The Gospel is a Flash-back

The Gospel is a flash-back to the Last Supper and to a display of divine love... can we match it?

May 13 - Sixth Sunday of Easter

The First Reading for today tells of Peter's . . . conversion. Faithful follower of the Master, he had, nevertheless, still not grasped the great truth that this new Faith was for everyone, not just for the Jewish people. In Acts 10, we read of his vision of a sheet let down from heaven containing animals Jews were
forbidden to eat, and of the voice pointing out that things in the future were going to be different. The Reading then tells of the conclusion of this incident and the descent of the Holy Spirit on the new converts and all the others present. The general theme is the ongoing growth of the Church in an atmosphere of joyful
celebration.

The Responsorial Psalm also sounds a note of joy at the remarkable new developments. There will be less-joyful days as in all human life but for a brief moment at least all is well.

In the Second Reading there is a change of subject but not of tone: St. John, the great apostle of the love of God, is heard here and also in the Gospel. In the long run the whole story of humanity, its existence, its short-term failure but its final, glorious success, is a story of divine love - how else can we explain the great facts we know? Did the Almighty, perhaps, gain something from His creation and His work of redemption? What gain?! He has, or is, everything and so the only avenue of action open to Him is to give! But not to give because humans are very fascinating, but because His love moves Him internally to bless and to benefit us without restraint. "You did not choose Me, it was I who chose you."

Finally, the Gospel, once more written by John and once more centering on his favorite theme: God's love for us.    But the circumstances here are very different from the  Readings.   The speaker now is our Divine Master sitting with his disciples, not by the Lake of Galilee or in some pleasant bower fanned by the summer breeze, but at what we call the Last Supper and just before he is taken and  - we might well say - torn to pieces by the very creatures for whom he is giving his life! The Lord is - almost ecstatic about   his Love for everyone, even for these undependable followers who will in a few days leave him to die on the cross - with the noble exception of the writer. It is an extraordinary display of sublime confidence    in the superiority of love over hatred, of courage over fear, of life over death. If in our lives we have moments of near-despair - and in this day and age such moments are ail-too frequent - we will turn to these chapters of St. John,  certain to find in them the courage we need to keep the right priorities no matter what.


~ May 2012 Concord