Wednesday

2nd Week of Easter

1st Reading: Acts 5:17-26

The Apostles Are Arrested and Miraculously Freed
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
[17] But the high priest rose up and all who were with him, that is, the party of
the Sadducees, and filled with jealousy [18] they arrested the Apostles and put
them in the common prison. [19] But at night an angel of the Lord opened the
prison doors and brought them out and said, " [20] Go and stand in the temple
and speak to the people all the words of this Life." [21] And when they heard
this, they entered the temple at daybreak and taught.

Now the high priest came and those who were with him and called together the
council and all the senate of Israel, and sent (officers) to the prison to have them
brought. [22] But when the officers came, they did not find them in the prison
and they returned and reported, [23] "We found the prison securely locked and
the sentries standing at the doors, but when we opened it we found no one inside."
[24] Now when the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these words,
they were much perplexed about them, wondering what this would come to. [25]
And some one came and told them, "The men whom you put in prison are
standing in the temple and teaching the people."

The Apostles Before the Sanhedrin
--------------------------------------------------
[26] Then the captain with the officers went and brought them, but without
violence, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people.

*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:

19. In Sacred Scripture we meet angels as messengers of God and also as
mediators, guardians and ministers of divine justice. Abraham sent his servant
on a mission to his kindred and told him, "The Lord will send his angel before
you and prosper your way" (Genesis 24:7, 40). Tobit, Lot and his family, Daniel
and his companions, Judith, etc., also experienced the help of angels. The
Psalms refer to trust in the angels (cf. Psalm 34:8; 91:11-13) and the continuous
help they render men in obedience to God's command.

This episode of the freeing of the Apostles is one of the examples the "St. Pius
V Catechism" gives to illustrate "the countless benefits which the Lord distributes
among men through angels, His interpreters and ministers, sent only in isolated
cases but appointed from our birth to watch over us, and constituted for the sal-
vation of every individual person" (IV, 9, 6).

This means, therefore, that the angels should have a place in a Christian's
personal piety: "I ask our Lord that, during our stay on this earth of ours, we may
never be parted from our Divine Traveling Companion. To ensure this, let us also
become firmer friends of the Holy Guardian Angels. We all need a lot of company,
company from Heaven and company on earth. Have great devotion to the Holy
Angels" (St. J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 315).


Gospel Reading: John 3:16-21

The Visit of Nicodemus (Continuation)
-------------------------------------------------------
(Jesus said to Nicodemus,) [16] "For God so loved the world that He gave His
only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
[17] For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that
the world might be saved through Him. [18] He who believes in Him is not con-
demned; He who does not believe is condemned already, because He had not
believed in the name of the only Son of God. [19] And this is the judgment,
that the light has come into world, and men loved darkness rather than light,
because their deeds were evil. [20] For every one who does evil hates the
light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. [21]
Buthe who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen
that his deeds have been wrought in God."

*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:

16-21. These words, so charged with meaning, summarize how Christ's death
is the supreme sign of God's love for men (cf. the section on charity in the
"Introduction to the Gospel according to John": pp. 31ff above). "'For God so
loved the world that He gave His only Son' for its salvation. All our religion is a
revelation of God's kindness, mercy and love for us. 'God is love' (1 John 4:16),
that is, love poured forth unsparingly. All is summed up in this supreme truth,
which explains and illuminates everything. The story of Jesus must be seen
in this light. '(He) loved me', St. Paul writes. Each of us can and must repeat
it for himself--'He loved me, and gave Himself for me' (Galatians 2:20)" ([Pope]
Paul VI, "Homily on Corpus Christi", 13 June 1976).

Christ's self-surrender is a pressing call to respond to His great love for us: "If
it is true that God has created us, that He has redeemed us, that He loves us
so much that He has given up His only-begotten Son for us (John 3:16), that
He waits for us--every day!--as eagerly as the father of the prodigal son did (cf.
Luke 15:11-32), how can we doubt that He wants us to respond to Him with all
our love? The strange thing would be not to talk to God, to draw away and for-
get Him, and busy ourselves in activities which are closed to the constant
promptings of His grace" (St. J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 251).

"Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible
for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not
encounter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does
not participate intimately in it. This [...] is why Christ the Redeemer 'fully
reveals man to himself'. If we may use the _expression, this is the human
dimension of the mystery of the Redemption. In this dimension man finds
again the greatness, dignity and value that belong to his humanity. [...] The
one who wishes to understand himself thoroughly [...] must, with his unrest
and uncertainty and even his weakness and sinfulness, with his life and
death, draw near to Christ. He must, so to speak, enter into Him with all
his own self, he must 'appropriate' and assimilate the whole of the reality
of the Incarnation and Redemption in order to find himself. If this profound
process takes place within him, he then bears fruit not only of adoration of
God but also of deep wonder at himself.

How precious must man be in the eyes of the Creator, if he 'gained so great
a Redeemer', ("Roman Missal, Exultet" at Easter Vigil), and if God 'gave
His only Son' in order that man 'should not perish but have eternal life'. [...]

'Increasingly contemplating the whole of Christ's mystery, the Church knows
with all the certainty of faith that the Redemption that took place through the
Cross has definitively restored his dignity to man and given back meaning to
his life in the world, a meaning that was lost to a considerable extent because
of sin. And for that reason, the Redemption was accomplished in the paschal
mystery, leading through the Cross and death to Resurrection" ([Pope] John
Paul II, "Redemptor Hominis", 10).

Jesus demands that we have faith in Him as a first prerequisite to sharing in
His love. Faith brings us out of darkness into the light, and sets us on the
road to salvation. "He who does not believe is condemned already" (verse 18).

"The words of Christ are at once words of judgment and grace, of life and death.
For it is only by putting to death that which is old that we can come to newness
of life. Now, although this refers primarily to people, it is also true of various
worldly goods which bear the mark both of man's sin and the blessing of God.
[...] No one is freed from sin by himself or by his own efforts, no one is raised
above himself or completely delivered from his own weakness, solitude or
slavery; all have need of Christ, who is the model, master, liberator, savior, and
giver of life. Even in the secular history of mankind the Gospel has acted as a
leaven in the interests of liberty and progress, and it always offers itself as a
leaven with regard to brotherhood, unity and peace" (Vatican II, "Ad Gentes",
8).
　

*********************************************************************************************
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.

[참고: 이 파일은 저서명 "가톨릭 교회의 말씀 전례에 따른 성경공부 해설서"(엮은이: 소순태, 출판사: 가톨릭출판사)의 각주의 연장으로 마련되었습니다].