17 May 2020: Sixth Sunday of Easter

Reading 1	Response	Reading 2	Gospel
Acts 8:5-8, 14-17 RCL: Acts 17:22-32	Ps 66:1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16, 20	1 Pt 3:15-18 RCL: 1 Pt 3:13-22	Jn 14:15-21

The truth of continued presence in absence

 During the Easter season the readings ask the believing community to examine the meaning of Jesus through his teachings and post-resurrection appearances. This week’s readings give us reason to look forward with hope.

The first reading is part of the Easter season’s continuous readings from the Acts of the Apostles. Immediately before this pericope, Saul (Paul) attacks the Greek-speaking Christians in Jerusalem. The Greek-speaking members, including Philip, leave Jerusalem and scatter across Palestine and Syria. Philip’s preaching and healing in Samaria repeat Jesus’ example and mission and fulfill Jesus’ prophecy that his disciples will take Jesus’ message from “Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, to the ends of the earth.” To approve Philip’s mission, the Jerusalem community sends Peter and John. Their “prayers” and “laying on hands” bring the Spirit to the newly baptized Samaritans. Modern hearers may misconstrue Peter’s and John’s action as “Confirmation,” but laying on hands was a Jewish practice for commissioning elders. Peter’s and John’s action communicate the Spirit’s power and connect the new Samaritan ekklesia to the Jerusalem ekklesia. The Lectionary editors chose this reading to show how God advances the kingdom through unexpected events.

The second reading is part of the Easter season’s continuous readings from the first letter of Peter, written in the late first century. This section discusses the cost of discipleship. Disciples follow in Christ’s footsteps, and so should expect to be persecuted. During suffering or persecution, a disciple must be prepared to give witness (“the reason for your hope”). A disciple should approach all of life with hope. “Hope” is equivalent to Paul’s “faith:” a radical trust in God that shapes a disciple’s entire consciousness. Hope is rooted in God’s act of salvation in Jesus. The author quotes from an early Christian hymn (1 Pt 3:15-22) about Christ’s death and resurrection. Jesus’ sufferings are not simply an example of virtuous suffering, but rather a transformative act, because they “lead you to God.” The Lectionary editors chose this reading as part of a continuous reading whose baptismal themes are appropriate for the Easter season and the newly baptized.

John’s gospel continues Jesus’ Last Supper “farewell discourse.” John uses a spiral narrative structure to circle around ideas about love/action and absence/presence. Facing departure, Jesus challenges and encourages his disciples to love actively and to continue to see him by remaining-in-relationship.

• Love is action. Jesus tells his disciples that they show their love for him by keeping his commandments (“love one another as I have loved you” [Jn 13:34]). Just as the Son loves the Father by acting according to the Father’s will, so also disciples love Jesus by acting as he has instructed them. Jesus’ love is active: he is laying down his own life for his disciples. Disciples must continue this active love, laying down their lives in service to others.

• Absence and presence. Jesus’ active love results in his departure (death) and his physical absence from his disciples. Jesus asks the Father to send another paraclete to remain forever as the Spirit who communicates the truth, the ongoing presence of the revelation of God in the world. Jesus’ law of love forms the basis of remaining-in-relationship. Because Jesus, the Spirit, and disciples remain-in-relationship, disciples will continue to see and know Jesus. Remaining-in-relation with the resurrected Jesus means that disciples will live eternally, sharing in Jesus’ resurrected life.

Jesus’ resurrection has many meanings and many implications. The Easter season lasts six weeks, allowing us time to reflect on this cosmos-changing event. This week’s readings look forward to the work of the Spirit. Luke’s Acts tells how God uses unintended human consequences to bring about the kingdom. The author of Peter’s letter urges hope in all things. The gospel promises a paraclete who will continue Jesus’ work and presence. The Easter season concludes with the coming of the Spirit of truth. Do we find hope in God’s power to transform human failings into acts of goodness? Do we see hope in those who choose to lay down their own lives for others? Do we see Jesus’ presence in those inspired to speak truth to a world that rejects it?

—Terence Sherlock

19 April 2020: Second Sunday of Easter/ Divine Mercy Sunday

Reading 1	Response	Reading 2	Gospel
Acts 2:42-47	Ps 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24	1 Pt 1:3-9	Jn 20:19-31

Moving from darkness to unconditional faith

During the Easter season the readings ask the believing community to examine the meaning of Jesus through his teachings and post-resurrection appearances. This week’s readings focus on the many paths to faith.

The first reading from the Acts of the Apostles follows immediately after Peter’s Pentecost speech. This pericope describes four features of the early believing community: the apostles’ teaching, a common life (koinonia), the breaking of bread (Eucharist), and prayer. Luke’s ekklesia portrait is highly idealized. Greek hearers would recognize this description as a type of “foundation story,” widespread in Hellenistic literature. Luke’s point is that the gift of the Spirit created a community that achieved the highest aspirations of human longing: unity, peace, joy, and the praise of God. The Lectionary editors chose this reading because it shows the ideal Christian believing community, engendered by the Spirit.

The second reading from the first letter of Peter. Internal linguistic evidence suggests a “Petrine group” in Rome wrote this letter in the latter part of the first century, and sent it to a series of Christian communities located north of the Taurus mountains in Asia Minor. Hope is a fundamental virtue in this letter: Jesus’ resurrection reveals God’s merciful act of salvation. Through baptism (“new birth”) a believer now receives a share of this hope. Through baptism, the believer is adopted by God; as God’s child, a believer is also promised (“receives an inheritance”) a place with God in “the final time.” Testing (“trials”) purifies and prepares a believer for the attributes of salvation (“praise, glory, honor”), which at present belong to God or Christ, but will be bestowed on disciples at the end time. The Lectionary editors chose this reading because of its baptismal language and themes.

John’s gospel continues his Easter story, concluding with descriptions of how disciples come to faith in different ways.

• The disciples in the house. Although Mary Magdalene tells the disciples she “has seen the Lord” (Jn 20:17), they are still afraid. Only when the risen Jesus stands among them and greets them, and those disciples see his wounds, do they believe and rejoice. Jesus transfers his mission to the disciples, and strengthens them with the Spirit so they can continue his words and works.

• Thomas. Although the disciples in the house tell Thomas they “have seen the Lord” (Jn 20:25), he does not believe. Thomas even puts conditions on his faith: he has to see the marks and to probe Jesus’ wounds. When Jesus next appears to the disciples, he offers to fulfill Thomas’ conditions, but commands Thomas to move to an unconditional faith (“do not be an unbeliever, but a believer”). The text does not tell us if Thomas examined Jesus’ wounds; but it does tell us that Thomas accepted Jesus’ challenge to unconditional faith.

• Disciples in Jesus’ absence (us). The disciples in the house and Thomas come to faith when they see Jesus physically present. Jesus now addresses disciples who must journey to faith in Jesus’ absence (Jn 20:29). Jesus’ blessing shows that faith-without-seeing surpasses the disciples’ and Thomas’ faith-by-seeing. Our journey to faith begins with hearing Jesus’ good news; with the Spirit’s gifts of holiness, peace, joy, and discernment; and with personal encounters with the risen Jesus in word, in sacrament, in the believing community, and in the world. Like the first disciples, our journey to faith begins in darkness and lurches toward unconditional belief.

Jesus’ resurrection has many meanings and many implications. The Easter season lasts six weeks, allowing us time to reflect on this cosmos-changing event. Luke describes what a perfect Christian community can be. Peter’s letter tells us our journey to faith begins at baptism. John shows how uncertain and challenging the journey can be. What is blocking our unconditional faith? Do we need to have all the answers before we commit? Are we mourning the absence of people or promises we can’t see? Are we waiting for a better world to arrive?

—Terence Sherlock