THE WORD
FIRST READING: Ac 14,21-27
After they had proclaimed the good news to that city and made a considerable number of disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch. They strengthened the spirits of the disciples and exhorted them to persevere in the faith, saying, “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” They appointed presbyters for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, commended them to the Lord in whom they had put their faith. Then they traveled through Pisidia and reached Pamphylia. After proclaiming the word at Perga they went down to Attalia. From there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work they had now accomplished. And when they arrived, they called the church together and reported what God had done with them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.
SECOND READING: Rev 21,1-5
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will always be with them [as their God]. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, [for] the old order has passed away.”
The one who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Then he said,
“Write these words down, for they are trustworthy and true.”
GOSPEL: Jn 13,31-35
When he had left, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. (If God is glorified in him,) God will also glorify him in himself, and he will glorify him at once. My children, I will be with you only a little while longer. You will look for me, and as I told the Jews, ‘Where I go you cannot come,’ so now I say it to you. I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
IN OTHER WORDS
My friends had long awaited their immigration papers and when these finally arrived, the husband was ecstatic. The wife, on the other hand, was in distress. As an only daughter should she entrust her bed-ridden mother to the care of relatives and join her husband and children in the new country, or should she stay behind to take care of her mother personally?
Some of us have either been directly or vicariously involved in such conflicts between parental duties and obligations versus marital rights and responsibilities. Most of us can sort out and distinguish the different sets of values and priorities involved on either side. Unfortunately the daughter’s practical choices are usually limited to only three courses of action. The first is to side with one group’s interests (e.g., her husband’s and children’s future) and sacrifice those of the other (the personal care of her mother). The second is to do nothing and hope that the others decide for her, i.e., wait for either the husband to volunteer postponing the migration or expect the mother to urge her daughter to join her husband while she looks for someone else to take care of her. The third is for everyone to sit down and together look for a creative and workable, if not always satisfactory, solution. Being related to someone and being burdened with corresponding responsibilities for a loved one is not only a fact of life, but the necessary test of our becoming authentic human beings.
Indeed for Christians it is the only way we can respond to Jesus’ commandment of love. Ask counselors about this situation and most will advise you to prioritize your affections and then be prepared to sacrifice the least demanding of your responsibilities. That is how we often decide conflicts of values and interests in a society. In the family, however, there is an unspoken rule: no matter what the conflict is about, we should never give up on each other. We should constantly seek the good of the whole and protect the interests of everyone, cost what it may. Where the choices are not between good and bad, but higher and lower values, or stronger and weaker attachments, or more urgent and less urgent needs, some solution is available, provided we do not close our minds to possibilities but offer each other win-win solutions. “Pag ayaw, may dahilan, pag gusto may paraan.” And this is where today’s gospel command applies, that we should love not just each other (where only two persons are involved), but one another (where community is engaged).
The Gospel improves on the Filipino saying: where caring is modeled on Christ’s charity, love will always find a way.
- Fr. Dionisio Miranda, SVD | President, USC, Cebu City
The Word in other words 2016
An annual project of Logos Publications, The WORD in Other Words Bible Diary contains daily scripture readings and reflections written by priest, brothers, and sisters of the three congregations founded by St. Arnold Janssen (the SVD, SSpS, and SSpSAP). It hopes to serve as a daily companion to readers who continually seek the correlation of the Word of God and human experience.
