove our love for him by bestowing loving help on our neighbor. Let us look around us and see who are those that God in his mercy has put in our particular traveling party. First comes our own family. Not only are we bound by ties of flesh and blood to help them in this life, we are also bound by the commandment of charity to cherish them as we do ourselves. If we ourselves want to be saved---and that is why we are Christians---we must also want to have our families reunited with us later on. Husband and wife must help one another to live according to the Christian standards every day of their lives. Both parents must work in close and fervent cooperation to prepare their children not only to make a living in this world but especially and above all to make them good citizens of heaven. After the family come relatives, nearest neighbors, those we meet at work or casually. They have next claim on our sincere Christian love. We cannot exempt ourselves from carrying out the spiritual works of mercy on the ground that we cannot go on the mission fields. If we are truly charitable, occasions can be found for exercising these good works without ever leaving our own home-town, or maybe our own street. Generous souls will, while carrying out their duties of charity nearer home, also find ways of helping the spread of the faith in foreign lands. We all want to be saved; we shall, if we help our fellow-travelers on the way. These are not only the people who need bodily help, but also and especially those in need of spiritual light and encouragement---the sinners, the lax, the careless and the lapsed Christians. These need our help. It is with these that our Lord would associate if he were among us today, as he did in Palestine. Mary Magdalene. Zachaeus and the thousands of other sinners of that day, are now in heaven because Christ had an encouraging word, a word of love and hope, for them. They reacted to his sincere love. Let us try to imitate that love of Christ, if only from afar, and our sinner neighbors too will react to the little ray of divine love which our charity sheds on them. ________________________________________ GOSPEL: John 17:11-19. Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, "Holy Father, keep them in thy name, which thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in thy name, which thou hast given me; I have guarded them, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them thy word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not pray that thou should take them out of the world, but that thou should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; thy word is truth. As thou did send me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth." EXPLANATION: Our Lord's long discourse at the Last Supper ends with the priestly prayer of Christ for his Apostles and for all those who through the preaching of the Apostles would believe in him---the Christians of all ages. Today's verses deal with the Apostles. Jesus, who knows he is about to finish the work given him on earth and return to his Father in heaven, prays that the disciples the Father has given him will remain united in true faith and love in order to carry out the mission he has given them. Their task will be hard, for though living in this world their activities will be directed to the other world, and the worldly-minded opponents of things spiritual will hate them as they hated him before them. keep...name: Christ appeals to his heavenly Father to protect and keep true to their vocation the disciples he had given Christ. one...one: God the Father and Son were one by nature and divine perfection. The disciples could only imitate this unity from afar, but they could have perfect human unity among themselves. none...but: All his Apostles had remained faithful to him, and continued to remain so in spite of the shock his crucifixion and death caused them. One, however, had defected; this was foreseen, "that the scripture might be fulfilled," but not pre-ordained. Judas acted with full freedom. The fact that God foresaw what he did in no way impeded Judas' freedom of action. God sees now where I shall end up on my judgement day, but I shall end up there because of my own free decision. It is the sum-total of these free decisions that God already sees. I am...thee: As Jesus is very soon to return to his Father, the disciples will be left alone in the world, but Christ prays the Father to let them also share in the joy of his reunion with his Father. given...word: He has revealed God to them, and his own intimate connection with God in as far as they were, as yet, able to grasp all this. world...them: As nearly always in St. John, the term "world" is used in the sense of the evil that is in this world. This evil wanted to have nothing to do with Christ or his talk of a future spiritual life. This same hatred included his Apostles, especially after his departure. out...world: To carry out their mission the Apostles must remain and work in the midst of this evil world and, therefore, Christ's request to the Father is not to let them be overcome by this evil. sanctify...truth: The Apostles are the priests of the New Law, and as priests of the temple were consecrated before beginning their functions, Christ now asks the Father to consecrate his disciples to the ministry of preaching the word of God which is "truth" itself. did send me: The Father had sent Christ in the incarnation into this world; so now Christ sends his Apostles to preach the truths about God and men, which he had given them. In Jn. 20: 21 their mission is given to the Apostles, but Christ's prayer, as given here, foresees the future as already accomplished. I consecrate myself: Jesus' sacrificial act on Calvary next day was the culmination of his sacerdotal ministry among men on earth. The Apostles are now to begin where Christ left off in his visible activity. APPLICATION: Our divine Lord closed his discourse at the Last Supper with his priestly prayer for the unity of his Apostles in the bond of Christian charity, and for the true Christian brotherhood of all who would accept from them the message of Christ's gospel. During the first six centuries of the Church's history the Father answered this prayer of Christ; a few heresies raised their heads now and then, but the successors of the Apostles, with Peter's representative at their head, condemned these errors and the Church went on in peace and fraternal unity. Later on there were more widespread breaks with the successor of Peter in both the East and the West, and most of these divisions have continued down to our own day. Where was the efficacy of Christ's prayer then; why did God not answer him? Christ's prayer was efficacious and God did answer, but, like God's answer to all prayer, it is given as and when it is of the greatest value. God could not prevent men from exercising the gift of free-will which he himself had given them. When creating man he foresaw that that gift would often be misused to man's own disadvantage, but without it man would not be man; he would be incapable of any single act of merit and of enjoying the future eternal life. So God could not prevent Christians from separating from one another, nor could he force them to return to Christian unity against their free-will. But he is ever ready to assist them by his grace and encouragement to cooperate once more in giving glory to God and in spreading the message of the gospel of love to all men. We are fortunate to be living in an age when the complete reunification of the Christian Church is the aim of all Christians, and has the evident assistance of our heavenly Father. It was not by accident that Pope John XXIII ascended the throne of Peter; it was not by chance that he called a Council---a Council which took its own share of the blame for the divisions in the Church and spoke of those outside it not as "schismatics" and "heretics" but as "separated brethren." All this did not happen by accident. God saw the opportune moment and inspired the parties concerned with feelings of regret for past errors and with resolutions to do all in their power to put right the past. Our leaders and theologians are doing this. Theirs is no easy task, it is not the work of a few months, or even of a few years, but a beginning has been made and with God's grace and goodwill on the part of our leaders it is a task that will have a successful and blessed ending. However, the ordinary Christians in the various churches are not to be idle onlookers; we too have a part, and a big part, to play in bringing about this desired and most desirable unity of all Christians. First of all, we can assist in this noble work, and in a very effective way, by sincere and constant prayer. The grace of God, through our fervent prayers for our leaders and theologians, can and will open their eyes to see ways and means to unification without sacrificing any of the revealed truths of Christianity. There are some human accretions to the basic doctrines of faith in all the various churches which can be jettisoned without loss to the faith, but the revealed dogmas cannot and will not be bartered for any temporary gain. No church can sacrifice the truth, and no church will be asked to do so, for truth is God's gift to us and is necessary for the whole Church. Let us pray frequently, and fervently, that God will show our superiors the way, the one and only way, the way of truth to unity. After prayer, each one of us will in his neighborhood or place of employment, meet members of the other Christian churches. It is our duty to show them by word and deed that we are their brothers in Christ. Some of them may show no interest at first in any kind of brotherhood of Christ or of man, but constant charitable contact will wear down this barrier. We can, if we are unity-minded, that is, Christian-minded, find topics for discussion that involve the Christian faith, and through these discussions our desire and our hope for a united Christian Church can be introduced. Charity will open the best-locked door; true Christian charity will soften the hardest heart. If we have the welfare of all our neighbors, Christian and non-Christian, at heart, we will gladly do everything in our power to bring about the existence of one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church which will have the true light of Christ to illumine its members and lead those fellow-sons of God who are still outside it, to enter it and share in its faith, its hope, and its charity.b211 Click to return to our Home page