The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to contemplate the response of people in our salvation history to the prompting of the Spirit to proclaim the Good News through their actions and, if necessary, their words.
In the reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Barnabas and Saul are commissioned and the apostles preach in Cyprus.
* [13:1–3] The impulse for the first missionary effort in Asia Minor is ascribed to the prophets of the Antiochene community, under the inspiration of the holy Spirit. Just as the Jerusalem community had earlier been the center of missionary activity, so too Antioch becomes the center from which the missionaries Barnabas and Saul are sent out. (Acts of the Apostles, CHAPTER 13 | USCCB, n.d.)
In Psalm 67 the Nations are called to Praise God.
* [Psalm 67] A petition for a bountiful harvest (Ps 67:7), made in the awareness that Israel’s prosperity will persuade the nations to worship its God.
* [67:2] May God be gracious to us: the people’s petition echoes the blessing pronounced upon them by the priests, cf. Nm 6:22–27. (Psalms, PSALM 67 | USCCB, n.d.)
The passage from the Gospel of John provides a summary of Jesus’ Teaching.
* [12:37–50] These verses, on unbelief of the Jews, provide an epilogue to the Book of Signs. (John, CHAPTER 12 | USCCB, n.d.)
Daily Reflection Of Creighton University's Online Ministries was not available at publication time.
Don Schwager quotes “Whoever sees Jesus sees the Father,” by Cyril of Alexandria, 375-444 A.D.
"[Our Lord] gradually accustoms their minds to penetrate the depth of the mysteries concerning himself, [leading them] not to the human person but to that which was of the divine essence. He does this inasmuch as the Godhead is apprehended completely in the person of God the Father, for he has in himself the Son and the Spirit. With exceeding wisdom he carries them onward, ... for he does not exclude himself from being believed on by us because he is God by nature and has shone forth from God the Father. But skillfully (as has been said) he handles the mind of the weak to mold them to godliness in order that you might understand him to say something like this: 'When you believe on me - I who, for your sakes, am a man like yourselves, but who also am God by reason of my own nature and because of the Father from whom I exist - do not suppose that it is on a man you are setting your faith. For I am by nature God, notwithstanding that I appear like one of yourselves, and I have within myself him who begat me. Forasmuch therefore as I am consubstantial with him that has begotten me, your faith will assuredly pass on also to the Father himself.' As we said therefore, the Lord, gradually trains them to something better and profitably interweaves the human with what is God-befitting." (excerpt from COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 8.7) (Schwager, n.d.)
The Word Among Us Meditation on John 12:44-50 comments that when someone stayed with Jesus long enough, they saw beyond his unassuming appearance. They saw that he was more than a teacher or a healer or a prophet. His words of teaching, his look of love, his inner peace and joy all bore God’s own inspiration and went straight to their hearts. When they saw Jesus, they saw the Father!
Jesus is ready to surprise you today. He’s ready to reveal his Father to you. So as you read today’s Scripture passages, invite him to exceed your expectations. Ask him to show you something new. It doesn’t have to be momentous. Maybe it will be just a small insight or application you haven’t noticed before. Or maybe one verse will strike you in a new way. If you keep this up day after day, you’ll discover that God has revealed far more than you expected. And that revelation will fill you with joy!
“Lord, surprise me! Help me find your presence today.” (Meditation on John 12:44-50, n.d.)
Friar Jude Winkler comments on the continuance of the ministry related in Acts as John Mark, probably the author of the Gospel of Mark, is consecrated by laying on of hands to him and Barnabas and Saul for this mission work. The Holy Spirit guides the Church and at this time led preachers first to the Jews and then after rejection to the Gentiles. Friar Jude reminds us of the very dualistic theme in John’s Gospel that implores us to make a choice for Christ and live in that choice.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, introduces Barbara Mahany who writes of the converting experience the Book of Nature had on the Christian mystic Brother Lawrence.
Brother Lawrence [1611–1691], the seventeenth-century barefoot friar who found God in the pots and pans of his monastery kitchen in Paris, told one such story. In his one published work [1], a collection of fourteen letters, a wisp of an eighty-page volume I once unearthed from a library’s musky archives, he wrote how a tree in winter, stripped of its leaves, played the pivotal role in his uncanny conversion. It seems the good brother absorbed the tree’s stark emptiness, and, in that way that saints and wise souls do, he saw beyond it. He imagined the possible. As it’s recorded in his little book’s preface, the soon-to-be-friar stood before the naked tree picturing its branches soon filled with tiny leaves as if clasped in prayer. And thus he was hit, head-on. The surging sense of the immensity of the Holy One all but knocked him down, realizing the life force, the beautiful that would burst from the barren. In his little book’s preface, I was struck most of all by how strange it is that divine attributes can sometimes be seen in something so common. And how we’ll miss the whole of it if we refuse to be stopped in our tracks. (Rohr, n.d.)
We experience the inspiration of the Holy Spirit when events on our journey reveal truth, love and goodness that reflects Jesus' proclamation that He and God are One.
References
Acts of the Apostles, CHAPTER 13 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved April 24, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/acts/13
John, CHAPTER 12 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved April 24, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/12?44
Meditation on John 12:44-50. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved April 24, 2024, from https://wau.org/meditations/2024/04/24/942032/
Psalms, PSALM 67 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved April 24, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/67?2
Rohr, R. (n.d.). The Preaching of the Trees. CAC Daily Meditations. Retrieved April 24, 2024, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/the-preaching-of-the-trees/
Schwager, D. (n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved April 24, 2024, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2024&date=apr24
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