4th Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday) - Cycle C
1st Reading: Acts 13:14, 43-52
They Cross into Asia Minor (Continuation)
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[13] But they (Paul and his company) passed on from Perga and came to An-
tioch of Pisidia.
Preaching in the Synagogue of Antioch of Pisidia
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And on the sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. [43] And
when the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts
to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who spoke to them and urged them to
continue in the grace of God.
Paul and Barnabas Preaches to the Pagans
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[44] The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered together to hear the Word
of God. [45] But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with jealou-
sy, and contradicted what was spoken by Paul, and reviled him. [46] And Paul
and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, "It was necessary that the Word of God
should be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it from you, and judge yourselves
unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. [47] For so the Lord has
commanded us, saying, 'I have set you to be a light for the Gentiles, that you
may bring salvation to the uttermost parts of the earth.'"
[48] And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the Word of
God; and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. [49] And the Word
of the Lord spread throughout all the region. [50] But the Jews incited the devout
women of high standing and the leading men of the city, and stirred up persecu-
tion against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district. [51] But
they shook off the dust from their feet against them, and went to Iconium. [52]
And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.
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Commentary:
45. The opposition of these Jews, who in their jealousy contradict what Paul
says, will from now be the typical attitude of the synagogue to the Gospel. It
emerges everywhere the Apostle goes, with the exception of Beroea (cf. 17:10-
12).
46. Paul may have been hoping that Christianity would flourish on the soil of Ju-
daism, that the Jews would peacefully and religiously accept the Gospel as the
natural development of God's plans. His experience proved otherwise: he encoun-
tered the terrible mystery of the infidelity of most of the chosen people, his own
people.
Even if Israel had been faithful to God's promises, it would still have been neces-
sary to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles. The evangelization of the pagan world
is not a consequence of Jewish rejection of the Word; it is required by the univer-
sal character of Christianity. To all men Christianity is the only channel of saving
grace; it perfects the Law of Moses and reaches out beyond the ethnic and geo-
graphical frontiers of Judaism.
47. Paul and Barnabas quote Isaiah 49:6 in support of their decision to preach to
the Gentiles. The Isaiah text referred to Christ, as Luke 3:32 confirms. But now
Paul and Barnabas apply it to themselves because the Messiah is "light for the
Gentiles" through the preaching of the Apostles, for they are conscious of spea-
king in Christ's name and on His authority. Therefore, probably here "the Lord"
refers not to God the Father but to Christ.
51. "They shook the dust from their feet": a traditional expression: the Jews regar-
ded as unclean the dust of anywhere other than the holy land of Palestine. Our
Lord extended the meaning of the phrase when He told the disciples He was sen-
ding them out to preach, "If any one will not receive you or listen to your words,
shake off the dust from your feet" (Matthew 10:14; cf. Luke 9:5). This gesture of
Paul and Barnabas echoes what Jesus said and amounted to "closing the case"
or putting on record the unbelief of the Jews.
2nd Reading: Revelation 7: 9, 14b-17
The Great Multitude of the Saved (Continuation)
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[9] After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number,
from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the
throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their
hands.
14b] And he (one of the elders) said to me, "These are they who have come out
of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in
the blood of the Lamb.
[15] "Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night
within his temple; and he who sits upon the throne will shelter them with his pre-
sence. [16[ They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; the sun shall not
strike them, nor any scorching heat. [17] For the Lamb in the midst of the throne
will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water; and God
will wipe away every tear from their eyes."
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Commentary:
9-17. Pope John Paul II has commented on this passage as follows: "The people
dressed in white robes whom John sees with his prophetic eye are the redeemed,
and they form a 'great multitude', which no one could count and which is made up
of people of the most varied backgrounds. The blood of the Lamb, who has been
offered in sacrifice for all, has exercised its universal and most effective redemp-
tive power in every corner of the earth, extending grace and salvation to that 'great
multitude'. After undergoing the trials and being purified in the blood of Christ, they
--the redeemed--are now safe in the Kingdom of God, whom they praise and bless
for ever and ever" ("Homily", 1 November 1981). This great crowd includes all the
saved and not just the martyrs, for it says that they washed their robes in the
blood of the Lamb, not in their own blood.
Everyone has to become associated with Christ's passion through suffering, as
St Augustine explains, not without a certain humor: "Many are martyrs in their
beds. The Christian is lying on his couch, tormented by pain. He prays and his
prayers are not heard, or perhaps they are heard but he is being put to the test
...so that he may be received as a son. He becomes a martyr through illness
and is crowned by him who hung upon the Cross" ("Sermon" 286, 8).
"It is consoling and encouraging to know that those who attain heaven constitute
a huge multitude. The passages of Matthew 7:14 and Luke 13:24 which seem to
imply that very few will be saved should be interpreted in the light of this vision,
which shows that the infinite value of Christ's blood makes God's will be done:
"(God) desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth"
(1 Tim 2:4).
In vv 14-17 we see the blessed in two different situations--first, before the resur-
rection of the body (v. 14) and, then, after it, when body and soul have been reu-
nited (vv. 15-17). In this second situation the nature of risen bodies is highlighted:
they cannot suffer pain or inconvenience of any kind: they are out of harm's reach;
they have the gift of "impassibility" (cf. "St Pius V Catechism", I, 12, 13).
This consoling scene is included in the vision to encourage believers to imitate
those Christians who were like us and now find themselves in heaven because
they have come through victorious. The Church invites us to pray along similar
lines: "Father, you sanctified the Church of Rome with the blood of its first mar-
tyrs. May we find strength from their courage and rejoice in their triumph" ("Ro-
man Missal", Feast of the First Martyrs of the Church of Rome, opening prayer).
Gospel Reading: John 10:27-30
Jesus and the Father are One
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[Jesus said,] [27] My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow
Me; [28] and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one
shall snatch them out of My hand. [29] My Father, who has given them to Me,
is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.
[30] I and the Father are one."
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Commentary:
26-29. Certainly faith and eternal life cannot be merited by man's own efforts:
they are a gift of God. But the Lord does not deny anyone grace to believe and
be saved, because He 'wishes all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge
of the Truth" (1 Timothy 2:4). If someone tries to avoid receiving the gift of faith,
his unbelief is blameworthy. On this point St. Thomas Aquinas teaches: "I can
see, thanks to the light of the sun; but if I close my eyes, I cannot see: this is
no fault of the sun, it is my own fault, because by closing my eyes, I prevent the
sunlight from reaching me" ("Commentary on St. John, ad loc.").
But those who do not oppose divine grace do come to believe in Jesus. They are
known to and loved by Him, enter under His protection and remain faithful with the
help of His grace, which is a pledge of the eternal life which the Good Shepherd
will eventually give them. It is true that in this world they will have to strive and in
the course of striving they will sustain wounds; but if they stay united to the Good
Shepherd nothing and no one will snatch Christ's sheep from Him, because our
Father, God, is stronger than the Evil One. Our hope that God will grant us final
perseverance is not based on our strength but on God's mercy: this hope should
always motivate us to strive to respond to grace and to be more faithful to the
demands of our faith.
30. Jesus reveals that He and the Father are one in substance. Earlier He pro-
claimed that God was His Father, "making Himself equal with God"-- which is
why a number of times the Jewish authorities think of putting Him to death (cf.
5:18; 8:59). Now He speaks about the mystery of God, which is something we
can know about only through Revelation. Later on He will reveal more about this
mystery, particularly at the Last Supper (14:10; 17:21-22). It is something the
evangelist reflects on at the very beginning of the Gospel, in the prologue (cf.
John 1:1 and note).
"Listen to the Son Himself", St. Augustine invites us. "'I and the Father are one.'
He did not say, 'I am the Father' or 'I and the Father are one [Person].' But when
He says, 'I and the Father are one,' notice the two words '[we are]' and 'one' ...
For if they are one, then they are not diverse; if '[we] are', then there is both a
Father and a Son" ("In Ioann. Evang.", 36, 9). Jesus reveals that He is one in
substance with the Father as far as divine essence or nature is concerned, but
He also reveals that the Father and the Son are distinct Persons: "We believe
then in the Father who eternally begets the Son; in the Son, the Word of God,
who is eternally begotten; in the Holy Spirit, the uncreated Person who proceeds
from the Father and the Son as their eternal Love. Thus in the three divine Per-
sons, "coaeternae sibi et coaequales", the life and beatitude of God perfectly
One superabound and are consummated in the supreme excellence and glory
proper to uncreated Being, and always 'there should be venerated Unity in the
Trinity and Trinity in the Unity'" (Paul VI, "Creed of the People of God," 10).
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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase
The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.
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