5TH WEEK OF EASTER
Psalter: Week 1 / (White)
Ps 145:10-11, 12-13ab, 21
Your friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
1st Reading: Acts 14:19-28
Then some Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium and turned the people against them. They stoned Paul and dragged him out of the town, leaving him for dead. But, when his disciples gathered around him, he stood up and returned to the town. And the next day, he left for Derbe with Barnabas.
After proclaiming the gospel in that town and making many disciples, they returned to Lystra and Iconium, and on to Antioch. They were strengthening the disciples, and encouraging them to remain firm in the faith; for they said, ”We must go through many trials to enter the kingdom of God.” In each church they appointed elders and, after praying and fasting, they commended them to the Lord, in whom they had placed their faith.
Then they traveled through Pisidia, and came to Pamphylia. They preached the word in Perga and went down to Attalia. From there, they sailed back to Antioch, where they had first been commended to God‘s grace, for the task they had now completed.
On their arrival, they gathered the Church together, and told them all that God had done through them, and how he had opened the door of faith to the non-Jews. They spent a fairly long time there with the disciples.
Gospel: Jn 14:27-31a
Jesus said to his disciples: ”Peace be with you! My peace I give to you; not as the world gives peace do I give it to you. Do not be troubled! Do not be afraid! You heard me say, ‘I am going away, but I am coming to you.‘ If you loved me, you would be glad that I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.
”I have told you this now before it takes place, so that when it does happen you may believe. There is very little left for me to tell you, for the prince of this world is at hand, although there is nothing in me that he can claim. But see, the world must know that I love the Father, and that I do what the Father has taught me to do. Come now, let us go.”
REFLECTION:
There is nothing left to do. Jesus has made peace with His fate. He goes to His passion and death with calmness that only a peaceful heart could radiate. It will not soften the violence He will face nor reduce the pain He will endure. But a ready heart confers quiet strength and dignity to one who will be lead to the slaughterhouse later.
And this is the peace that Jesus wants to impart to us. A peace that does not shrink from the evil of this world. On the contrary it took stock of this evil and find it not so intimidating at all. It could postpone or delay our projects in life. It could even halt it temporarily, but good will always triumph in the end. So Jesus prepared His own before evil will take a shot at Him. He reminded them not to be drowned in the horrors that will unfold but to look firmly with hope at His promise to return to take His own to be with Him forever. The separation is but temporary and the reunion will last through eternity.
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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