John 14:15-21
Dear Friends, As we draw close to this Easter Season, it is good to reflect on The Acts of the Apostles. Only in the Easter season do we have the first reading from The Acts. Every other Sunday the first reading is from the Hebrew Scriptures.
The Acts is a book about the birth and growth of the Church. It also is a revelation of what happens to people when they understand and our committed to the Pascal Mystery, the Death and Resurrection of Jesus.
Jesus could have made many promises to the first disciples. He could have them fulfill their early dreams of success, power, privilege and wealth. He could have told them of easy triumph and great admiration among an ever-expanding body of believers. None of these scenarios fit Jesus’s agenda.
His message was to follow Him on the Road to Jerusalem and take up your cross. This was conflict and confusion. This was rejection and death. The Acts follows this script rather clearly.
On the other hand, Jesus did promise the Paraclete to guide them in the way of the truth and the way of love just how Jesus was so faithful in embracing his Passion, Death and Resurrection.
The Acts of the Apostles has two main characters, Peter and Paul. There are a few idyllic moments at the beginning where all are resting in harmony and peace. They are short lived. Quickly there is a shift to the reality so expressive of the human condition in the parable of the weeds and the wheat.
A couple holds back on giving all the proceeds of a sale of property to the common purse. They die on the spot. The Greek widows quickly find themselves the victims of prejudice in the not all perfect new Christian community. Both Peter and Paul find themselves questioned about their orthodoxy by the Jerusalem home office. In the opinion of many, their openness to foreigners is dangerous to the faith.
This issue of accepting Gentile believers led to the major split in the early community. The volatile choice that confronts the new community in a very powerful way is this: Is the new reality of Jesus’ message simply and exclusively a fulfillment of the Mosaic Law or is it a completely new reality. This was a challenge to a cultural transformation that became painful, divisive, and violent. However, in the end, it became totally liberating. Peter and Paul were challenged at every level by the explosiveness of this fundamental and formative issue that gave birth to the Church. At the same time, they were persecuted by the Jewish leaders.
The results were frequent jail time, assassination attempts, constant conflict and truth squads who were destructive and brutal. Paul had to often escape in secrecy to save his life. More than once, he was beaten to the point of death. He was lucky in this. Stephen and many other early Christians were not so lucky. They were martyred.
As the story in Acts progressed, it became clearer that the Paraclete that Jesus promised and delivered had a powerful role. Just as Jesus had become the way and the life and the truth for the first disciples, the Holy Spirit became the way, life and truth for the developing reality of the early Church. The Spirit was guiding them through the tumult and persecution.
Yet in the midst of it all this conflict and confusion, decisions were made. The Gospel was proclaimed. The Church eventually embraced new cultures and new peoples. The journey was neither smooth nor straightforward. When both Peter and Paul died after decades of preaching the Gospel, there were at most several thousand faithful Christians. Any Papal Mass on the road these days will have at least twenty to thirty times that many people in attendance.
Yet the seeds were sown in the lives and witness of Peter and Paul. They were true believers who walked their difficult journey with a sense of joy and wonder in the Risen Christ. They took to heart Christ’s words in today’s Gospel from John, “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you…whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me, will be loved by my Father and I will love him and reveal myself to him.” (Jn 14:18,21)
For Peter and Paul, the concluding act of Christ, the Death and Resurrection, was a consuming reality that filled their hearts with a fire of love that drove them to preach Christ in the midst of chaos, confusion and discord. This preaching became a source of peace and direction. It spread a sense of hope and faithfulness that grounded a new Church in truth and love.
We need to take to heart today’s Gospel passage and the message of this Easter season. If we do, it will lead us to discover the peace and strength that comes from the Risen Christ. The circumstances of our Church today share much of the same chaos and turmoil. We have the scandal of sex abuse, the division the Christian denominations, the curse of clericalism and the fear of a more powerful and meaningful role for women and the beat goes on.
But we are not orphans. We need to turn to the Risen Christ and pray for the gift of the Spirit and the power to love one another. This will open the way in our search for His direction and guidance. There is no doubt, we will find the way in loving one another!
The Acts is a book about the birth and growth of the Church. It also is a revelation of what happens to people when they understand and our committed to the Pascal Mystery, the Death and Resurrection of Jesus.
Jesus could have made many promises to the first disciples. He could have them fulfill their early dreams of success, power, privilege and wealth. He could have told them of easy triumph and great admiration among an ever-expanding body of believers. None of these scenarios fit Jesus’s agenda.
His message was to follow Him on the Road to Jerusalem and take up your cross. This was conflict and confusion. This was rejection and death. The Acts follows this script rather clearly.
On the other hand, Jesus did promise the Paraclete to guide them in the way of the truth and the way of love just how Jesus was so faithful in embracing his Passion, Death and Resurrection.
The Acts of the Apostles has two main characters, Peter and Paul. There are a few idyllic moments at the beginning where all are resting in harmony and peace. They are short lived. Quickly there is a shift to the reality so expressive of the human condition in the parable of the weeds and the wheat.
A couple holds back on giving all the proceeds of a sale of property to the common purse. They die on the spot. The Greek widows quickly find themselves the victims of prejudice in the not all perfect new Christian community. Both Peter and Paul find themselves questioned about their orthodoxy by the Jerusalem home office. In the opinion of many, their openness to foreigners is dangerous to the faith.
This issue of accepting Gentile believers led to the major split in the early community. The volatile choice that confronts the new community in a very powerful way is this: Is the new reality of Jesus’ message simply and exclusively a fulfillment of the Mosaic Law or is it a completely new reality. This was a challenge to a cultural transformation that became painful, divisive, and violent. However, in the end, it became totally liberating. Peter and Paul were challenged at every level by the explosiveness of this fundamental and formative issue that gave birth to the Church. At the same time, they were persecuted by the Jewish leaders.
The results were frequent jail time, assassination attempts, constant conflict and truth squads who were destructive and brutal. Paul had to often escape in secrecy to save his life. More than once, he was beaten to the point of death. He was lucky in this. Stephen and many other early Christians were not so lucky. They were martyred.
As the story in Acts progressed, it became clearer that the Paraclete that Jesus promised and delivered had a powerful role. Just as Jesus had become the way and the life and the truth for the first disciples, the Holy Spirit became the way, life and truth for the developing reality of the early Church. The Spirit was guiding them through the tumult and persecution.
Yet in the midst of it all this conflict and confusion, decisions were made. The Gospel was proclaimed. The Church eventually embraced new cultures and new peoples. The journey was neither smooth nor straightforward. When both Peter and Paul died after decades of preaching the Gospel, there were at most several thousand faithful Christians. Any Papal Mass on the road these days will have at least twenty to thirty times that many people in attendance.
Yet the seeds were sown in the lives and witness of Peter and Paul. They were true believers who walked their difficult journey with a sense of joy and wonder in the Risen Christ. They took to heart Christ’s words in today’s Gospel from John, “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you…whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me, will be loved by my Father and I will love him and reveal myself to him.” (Jn 14:18,21)
For Peter and Paul, the concluding act of Christ, the Death and Resurrection, was a consuming reality that filled their hearts with a fire of love that drove them to preach Christ in the midst of chaos, confusion and discord. This preaching became a source of peace and direction. It spread a sense of hope and faithfulness that grounded a new Church in truth and love.
We need to take to heart today’s Gospel passage and the message of this Easter season. If we do, it will lead us to discover the peace and strength that comes from the Risen Christ. The circumstances of our Church today share much of the same chaos and turmoil. We have the scandal of sex abuse, the division the Christian denominations, the curse of clericalism and the fear of a more powerful and meaningful role for women and the beat goes on.
But we are not orphans. We need to turn to the Risen Christ and pray for the gift of the Spirit and the power to love one another. This will open the way in our search for His direction and guidance. There is no doubt, we will find the way in loving one another!
