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The Sixth Sunday of Easter

predmore.blogspot.com

May 6, 2018

Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48 Psalm 98; 1 John 4:7-10; John 15:9-17

Cornelius was a Roman centurion at Caesarea, north of Galilee, who believed in the God of the Jews. He was known to be a righteous man who prayed always and did charitable deeds. One day in prayer, Cornelius saw a vision of an angel of God who told him to find Peter, who was staying in Joppa. Immediately, Cornelius sent his men to find Peter to bring him back to Caesarea. 

At the same time, God was preparing Peter’s heart to welcome Gentiles as friends. He had a vision that all sorts of unclean animals were being lowered onto a blanket from heaven and that the food was declared clean for eating. At first, Peter resisted, and finally he heard a voice saying, “Do not call anything unclean that God has made clean.” That is when Cornelius’ men arrived at his doorstep. The next day Peter left to meet Cornelius.

At their meeting, Cornelius dropped to the ground in honor of Peter, and Peter realized he had to treat Cornelius as an equal. Jewish law forbad him from associating or eating with Gentiles. He could no longer consider Cornelius, or any Gentile, unclean, and he could no longer refrain from eating with them. Peter declared, “I see that God shows no partiality,” and he prepared to welcome Cornelius into the faith through baptism, but first he had to hear the words of the Gospel. Cornelius and his men received the Holy Spirit and were the first Gentiles baptized into the faith. Their long-held tradition that defined the identity of a Jew had been broken open by God. From this point on, anyone who heard the Gospel and called upon the name of the Lord could be welcomed as an equal.

What does this tell us? It means that we have to discern today’s present challenges in light of the Gospel. Inspired by the Pope’s direction, we are to gain a deeper and clearer understanding of our evolving mission. We can embrace new invitations from the Lord if we let the past be transformed as it had for Peter. Change is unsettling, but Peter updated the teachings to infuse it with God’s mercy. Pope Francis is inching us forward because some teachings need updating. Peter trusted in God; that is our solution too.

As Christians, it will serve our discernment processes if we read the Pope’s new letter on holiness because it highlights the Beatitudes as the basis of our lives. The Pope wants us to have a Peter-Cornelius type of conversion about these following issues: the dignity of human life, especially in the lives of the poor, those already born, the destitute, the abandoned, the underprivileged, the elderly, victims of human trafficking, new forms of slavery, immigrants and strangers, and those who experience rejection. In order to see these situations as God does, we need to pray the Beatitudes and observe the ways Jesus lived out these values. The Holy Spirit guides us in these new moral dilemmas. We are called to open our minds, learn from our past, engage our hearts, and do what is very challenging for us: to trust God.

Scripture for Daily Mass

First Reading: 

Monday: (Acts 16) Paul and Barnabas set sail for Philippi, a leading city of Macedonia, and a Romany colony. Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth, listens to their preaching and opens her heart to them. She is baptized and invites them to stay with her.  

Tuesday: (Acts 16) Paul is brought to the Areopagus in Athens and tells them of the Unknown God he and Barnabas worship.

Wednesday: (Acts 17) At the Areopagus, Paul declares that this unknown God is the same one Christians worship and has brought about salvation, including the resurrection of the dead. This concept unsettles some who find it a difficult teaching to accept.

Thursday: (Acts 15) Paul travels to Corinth and meets the Jews, Aquila and Priscilla, who were forced to leave Rome because of Cladius’ dispersion edict. He learns the tent-making trade and preaches to Jews who reject him. He encounters Titus,Justus, and Crispus, a synagogue leader, who comes to believe. The entire congregation believes the news of Jesus Christ.

Friday (Acts 18) While in Corinth, Paul receives a vision from the Lord urging him to go on speaking as no harm will come to him. Others are harmed, but Paul escapes injury.

Saturday (Acts 18) Paul travels to Antioch in Syria. Priscilla and Aquila meet Apollos, a Jewish Christian, who is preaching the way of Jesus, but of the baptism by the Holy Spirit he is not informed. They take him aside and teach him the correct doctrine. He then vigorously refutes the Jews in public, establishing from the Scriptures that the Christ is Jesus.

Gospel: 

Monday: (John 15) Jesus tells his friends that the Advocate will come and testify to him. Meanwhile, they will be expelled from the synagogues and harmed – even unto death.  

Tuesday: (John 16) The Advocate, the Spirit of truth, will guide his friends to all truth. Jesus confuses them by saying, “a little while and you will no longer see me, and again a little while later and you will see me.”

Wednesday (John 16) The Spirit of truth will guide you and will declare to you the things that are coming. The Spirit will glorify. Everything the Father has is mine.

Thursday (John 15) Remaining close to Jesus will allow us to share complete joy with one another.

Friday (John 16) As they debate, he tells them their mourning will become joy – just like a woman who is groaning in labor pains.

Saturday (John 16) As Jesus tells them again that he is part of the Father, he instructs them to ask for anything in his name and God will grant it because Jesus is leaving the world and is going back to the Father. The Father loves them because they have loved him. The Father will reward them for their generosity.

Saints of the Week

May 10: Damien de Veuster of Moloka'i, priest (1840-1889), was a Belgian who entered the Congregation of the Fathers of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. He was sent on mission to the Hawaiian Islands and was a parish priest for nine years. He then volunteered as a chaplain to the remote leper colony of Moloka'i. He contracted leprosy and died at the colony. He is remembered for his brave choice to accept the mission and to bring respect and dignity to the lepers. He was canonized in 2009. A statue of him stands in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol.

May 12: Nereus and Achilleus, martyrs (early second century), were Roman Imperial soldiers who converted to Christianity. They left the army and were martyred when they refused to sacrifice to idols during Emperor Trajan's reign.

May 12: Pancras, martyr, (d. 304) was a Syrian orphan who was brought to Rome by his uncle. Both soon after converted to Christianity. Pancras was beheaded at age 14 during the Diocletian persecution and buried on the Via Aurelia. A cemetery was named after him, but his remains were sent to Northumbria in England where six churches are dedicated to him.

This Week in Jesuit History

·      May 6, 1816. Letter of John Adams to Thomas Jefferson mentioning the Jesuits. "If any congregation of men could merit eternal perdition on earth and in hell, it is the company of Loyola."

·      May 7, 1547. Letter of St. Ignatius to the scholastics at Coimbra on Religious Perfection.

·      May 8, 1853. The death of Jan Roothan, the 21st general of the Society, who promoted the central role of the Spiritual Exercises in the work of the Society after the restoration.

·      May 9, 1758. The 19th General Congregation opened, the last of the Old Society. It elected Lorenzo Ricci as general.

·      May 10, 1773. Empress Maria Teresa of Austria changed her friendship for the Society into hatred, because she had been led to believe that a written confession of hers (found and printed by Protestants) had been divulged by the Jesuits.

·      May 11, 1824. St Regis Seminary opens in Florissant, Missouri, by Fr. Van Quickenborne. It was the first Roman Catholic school in USA for the higher education of Native American Indians

·      May 12,1981. A letter of this date, from Secretary of State, Cardinal Casaroli, speaks positively of Teilhard de Chardin in celebration of the centenary of his birth (May 1,1881).

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