4TH WEEK OF EASTER
Psalter: Week 4 / (White/Red)
St. Nereus & St. Achilleus, martyrs & St. Pancras, martyr
Ps 2:6-7, 8-9, 10-11ab
You are my Son; this day I have begotten you.
1st Reading: Acts 13:26-33
Brothers, children and descendants of Abraham, and you, also, who fear God, it is to you that this message of salvation has been sent. It is a fact, that the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and their leaders, did not recognize Jesus. Yet, in condemning him, they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath, but not understood. Even though they found no charge against him that deserved death, they asked Pilate to have him executed. And after they had carried out all that had been written concerning him, they took him down from the cross and laid him in a tomb.
But God raised him from the dead, and for many days thereafter, he showed himself, to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They have now become his witnesses before the people. We, ourselves, announce to you this Good News: All that God promised our ancestors, he has fulfilled, for us, their descendants, by raising Jesus, according to what is written in the second psalm: You are my Son, today I have begotten you.
Gospel: Jn 14:1-6
Jesus said to his disciples: ”Do not be troubled! Trust in God and trust in me! In my Father‘s house there are many rooms; otherwise, I would not have told you that I go to prepare a place for you. After I have gone and prepared a place for you, I shall come again and take you to me, so that where I am, you also may be. Yet you know the way where I am going.”
Thomas said to him, ”Lord, we don‘t know where you are going; how can we know the way?” Jesus said, ”I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me.”
REFLECTION:
A troubled heart seats on a shaky faith. When the heart is not calm we cannot do well in anything, for our concentration is dispersed, not all that is in us participates in the task. Thus even our act of faith is not solid. It is because of this that Jesus exhorts us not to give in to worries and anxieties. He got our backs covered. All we have to do is trust in Him and trust in His Father who sent Him. And even if He seemed remote and inaccessible, we must rest assure that He does things for our benefit.
This is probably what sustained the countless men and women who walked into the dark nights of unseeing and unknowing. Blind but trusting, they walked on in full confidence that He who loved them will never abandon them at any moment of their life. This is the mature faith of the blessed that Jesus is telling Thomas. To trust in Him is to always find the way into the marvelous light of God no matter how deep and heavy the darkness in our life may be.
Daily Reflection
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Biblical Texts are taken from Christian Community Bible, Catholic Pastoral Edition (57th Edition) The New English Translation for the ROMAN MISSAL
With permission from the EPISCOPAL COMMISION ON LITURGY of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines
Readings and Reflections
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