Sunday, May 2, 2004
4th Sunday of Easter

1st Reading: Acts 13:14, 43-52

Paul and Barnabas went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. On the Sabbath day they entered the synagogue and sat down.

After that, when the assembly broke up, many Jews and devout God-fearing people followed them and to these they spoke, urging them to hold fast to the grace of God.

The following Sabbath almost the entire city gathered to listen to Paul, who spoke a fairly long time about the Lord. But the presence of such a crowd made the Jews jealous. So they began to oppose with insults whatever Paul said.

Then Paul and Barnabas spoke out firmly, saying, "It was necessary that God's word be first proclaimed to you, but since you now reject it and judge yourselves to be unworthy of eternal life, we turn to non-Jewish people. For thus we were commanded by the Lord: I have set you as a light to the pagan nations, so that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth."

Those who were not Jews rejoiced when they heard this and praised the message of the Lord, and all those destined for everlasting life believed in it. Thus the Word spread throughout the whole region.

Some of the Jews, however, incited God-fearing women of the upper class and the leading men of the city, as well, and stirred up an intense persecution against Paul and Barnabas. Finally they had them expelled from their region. The apostles shook the dust from their feet in protest against this people and went to Iconium, leaving the disciples filled with joy and Holy Spirit.

2nd Reading: Rev 7:9, 14-17

I, John, saw a great crowd, impossible to count, from every nation, race, people and tongue, standing before the throne and the Lamb, clothed in white, with palm branches in their hands,

I answered, "Sir, it is you who know this."
The elder replied, "They are those who have come out of the great persecution; they have washed and made their clothes white in the blood of the Lamb.

This is why they stand before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his sanctuary. He who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. Never again will they suffer hunger or thirst or be burned by the sun or any scorching wind. For the Lamb near the throne will be their Shepherd, and he will bring them to springs of life-giving water, and God will wipe away their tears."

Gospel: Jn 10:27-30

Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice and I know them; they follow me and I give them eternal life. They shall never perish and no one will ever steal them from me. What the Father has given me is above everything else and no one can snatch it from the Father's hand. I and the Father are one."

Commentary

"I and the Father are one." This is one of "hard sayings" of Jesus. He is not saying it in a weak sense: that he and the Father are of like mind, etc. In Greek it says, literally, "I and the Father are one thing." Had his hearers understood him in the weak sense they would not have taken up stones immediately to kill him. The union of Jesus with the Father is the inexhaustible mystery of our Faith.

It is not only about Jesus; it has to do with us too. In this age when so much emphasis is placed on the individual, we are inclined to see Jesus too just as an individual-a special one, to be sure, but still an individual. That could not be a full account of Jesus. He is "the first-born of many brothers and sisters," "He is the head, we are the body." He came into the world for us, not for himself. Meister Eckhart had an overpowering sense of the union of every Christian with God in Christ. "The soul is one with God and not united. Here is a simile: if we fill a tub with water, the water in the tub is united but not one with it, for where there is water there is no wood, and where there is wood there is no water. Now take the wood and throw it in the middle of the water, still the wood is only united and not one (with the water). It is different with the soul: she becomes one with God and not united, for where God is, there the soul is and where the soul is, there God is."

Read also Sundays Into Silence: Carers Not Curers

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