FIRST READING: Acts 1: 12-14. After Jesus had been taken up into heaven, the Apostles returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away; and when they had entered, they went to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and. Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. EXPLANATION: In these three verses we are given a brief glimpse of how the Apostles, the disciples and the Blessed Mother spent the ten days that elapsed between the Ascension and Pentecost. after Jesus . . . heaven: According to St. Luke in Acts, Jesus kept appearing to the Apostles and disciples in visible human form for some time (forty days is a round number). Then he led them to the Mount of Olives outside Jerusalem and they saw him ascending to heaven, disappearing from them toward the sky. It was a Jewish idea that the abode of God was above the firmament---the sky. Christ wanted to prove to them that he was returning to the Father; they would see him no more in visible form, now that he had proved to them that he had really risen from the dead.
They . . . Jerusalem: They obeyed Christ's command to stay in Jerusalem until he and his Father sent the Holy Spirit upon them (Lk. 24:49).
to . . . room: This was the room in which Christ had eaten the Last Supper with his Apostles and had instituted the Blessed Eucharist. Here the Apostles and some of the disciples had lived ever since that first Holy Thursday.
Peter . . . James: Matthew, Mark and Luke give us a list of the twelve Apostles in their gospels. John mentions only six of them by name but he says they numbered "twelve" (Jn. 20: 24). In this passage of Acts, Luke names the eleven that remained after Judas's suicide. It is notable that in the three Synoptic gospels Peter is always at the head of the list while Judas is last. Here too Peter is first but Judas is naturally not mentioned.
with . . . prayer: To prepare themselves for the advent of the Holy Spirit they prayed together "with one accord."
the women and Mary: The devout women, like the mother of James and John, and others who had accompanied Jesus and the Apostles on the missionary journeys, as well as the Blessed Mother, were still with the Apostles, catering for their temporal needs.
with his brothers: Brothers and sisters of Jesus have been mentioned many times in the gospels. The terms brother and sister in Hebrew and Aramaic were used for real brothers and sisters as well as for cousins, and for even remote kinsmen. These languages had no word for "cousin" or "relative,"---all who belonged to the one tribe or clan were called and looked on as brothers. It is clear from the infancy narratives of Matthew and Luke that Jesus had no brothers in the strict sense, and could not have because of Mary's plan of virginity. Yet Matthew and Luke spoke of the brothers of Jesus, for they meant cousins or relatives. APPLICATION: The most important lesson for fervent Christians which these three verses from Acts stress today is the need for prayer, even amidst the most pressing work for God and for our neighbors' salvation. Having but very limited human minds, we might be tempted to wonder why the risen Christ spent so much time (roughly forty days) convincing his Apostles of the fact of his resurrection. He could surely have done this in a few days at the most. Secondly, why the delay in sending the Holy Spirit---ten whole days---when the Apostles had such a gigantic task ahead of them---the bringing of the "good news" to the known world? Their remaining years were so few one would think that every day, every hour, counted---that there was no time for delay! Yet this is how Christ acted, and who was more deeply interested than he in the spread of the message about the salvation he had won for the world? The Apostles and disciples, together with the devout women and Mary the Mother of Jesus, were of course most keenly interested in evangelizing the world. Yet they did not question the wisdom of Christ. They understood the reason for this delay, and they used the time to prepare themselves for the work that lay ahead by fervent prayer in which they all whole-heartedly joined. This is surely an example for all Christians of all times but maybe an example more necessary than ever today. Since Vatican II a tidal wave of urgency for good works for the neighbor, for dialog, for seminars, for external activities of all kinds, has swept over the Church and has left little, if any, time for personal prayer and personal devotions. There are even those among the most ardent advocates and most active promoters of the modernization of old customs and practices who can see no great value in the lives of the relatively few religious who live an enclosed life, devoted entirely to prayer and intercession with God for their fellowman. They should come outside their cloisters and help their neighbor, it is said---the implication being that their life of prayer is of little or no help. Already women religious who spend most of their day teaching children or nursing the sick are urged to spend the little spare time left them which they used to spend in private prayer, in going among the people in order to edify them by showing that they are no different from them! Seminarians too who need the few short years allowed them to prepare for the priesthood are expected to cut down the time they used for study, spiritual reading and meditation, so that they too could go among the people and learn all about human nature from the faults and failings of their less fortunate neighbors! In the eyes of these modern apostles of progress, the real Apostles and disciples and the Mother of Jesus herself wasted valuable time and---how will they explain it?---it was Christ the Son of God who made them waste this valuable time! While it is absolutely true that "good works" done for our neighbor are (if done from the right motive) proof of our love for God, "the first and greatest commandment" is still love of God. And if we leave ourselves no time to adore, thank, and petition him for mercy and forgiveness for ourselves and our neighbor what does our love for him mean? We do not for one moment question the sincerity and zeal of our modem apostles of progress and of the updating of the Church but we wonder if they have got their priorities right. Personal prayer and frequent communion with God in silent meditation are still and always will be the basis of a true Christian life and the only solid foundation on which a true Christian apostolate can be built. The Apostles and their companions who, on the instructions of Christ himself, spent ten days in fervent prayer before beginning their missionary activity, have set us an example we cannot ignore. Their life-long apostolate was successful---ours too will be a success if, and only if, we follow the example they have set us.
SECOND READING: 1 Peter 4:13-16. Rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or a wrongdoer, or a mischief-maker; yet if one suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but under that name let him glorify God. EXPLANATION: St. Peter continues his exhortation to the newly-converted in the churches of Asia Minor (see Second Sunday of Easter, Second Reading).
rejoyce . . . sufferings: Christ himself had said that all those who would be his followers should imitate him by taking up their cross daily and following in his footsteps. All converts learned this. St. Peter tells them that any sufferings their being Christians brought upon them should be a cause of rejoicing for it proved that they were close to Christ, helping him to carry his cross.
rejoice . . . revealed: If they have followed him during their earthly life, their meeting with him in his glory at their particular judgment will be an occasion of great rejoicing. Their cross in life will become their crown in heaven.
reproached . . . blessed: If they are insulted and suffer injury because of being followers of Christ, "for the name of Christ," then they are fortunate, because this proves that they are true followers of Christ, and sons of God and heirs to his glory.
murderer . . . wrongdoer: If however they are punished for evil deeds they are no credit to Christ or Christianity, they must never be guilty of such crimes. BR>suffer as a Christian: This is a cause for glory and rejoicing and:
under that name: under that name they must always live worthy of the name of Christian and in that way give glory to God. APPLICATION: If there were no future life for us, if we ended like the ox or the horse or the pig in the grave, then Christians would be the silliest of silly men. On the other hand, if all the wonderful gifts which man has and which make him so superior to the dumb beasts, were to end in the grave or in a jar of ashes in a crematorium, how silly would the Creator be, or if we deny a creator, how silly would Evolution (with a capital letter) be which showed such skill in arriving at man the masterpiece of all evolved things, only to let him return to dust the lowest of the low? Human reason demands (and the loudest expounders of materialistic evolution have some human reason still left), and revelation proves that there is a future life for man, and that our present life on earth is but a temporary state during which we can earn, through God's goodness to us, a future life of glory and happiness. The converts to Christianity to whom St. Peter was writing were convinced of this truth, and so are we, today's Christians, and so are many, if not the vast majority, of those who are loudest in their denials of God and of a future life for man. In St. Peter's words therefore, the point for us, as it was for the first Christians, is not that we are destined for a future life but rather how we are to make sure it will be a happy and a glorious future life. St. Peter's advice is that of Christ himself: we will share in his future glory, we will be with him in heaven if we have been true followers of his here below. If we carry the crosses he sends us, or allows to come to us, if we are proud to bear the name of Christian, if we live up to this honorable vocation, then when we lay down our earthly burden, we are assured that our life of glory will begin. But while we have no doubts whatsoever as to the necessity of the demands that Christianity makes on us, there are few among us who do not find it more than a bit severe on our weak, human nature. It is so hard to be always good, it is so difficult always to resist the temptations that surround us on all sides, it is far from easy to accept cheerfully the trials of life, which, we can argue, do not come from God but from wicked men. All this is perfectly true, for the fact is that human nature is not able to live the Christian life by itself alone. It was never intended to do so, and for that reason Christ, who knew all our weaknesses, and foresaw all our needs, has arranged that his divine grace would be ever in his Church within our reach every day and every moment of our lives. Living the Christian life then is not the work of mere man. It is the product of human nature aided and elevated to a higher plane by divine grace. The channels through which Christ arranged that his divine grace should reach us are the sacraments and prayer. By baptism we are already made brothers of Christ and raised up to the dignity of adopted sons of God and thus prepared and given a right to all the other graces we need to live our Christian life. Penance properly received removes sin. The Eucharist, toward which all the other sacraments lead and for which they all prepare us, is Christ himself entering into us under the form of bread to be our spiritual nourishment on our heavenly journey. Prayer is ever at our disposal and God listens willingly to all sincere prayer. The Christian, therefore, who says Christ's demands are too severe has forgotten to avail himself of the aids that Christ gave him. No Christian has to travel alone. He has Christ with him and it is only the disloyal Christian who refuses to travel with Christ, who will meet with him at the road's end not as a loving brother but as a severe judge.
GOSPEL: John 17: 1-11. Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify thy Son that thy Son may glorify thee, since thou hast given him power over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom thou hast given him. And this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. I glorified thee on earth, having accomplished the work which thou gavest me to do; and now, Father, glorify thou me in thy own presence with glory which I had with thee before the world was made. "I have manifested thy name to the men whom thou gavest me out of the world; thine they were, and thou gavest them to me, and they have kept thy word. Now they know that everything that thou hast given me is from thee; for I have given them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from thee; and they have believed that thou didst send me. I am praying for them; I am not praying for the world but for those whom thou hast given me, for they are thine; all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to Thee." EXPLANATION: These eleven verses are part of the priestly prayer of Jesus. He prayed at the Last Supper for himself, for his Apostles and for all those who through the preaching of the Apostles (and their successors) would come to know the true God and his Son. This would be a knowledge which would bind them in a unity of charity like that of the Father and the Son and which is to be consummated in eternal love. We have only the first two parts of this prayer in today's reading.
lifted . . . eyes: The usual attitude of prayer among the Jews.
the hour as come: The moment had come when he would complete the work for which he came on earth. By accepting the death of the cross, and consummating the work of the perfectly obedient suffering servant, foretold by Isaiah, he was fulfilling his Father's command.
glorify . . . thee: The resurrection and his place at the right hand of the Father were Christ's glorification. This, in turn, would bring glory to the Father, since:
thou . . . flesh: Christ's humiliation in his Incarnation was decreed so that all men (flesh) could have eternal life.
all . . . him: That is : all who will in reality accept Christ, not that some are predestined by the Father---the grace is offered to all but not accepted by all.
this . . . thee: To "know" the Father and Son is to have intimate association with them---to be with them, not a theoretical but a practical experiential knowledge.
I glorified . . . earth: He is speaking as if the sacrifice of Calvary were already completed. The work given him to do in his incarnate state has been accomplished, and has brought external glory to the Father, because all men have been raised to a new status, and have been given access to heaven by means of the Incarnation.
with the glory which I had: He asks the Father to restore to him the divine glory, which was his from all eternity, but of which as St. Paul says "he emptied himself taking the form of a slave" (Phil. 2: 7) in his Incarnation.
manifested . . . name: Not merely the name, but the nature, the infinite kindness and love of God for mankind. All these he had made known to the Apostles whom God the Father had given him.
that . . . from thee: Jesus is seeing his mission on earth as completed and the Holy Spirit as having come on the Apostles. It was only then that they really grasped that Christ was the Son of God, sent on earth as man by the Father for the salvation of mankind.
not . . . world: The term "world" in John is almost always in the derogatory sense, as all that is evil and opposed to God. He is praying for the Apostles only now, but later on he includes all who will believe in him through the preaching of the Apostles, and he adds that the unity of the Church will move the "world" also to believe in him (17: 20-21).
I . . . them: The faith of the Apostles and the success of their (and their successors') preaching will add to the external glory of the humanity of Christ in heaven as well as to the divine nature which he shares with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
I am . . . thee: He speaks as if his ascension day were already present. APPLICATION: The Son of God, Jesus Christ, came on earth and lived among us. He was God in real human nature. This is the mystery of the Incarnation, but the real mystery for us is not how it could be done, but why it was done. The answer is the mystery of God's infinite love for us. God wanted to share his own kingdom of everlasting happiness with mankind. He therefore raised us to the status of adopted sons through this mystery of the Incarnation. God could have found other ways of bringing us to heaven, we can suppose, but we can be sure he chose the best way. He had created us with human hearts and emotions; he had made us capable of reacting to love and, benevolence. In Christ he set before us an example of love and benevolence which should move the hardest heart to gratitude and to a desire to repay in some little way the God who did so much for our sakes. God wants us to earn heaven for ourselves, aided of course by his grace. Would we enjoy and appreciate it fully if we had played no part in attaining it? Now with Christ as our exemplar and model, and as a living, ever-present example of self-sacrifice for us, the carrying of our personal crosses, the ordinary difficulties of life, should seem almost trivial when compared with what he who was innocent and sinless endured for our sakes. He was born in a stable, grew up in poverty in Nazareth, was often hungry and thirsty, traveled the dusty and rough mule-tracks of Palestine preaching repentance to sinners and calling on all to love God. He was continually heckled by the leaders of the Jews who thought they knew God. They even accused him of being in league with the devil. They finally forced the pagan Roman governor, whom they hated, to crucify him because they hated Christ even more. For three hours he hung in agony on the cross until merciful death finally brought relief. This was all done for you and for me! He belonged to heaven. He need never have left it. He did not have to earn heaven. He went through all of this to give us the possibility of earning heaven for ourselves. Truly enough most of us have to suffer poverty, pains and sometimes great tribulations during our years on earth. But which of us can say that we are sinless, and if we could say it, that we may not have to thank these very trials and tribulations for keeping us so? Or if we have sinned we can see God in his mercy as using these earthly crosses in order to prepare us for the life of eternal happiness to come. Sinners or sinless, we are still followers of Christ, and that prayer of his for us at the Last Supper asking his Father "to give eternal life to all who are his" was not said in vain. Unless we deliberately desert him, he will not desert us. He will bring us to the Father, where we will add external glory to the Blessed Trinity, and rejoice forever in the company of Christ who shared our humanity with us so that we could share and enjoy his divinity and humanity in heaven for all eternity.-a194 Click to return to our Home page
