Ang Bagong Magandang Balita Biblia

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Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:46:45 +0000

Concise Bible (Audio)

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 15:05:57 +0000

Introduction

Pentateuch

Introduction and Commentaries on 1 Timothy

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 14:06:52 +0000

What we have said in the Introduction to the First Letter to Timothy is equally suitable for this second letter. It is supposed to have been written by Paul from his prison in Rome, shortly before his death. There is no reason for doubting the authenticity of a few details that Paul gives on his situation while awaiting his sentence. As for the rest, both Paul and Timothy are only pseudonyms: the counsels and the warnings are actually those the unknown author wanted to give the ministers of the Church, some decades after the death of the apostle.

• 1.3 Fan into a flame the gift you received. See 1 Tim 4:14. Paul tries to give his own energy to Timothy and he reminds him of God’s love and promises.

The sound doctrine… the precious deposit… which you have heard from me (13-14): see 1 Tim 1:3. The doctrine of the faith cannot be altered, but neither can it be put in storage. It must be lived, which brings into play our creativity as well as that of the Holy Spirit that lets it be rediscovered each day.

He saved us and called us: see Eph 2:8-10.

He is capable of taking care of all I have entrusted to him (v. 12). These words invite us to remember the exact meaning of the word “faith.” In Hebrew, for the Old Testament, the word “faith” had the same root as “to be firm,” or “to lean on something.” In Greek, the word that has become “faith” signifies both the trust that could be had in a debtor, and the guarantee given to the creditor. So Paul considers all his apostolic life as the deposit he has placed in God’s hands. Like Paul a person of faith is not deceived by the mirages of a happy life but prefers to use his life in an often thankless labor and persevere as if he already saw what couldn’t yet be seen (Heb 11:27).

• 2.1 Entrust to reliable people (v. 2). We have seen in Paul’s first missions that he took care to establish elders in each community (Acts 14:23; see also Titus 1:6). They must be able to preserve the faith in full. We often give more importance to immediate effectiveness of our actions rather than to doctrinal exactitude. In the long run, there is never an error that is not paid for. Saint Irenaeus affirms that the primary mission of the Church is to maintain in the world a true knowledge of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. See however the com. on Galatians 2:5.

Then Paul invites Timothy to surrender completely, with the assurance that his efforts will be rewarded.

Be strong with the grace you have in Christ Jesus, Christ’s witness must be courageous and strong, as the messenger of the victorious Christ. His own conviction will convince others. He must avoid the many ways of wasting time and getting off track in his mission: idle conversations devoid of value. Things that do not promote a better service of God (1 Tim 1:4): false religious problems unrelated to real life.

No soldier gets involved (v. 4). It happened at times that Paul earned his living while preaching (2 Cor 11:9; 2 Thes 3:7), but now here the letter speaks for those who waste their time in working for a living when the community has the duty of seeing to their needs. For a minister of the Church, work can be a way of placing oneself in the world and in the midst of people; but it could also be a way of escaping the difficulties and humiliations of every apostolic task.

• 14. Return to the experiences of the apostolic worker. In time the converted are tested: some make progress and others are lost. The apostle should not be astonished: no fall, no scandal can shake the solid foundations laid by God (v. 19): the Church will never be defeated.

They hold that the resurrection has already taken place (v. 18). Faith in the resurrection was accepted with as much difficulty in those times as it is today, and many wanted to keep the word without being embarrassed by a God who shatters our way of thinking. Perhaps those named here held that a spiritual resurrection took place at baptism and there was nothing more to hope for after death. On this subject, see in the Gospel of John the precision given in 5:28 immediately following 5:25.

• 3.1 In the last days (v. 1): see 1 Tim 4:1. Even the presence of evil in the Church should not surprise us.

The paragraph 14-17 gives us in a few words a full message on biblical meditation: the Scriptures will give you wisdom (v. 15). Biblical meditation is the best means of making faith mature (15-17). When these lines were written Scripture was essentially the Old Testament, but already the Church possessed and considered as Scripture several Gospels and some of Paul’s letters.

Just before the mention of Scripture we read: Continue with what you have learned—knowing from whom you received it. “Tradition” means precisely what we receive from our elders. The reading of the Bible is inseparable from the “Tradition of the Apostles,” which is the “Tradition of the Church,” and it is a way of understanding the Bible, just as Jesus immediately after his resurrection opened to his apostles a new way of reading salvation history. This tradition is the second support of faith.

All Scripture is inspired by God (v. 16) and there we look for a message from God to his people rather than an occasion for personal speculation. The same Spirit that directs the Church has equally inspired the biblical authors.

For many years, we spoke of the ”inspiration” of the Bible, not so much to encourage the reading of it in the family or community, but to affirm the fact of it being without error. It was also because some people saw contradictions between Bible and science. These problems have partly disappeared. Each book is as the human authors wrote it, reflecting their culture and their limitations (before the coming of Christ, faith had not attained full maturity; before rational science, people could not express themselves according to scientific views). The entire book is also from God and every text is part of a definitive message. It is there we find the truth of God, and not in the exactitude of details and literary form, which we necessarily must adapt to our modern language.

Above all we must remember that the Word of God is the normal nourishment of faith. It is not only useful for teaching: Bible reading has the value of a sacrament for the faithful. No preaching, no catechism even though “biblical” can replace the frequent meditative reading of the word of God for the development of faith.

• 4.1 Preach the Word (v. 2): this is Paul’s last advice. It must be the first concern of the Church and of any church leader.

Paul knows that he will not be freed and that he will be condemned to death. He embraces his own sacrifice just as Jesus did.

We find the comparison of the soldier and the athlete that Paul liked so much. In those days athletes received a crown of laurels as a symbol of immortality: As for me the time of sacrifice has arrived, and the moment of my departure has come.

Pastoral Letters to Timothy and Titus

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 13:58:25 +0000

INTRODUCTION And COMMENTARIES

Cultural changes taking place in all areas of existence also affect the Church. In the beliefs and practices we have been taught, not all comes from Christ, and consequently, many things may change. There is nevertheless a risk of distorting authentic faith. Where then is the rule of faith, to which all our opinions must submit?

This problem already arose in the Church when in 64-67 A.D. Peter and Paul died as martyrs in Rome. The Church, especially in the West, no longer had these witnesses of Christ capable of proclaiming both his deeds and his words. It was as difficult for the Greeks to accept the Christian message as it was for the Jews, and even those of good will among the listeners understood the message—as we do today—through their own ways of thinking, distorting it in proportion to the prejudices of their time.

Then came an opportunity for people eager to discuss, to recount in a better way than did the apostles, even to say what they had not said, and some even took the liberty of teaching their own doctrine. How quickly the imitation of Christ could be replaced by theories and discourses on religion!

So it was that the successors of the apostles had to defend the doctrine they had received from them. At the same time they had to take care in the choice and in the formation of the ministers of the Church for these would have to keep the genuine message. Such are the concerns that we find in these letters to Timothy and Titus.

These letters of similar origin are entitled Paul’s letters. Both the form and content of these letters show that they are not from him. They must have been written in the pressure of circumstances we have just mentioned about 90-100 A.D. It was thought well to place this teaching of the Church under the authority of Paul and doubtless some more personal paragraphs written by him have been inserted: in several passages, we certainly find Paul’s counsels to Timothy and Titus or to other of his assistants.

These three letters of Timothy and Titus are called “pastoral letters” because they address Church shepherds. They truly deserve this name for still another reason that is not always perceived. They are addressed to Paul’s delegates who, although they did not enjoy the title of apostles, were like the itinerant ministers and had authority over the local churches. They are reminded of their missionary ideal for they had devoted their life to Christ and to preaching the Word. Yet at the same time they are ordered to watch over the Church local ministers. Whether they are bishops, elders or deacons, they were elected by the community and spent part of their time in leading and in teaching their brothers and sisters; they also celebrated the sacred sacraments of the Church, baptism, Eucharist and the anointing of the sick.

So we find here two kinds of ministries which complement one another to fulfill the pastoral duties. The first, of which Timothy and Titus are examples extends the mission of the apostles, follows the patterns of their consecrated life and enjoys apostolic authority. The second, trained themselves within the community which elected them. Today we would speak of lay ministers, for they go on belonging to their family and community, although they have been ordained by a laying on of hands and have been accepted or acknowledged by the apostolic authority. We shall strive to understand this complementarity because the subsequent evolution of Latin Church unified these very different ministries in the span of some centuries framing them into one hierarchical clergy. See on this point Num 4:1 and Heb 9:1. New Testament witnesses the different organizations of the early Church in the many cultural areas of Roman Empire. For a part it wanted to be and to remain the Church founded on the apostles, on the other hand, it took example of the Jewish communities with their elders. Afterwards the ministries would evolve or become fixed according to the needs and the social context.

• 1.3 In this first chapter we have a mixture of various topics: it practically repeats what Paul said in other letters where the commentaries have already been given.

We will note only what refers to false prophets. Since the apostles who had seen Christ were dead, some people forgot that all of faith is based on what Christ taught. Instead of reading and actually living the Gospel, certain people began to discuss and work out religious theories. See Introduction to Colossians.

The aim of our warning is love which comes from a pure mind (v. 5). Timothy must be firm in eliminating these discussions that weaken the Church and prevent development of the love that saves people. Even bloody wars came out of sterile religious arguments. The center of the paragraph is doubtless verse 15: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. The new masters remain with their theories instead of facing the reality of sin. It is the reality of our sin that makes the grace of God a grace, and our salvation a true salvation.

• 2.1 Heading the rules for every category of believers, we find rules for the community assemblies with two outstanding points:

– praying for rulers;

– the behavior of women in church.

I urge that petitions be made (v. 1). Paul wants Christians to be in solidarity with their compatriots, loyal toward their nation and praying for them. In spite of its sins and superstitions, the pagan world was religious. Religion accompanied their every action. This explains why, some years later, Christians were persecuted as rebels and traitors because they did not worship the emperor, nor his gods. Perhaps this insistence on prayer for rulers is due to the fact that the paragraph was written when there already was some suspicion about Christians: it was necessary to remove these suspicions.

Faithfulness to Christ does not prevent loyalty to the nation unless the nation becomes an idol, and this happens when, in the name of the nation, people are asked to obey its rulers blindly. We cannot give up criticizing their errors, nor stop considering as our brothers and sisters those who do not agree with us.

We should pray for rulers. Does that mean that we cannot look for more honest and better rulers? Of course, we can: see Romans 13.

Verses 9-14 concern women, and to understand why the letter is so strict, we must recall that there was a lot of talk about freedom in the Church, and there were abuses.

On the other hand, we always have a hard time accepting the demands of the Gospel when society teaches us something different. Jesus’ attitude regarding women was revolutionary and liberating, and at the beginning, the Church followed his example (see 1 Cor 7). Before long, they went back to the usual way of giving a very limited place in society to women and that applied also in their religious assemblies.

In the whole history of the Church there was a great respect for the dignity of women and there were many initiatives favoring them; yet there were few periods when women enjoyed equality with men. In many places women were more emancipated during the Middle Ages than closer to our times, in the 19th century. Likewise, in urban societies dealing with business, in the world and in the Church, women occupied a place very different from that granted them in more closed societies.

In fact, the Church alone does not change the world and society until people have learned to know the human reality better.

This passage, reminding us of 1 Cor 11:1-10 and 14:34, opposes women’s emancipation with the same biblical arguments commonly used by the Jewish masters.

God wants all to be saved. Paul repeats in his own way the passage from the last words of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel: the Gospel must be preached to everyone, to all the nations. Perhaps only a minority will believe but this evangelization is necessary so that all humanity may reach the goal fixed by God.

• 3.1 Here Paul deals with leaders, bishops and deacons (see commentary on Titus 1:6 and Phil 1:1).

• 14. This short paragraph reminds us that, if indeed we are in charge of the Church of God, we are neither its founders nor its masters. The Church was born through a merciful intervention of God, when he decided that his Son should identify with the human race, as is expressed in this short poem.

Here we use divine blessing (v. 16) for a word that we translated elsewhere as “piety” or “religion” (see 2:2; 4:7; 6:3; 5, 6; 2 Tim 3:5 and Titus 1:1). In those years, the word was mostly used to mean a loving attitude toward the Father and neighbors, characteristic of true believers who simply imitate God’s example.

The Church is the pillar and foundation of the truth. We must understand this phrase as referring to the concepts of that time: from above, from a world in which everything is truth, God lowers his Truth to the earth, as a column or a visible sign on which we can lean. In spite of all the infidelities of the Church, God uses it to preserve true knowledge of the Father, the Son and the Spirit in the world. Without this knowledge, people cannot be free, nor can humanity reach its maturity.

• 4.1 After the death of the apostles, new masters who tamper with the faith appear in the Church.

One of the numerous errors of these people is to despise all that comes from the body: they condemn marriage, forbid meat and wine. Concerning marriage, see the Introduction to Colossians. For those who said matter comes from evil powers whereas souls come from God who is good, having children was to imprison in an evil body souls which later would have to be saved. This is why they condemned, not sexual relations but marriage and procreation. In this contempt of the body and of a nature created by God, there is nothing Christian (see Col 2:23).

In the last days (v. 1): these are the days beginning with Jesus’ resurrection and stretching to his second coming (Heb 1:2; James 5:3).

The Spirit tells us clearly. The prophets of the Church often predicted that people would come to preach their own theories, and not authentic faith.

The believers receive with thanksgiving. From the beginning, it was the custom in Christian families to give thanks to God at the family meal.

Train yourself in godliness (v. 7). Here we have another danger. Contrary to teachers who despise life and want us to live as strange characters, there are others who are totally absorbed in external things. In the Greco-Roman world there was much enthusiasm for sports and races. Without despising the body we are asked to check if we give each part the importance it deserves and the time corresponding to it.

• 11. Faced with all these false teachers, Timothy must be an example of a true apostle.

Let no one reproach you on account of your youth. Usually, in the Christian communities and in the Jewish ones, the leaders were older men. This is why they were called “elders“ or “presbyters” (which means the same thing). Timothy, who is visiting the church on behalf of Paul, has authority over these elders, even though he is much younger than they are. The example of his sincere faith and profound knowledge of the Bible will be his strength.

Do not neglect the spiritual gift (v. 14). If someone was named to a ministry or an official position in the church, this was considered as a spiritual gift: for example, presbyters, deacons, bishops, prophets. While other gifts, such as healing the sick, came directly from the Holy Spirit, ministries were received through a laying on of hands. An apostle or a prophet would lay his hands on the candidate to transfer to him the authority that he had received in a similar way. Thus, in the Church, every leader receives his authority from Christ through a succession of people going back to the apostles.

On this occasion the prophets present would also address the candidate with exhortations and warnings (see 1:18).

Devote yourself to reading, preaching and teaching until I come. This counsel is always valid. To be steadfast in reading and study is what costs most in the majority of liberal professions. Very few people are courageous enough to persevere in study once they have passed their examinations. This is so, even in the Church. The “pastors,” clergy and lay, are constantly tempted in thinking such and such an activity is pastorally useful, that leisure is “relaxing” even at the cost of postponing study and meditation on the Word. The Church is always lacking people able to express their faith creatively – a gift that springs from spiritual knowledge and habitual contact with the Word of God: smiles, goodwill and psychology cannot replace this charism.

• 5.1 From the beginning, women had their own unique role in the Church. Some of them, called widows occupied an official position.

Paul sees three kinds of widows: some did not need help from the Church because they had relatives; others did need Church assistance. Finally, there were some, with or without the help of the Church, who were in charge of certain functions.

They deserve condemnation… (v. 12). This means that by leaving her position and marrying, the “widow” of the third category broke a commitment she had made publicly. The “widows” were dedicated to the service of Christ in the same way as religious women of today.

A true widow is she who has set her hope on God. We should read what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7 concerning the greater freedom celibates have to serve the Lord. Every baptized person is called to belong totally to Christ. If, through circumstances of life, we are alone again and free from family responsibilities, this may be an invitation from God to dedicate ourselves completely to the service of the Church and to constant prayer.

If today retired Christians looked into their lives in the light of God’s presence, the Church would have more leaders and missionaries than are necessary.

• 17. Paul speaks again of the elders or “presbyters” who are in charge of the local community. Paul wants the community to help its leaders spiritually and financially.

We have already noted that the elders who were in charge of the community and who presided at the Eucharist were chosen from the most esteemed believers. This paragraph shows that the primary service expected from them was the preaching of the Word.

They deserve double compensation. It is rather astonishing to see that in many parishes the council consists of more lay people competent in social or material matters than persons of the Word, learned or prophetic, capable of giving life to the community.

They must fulfill their duties. Rebuke him in the presence of the community as a warning to the rest: the first Christians were no angels. Sometimes their enthusiastic and sincere faith needed strong discipline in order for them to remain faithful to their commitments. Besides when have leaders of communities not caused problems?

In 5:18 note the quotation of the Gospel: “the worker deserves his wages” (Lk 10:7). This passage shows us that when this letter was written, towards the year 90, the Gospels were already considered “Scripture.”

At the beginning and end of the chapter, the author insists on faithfulness to tradition. Faith is not a doctrine that can be adapted to one’s tastes. Leaders are required to have a respectful and humble attitude towards this treasure entrusted to them to be transmitted to others. We can already see two faults:

– instead of deepening faith, some multiply words;

– some replace surrender to God’s Word with a critical attitude that attempts to judge faith and decide if it agrees with their own ideas.

Money is mentioned twice (6:10 and 6:17-19). After the first years of enthusiastic faith, the Church finds that, even for believers, everything is lost when love for money persists. That is the drama in certain countries where solid Christian groups have been caught up with the best of society in the pursuit of money: faith continues to be important for them but this faith only motivates fidelity to religious practice. Money that has become our security lessens our trust in God (6:10) and isolates us from others.

The pastors of the Church should be the most aware of the danger (6:11). Salvation for them will be to place themselves in the less secure areas of life and society, where an act of faith is constantly necessary to overcome difficulties and joyously accept sacrifices (v. 12). It is not in seeking first of all our personal fulfillment that we become God’s agent and a witness of Christ, as he himself has been the witness of the Father (6:13).

Paul calls upon Timothy to avoid all those dangers and remain true to faith and free from greed. By doing so, he will be “a man of God,” a witness of Christ.

Commentaries on 2 Thessalonians

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 13:54:31 +0000

The First Letter to the Thessalonians taught us the importance of looking forward to the coming of Christ in Paul’s preaching.

The hope for the Day of Christ was a powerful incentive for preserving the faith of the first Christians. Yet it could lead to an unhealthy nervousness. The Church of Thessalonica was the first example of those minorities and persecuted groups in whom the expectation of the end of the world distorts the normal development of Christian life.

In this letter, written a few months after the first one, Paul tries to reassure the community.

• 1.1 We again encounter the same ideas we have explained in 1 Thessalonians. A persecuted community. The basis of Christian life: faith, hope (or endurance), love. The day of Christ.

• 6. When the apostles preached to the pagans, they insisted on the judgment of God (Rom 1:18; Acts 17:31). In fact, these pagans never thought they would be judged at the end of their lives. For almost a century there has been a tendency among us Christians not to mention judgment in reaction to several centuries when it was over emphasized and with it the fear of punishment. Actually, the evangelization of modern pagans, in whom conscience has not even been awakened in the family, demands that it be spoken of as in Paul’s time.

To know that good and evil exist, that life prepares for definitive salvation (or the loss of it) and that God will judge us is an essential basis for Christian life. It is precisely from this truth that many turn away, saying for example that God is all-love, or imagining successive existences where we can catch up for our mistakes.

Indeed it is just that God repays with affliction. Let us not forget that the letters to the Thessalonians are the earliest of Paul’s letters. Even if it was his duty to remind them of the judgment, as did the prophets, and Jesus himself—certainly he had not yet totally purified his thirst for justice of every trace of violence. This violence against the wicked has been (and still is in many religions) a support for faith, but Jesus has invited us to get rid of it (Mt 13:29).

Coming from heaven… he will do justice. In the early years of the apostles, it was believed that the Day of the Lord would soon come and judgment (the Last Judgment) would inaugurate the reign of God the Father (1 Cor 15:24). We now suppose—perhaps mistakenly—that it is not imminent, and we prefer to think of judgment as coming at the death of each one: individual judgment.

• 2.1 Do not be alarmed. What happens in Thessalonica is what frequently occurs in a persecuted community: people tend to withdraw from real life. There are rumors that the Lord’s coming is imminent and hope verges on hysteria. This is why Paul reminds them of certain truths, some of which are not new, for the Old Testament had more than once spoken of crises that would precede the Judgment. We cannot take as literally true all that the prophets have said on this subject, for they spoke with images proper to their time. They did agree in announcing difficult times for believers and almost a triumph, to begin with, for God’s enemies. Jesus did not disagree.

The apostasy must come first. Before Christ’s return, there must be a “general apostasy,” or a worldwide religious crisis. An “antichrist” must come. It is true that there are antichrists in all times (see 1 Jn 2:18). Yet, at the end, there will be a more typical antichrist than all the previous ones. Christ will return in glory at the time the Church seems crushed.

You know what prevents him (v. 6). For us, this phrase is obscure. For Paul the apostasy is that of the nations already converted to the Gospel and the force of evil was already at work within them (v. 7). It is probable that Paul follows the thinking of the “apocalyptic” authors (some of their works are part of the Bible, among others Ezekiel 38–39 and Daniel 2–10). Everything happens at the time fixed by God and every person in history lasts the time needed to carry out the good and the evil that he has within himself.

Therefore, there cannot be apostasy or antichrist as long as two preceding events have not taken place: the Gospel has to be proclaimed to all the nations (Mk 13:10), and judgment passed on the Jewish nation. The fact that these events have not been realized, especially the second (1 Thes 2:16), is perhaps for Paul the reason why the coming of the antichrist is not imminent.

Paul had no idea that the time of the nations mentioned in Luke (21:24) would last for so many centuries; for him, it was a matter of years. Let us keep in mind his way of foreseeing the end of the world. All that is in human history must mature; history will end with a last adventure inspired by diabolical pride; faith or the rejection of the Gospel will be at the heart of the worldwide confrontation.

God will send them the power of delusion. Once again we have the Hebrew turn of phrase that should be translated: God will allow the forces of deceit to act. The same people who do not take into account decisive arguments in favor of the faith, later follow doctrines and opinions without foundation.

Paul invites the Church, as he did in 1 Thessalonians, to follow his instructions and rules. He is more severe in insisting that they have an obligation to work: if everybody works, their faith will be more peaceful.

• 13. Note the word traditions used by Paul. The traditions are the customs, rites and teachings that people pass down from one generation to another. They are also the usages and lifestyles which are adopted upon joining a community. Jesus condemned the exaggerated importance the Pharisees gave to their own traditions, to the point that they prevailed over God’s commandments (see Mk 7:5). Yet Jesus himself, while he was with his apostles, taught them a certain way of praying, of doing, and of living in fellowship. It is in this sense that Paul here speaks of traditions: see Traditions and Tradition in the commentary on Mark 7:1.

Commentaries on 1 Thessalonians

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 13:31:03 +0000

In the year 50, Paul arrived in Thessalonica, a major city and the capital of the province of Macedonia (see Acts 17:1). Here, after being rejected by the Jews, he addressed his preaching to the pagans and succeeded in forming a community. After barely three months, a riot caused by the Jews forced him to leave.

What is going to happen to these recent converts to whom Paul taught the mere basics of Christian life?

Paul is quite concerned, so he sends Timothy to see them and to strengthen their church. Timothy comes back with an optimistic report and Paul, reassured, sends this letter at the beginning of 51.

This is the oldest writing of the New Testament.

• 1.1 Faith, endurance, love. For us, sometimes hope (or: endurance) goes unnoticed between faith and love. For Paul it has two important meanings:

– Those who hope bear trials and persecutions with patience and perseverance. That is why Paul speaks of faith, perseverance and love. As we know from the Gospel, hope is not an easy optimism; it is the capacity to endure when faced with trials.

y”>– The person with hope looks forward to the glorious coming of Christ who will judge this world and take us to the next one. He frees us from impending punishment. In those years, all believers were convinced that judgment was imminent and that they would witness Christ’s coming.

The Gospel we brought you was such not only in words (v. 5). There were many signs, miracles and other manifestations in Thessalonica. Perhaps God increased the signs in view of the coming persecution; since very soon there would not be many with adequate formation to orient the community. In fact the Gospel cannot be proclaimed without God doing something to confirm it (Mk 16:17). Jesus criticized those who came to him to see miracles, but he performed miracles throughout his ministry. Let us not say: “I do not need miracles to believe.” Human beings as we are, we will have quite a different enthusiasm if we see that God is beside us, doing the incredible to confirm his word.

• 2.1 As a nursing mother who feeds and cuddles her baby (v. 7): Paul’s tenderness. Paul recalls the work and energy he spent to convince, to call each one personally. The conversion of a single person demands perseverance, weariness and struggles for the

All the Christians of Paul’s time know that the mother Church in Jerusalem has been the first to suffer heavy persecution. For the Thessalonians, it was also an honor to have remained

Some people will find Paul’s words concerning the Jews harsh and exaggerated: It is obvious that verses 15-16 do not refer to all the Jews or to the Jewish people of future time. Paul means those Jews and Judeo-Christians who persecute him from city to city. The divine sentence condemning them has already been pronounced yet they reflect his experience, verified in Acts 15–28.

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• 3.1 May the Lord increase more and more your love for each other and for all people (v. 12). Love manifests itself first within the community and then it must be expanded to all people.

Note also Paul’s constant preoccupation: his apostolic mission does not allow him to remain in any community. He is always moving, leaving his work unfinished, but he entrusts his converts to the grace of God that does not suppress the freedom of the recent converts nor the work of the Tempter in the world.

You know that such is our destiny (v. 3). There is no church, nor Christian life, without trials and persecutions.

• 4.1 If we have given ourselves to Christ, that should surely make our life different from what we lived before. The Jews who accepted baptism had a solid moral basis in the laws of the Old Testament. On the other hand, the pagans had only the moral laws observed in their society. Chastity, among others, was completely foreign to them. They considered occasional sexual relationships a necessity of nature, having nothing to do with moral values.

Paul reacts strongly: The will of God for you is to become holy and not to have unlawful sex. Facing what humans consider demands of nature, are other demands due simply to the fact that God has called us and put us on the path to divinization (Paul says: sanctification). Paul will take up the same argument in other words in 1 Cor 6:12-20. Here in verses 4-8, Paul is certainly thinking of adultery and relationships with prostitutes. If he were living in our social context, he would surely include sexual freedom among youth.

Paul never ceases telling us we are free. He passes over liturgical rules, customs proper to Jewish people—reminders of the past—all that kept believers in a religion of obedience to laws. He reaffirms fundamental moral rules that are valid at all times and in all places, especially when one has entered through the Gospel the age of spiritual maturity.

• 13. Lest you grieve as do those who have no hope. The Thessalonian community is made up of Christians who are all recent converts with little experience. For years they had accepted the fate of being born to die. Now, on the contrary, they awaken each day with the assurance of overcoming death: Christ will come soon and take them to the heavenly Kingdom. They are grieved nevertheless over their dead relatives whom Christ will not be able to save. This is what they thought because Greek culture had difficulties believing in a resurrection of the dead.

Those who are already asleep. Those who have died are not dead, but they are asleep, waiting for the time of the resurrection, the time of rising as new persons transformed by Christ: we will all be transformed. The word “cemetery” comes from a word meaning sleeping place.

God will bring them together with Jesus. Paul supposes that he and his readers will be alive when Christ returns and he describes the event according to the cultural expressions of the time. Let us not forget that up to the time of Galileo, everyone thought that heaven had its place in the universe, very high above and that God, although a spirit, was in some way present there.

We will be with the Lord forever. That is essential and always true even if it does not mean that Jesus will come on a beautiful cloud to the sound of heavenly trumpets. We already have some experience of the Lord’s presence in our earthly life, but then there will be nothing but this presence and this joy.

This brief message of hope leaves obscure essential questions concerning the resurrection of the dead. Paul will fully deal with this subject later on in 1 Cor 15. There he will show that resurrection is first a transformation of our whole being through the energies flowing from the resurrected Christ.

Comfort one another. The way of celebrating funerals in the Church must comfort the dead person’s relatives and strengthen their faith in the resurrection. There is no room for expressions of despair which Jesus himself scorned (see Mk 5:40): these are peculiar to people who consider the separation to be final. A funeral mass without any spectacular display, when the fervent prayer of the community is experienced, produces a great impact on people who are indifferent.

Paul then gives a warning he will repeat at the end of this letter (5:14): all should work. The community is disturbed by certain believers more inclined to attract attention with an enthusiastic show of faith rather than work; they discredit the Church in the eyes of pagans. Paul, the good Jew and Pharisee he was, could earn his own living by manual labor. He would not have understood how a believer could be without some qualification and unable to find an outlet, be it well or poorly considered and paid.

• 5.1 Christ comes at night and believers are people of the light. These words are rich in meaning. Those who follow their evil desires are people of darkness, hiding to do evil. While children of the light are beyond reproach, transparent before God and with nothing to hide from him. The unbeliever sleeps and is off-guard while the believer keeps watch and stays awake: he likes to pray all night long until dawn as if waiting for the day to welcome Christ. As for those who have died, they are not dead: they are only “asleep,” ready to rise when the Lord comes.

Encourage one another and build up one another (v. 11). In this the Church is seen as the true community needed by believers so they can grow in faith and overcome trials. In every difficulty, the help of the community will be the proof that we are surrounded by the love of God and of Christ, as was said in the first line of the letter.

According to verse 12, after only three months of evangelization this community already had leaders

• 19. Do not quench the Spirit (v. 19). A community such as this with few traditions and written instructions, depended on the intervention of the Spirit. Among these Christians there were some gifted with the charism of prophets: they would receive their communications during the Eucharistic assemblies. That is why Paul asks to profit by these spiritual messages, but not without first examining them as he will remind them in 1 Cor 14. This is a delicate situation: the community is subject to the Spirit who speaks through the prophet, but it must—and its leaders must—judge if it is truly the Spirit of God speaking.

May you be completely blameless in spirit, soul and body (v. 23). Neither the Jews nor the majority of Greeks would have agreed with our definition of the human: body and soul. They spoke at the same time of the soul that gives life to the body and deals with material activities, and of the spirit that is capable of truth and justice.

Paul’s way of speaking, like the great spiritual Christians, shares this conception. When Paul speaks of the deep life of believers, he does not use the word soul but spirit. We do not face God as we do in facing an interlocutor and look at each other from the exterior: to understand better our relationship with God, through the Spirit we must think of what unites beings who love each other and in some way live in one another.

According to the Bible, God’s Spirit can be omnipresent, insinuate itself, adapt itself, become our spirit without ceasing to be itself. Our spirit is not a part of ourselves, it is us, and it is at the same time our access to God. Our soul expresses itself in different ways, for example in dreams. We only discover our spirit in the measure of our experience of God. Only when we see God shall we truly know what and who we are.

2 Thessalonians 3

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 13:21:36 +0000

3 1 Finally, brothers and sisters, pray for us that the Word of God may spread rapidly and be glorified everywhere as it was with you. 2 May God guard us from wicked and evil people, since not everyone has faith. 3 The Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and keep you safe from the Evil One. 4 Besides, we have in the Lord this confidence that you are doing and will continue to do what we order you. 5 May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.

Let everyone work

6 We command you, beloved, to stay away from believers who are living in idleness contrary to the traditions we passed on to you. 7 You know how you ought to follow our example: we worked while we were with you. 8 Day and night we labored and toiled so as not to be a burden to any of you. 9 We had the right to act otherwise, but we wanted to give you an example.

10 Besides, while we were with you, we said clearly: If anyone is not willing to work, neither should that one eat. 11 However we heard that some among you live in idleness—busybodies, doing no work. 12 In the name of Christ Jesus our Lord we command these people to work and earn their own living. 13 And you, brothers and sisters, do not weary in doing what is right.

14 If someone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take note and do not have anything to do with him, so that he may be ashamed.

15 However, do not treat him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.

16 May the Lord of peace give you his peace at all times and in every way. May the Lord be with you all.

17 I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. This is my signature in all my letters. This is how I write.

18 May the grace of Christ Jesus our Lord be with you.

2 Thessalonians 2

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 13:20:23 +0000

2 • 1 Brothers and sisters, let us speak about the coming of Christ Jesus, our Lord, and our gathering to meet him. 2 Do not be easily unsettled. Do not be alarmed by what a prophet says or by any report, or by some letter said to be ours, saying the day of the Lord is at hand.

3 Do not let yourselves be deceived in any way. Apostasy must come first, when the man of Sin will appear, 4 that instrument of evil who opposes and defiles whatever is considered divine and holy, even to the point of sitting in the temple of God and claiming to be God.

5 Do you not remember I spoke of it when I was still with you? 6 But you also know what prevents him from appearing until his due time. 7 The mystery of sin is already at work, but the one who restrains it at present has to be taken away. 8 Then the wicked one will appear, whom the Lord is to sweep away with the breath of his mouth and destroy in the splendor of his coming. 9 This lawless one will appear with the power of Satan, performing miracles and wonderful signs at the service of deception. 10 All the deceits of evil will then be used for the ruin of those who refused to love truth and be saved. 11 This is why God will send them the power of delusion, that they may believe what is false. 12 So all those who chose wickedness instead of believing the truth will be condemned.

Persevere in faith

• 13 But we have to give thanks for you at all times, dear brothers and sisters in the Lord. For God chose you from the beginning to be saved through true faith and to be made holy by the Spirit. 14 To this end he called you through the gospel we preach, for he willed you to share the glory of Christ Jesus our Lord.

15 Because of that, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold to the traditions that we taught you by word or by letter. 16 May Christ Jesus our Lord who has loved us, may God our Father, who in his mercy gives us everlasting comfort and true hope, strengthen you. 17 May he encourage your hearts and make you steadfast in every good work and word.

2 Thessalonians 1

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 13:19:10 +0000

1 • 1 From Paul, Sylvanus and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians which is in God our Father and in Christ Jesus, the Lord.

2 May grace and peace be yours from God the Father and Christ Jesus, the Lord.

3 Brothers and sisters, we should give thanks to God at all times for you. It is fitting to do so, for your faith is growing and your love for one another increasing. 4 We take pride in you among the churches of God because of your endurance and your faith in the midst of persecution and sufferings. 5 In this the just judgment of God may be seen; for you must show yourselves worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are now suffering.

The judgment and the coming of Christ

• 6 Indeed, it is just that God repays with affliction those who persecute you, 7 but to you who suffer, he will grant rest with us when the Lord Jesus will be shown in his Glory, coming from heaven and surrounded by his court of angels. 8 Then with flaming fire will be punished those who do not recognize God and do not obey the Gospel of Jesus, our Lord.

9 They will be sent to eternal damnation far away from the face of the Lord and his mighty glory. 10 On that day the Lord will be glorified in the midst of his saints, and reveal his wonders through those who believe in him, that is through you who have received our testimony.

11 This is why we constantly pray for you; may our God make you worthy of his calling. May he, by his power, fulfill your good purposes and your work prompted by faith. 12 In that way, the name of Jesus our Lord will be glorified through you, and you through him, according to the loving plan of God and of Christ Jesus the Lord.

1 THESSALONIANS 5

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 13:17:51 +0000

You are citizens of the light

5 • 1 You do not need anyone to write to you about the delay and the appointed time for these events. 2 You know that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 When people feel secure and at peace, the disaster will suddenly come upon them as the birth pangs of a woman in labor, and they will not escape.

4 But you, beloved, are not in darkness; so that day will not surprise you like a thief. 5 All of you are citizens of the light and the day; we do not belong to night and darkness. 6 Let us not, therefore, sleep as others do, but remain alert and sober.

7 Those who sleep, go to sleep at night, and those who drink, get drunk at night. 8 Since we belong to the day, let us be sober, let us put on the breastplate of faith and love, and let the hope of salvation be our helmet. 9 For God has not willed us to be condemned but to win salvation through Christ Jesus our Lord. 10 He died for us so that we might enter into life with him, whether we are still awake or already asleep. 11 Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, as you are doing now.

12 Brothers and sisters, I want you to be thankful to those who labor among you, who lead you in the way of the Lord and also reprimand you. 13 Esteem them highly and love them for what they are doing. Live at peace among yourselves.

14 We urge you to warn the idle, encourage those who feel discouraged, sustain the weak, have patience with everyone. 15 See that no one repays evil for evil, but try to do good, whether among yourselves or towards others.

16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing 18 and give thanks to God at every moment. This is the will of God, your vocation as Christians.

• 19 Do not quench the Spirit, 20 do not despise the prophets’ warnings. 21 Put everything to the test and hold fast to what is good. 22 Avoid evil, wherever it may be.

23 May the God of Peace make you holy and bring you to perfection. May you be completely blameless, in spirit, soul and body, till the coming of Christ Jesus, our Lord; 24 he who called you is faithful and will do it.

25 Brothers and sisters, pray for us. 26 Greet all the brothers and sisters with a holy kiss. 27 I order you in the name of the Lord that this letter be read to all of them.

28 May the grace of Christ Jesus our Lord be with you.

1 THESSALONIANS 4

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 13:16:31 +0000

A call to a life of purity and work

4 • 1 For the rest, brothers, we ask you in the name of Jesus, the Lord, and we urge you to live in a way that pleases God, just as you have learned from us. This you do, but try to do still more. 2 You know the instructions we gave you on behalf of the Lord Jesus: 3 the will of God for you is to become holy and not to have unlawful sex.

4 Let each of you behave towards his wife as a holy and respectful husband, 5 rather than being led by lust, as are pagans who do not know God. 6 In this matter, let no one offend or wrong a brother. The Lord will do justice in all these things, as we have warned and shown you. 7 God has called us to live, not in impurity but in holiness, 8 and those who do not heed this instruction disobey, not a human, but God himself who gives you his Holy Spirit.

9 Regarding mutual love, you do not need anyone to write to you, because God himself taught you how to love one another. 10 You already practice it with all the brothers and sisters of Macedonia, but I invite you to do more. 11 Consider how important it is to live quietly without bothering others, to mind your own business, and work with your hands, as we have charged you. 12 In obeying these rules you will win the respect of outsiders and be dependent on no one.

Do not grieve as others do

• 13 Brothers and sisters, we want you not to be mistaken about those who are already asleep, lest you grieve as do those who have no hope. 14 We believe that Jesus died and rose; it will be the same for those who have died in Jesus. God will bring them together with Jesus and for his sake.

15 By the same word of the Lord we assert this: those of us who are to be alive at the Lord’s coming will not go ahead of those who are already asleep. 16 When the command by the archangel’s voice is given, the Lord himself will come down from heaven, while the divine trumpet call is sounding. Then those who have died in the Lord will rise first; 17 as for us who are still alive, we will be brought along with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the celestial world. And we will be with the Lord forever.

18 So, then comfort one another with these words.

1 THESSALONIANS 3

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 13:15:21 +0000

Paul’s concern

3 • 1 As I could no longer bear it, I decided to go alone to Athens, 2 and send you Timothy, our brother and co-worker of God in the Gospel of Christ. I wanted him to encourage you in the faith and strengthen you 3 so that none of you might turn back because of the trials you are now enduring. You know that such is our destiny. 4 I warned you of this when I was there: “We shall have to face persecution”; and so it was, as you have seen. 5 Therefore I could not stand it any longer and sent Timothy to appraise your faith and see if the Tempter had tempted you and made our work useless.

6 But now Timothy has just returned with good news of your faith and love. He told us that you remember us kindly and that you long to see us as much as we long to see you. 7 What a consolation for us, brothers and sisters, in the midst of our troubles and trials, this faith of yours! 8 It is a breath of life for us when you stand firm in the Lord. 9 How can we thank God enough for all the joy that we feel before God because of you? 10 Day and night we beg of him to let us see you again, that we may complete the instruction of the believers.

11 May God our Father and Jesus our Lord prepare the way for us to visit you. 12 May the Lord increase more and more your love for each other and for all people, as he increases our love for you. 13 May he strengthen you internally to be holy and blameless before God, our Father, on the day that Jesus, our Lord, will come with all his saints.

1 THESSALONIANS 2

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 13:14:12 +0000

The beginning of the Church of Thessalonica

2 • 1 You well know, brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not in vain. 2 We had been ill-treated and insulted in Philippi but, trusting in our God, we dared announce to you the message of God, and face fresh opposition. 3 Our warnings did not conceal any error or impure motive, nor did we deceive anyone. 4 But as God had entrusted his Gospel to us as to faithful ministers, we were anxious to please God who sees the heart, rather than human beings. 5 We never pleased you with flattery, as you know, nor did we try to earn money, as God knows. 6 We did not try to make a name for ourselves among people, either with you or anybody else, although we were messengers of Christ and could have made our weight felt.

7 On the contrary, we were gentle with you, as a nursing mother who feeds and cuddles her baby. 8 And so great is our concern that we are ready to give you, as well as the Gospel, even our very lives, for you have become very dear to us.

9 Remember our labor and toil; when we preached the Gospel, we worked day and night so as not to be a burden to you. 10 You are witnesses with God that we were holy, just and blameless toward all of you who now believe. 11 We warned each of you as a father warns his children; 12 we encouraged you and urged you to adopt a way of life worthy of God who calls you to share his own glory and kingdom.

13 This is why we never cease giving thanks to God for, on receiving our message, you accepted it, not as human teaching, but as the word of God. That is what it really is, and as such it is at work in you who believe.

14 Brothers and sisters, you followed the example of the churches of God in Judea, churches of Christ Jesus. For you suffered from your compatriots the same trials they suffered from the Jews, 15 who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and who persecute us. They displease God and harm all people 16 when they prevent us from speaking to the pagans and trying to save them. By doing so they are heaping up their sins, but now Judgment is coming upon them.

17 We are for a time deprived of your presence, but not in our heart, and we eagerly long to see you. 18 For we have wanted to visit you, and I, Paul, more than once; but Satan prevented us. 19 In fact, who but you are our hope and our joy? Who but you will be our glorious crown before Jesus, our Lord, when he returns? 20 Yes, indeed, you are our glory and our joy.

1 THESSALONIANS 1

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 13:02:35 +0000

1 • 1 From Paul, Sylvanus and Timothy to the church of Thessalonica which is in God the Father and in Christ Jesus, the Lord.

May the peace and grace of God be with you.

2 We give thanks to God at all times for you and remember you in our prayers. 3 We constantly recall before God our Father the work of your faith, the labors of your love and your endurance in waiting for Christ Jesus our Lord.

4 We remember, brothers and sisters, the circumstances of your being called. 5 The gospel we brought you was such not only in words. Miracles, Holy Spirit and plenty of everything were given to you. You also know how we dealt with you for your sake.

6 In return, you became followers of us and of the Lord when, on receiving the word, you experienced the joy of the Holy Spirit in the midst of great opposition. 7 And you became a model for the faithful of Macedonia and Achaia, 8 since from you the word of the Lord spread to Macedonia and Achaia, and still farther. The faith you have in God has become news in so many places that we need say no more about it. 9 Others tell of how you welcome us and turned from idols to the Lord. For you serve the living and true God, 10 and you wait for his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who frees us from impending trial.

PHILEMON 1

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 13:00:18 +0000

1 From Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Timothy to Philemon, our friend and fellow worker, 2 to our dear sister Apphia, to Archippus faithful companion in our soldiering, and to all the Church gathered in your house.

3 Grace and peace be with you from God the Father and Jesus Christ the Lord.

4 I never cease to give thanks to my God when I remember you in my prayers, 5 for I hear of your love and faith towards the Lord and all the holy ones. 6 And I pray that the sharing of your faith may make known all the good that is ours in Christ. 7 I had great satisfaction and comfort on hearing of your charity, because the hearts of the saints have been cheered by you, brother.

8 Because of this, although in Christ I have the freedom to command what you should do, 9 yet I prefer to request you in love. The one talking is Paul, the old man, now prisoner for Christ. 10 And my request is on behalf of Onesimus, whose father I have become while I was in prison.

11 This Onesimus has not been helpful to you, but now he will be helpful both to you and to me. 12 In returning him to you, I am sending you my own heart. 13 I would have liked to keep him at my side, to serve me on your behalf while I am in prison for the Gospel, 14 but I did not want to do anything without your agreement, nor impose a good deed upon you without your free consent.

15 Perhaps Onesimus has been parted from you for a while so that you may have him back forever, 16 no longer as a slave, but better than a slave. For he is a very dear brother to me, and he will be even dearer to you. 17 And so, because of our friendship, receive him as if he were I myself. 18 And if he  has caused any harm, or owes you anything, charge it to me. 19 I, Paul, write this and sign it with my own hand: I will pay it… without further mention of your debt to me, which is you yourself. 20 So, my brother, please do me this favor for the Lord’s sake. Give me this comfort in Christ.

21 Confident of your obedience I write to you, knowing you will do even more than I ask. 22 And one more thing, get a lodging ready for me because, thanks to all your prayers, I hope to return to you.

23 Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings. 24 So do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas and Luke, my assistants.

25 May the grace of the Lord Christ be with you. Amen!

LETTER TO PHILEMON

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 12:57:43 +0000

Philemon from Colossae has a slave named Onesimus: a typical name for a slave since Onesimus means “useful” (v. 11). Onesimus escapes and goes to Rome where he expects to disappear in the crowd. Accidentally, or luckily, he meets Paul whom he had known in his master’s house. At this point, Paul is imprisoned in Rome, but enjoys certain privileges enabling him to go out in the company of a policeman. Onesimus is converted and baptized; then Paul makes him go back to his former master with the letter of recommendation that we read here.

Paul asks that the slave be seen as a brother, and even suggests that the slave be freed (v. 21).

We have already seen the advice Paul gives to slaves in Col 3:22. In those first years of the Church, obtaining God’s life in Christ seemed such a tremendous privilege, providing such inner freedom, that being a slave or being free did not greatly matter (see 1 Cor 7:17).

At that time no one thought that a change of social structure was feasible: there were slaves and there would always be slaves. The Christians were few and without any influence. Thus, they were not concerned about reforming society, nor about laws to eliminate slavery. Even before the time it became necessary to think about changing the laws, faith was already against treating slaves as “objects” or inferiors: because they were Christians, an increasing number of masters—in the Church—spontaneously renounced their rights and granted freedom to their slaves.

Many people think that the Christian community has nothing to say concerning their responsibilities to society. Here, on the contrary, we see how Paul involves the whole community in Philemon’s problem.

COLOSSIANS 4

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 12:55:10 +0000

4 1 As for you, masters, give your servants what is fair and reasonable, knowing that you yourselves have a Master in heaven.

Further instructions

• 2 Be steadfast in prayer and even spend the night praying and giving thanks. 3 Pray especially for us and our preaching: may the Lord open a door for us that we may announce the mystery of Christ. Because of this I am in chains; 4 pray then that I may be able to reveal this mystery as I should.

5 Deal wisely with those who do not belong to the Church; take advantage of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be pleasing with a touch of wit. Know how to speak to everyone in the best way.

7 Tychicus will give news of me. He is our dear brother and for me a faithful assistant and fellow worker for the Lord. 8 I am purposely sending him to give you news of me and to encourage you. 9 With him I am sending Onesimus, our faithful and dear brother, who is one of yours. They will tell you about everything that is happening here.

10 My companion in prison, Aristarchus, greets you, as does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, about whom you have already received instructions. If he calls on you, receive him warmly. 11 Jesus, called Justus, also greets you. They are the only Jewish people working with me for the kingdom of God, and because of that they have been a comfort to me.

12 Greetings from your countryman Epaphras, a good servant of Christ Jesus. He constantly battles for you through his prayer that you be perfect and firm in whatever God asks of you. 13 I assure you that he has worked hard for you, as well as for those at Laodicea and Hierapolis.

14 Greetings from Luke, our dear doctor and from Demas. 15 Greet the brothers and sisters of Laodicea, and don’t forget Nympha and the church that gathers in her house.

16 After reading this letter, see that it is read in the Church of the Laodiceans, and have the letter they received read in yours. 17 And say to Archipus, “Do not forget the ministry given to you in the Lord.”

18 Greetings in my own hand, Paul. Remember that I am in chains. Grace be with you.

COLOSSIANS 3

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 12:54:13 +0000

Seek the things that are above

3 • 1 So then, if you are risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things that are above, not on earthly things. 3 For you have died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, reveals himself, you also will be revealed with him in Glory.

5 Therefore, put to death what is earthly in your life, that is immorality, impurity, inordinate passions, wicked desires and greed which is a way of worshiping idols. 6 These are the things that arouse the wrath of God.

7 For a time you followed this way and lived in such disorders. 8 Well then, reject all that: anger, evil intentions, malice; and let no abusive words be heard from your lips.

Put on the new self

• 9 Do not lie to one another. You have been stripped of the old self and its way of thinking 10 to put on the new, which is being renewed and is to reach perfect knowledge and the likeness of its creator. 11 There is no room for distinction between Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, foreigner, slave or free, but Christ is all and in all.

12 Clothe yourselves, then, as is fitting for God’s chosen people, holy and beloved of him. Put on compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience 13 to bear with one another and forgive whenever there is any occasion to do so. As the Lord has forgiven you, forgive one another. 14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 May the peace of Christ overflow in your hearts; for this end you were called to be one body. And be thankful.

16 Let the word of God dwell in you in all its richness. Teach and admonish one another with words of wisdom. With thankful hearts sing to God psalms, hymns and spontaneous praise. 17 And whatever you do or say, do it in the Name of Jesus, the Lord, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

On obedience

• 18 Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as you should do in the Lord. 19 Husbands, love your wives and do not get angry with them. 20 Children, obey your parents in everything, because that pleases the Lord. 21 Parents, do not be too demanding of your children, lest they become discouraged.

22 Servants, obey your masters in everything; not only while they are present, to gain favor with them, but sincerely, because you fear the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, do it wholeheartedly, working for the Lord, and not for humans. 24 You well know that the Lord will reward you with the inheritance. You are servants, but your Lord is Christ. 25 Every evildoer will be paid back for whatever wrong has been done, for God does not make exceptions in favor of anyone.

COLOSSIANS 2

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 12:52:56 +0000

Let Christ Jesus, the Lord, be your doctrine

2 • 1 I want you to know how I strive for you, for those of Laodicea and for so many who have not met me personally. 2 I pray that all may be encouraged. May you be established in love, that you may obtain all the riches of a full understanding and know the mystery of God, Christ himself. 3 For in him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

4 So let no one deceive you with persuasive arguments. 5 Although I am far from you, my spirit is with you and I rejoice in recalling how well-disciplined you are and how firm in the faith of Christ.

6 If you have accepted Christ Jesus as Lord, let him be your doctrine. 7 Be rooted and built up in him; let faith be your principle, as you were taught, and your thanksgiving overflowing.

8 See that no one deceives you with philosophy or any hollow discourse; these are merely human doctrines not inspired by Christ but by the wisdom of this world. 9 For in Him dwells the fullness of God in bodily form. 10 He is the head of all cosmic power and authority, and in him you have everything.

Baptized and risen

• 11 In Christ Jesus you were given a circumcision but not by human hands, which removed completely from you the carnal body: 12 I refer to baptism. On receiving it you were buried with Christ; and you also rose with him for having believed in the power of God who raised him from the dead.

13 You were dead. You were in sin and uncircumcised at the same time. But God gave you life with Christ. He forgave all our sins. 14 He canceled the record of our debts, those regulations which accused us. He did away with all that and nailed it to the cross. 15 Victorious through the cross, he stripped the rulers and authorities of their power, humbled them before the eyes of the whole world and dragged them behind him as prisoners.

Useless doctrines

• 16 So, then, let no one criticize you in matters of food or drink or for not observing festivals, new moons or the Sabbath. 17 These things were only shadows of what was to come, whereas the reality is the person of Christ. 18 Do not let anyone disqualify you, insisting on humbling practices and worship of angels. In fact, they are only good to satisfy self-indulgence, 19 instead of holding firmly to the head, Christ. It is he who nourishes and gives unity to the whole body by a complex system of nerves and ligaments, making it grow according to the plan of God.

20 If you have really died with Christ, and are rid of the principles of the world, why do you now let yourselves be taught as if you belonged to the world? 21 “Do not eat this, do not taste that, do not touch that…” 22 These are human rules and teachings, referring to things that are perishable, that wear out and disappear. 23 These doctrines may seem to be profound because they speak of religious observance and humility and of disregarding the body. In fact, they are useless as soon as the flesh rebels.

COLOSSIANS 1

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 12:51:53 +0000

1 • 1 Paul, apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and Timothy our brother,

2 to the saints in Colossae, our faithful brothers and sisters in Christ:

Receive grace and peace from God our Father, and Christ Jesus our Lord.

3 Thanks be to God, the Father of Christ Jesus, our Lord!

We constantly pray for you, 4 for we have known of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints. Indeed you await in hope the inheritance reserved for you in heaven, 5 of which you have heard through the word of truth. This Gospel, 6 already present among you, is bearing fruit and growing throughout the world, as it did among you from the day you accepted it and understood the gift of God in all its truth.

7 He who taught you, Epaphras, our dear companion in the service of Christ, faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, 8 has reminded me of the love you have for me in the spirit. 9 Because of this, from the day we received news of you, we have not ceased praying to God for you, that you may attain the full knowledge of his will through all the gifts of wisdom and spiritual understanding.

10 May your lifestyle be worthy of the Lord and completely pleasing to him. May you bear fruit in every good work and grow in the knowledge of God.

11 May you become strong in everything by a sharing of the Glory of God, so that you may have great endurance and persevere in joy.

12 Constantly give thanks to the Father who has empowered us to receive our share in the inheritance of the saints in his kingdom of light. 13 He rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son. 14 In him we are redeemed and forgiven.

Christ is the beginning of everything

• 15 He is the image of the unseen God,

and for all creation he is the firstborn,

16 for in him all things were created,

in heaven and on earth,

visible and invisible:

thrones, rulers, authorities, powers…

All was made through him and for him.

17 He is before all

and all things hold together in him.

18 And he is the head of the body, that is the Church,

for he is the first, the first raised from the dead

that he may be the first in everything,

19 for God was pleased to let fullness dwell in him.

20 Through him God willed to reconcile all things to himself,

and through him, through his blood shed on the cross,

God establishes peace,

on earth as in heaven.

• 21 You yourselves were once estranged and opposed to God because of your evil deeds, 22 but now God has reconciled you in the human body of his Son through his death, so that you may be without fault, holy and blameless before him. 23 Only stand firm, upon the foundation of your faith, and be steadfast in hope. Keep in mind the Gospel you have heard, which has been preached to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

24 At present I rejoice when I suffer for you; I complete in my own flesh what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ for the sake of his body, which is the Church. 25 For I am serving the Church since God entrusted to me the ministry to make the word of God fully known. 26 I mean that mysterious plan that for centuries and generations remained secret, and which God has now revealed to his holy ones.

27 God willed to make known to them the riches and even the Glory that his mysterious plan reserved for the pagan nations: Christ is in you and you may hope God’s Glory.

28 This Christ we preach. We warn and teach everyone true wisdom, aiming to make everyone perfect in Christ. 29 For this cause I labor and struggle with the energy of Christ working powerfully in me.

LETTER TO THE COLOSSIANS

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 12:49:15 +0000

Towards the year 62, Paul, a prisoner in Rome, writes to the Christians of Colossae, who, without being aware of it, belittle Christ. They do not feel assured with only faith in Christ and they want to add some practices from the Old Testament. Or they try to include Christ in a board of celestial persons, or “angels” who are supposed to have the key to our destiny in hand.

Something was lacking in them and in the majority of their contemporaries. They were caught in the Roman Empire which had imposed its peace on the known world at that time, but also prevented them from living a life of their own. They fell back on the “spiritual.” Secret doctrines offered to lead their “perfect ones” to a higher state and theories called “gnosis” (that is, knowledge) were drawn up on the origin of the human and the world. According to them, all comes from a cosmic soup that had been boiling for ages, with impressive celestial families of angels or “eons”, male and female, who devour each other, couple and finally imprison sparks of spirit in material bodies. So people are manufactured who, after “putting on” a series of successive existences, may return to the kingdom of light.

Caught in the wind of these fine discourses, the Colossians went the way of certain Christians today who trust in their devotion to souls or who allow their life to be led by spiritualism, astrology and horoscopes. They no longer consider Christ as the only savior since they give the priority to others or to practices that are not of the Church.

This crisis in the Church of the first century gave us this letter of Paul where he establishes the absolute supremacy of Christ. As in other letters of Paul, the letter to the Colossians mentions that Timothy is with him (1:1). Paul chose him as assistant and looked on him as “his true Son in Christ.” Perhaps it was Timothy who wrote a fair part of this letter; it would explain the difference in style from the more authentic of Paul’s letters while its content—exceptionally rich—is constantly faithful to the inspiration of the apostle. On this subject see the Letter to the Ephesians which has the same themes as the one to the Colossians, but in a more developed way. In several passages of Colossians, relevant commentaries in Ephesians will be indicated.

• 1.1 Paul, as usual, praises his readers. Actually, he is writing because of the information Epaphras gave him about the Colossians’ concerns.

Epaphras, about whom Paul speaks (1:7), is a man from Colossae. When Paul was organizing the evangelization of the province of Ephesus (see Acts 19:26 and 20:4), he did not go to every city, but would send his assistants. Epaphras of Colossae announced the Good News and had started to form communities in Colossae and then in the neighboring cities of Laodicea and Hierapolis (see Col 4:13). He was the man who came to Rome to inform Paul of the difficulties.

Your faith… your love… in hope… (vv. 4-5). Paul constantly regroups these three Christian powers: believe, love and hope. In the Christian world, they are called theological virtues (i.e., powers that go straight to God). The three go together, otherwise they do not exist. In a sense hope is the first: if it is no longer alive, faith and love remain powerless.

Straight away, Paul presents faith as being matchless: the Gospel has already been preached and believed throughout the world (v. 6) (which is rather too quickly said); faith opens for us the way to true knowledge: precisely what the Colossians are looking for (see Introduction); through this faith God has already placed us in the kingdom of Light (v. 12).

He has transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son. While the Colossians are interested in an invisible world of supernatural forces, where luminous powers battle with those of darkness (see the Introduction, and also Eph 1:21), Paul immediately clarified the situation: there is nothing other than the power of Darkness and the kingdom of the Son.

• 15. Paul shows that the angels or invisible powers (v. 16) whether from the Bible or the story tellers of “gnosis” with their Thrones, Authorities, Principles… are nothing compared with Christ. He is neither agent nor intermediary of a creative adventure without a true creator. He is not one of the saviors of a history rather impersonal: there is only God-Creator and in him is Christ. See the same idea in Hebrews 1.

In Galatians 4:1-5 Paul recognizes that the history of humanity has been deeply marked by natural and social forces that he does not name. He also affirms that since the resurrection of Jesus, it is he who has in hand all the movement of history (Rev 5:3-5). Something that may astonish those among us who think all history is the responsibility of humankind. In one sense, they are right but on condition that they do not forget the Firstborn, the one who has already come to the end of history and of whom we say he is Lord (Phil 2:11) of history.

He is the image of the unseen God. We should not imagine that God has a human form beyond the clouds, and that Jesus is his image; human creature is the image of God, but God is not in the image of human creature.

In all that he is and in all that he does, Christ among us is the perfect image of the Father and of his mercy: his actions reveal God’s way of thinking and acting. Already before he became man, the Son of God existed in God, as the eternal and invisible image of God eternal and invisible, the radiance of the glory of the Father (Heb 1:3), the Expression or Word of God (Jn 1:1).

For all creation, he is the firstborn. We take this word in its biblical sense. He is not the first of many creatures, but the one who has a place apart. In his human nature, Christ is a Galilean Jew, a descendant of David. His person, however, is rooted in God and is presented to us as the model and the firstborn not of people but of all creation.

God was pleased to let fullness dwell in him who is the only bridge between God and the universe. The fullness of God is in him to be communicated to the universe, and the fullness of the universe will be found in him when all human beings are reconciled and reunited in him.

All was made through him: Jn 1:1 and Heb 1:2.

And was the first raised… Paul says more precisely “and as the first fruits offered to God, was raised” (as in 1 Cor 15:23). He has not come only for the forgiveness of sins, but for a “passover,” a passage from death to life, and his resurrection after his total abandonment to his Father was a first necessary step so that we too would have a resurrection.

God willed to reconcile. Once again the work of Christ is presented as reconciliation: reconciliation between people (2 Cor 5:17-21) and reconciliation of the whole of creation.

• 21. Paul now requires the Colossians to keep their feet on the ground. Do not waste your time imagining struggles between celestial beings and evil ones. The struggle is here below and costs blood and life. This is why Paul reminds his readers what he himself is suffering because of the Gospel.

The body of Christ is the place where the peace of all humanity with God, and peace between individuals and nations can be achieved (Eph 2:11).

That you may be, without fault, holy and blameless before him (v. 22): see commentary on Eph 5:26.

I complete in my own flesh what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ. After Christ’s death something would be lacking in the salvation of the world, if Jesus’ followers and apostles did not, in their turn, meet with trials and sufferings. Working for the Church means suffering for the Church; to work for the rule of justice is to suffer for the sake of justice.

His mysterious plan: see Eph 3:5. We must not forget that in those days, no one even thought of the common destiny of humanity: they did not even speak of humanity. Moreover, neither the Greeks nor the Romans looked beyond their actual existence. Paul is amazed by the generosity of God whose promises are for all people, without distinction (v. 27). We, too, are offered nothing less than a share in the Glory of God, that is to say, all the riches found in him.

• 2.1 I want you to know how I strive for you. This struggle of Paul signifies labor (1:28-29) and prayer (4:2 and Rom 15:30). It would be very tempting (and it is the temptation of the Colossians) to make Christianity an attractive religion, with beautiful explanations, leaving people hanging on to their dreams and passions, a religion that does not attack the sin rooted in our way of life and in our society. To join the attack we must first be convinced that it is in Christ that we find the whole mystery of God.

Let no one deceive you. Philosophy and the search for wisdom are highly respectable. Philosophies always contain some truth; their danger is in seeming to give a total response to our problems. They are deceptive insofar as they come from philosophers who have in fact had either a limited or questionable experience of human reality. In faith, on the contrary, rather than a discourse on human concerns, we have a person: Christ. While all the currents of thought are the product of their day and grow old with time, Paul assures us that all the fullness of God is in Christ in a human form.

• 11. Paul has just said that a Christian has wisdom and is on a way of knowledge. He now reminds us that our entry into the Church has been much more than an exterior rite. Through baptism, we have become part of this renewal of the world brought about by the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Paul had been circumcised, and knew from experience that it did not save him. We can be fairly sure baptism did not also miraculously free him of his aggressiveness and weaknesses, but he began to live his human existence differently. He had been liberated, among other things, of what weighed heavily on him: religion with all its commandments. Religion for him was not, as it is for some who like principles, a defensive shield as necessary as a policeman: religion was for him a reminder of a debt towards God, something that made love and real trust impossible. Jesus in dying had nailed to the cross all kinds of fears of God; at the same time he did away with all the moral principles and pressures (“powers and authorities” of v. 15) that smother our free response to God.

In some countries, many people are baptized but baptism scarcely changes their life and generally speaking they do not belong to communities seeking to renew their faith. It is not enough for us to admit that we are poor Christians, that we have not really buried the sinner within us. Our resurrection depends, first of all on faith in God who resurrected Jesus, who has pardoned us, and prepared everything so that we may live our life.

• 16. Paul has just reminded us that baptism is the beginning of a new life. It is not a matter of replacing old commandments with better commandments: the coming of Christ has put an end to all religions with commandments. That will perhaps shock many Christians: should we not obey the commandments of God and of the Church? What will become of us if there are no longer religious duties?

Indeed there is no religious group—no Christian community—without rites, habits, commandments: what would become of a community where the members would no longer gather to hear the word of God or celebrate the Eucharist? Paul nevertheless shows it is finished with religions where the most important consideration is to do or not to do, where it is believed that God likes us to rest on such a day, not to eat such and such a food, to dress in a certain way, abstain from this or that. Religions give great importance to these laws for they help the faithful to maintain their cohesion and to retain their own identity. All that deforms the idea we have of God. All that is human regulation, very useful perhaps, old fashioned perhaps, but still always human. Paul says: God does not share our interest in what is transient, in our cooking, feast days and the like; he does not treat us like little children, saying, “Don’t do that!”

All that may seem very religious. Religious prohibitions always impress those who are not free of their fear of God. Instead of freeing us and leading us to child-like trust in God, these restrictions favor a narrow-mindedness, and later violence exerted against those who think differently from us.

Do not be mistaken in thinking that contempt for the body is a sign of holiness (v. 23). Fewer kilos do not mean more Spirit! The penances and sacrifices that we impose on ourselves could cause us to feel superior to others. If you belong to a group that has its fasts, would you not like it to be known?

Let no one criticize you. Who is going to criticize us for celebrating Sunday with the resurrection of the Lord instead of the Jewish Sabbath?

• 3.1 Here we have what was said about baptism (2:12) which joins us to Christ and makes us share in all his wealth. Since Christ left this earth, we leave it too: what is best in our lives, what motivates us to do things is neither visible, nor is it of the earth. God alone knows the riches of the believer’s heart, even when her life seems tarnished by various faults and weaknesses: one day God will manifest the goodness, the “glory” which we do not yet see (see Mt 25:31-46).

Put to death what is earthly in your life. It is not that we have to kill ourselves, but to destroy egoism, wickedness, envy, excessive confidence in self, for sin is there. Being free of a religion of commandments should not make us less aware of what is required in a new life: it means being still more perfect (Mt 5:20 and 48).

• 9. See Ephesians 4:20-24 where Paul develops the same idea of the new self created in Christ and of the old self which must be abandoned.

While the old self is self-centered, enslaved by passions, the new self is characterized by a communal attitude, a constant concern for others. He lives with a thankful heart.

• 18. The brief counsel given to spouses (vv. 18-19) will be largely developed in Eph 5:21-33. Paul would not accept the attitude of many Christians who say: “Religion has nothing to do with what I do in my home, my work, my leisure, or in politics.” On the contrary, Paul insists that Christians live all of this before the Lord, for the Lord and in the Lord.

This is why Paul preaches the same ethics to everyone: men, women, slaves (we would say bosses and workers); all must be just, loyal and respectful of others, even when they have faults. We should struggle to bring about change and defend our rights; but we must lead these struggles and live our commitments according to the spirit of Christ. Very often what we ask for in order to change the world is less important than the way in which we ask it, and it is often there that a Christian will give a witness that only she can give. Let others be successful whatever the means that are taken and whatever the disastrous consequences for society: see on this subject the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5–7).

• 4.2 All this is commented on in Ephesians 6:18-21.

Onesimus is a runaway slave who returns to Colossae with Tychicus after Paul converted him to the faith (see Letter to Philemon).

The evangelist Mark, now reconciled with Paul (see Acts 15:38), is with him. Luke (v. 14) mentioned here is the author of the Gospel and Acts.

We can see there was much communication between churches of different places. Each one was not locked within its own community: had this been the case, within a short time, there would have been as many religions as there were churches. Quite to the contrary, they were conscious of being the Church of Christ, established in various places, but with one testimony concerning Christ, which explains the interest the believers had in keeping in close contact with one another. At a time in which it seemed difficult to preserve unity due to the distance and differences among the people, the power that preserved unity—more than a rigid organization—was the profound sense all the people had that the church was a “communion” or a community enlivened by the Spirit of Christ.

Nowadays when we attempt to form “basic Christian communities,” we must also be careful to remain in contact and in harmony with other communities.

PHILIPPIANS 4

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 12:47:08 +0000

Agree with one another and be happy

4 • 1 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, you my glory and crown, be steadfast in the Lord. 2 I beg Evodia and Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord. 3 And you, Sycygus, my true companion, I beg you to help them. Do not forget that they have labored with me in the service of the Gospel, together with Clement and my other fellow-workers whose names are written in the Book of Life.

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I say it again: rejoice 5 and may everyone experience your gentle and understanding heart. The Lord is near: 6 do not be anxious about anything. In everything resort to prayer and supplication together with thanksgiving and bring your requests before God. 7 Then the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

8 Finally, brothers and sisters, fill your minds with whatever is truthful, holy, just, pure, lovely and noble. Be mindful of whatever deserves praise and admiration. 9 Put into practice what you have learned from me, what I passed on to you, what you heard from me or saw me doing, and the God of peace will be with you.

Paul’s thankfulness

• 10 I rejoice in the Lord because of your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me before, but you had no opportunity to show it. 11 I do not say this because of being in want; I have learned to manage with what I have. 12 I know what it is to be in want and what it is to have plenty. I am trained for both: to be hungry or satisfied, to have much or little. 13 I can do all things in him who strengthens me.

14 However you did right in sharing my trials. 15 You Philippians, remember that in the beginning, when we first preached the Gospel, after I left Macedonia you alone opened for me a debit and credit account, 16 and when I was in Thessalonica, twice you sent me what I needed.

17 It is not your gift that I value but rather the interest increasing in your own account. 18 Now I have enough and more than enough with everything Epaphroditus brought me on your behalf and which I received as “fragrant offerings pleasing to God.” 19 God himself will provide you with everything you need, according to his riches, and show you his generosity in Christ Jesus. 20 Glory to God, our Father, for ever and ever: Amen.

21 Greet all who believe in Christ Jesus. The brothers and sisters with me greet you. 22 All the believers here greet you, especially those from Caesar’s household. 23 The grace of Christ Jesus, the Lord, be with your spirit.

PHILIPPIANS 3

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 12:46:08 +0000

Do not turn back to the Jewish law

3 1 Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord.

• It is not a burden for me to write again the same things, and for you it is safer. 2 Beware of the dogs, beware of the bad workers; beware of the circumcised. 3 We are the true circumcised people since we serve according to the Spirit of God, and our confidence is in Christ Jesus rather than in our merits.

4 I myself do not lack those human qualities in which people have confidence. If some of them seem to be accredited with such qualities, how much more am I! 5 I was circumcised when eight days old. I was born of the race of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin; I am a Hebrew, born of Hebrews. With regard to the Law, I am a Pharisee, 6 and such was my zeal for the Law that I persecuted the Church. As for being righteous according to the Law, I was blameless.

7 But once I found Christ, all those things that I might have considered as profit, I reckoned as loss. 8 Still more, everything seems to me as nothing compared with the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake I have let everything fall away and I now consider all as garbage, if instead I may gain Christ. 9 May I be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the Law, but with the righteousness that God gives to those who believe.

10 May I know him and experience the power of his resurrection and share in his sufferings and become like him in his death, 11 and attain through this, God willing, the resurrection from the dead!

12 I do not believe I have already reached the goal, nor do I consider myself perfect, but I press on till I conquer Christ Jesus, as I have already been conquered by him. 13 No, brothers and sisters, I do not claim to have claimed the prize yet. I say only this: forgetting what is behind me, I race forward and run towards the goal, 14 my eyes on the prize to which God has called us from above in Christ Jesus. 15 Let all of us who claim to be perfect have the same way of thinking, but if there is something on which you differ, God will make it clear to you. 16 Meanwhile, let us go forward from the point we have each attained.

17 Unite in imitating me, brothers and sisters, and look at those who walk in our way of life. 18 For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. I have said it to you many times, and now I repeat it with tears: 19 they are heading for ruin; their belly is their god and they feel proud of what should be their shame. They only think of earthly things.

20 For us, our citizenship is in heaven, from where we await the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ, the Lord. 21 He will transfigure our lowly body, making it like his own body, radiant in Glory, through the power which is his to submit everything to himself.

PHILIPPIANS 2

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 12:44:57 +0000

Imitate the humility of Jesus

2 • 1 If I may advise you in the name of Christ and if you can hear it as the voice of love; if we share the same spirit and are capable of mercy and compassion, then I beg of you 2 make me very happy: have one love, one spirit, one feeling, 3 do nothing through rivalry or vain conceit. On the contrary let each of you gently consider the others as more important than yourselves. 4 Do not seek your own interest, but rather that of others. 5 Your attitude should be the same as Jesus Christ had:

6 Though he was in the form of God,

he did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped,

7 but emptied himself,

taking on the nature of a servant, made in human likeness,

and in his appearance found as a man.

8 He humbled himself by being obedient to death,

death on the cross.

9 That is why God exalted him

and gave him the Name which outshines all names,

10 so that at the Name of Jesus all knees should bend

in heaven, on earth and among the dead,

11 and all tongues proclaim that Christ Jesus is the Lord

to the glory of God the Father.

• 12 Therefore, my dearest friends, as you always obeyed me while I was with you, even more now that I am far from you, continue working out your salvation “with fear and trembling.” 13 It is God who makes you not only wish but also carry out what pleases him. 14 Do everything without grumbling, 15 so that without fault or blame, you will be children of God without reproach among a crooked and perverse generation. You are a light among them, like stars in the universe, 16 holding to the Word of life. I shall feel proud of you on the day of Christ on seeing that my effort and labor have not been in vain. 17 And if I am being poured out as a libation over the sacrifice and the offering of your faith, I rejoice and continue to share your joy; 18 and you likewise should rejoice and share my joy.

Paul’s messengers

• 19 The Lord Jesus lets me hope that I may soon send you Timothy, and have news of you. With this I will feel encouraged. 20 For I have no one so concerned for you as he is. 21 Most follow their own interest, not those of Christ Jesus. 22 But Timothy has proved himself, as you know. Like a son at the side of his father, he has been with me at the service of the Gospel. 23 Because of that I hope to send him to you as soon as I see how things work out for me. 24 Nevertheless the Lord lets me think that I myself shall be coming soon.

25 I judged it necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, who worked and fought at my side and whom you sent to help me in my great need. 26 In fact, he missed you very much and was still more worried because you had heard of his sickness. 27 He was indeed sick and almost died, but God took pity on him and on me, sparing me greater sorrow. 28 And so I am eager to send him to you, so that on seeing him you will be glad and I will be at peace. 29 Receive him then with joy, as is fitting in the Lord. Consider highly persons like him, 30 who almost died for the work of Christ; he risked his life to serve me on your behalf when you could not help me.

PHILIPPIANS 1

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 12:44:00 +0000

1 • 1 From Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to the saints in Philippi, with their bishops and deacons;

to you all in Christ Jesus:

2 May grace and peace be yours from God, our Father, and Christ Jesus the Lord.

3 I give thanks to my God each time I remember you, 4 and when I pray for you, I pray with joy. 5 I cannot forget all you shared with me in the service of the Gospel, from the first day until now. 6 Since God began such a good work in you, I am certain that he will complete it in the day of Christ Jesus.

7 This is my hope for you, for I carry you all in my heart: whether I am in prison or defending and confirming the Gospel, you are with me and share the same grace.

8 God knows that I love you dearly with the love of Christ Jesus, 9 and in my prayers I ask that your love may lead you each day to a deeper knowledge and clearer discernment, 10 that you may have good criteria for everything. So you may be pure of heart and come blameless to the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of holiness that comes through Christ Jesus, for the glory and praise of God.

Christ is my life

• 12 I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has served to advance the Gospel. 13 Actually the whole praetorian guard, and even those outside the palace, know that I am in chains for Christ. 14 And what is more, my condition as prisoner has encouraged most of our brothers who are now emboldened to proclaim the Word of God more openly and without fear.

15 Some, it is true, are moved by envy and rivalry, but others preach Christ with a good intention. 16 These latter are moved by love and realize that I am here to defend the Gospel. 17 The others announce Christ to challenge me. They do not act with a pure intention but think they are making my prison more unbearable. 18 But in any case, whether they are sincere or showing off, Christ is proclaimed and because of this I rejoice and have no regrets.

19 I know that all this will be a grace for me because of your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Christ. 20 I am hopeful, even certain, that I shall not be ashamed. I feel as assured now, as before, that Christ will be exalted through my person, whether I live or die.

21 For to me, living is Christ, and dying is gain. 22 But if I am to go on living, I shall be able to enjoy fruitful labor. Which shall I choose? 23 So I feel torn between the two. I desire greatly to leave this life and to be with Christ, which will be better by far, 24 but it is necessary for you that I remain in this life. 25 And because I am convinced of this, I know that I will stay and remain with you for your progress and happiness in the faith. 26 I will surely come to you again, and give you more reason for being proud of belonging to Christ Jesus.

Stand firm in faith

• 27 Try, then, to adjust your lives according to the Gospel of Christ. May I see it when I come to you, and if I cannot come, may I at least hear that you stand firm in the same spirit, striving to uphold the faith of the Gospel with one heart. 28 Do not be afraid of your opponents. This will be a sign that they are defeated and you are saved, that is saved by God. 29 For through Christ you have been granted not only to believe in Christ but also to suffer for him. 30 And you now share the same struggle that you saw I had and that I continue to have, as you know.

Commentaries on Philippians

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 12:41:27 +0000

Here again a real letter from Paul, personal, full of attention and tenderness that Paul sent from prison to the community that had always been the most concerned for his well-being. More than once Paul counted on their material assistance, showing the confidence he had in them. Usually, in order to avoid any suspicion of personal interest, he preferred to earn his living while continuing his mission. In this letter we have the famous page: “Let the same project that was in Christ Jesus be found in you.”

We have just said it is a real letter from Paul. Actually, all in it does not follow, as if fragments of several letters from Paul had been combined. We shall draw attention to it as we proceed: 2:19, 21; 4:1. It may well be a question of two short letters, one where Paul wanted to give his news and to thank, the other a warning, in the same style as the letter to the Galatians.

When Paul’s letters were gathered together, the most important were arranged according to length: Romans, Corinthians, Galatians. Then came those we call “captivity letters.” It is there we have Philippians between Ephesians and Colossians as if the three had been sent from the same prison. Yet there is every reason to think that Philippians was not written when Paul was in Rome, about 60 A.D., but several years earlier, more like 56 A.D. Perhaps he was at that time imprisoned in Ephesus.

• 1.1 With their bishops and deacons. In Acts we saw how the apostles used to establish a community, a church, in every city where they proclaimed the Gospel. They did not leave without having established a council of leaders, called presbyters, or elders, according to Jewish custom. After a few years bishops, or supervisors, stood out: they may have been the leading members of the council of presbyters. They were not then like today’s bishops.

As to the deacons, they were in charge of various services in the community. And may have done missionary work in areas that did not yet have a community.

God began such a good work in you, I am certain that he will complete it in the day of Christ Jesus (v. 6). The end for which they long is always the manifestation (2 Thes 1:7), or the visit, or the Day of the Lord Jesus (1 Cor 1:8). No work is done without the expectation of the day when there will be all that one dreamed about. There is no Christian life where someone is content with looking forward to his retirement or feels fulfilled because he has a country house or because the family is growing up without a problem. Let us stop saying these first Christians still had the “illusion” of an early return of Christ. They wanted to meet him personally and be transfigured by him. That is an illusion only for those who enclose themselves in oases of peace within a world in crisis.

Knowledge and discernment… A good heart and generosity are not everything in Christian life. We are not saved, we do not reach our true stature, we are not remade as God would like us to be, unless clarity has guided generosity. It is the same for world salvation. God calls us to discover new ways. We need to reflect, to be attentive, what we could call “revision of life,” in order to discover what is positive and negative in our daily life, work relationships, social duties, leisure. This reflection, however, is not sufficient: among God’s gifts, there is spiritual knowledge that gives us a fresh vision of the order of values and of the will of God.

• 12. Paul is not only persecuted by the Jews: even in the Church “false brothers,” delighted he is in prison, see in this situation the possibility of increasing their own importance. The problem is one for all times: the great names of the apostolate have spent half of their energy in limiting the harm caused by rivals or by powerful groups in the Church. Paul, however, is gifted with wisdom: he sees that even if many do for personal interest what they believe they are doing for God, he knows how to turn it to account.

I am hopeful, even certain, that I shall not be ashamed (v. 20). Paul’s concern is that his trial and his appearances should serve to reveal Christ’s message to the authorities.

Christ is my life. It is quite trendy to say that Christians should “understand the world” and be “fully human.” This is true in a certain way, but it does not say everything. God’s love increases in us through the gift of ourselves to persons and to tasks that he entrusts to us, but as the love of God grows, the desire of Christ and eternity takes root with it: this desire makes us like strangers in the world.

Paul would like to see his friends but not for that will he linger over fraternal meals in which his friends would try to provide him with a warm atmosphere. His deep desire is for what he still lacks: to meet Christ in his glory (see 2 Cor 4:16 and Phil 3:10).

I desire greatly to leave this life and to be with Christ (v. 23). Thus, those who say that a person ceases to exist at the time of death and only recovers life in the resurrection at the end of times are wrong. See 2 Cor 5:8 also.

• 27. See how throughout this paragraph Paul invites the Philippians to fully share his own struggle: he is in prison, but they must remain in the front line of the battle. What does he expect? First that their community be a true one (v. 27). Unity is a decisive sign for those who see us from the outside. Uphold the faith of the Gospel with one heart. Whether there be a persecution or not, people from the outside will try to divide us.

• 2.1 Unity is often supported by a shared feeling of being the best, or the strongest, or having to contend with another group: in that way many religious groups maintain their strength, their discipline and the efforts and sacrifices needed for this. All that is also found in Christian groups, but it should not be, for we have another spirit (Lk 9:55). With us, unity will follow from much humility and understanding of others. Here, Paul gives the secret of Christian co-existence: look for what is humble and do nothing through rivalry or for glory.

In a hymn which is a sort of creed, Paul proposes the example of Christ: his path from God to man, from rich to poor, from first to last, from master to servant.

The Lord Jesus desired to identify with the most humble, the most afflicted, the most despised. Such were Jesus’ attitudes and they must be those of his followers, the Christians. A desire to identify with the most humble and to share with them is the motivation for a truly evangelical life.

In this we must differ from the majority of people who are mainly interested in their personal or family fulfillment. Their ambitions are legitimate, and who among us does not share them at least partly? Yet they have been devalued by Christ by the simple fact that he took the opposite way.

He did not claim equality with God: the mystery of God’s Son who became a mortal man and gave up God’s Glory, although he could have preserved it even in his human life. Since Christ was to be the New Man, glorified by God and placed above everything, his being subject to misery and limitations was a way of being reduced to nothingness.

God exalted him. The humiliation and obedience of Christ were the condition for receiving his glory. He gave him the Name (of God), that is, he made him fully enjoy in his human nature the divine Power (or Name).

• 12. Continue working out your salvation with fear and trembling. It is not a matter of being afraid of God. Paul has just urged his readers to rejoice, since they no longer have the spirit of slaves to make them fearful, but the spirit of sons and daughters (Rom 8:15).

Paul, in fact, has just recalled Christ’s sacrifice and he draws this conclusion: take your life very seriously (this is the meaning of fear and trembling: as does the one who carefully carries a precious load). Be aware that God is at work in you through these good desires that come to you. Live in the presence of God.

• 19. Paul usually deals with personal matters at the end of his letters. Here he seems to interrupt the subject of his letter that he will take up again in 3:1. Paul announces two visits to the Christians of Philippi.

Timothy is Paul’s assistant; he is entrusted with several missions to the communities. It seems that Timothy did not have much authority and could be easily humiliated by those who disliked Paul’s direction.

As to Epaphroditus, he was a Christian from Philippi who had left his family, spent his money and faced risks in order to go and visit Paul. The community of believers must pay attention to its most committed members, who have little means, in order to assist them. The Church sometimes presents as examples, militants from the working class or peasants who were quite forgotten by their brothers and sisters in the faith during their lives.

• 3.1 The discourse of Paul seems to be interrupted here. Paul begins a violent polemic against ill-converted Jews who keep repeating that one must first be faithful to the laws and customs of the Old Testament in order to be a good Christian.

Beware of the dogs…! (v. 2) Paul applies to the Jews, proud of being the chosen people, the very insults that they reserved for non-Jews. Jews were sealed by the circumcision, but they mocked people of other religions who incised their skin (1K 18:28).

Through what Paul says concerning his faithfulness to Judaism, we know something of his past. He was born in Tarsus to a Jewish family who had left their country and had settled there, in “Greek” territory, where they dedicated themselves to business. His parents were wealthy and well thought of since they had the dignity and the rights of Roman citizens (see Acts 22:28). Along with Greek culture, Paul received religious education from the Bible and the Jewish people. He saw firsthand the pagan feasts and sacrifices, but was proud of belonging to God’s people, of being circumcised and instructed in God’s promises to his race. His parents sent him to Jerusalem to study Scripture and the Law with the great masters of his time (see Acts 22:3).

He was a model of strict Pharisee. He did not meet Christ but did meet the early Christians. Because he was faithful to the religion of his ancestors, he believed it was necessary to persecute, imprison and even kill those preaching a new doctrine and deceiving (so he though) the people, since they proclaimed a false, defeated and crucified Messiah.

At times, Paul must have had doubts (Acts 26:14), and increasingly so, when he felt duty bound to increase repression. The Pharisees were against the death penalty. To hesitate or go backwards was to recognize that God had taken another road than the one where he himself had been the defender of God’s cause. Worse still: with Jesus, never more would he be the just man but rather the pardoned sinner. When Jesus forcefully entered into Paul’s life, it was a matter of losing all and Paul from then on accepted to regard as garbage all that he had been proud of.

Forgetting what is behind me (v. 13). Paul only wanted to “forget.” Forget his merits and his gains (in the judgment of others) so as to receive more fully the free grace of God; forget what he already knew of God and be available for new experiences.

I want to know him. The greatest thing for Christians is not to perform miracles, or to speak in tongues, but to know Christ and meet him as a living person. I want to experience the power of his resurrection. All of us would like to feel the presence of God and to see him in some way, but the way to experience his power that transfigures us is by sharing in Christ’s sufferings (2 Cor 1:3-5).

All of us who claim to be perfect (v. 15). See what was said in 1 Cor 2:6. Paul speaks ironically again about those who believe they belong to a superior class of Christians, while he would not dare consider himself to be perfect (v.12).

Finally, he insists on the resurrection. Because we know that our bodies (or persons) will be raised and that the universe will be renewed, we must put passing things in their place: food, wine, sex—all must stop being the idols that enslave us.

• 4.1 Once again the theme is interrupted; this passage seems to be the continuation of 2:19–3:1.

The Book of Life (v. 3) is a common Jewish term meaning those who will be saved (Rev 20:12).

Fill your minds with whatever is truthful, holy, just, pure, lovely and noble (v. 8). Paul continuously repeats that it is not enough to avoid what is forbidden. Let us discover this free and open attitude of a believer who knows that God speaks to him in a thousand ways through others. How many examples before our eyes each day! What great, noble and true things there are in this world about which we speak negatively! Let us accept what is good, wherever we find it, even among unbelievers.

• 10. Paul thanks the Church of Philippi for their help. He, who is so jealous of his independence and anxious not to seem to take advantage of others under the pretext of religion, accepts what his real friends give him.

EPHESIANS 6

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 12:33:48 +0000

Children, parents, servants and masters

6 • 1 Children, obey your parents for this is right: 2 Honor your father and your mother. And this is the first commandment that has promise: 3 that you may be happy and enjoy long life in the land. 4 And you, fathers, do not make rebels of your children, but educate them by correction and instruction which the Lord may inspire.

5 Servants, obey your masters of this world with fear and respect, with simplicity of heart, as if obeying Christ. 6 Do not serve only when you are watched or in order to please others, but become servants of Christ who do God’s will with all your heart. 7 Work willingly, for the Lord and not for humans, mindful that the good each one has done, 8 whether servant or free, will be rewarded by the Lord.

9 And you, masters, deal with your servants in the same way, and do not threaten them, since you know that they and you have the same Lord who is in heaven, and he treats all fairly.

Be strong in the Lord

• 10 Finally, be strong in the Lord with his energy and strength. 11 Put on the whole armor of God to be able to resist the cunning of the devil. 12 Our battle is not against human forces but against the rulers and authorities and their dark powers that govern this world. We are struggling against the spirits and supernatural forces of evil.

13 Therefore put on the whole armor of God, that in the evil day, you may resist and stand your ground, making use of all your weapons. 14 Take truth as your belt, justice as your breastplate, 15 and zeal as your shoes to propagate the Gospel of peace. 16 Always hold in your hand the shield of faith to repel the flaming arrows of the devil. 17 Finally, use the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, that is, the Word of God.

18 Pray at all times as the Spirit inspires you. Keep watch, together with sustained prayer and supplication for all the holy ones. 19 Pray also for me, so that when I speak, I may be given words to proclaim bravely the mystery of the Gospel. 20 Even when in chains I am an ambassador of God; may he give me the strength to speak as I should.

21 I also want you to know how I am and what I am doing. Tychicus, our beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, will tell you everything. 22 I am sending him precisely to give you news of us and comfort you all.

23 May peace and love with faith from God the Father and from Christ Jesus the Lord, be with the brothers and sisters. 24 And may his blessing be with all who love Christ Jesus, our Lord, with undying love.

EPHESIANS 5

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 12:32:52 +0000

Imitate God

5 • 1 As most beloved children of God, strive to imitate him. 2 Follow the way of love, the example of Christ who loved you. He gave himself up for us and became the offering and sacrificial victim whose fragrance rises to God. 3 And since you are holy, there must not be among you even a hint of sexual immorality or greed, or any kind of impurity: these should not be named among you. 4 So too for scandalous words, nonsense and foolishness, which are not fitting; instead offer thanksgiving to God.

5 Know this: no depraved, impure or covetous person who serves the god ‘Money’ shall have part in the kingdom of Christ and of God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty arguments, for these are the sins which God is about to condemn in people who do not obey. 7 Do not associate with such people. 8 You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Behave as children of light; 9 the fruits of light are kindness, justice and truth in every form.

10 You yourselves search out what pleases the Lord, 11 and take no part in works of darkness that are of no benefit; expose them instead. 12 Indeed it is a shame even to speak of what those people do in secret, 13 but as soon as it is exposed to the light, everything becomes clear; and what is unmasked, becomes clear through light. 14 Therefore it is said:

“Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead that the light of Christ may shine on you.”

15 Pay attention to how you behave. Do not live as the unwise do, but as responsible persons. 16 Try to make good use of the present time, because these days are evil. 17 So do not be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is.

18 Do not get drunk: wine leads to levity; but be filled with the Holy Spirit. 19 Gather together to pray with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and celebrate the Lord in your heart, 20 giving thanks to God the Father in the name of Christ Jesus, our Lord, always and for everything.

Husbands, love your wives

• 21 Let all kinds of submission to one another become obedience to Christ. 22 So wives to their husbands: as to the Lord.

23 The husband is the head of his wife, as Christ is the head of the Church, his body, of whom he is also the Savior. 24 And as the Church submits to Christ, so let a wife submit in everything to her husband.

25 As for you, husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her. 26 He washed her and made her holy by baptism in the Word. 27 As he wanted a radiant Church without stain or wrinkle or any blemish, but holy and blameless, he himself had to prepare and present her to himself.

28 In the same way, husbands should love their wives as they love their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 And no one has ever hated his body; he feeds and takes care of it. That is just what Christ does for the Church, 30 because we are members of his body.

31 Scripture says: Because of this a man shall leave his father and mother to be united with his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. 32 This is a very great mystery, and I refer to Christ and the Church. 33 As for you, let each one love his wife as himself, and let the wife respect her husband

EPHESIANS 4

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 12:31:58 +0000

We shall become the perfect creation

4 • 1 Therefore I, the prisoner of Christ, invite you to live the vocation you have received. 2 Be humble, kind, patient, and bear with one another in love.

3 Make every effort to keep among you the unity of Spirit through bonds of peace. 4 Let there be one body and one spirit, for God, in calling you, gave the same Spirit to all. 5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism. 6 One God, the Father of all, who is above all and works through all and is in all.

7 But to each of us divine grace is given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it is said: When he ascended to the heights, he brought captives and gave his gifts to people.

9 He ascended, what does it mean but that he had also descended to the lower parts of the world? 10 He himself who went down, then ascended far above all the heavens to fill all things. 11As for his gifts, to some he gave to be apostles, to others prophets, or even evangelists, or pastors and teachers. 12 So he prepared those who belong to him for the ministry, in order to build up the Body of Christ, 13 until we are all united in the same faith and knowledge of the Son of God. Thus we shall become the perfect Man, upon reaching maturity and sharing the fullness of Christ.

14 Then no longer shall we be like children tossed about by any wave or wind of doctrine, and deceived by the cunning of people who drag them along into error. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we shall grow in every way towards him who is the head, Christ. 16 From him comes the growth of the whole body to which a network of joints gives order and cohesion, taking into account and making use of the function of each one. So the body builds itself in love.

Put on the new self

• 17 I say to you, then, and with insistence I advise you in the Lord: do not imitate the pagans who live an aimless kind of life. 18 Their understanding is in darkness and they remain in ignorance because of their blind conscience, very far from the life of God. 19 As a result of their corruption, they have abandoned themselves to sensuality and have eagerly given themselves to every kind of immorality.

20 But it is not for this that you have followed Christ. 21 For I suppose that you heard of him and received his teaching which is seen in Jesus himself. 22 You must give up your former way of living, the old self, whose deceitful desires bring self-destruction. 23 Renew yourselves spiritually, from inside, 24 and put on the new self, or self. according to God, that is created in true righteousness and holiness

25 Therefore, give up lying; let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors for we are members of one another. 26 Be angry but do not sin: do not let your anger last until the end of the day, 27 lest you give the devil a foothold.

28 Let the one who used to steal, steal no more, but busy himself working usefully with his hands so that he may have something to share with the needy. 29 Do not let even one bad word come from your mouth, but only good words that will encourage when necessary and be helpful to those who hear.

30 Do not sadden the Holy Spirit of God which you were marked with. It will be your distinctive mark on the day of salvation. 31 Do away with all quarreling, rage, anger, insults and every kind of malice: 32 be good and understanding, mutually forgiving one another as God forgave you in Christ.

EPHESIANS 3

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 12:31:06 +0000

God’s inheritance is for all

3 • 1 For this reason I, Paul, came to be the prisoner of Christ for you, the non-Jews. 2 You may have heard of the graces God bestowed on me for your sake. 3 By a revelation he gave me the knowledge of his mysterious design, as I have explained in a few words. 4 On reading them you will have some idea of how I understand the mystery of Christ.

5 This mystery was not made known to past generations but only now, through revelations given to holy apostles and prophets. 6 Now the non-Jewish people share the Inheritance; in Christ Jesus the non-Jews are incorporated and are to enjoy the Promise.

This is the Good News 7 of which I have become minister by a gift of God, a grace he gave me, when his power worked in me.

8 This grace was given to me, the least among all the holy ones: to announce to the pagan nations the immeasurable riches of Christ 9 and to make clear to all how the mystery, hidden from the beginning in God, the Creator of all things, is to be fulfilled.

10 Even the heavenly forces and powers will now discover through the Church the wisdom of God in its manifold expression, as the plan is being fulfilled 11 which God designed from the beginning in Christ Jesus, our Lord. 12 In him we receive boldness and confidence to approach God.

13 So I ask you not to be discouraged at seeing the trials I endure for you, but rather to feel proud because of them.

• 14 And now I kneel in the presence of the Father 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth has received its name.

16 May he strengthen in you the inner self through his Spirit, according to the riches of his glory;

17 may Christ dwell in your hearts through faith;

may you be rooted and founded in love.

18 All of this so that you may understand with all the holy ones the width, the length, the height and the depth—in a word, 19 that you may know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge, that you may be filled and reach the fullness of God.

20 Glory to God who shows his power in us and can do much more than we could ask or imagine; 21 glory to him in the Church and in Christ Jesus through all generations for ever and ever. Amen.

EPHESIANS 2

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 12:30:13 +0000

By grace you have been saved!

2 • 1 You were dead through the faults and sins. 2 Once you lived through them according to this world and followed the Sovereign Ruler who reigns between heaven and earth and who goes on working in those who resist the faith. 3 All of us belonged to them at one time and we followed human greed; we obeyed the urges of our human nature and consented to its desires. By ourselves, we went straight to the judgment like the rest of humankind.

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, revealed his immense love. 5 As we were dead through our sins, he gave us life with Christ. By grace you have been saved! 6 And he raised us to life with Christ, giving us a place with him in heaven.

7 In showing us such kindness in Christ Jesus, God willed to reveal and unfold in the coming ages the extraordinary riches of his grace. 8 By the grace of God you have been saved through faith. This has not come from you: it is God’s gift. 9 This was not the result of your works, so you are not to feel proud. 10 What we are is God’s work. He has created us in Christ Jesus for the good works he has prepared that we should devote ourselves to them.

Christ is our Peace

• 11 Remember that you were pagans even in your flesh and the Jews, who call themselves Circumcised (because of a surgical circumcision), called you Uncircumcised. 12 At that time you were without Christ, you did not belong to the community of Israel; the covenants of God and his promises were not for you; you had no hope and were without God in this world. 13 But now, in Christ Jesus and by his blood, you who were once far off have come near.

14 For Christ is our peace, he who has made the two peoples one, 15 destroying in his own flesh the wall—the hatred—which separated us. He abolished the Law with its commands and precepts. He made peace in uniting the two peoples in him, creating out of the two one New Man. 16 He destroyed hatred and reconciled us both to God through the cross, making the two one body.

17 He came to proclaim peace; peace to you who were far off, peace to the Jews who were near. 18 Through him we—the two peoples—approach the Father in one Spirit.

19 Now you are no longer strangers or guests, but fellow citizens of the holy people: you are of the household of God. You are the house 20 whose foundations are the apostles and prophets, and whose cornerstone is Christ Jesus. 21 In him the whole structure is joined together and rises to be a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you too are being built to become the spiritual sanctuary of God.

EPHESIANS 1

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 12:29:16 +0000

1 1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,

to the saints in Ephesus, to you who share Christian faith:

2 receive grace and peace from God our Father and from Jesus the Lord.

• 3 Blessed be God, the Father of Christ Jesus our Lord,

who in Christ has blessed us from heaven with every spiritual blessing.

4 God chose us in Christ before the creation of the world

to be holy and without sin in his presence.

5 From eternity he destined us in love

to be his adopted sons and daughters through Christ Jesus,

thus fulfilling his free and generous will.

This goal suited him:

6 that his loving-kindness which he granted us in his Beloved

might finally receive all glory and praise.

7 For in Christ we obtain freedom, sealed by his blood,

and have the forgiveness of sins.

In this appears the greatness of his grace,

8 which he lavished on us.

In all wisdom and understanding,

9 God has made known to us his mysterious design,

in accordance with his loving-kindness in Christ.

10 In him and under him God wanted to unite,

when the fullness of time had come,

everything in heaven and on earth.

11 By a decree of Him who disposes all things

according to his own plan and decision

we, the Jews, have been chosen and called

12 and we were awaiting the Messiah,

for the praise of his glory.

13 You, on hearing the word of truth,

the Gospel that saves you,

have believed in him.

And, as promised, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit,

14 the first pledge of what we shall receive,

on the way to our deliverance as a people of God,

for the praise of his glory.

God has put all things under the feet of Christ

• 15 I have been told of your faith and your affection towards all the believers, 16 so I always give thanks to God, remembering you in my prayers.

17 May the God of Christ Jesus our Lord, the Father of Glory, reveal himself to you and give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation, that you may know him.

18 May he enlighten your inner vision, that you may appreciate the things we hope for, since we were called by God.

May you know how great is the inheritance, the glory, God sets apart for his saints;

19 may you understand with what extraordinary power he acts in favor of us who believe.

20 He revealed his almighty power in Christ when he raised him from the dead and had him sit at his right hand in heaven, 21 far above all rule, power, authority, dominion, or any other supernatural force that could be named, not only in this world but in the world to come as well.

22 Thus has God put all things under the feet of Christ and set him above all things, as head of the Church 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

GALATIANS 6

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 12:27:21 +0000

Various counsels

6 1 Brethren, in the event of someone falling into a sin, you who are spiritual shall set him aright with the spirit of kindness. Take care for you, too, may be tempted. 2 Carry each other’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. 3 If anyone thinks he is something, when in fact he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 Let each one examine his own conduct and boast for himself, if he wants to do so, but not before others. 5 In this, let each one carry his own things.

6 He who receives the teaching of the Word ought to share the good things he has with the one who instructs him. 7 Do not be fooled. God cannot be deceived. You reap what you sow. 8 The person who sows for the benefit of his own flesh shall reap corruption and death from the flesh. He who sows in the spirit shall reap eternal life from the Spirit. 9 Let us do good without being discouraged; in due time we shall reap the reward of our constancy. 10 So while there is time, let us do good to all and especially to our family in the faith.

I am crucified with Christ

• 11 See these large letters I use when I write to you in my own hand.

Who obliges you to be circumcised? 12 Those who are most anxious to put up a good show in life: what if the cross of Christ should bring them some trouble! 13 Not for being circumcised do they observe the Law: what interests them is the external rite. What a boast for them if they had you circumcised!

14 For me, I do not wish to take pride in anything except in the cross of Christ Jesus our Lord. Through him the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.

15 Let us no longer speak of the circumcised and of non-Jews, but of a new creation. 16Let those who live according to this rule receive peace and mercy: they are the Israel of God! 17 Let no one trouble me any longer: for my part, I bear in my body the marks of Jesus.

18 May the grace of Christ Jesus our Lord be with your spirit brothers and sisters. Amen.

GALATIANS 5

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 12:26:25 +0000

5 • 1 Christ freed us to make us really free. So remain firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. 2 I, Paul, say this to you: if you receive circumcision, Christ can no longer help you. 3 Once more I say to whoever receives circumcision: you are now bound to keep the whole Law. 4 All you who pretend to become righteous through the observance of the Law have separated yourselves from Christ and have fallen away from grace.

5 As for us, through the Spirit and faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6 In Christ Jesus it is irrelevant whether we be circumcised or not; what matters is faith working through love.

7 You had begun your race well, who then hindered you on the way? Why did you stop obeying the truth? 8 This was not in obedience to God who calls you: 9 in fact, a little leaven is affecting the whole of you. 10 I am personally convinced that you will not go astray, but the one who confuses you, whoever he may be, shall receive punishment.

11 I myself, brothers, could I not preach circumcision? Then I would no longer be persecuted. But where would be the scandal of the cross? 12 Would that those who confuse would castrate themselves!

True freedom

• 13 You, brothers and sisters, were called to enjoy freedom; I am not speaking of that freedom which gives free rein to the desires of the flesh, but of that which makes you slaves of one another through love. 14 For the whole Law is summed up in this sentence: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 15 But if you bite and tear each other to pieces, be careful lest you all perish.

16 Therefore I say to you: walk according to the Spirit and do not give way to the desires of the flesh! 17 For the desires of the flesh war against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are opposed to the flesh. Both are in conflict with each other, so that you cannot do everything you would like. 18 But when you are led by the Spirit you are not under the Law.

19 You know what comes from the flesh: fornication, impurity and shamelessness, 20 idol worship and sorcery, hatred, jealousy and violence, anger, ambition, division, factions, 21 and envy, drunkenness, orgies and the like. I again say to you what I have already said: those who do these things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy and peace, patience, understanding of others, kindness and fidelity, 23 gentleness and self-control. For such things there is no Law or punishment. 24 Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its vices and desires.

25 If we live by the Spirit, let us live in a spiritual way. 26 Let us not be conceited; let there be no rivalry or envy of one another.

GALATIANS 4

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 12:25:32 +0000

4 • 1 But listen, as long as the heir of the host is a child, he has no advantage over the slaves, although he is the master of them all. 2 He is subject to those who care for him and who are entrusted with his affairs until the time set by his father comes. 3 In the same way we as children were first subjected to the created forces that govern the world. 4 But when the fullness of time came, God sent his Son. He came born of woman and subject to the Law, 5 in order to redeem the subjects of the Law, that we might receive adoption as children of God. 6 And because you are children, God has sent into your hearts the Spirit of his Son which cries out: Abba! that is, Father!

7 You yourself are no longer a slave but a son or daughter, and yours is the inheritance by God’s grace.

8 When you did not know God, you served those who are not gods. 9 But now that you have known God—or rather he has known you—how can you turn back to weak and impoverished created things? Do you want to be enslaved again? 10 Will you again observe this and that day, and the new moon, and this period and that year…? 11 I fear I may have wasted my time with you.

I still suffer for you

• 12 I implore you, dearly beloved, do as I do, just as I became like you. You have not offended me in anything. 13 Remember that it was an illness that first gave me the opportunity to announce the Gospel to you. 14 Although my illness was a trial to you, you did not despise or reject me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus.

15 Where is this bliss? For I can testify that you would have even plucked out your eyes to give them to me. 16 But now, have I become your enemy for telling you the truth?

17 Those who show consideration to you are not sincere; they want to separate you from me, so that you may show interest in them. 18 Would that you were surrounded with sincere care at all times, and not only from me when I am with you!

19 My children! I still suffer the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you. 20 How I wish I could be there with you at this moment and find the right way of talking to you.

The comparison of Sarah and Hagar

• 21 Tell me, you who desire to submit yourselves to the Law, did you listen to it? 22 It says that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman, the other by the free woman, his wife. 23 The son of the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but the son of the free woman was born in fulfillment of God’s promise.

24 Here we have an allegory and the figures of two covenants. The first is the one from Mount Sinai, represented through Hagar: her children have slavery for their lot. 25 We know that Hagar was from Mount Sinai in Arabia: she stands for the present city of Jerusalem which is in slavery with her children.

26 But the Jerusalem above, who is our mother, is free. 27 And Scripture says of her: Rejoice, barren woman without children, break forth in shouts of joy, you who do not know the pains of childbirth, for many shall be the children of the forsaken mother, more than of the married woman.

28 You, dearly beloved, are children of the promise, like Isaac. 29 But as at that time the child born according to the flesh persecuted Isaac, who was born according to the spirit, so is it now. 30 And what does Scripture say? Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave cannot share the inheritance with the son of the free woman.

31 Brethren, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

GALATIANS 3

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 12:24:32 +0000

We are saved by faith

3 • 1 How foolish you are, Galatians! How could they bewitch you after Jesus Christ has been presented to you as crucified? 2 I shall ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by the practice of the Law, or by believing the message? 3 How can you be such fools: you begin with the Spirit and end up with the flesh!

4 So you have experienced all this in vain! Would that it were not so! 5 Did God give you the Spirit and work miracles among you, because of your observance of the Law or because you believed in his message? 6 Remember Abraham: he believed God and because of this was held to be a just man. 7 Understand then that those who follow the way of faith are sons and daughters of Abraham.

8 The Scriptures foresaw that by the way of faith, God would give true righteousness to the non-Jewish nations. For God’s promise to Abraham was this: In you shall all the nations be blessed. 9 So now those who take the way of faith receive the same blessing as Abraham who believed; 10 but those who rely on the practice of the Law are under a curse, for it is written: Cursed is everyone who does not always fulfill everything written in the Law.

11 It is plainly written that no one becomes righteous, in God’s way, by the Law: by faith the righteous shall live. 12 Yet the Law gives no place to faith, for according to it: the one who fulfills the commandments shall have life through them.

13 Now Christ rescued us from the curse of the Law by becoming cursed himself for our sake, as it is written: there is a curse on everyone who is hanged on a tree. 14 So the blessing granted to Abraham reached the pagan nations in and with Christ, and we received the promised Spirit through faith.

The promise, not the Law, was the gift of God

• 15 Brothers, listen to this comparison. When anyone has made his will in the prescribed form, no one can annul it or add anything to it. 16 Well now, what God promised Abraham was for his descendant. Scripture does not say: for the descendants, as if they were many. It means only one: this will be for your descendant, and this is Christ. 17 Now I say this: if God has made a testament in due form, it cannot be annulled by the Law which came four hundred and thirty years later; God’s promise cannot be cancelled. 18 But if we now inherit for keeping the law, it is not because of the promise. Yet that promise was God’s gift to Abraham.

The Law was part of God’s pedagogy

• 19 Why then the Law? It was added because of transgressions; but was only valid until the descendant would come to whom the promise had been made; and it was ordained through angels by a mediator. 20 A mediator means that there are parties, and God is one.

21 Does the Law then compete with the promises of God? Not at all. Only if we had been given a Law capable of raising life, could righteousness be the fruit of the Law. 22 But the written Law has imprisoned all things under the power of sin, so that what was promised through faith in Jesus Christ, would be accomplished in those who believe.

We are now sons and daughters of God

23 Before the time of faith had come, the Law confined us and kept us in custody until the time in which faith would show up. 24 The Law then was serving as a slave to look after us until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. 25 With the coming of faith, we are no longer submitted to this guidance.

26 Now, in Christ Jesus, all of you are sons and daughters of God through faith. 27 All of you who were given to Christ through baptism, have put on Christ. 28 Here there is no longer any difference between Jew or Greek, or between slave or freed, or between man and woman: but all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29 And because you belong to Christ, you are of Abraham’s race and you are to inherit God’s promise.

GALATIANS 2

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 11:56:24 +0000

Paul with the apostles

2 • 1 After fourteen years I again went up to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and Titus came with us. 2 Following a revelation, I went to lay before them the Gospel that I am preaching to the pagans. I had a private meeting with the leaders—lest I should be working or have worked in a wrong way. 3 But they did not impose circumcision, not even on Titus who is Greek and who was with me. 4 But there were some intruders and false brothers who had gained access to watch over the way we live the freedom Christ has given us. They would have us enslaved by the Law, 5 but we refused to yield even for a moment; so that the truth of the Gospel remain intact for you.

6 The others, the more respectable leaders—it does not matter what they were before: God pays no attention to the status of a person—gave me no new instructions. 7 They recognized that I have been entrusted to give the Good News to the pagan nations, just as Peter has been entrusted to give it to the Jews. 8 In the same way that God made Peter the apostle of the Jews, he made me the apostle of the pagans.

9 James, Cephas and John acknowledged the graces God gave me. Those men who were regarded as the pillars of the Church stretched out their hand to me and Barnabas as a sign of fellowship; we would go to the pagans and they to the Jews. 10 We should only keep in mind the poor among them. I have taken care to do this.

The conflict with Peter

• 11 When later Cephas came to Antioch, I confronted him since he deserved to be blamed. 12 Before some of James’ people arrived, he used to eat with non-Jewish people. But when they arrived, he withdrew and did not mingle anymore with them, for fear of the Jewish group. 13 The rest of the Jews followed him in this pretense, and even Barnabas was part of this insincerity. 14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the Gospel, I said to Cephas publicly: If you who are Jewish agreed to live like the non-Jews, setting aside the Jewish customs, why do you now compel the non-Jews to live like Jews?

• 15 We are Jews by birth; we are not pagan sinners. 16 Yet we know that a person is justified not by practicing the law but by faith in Christ Jesus. So we have believed in Christ Jesus that we may receive true righteousness from faith in Christ Jesus, and not from the practices of the Law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law.

17 Now, if in our own effort to be justified in Christ we ourselves have been found to be sinners, then Christ would be at the service of sin. Not so! 18 But look: if we do away with something and then restore it, we admit we did wrong.

19 As for me, the very Law brought me to die to the Law, that I may live for God. I am crucified with Christ. 20 Do I live? It is no longer me, Christ lives in me. My life in this body is life through faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 In this way I don’t ignore the gift of God, for, if justification comes through the practice of the Law, Christ would have died for nothing.

Commentaries on Ephesians

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 11:51:33 +0000

Should we speak of a “letter” from Paul? The letter to the Romans was already for the most part, a theme on faith and salvation. Here it is even more so: no news, no personal message for a particular community, but once more a lengthy dwelling on world salvation. It was, doubtless, destined for the Churches of the Ephesus area.

Why the world, what is happening to humanity? Every day the same question confronts us with more insistence, in the measure that recent years have seen mass movements on the part of very diverse peoples. Even those eager to dominate know they can no longer do so unless they speak for the majority. Where is salvation for humanity? What is its future? Paul answers from his prison in Rome. As we know from Acts (28:16 and 30), Paul was prisoner in Rome during the sixties. In this capital of the only world known to the West, he had ample leisure to evaluate the doctrines then circulating throughout the Roman Empire. They came from the Middle East where they were of special concern for the Christians in the region of Ephesus. Just as other religions claimed to offer a universal way of salvation, they offered Christ, as the only savior of the one humanity.

This letter to the Ephesians seems to have been written after the one to the Colossians. Paul again takes up and develops God’s plan that he must have understood through a revelation. The world was created for humankind to enable it to emerge as the New Human, one family in Christ. All will find themselves, each one in place, around a person capable of welcoming all, each in his own fullness.

Some people think the letter to the Ephesians is not Paul’s: how could he speak in an impersonal way to a community where he had worked for more than two years, approximately from 55 to 57 AD? As we have said, the letter must have been addressed, not only to the Christians of Ephesus, but more widely to the communities of the valley of Lycus: Hierapolis, Laodicea (Col 4:13 and 16) and Colossus which had been evangelized by Paul’s companions, in particular by Epaphras (Col 1:7).

Others think that the questions raised are more suited to a time later than Paul’s: like the letters of Titus and Timothy, this would be his only in a very broad sense. When one is aware of the very low level of Christian literature, immediately after the death of the apostles, it is difficult to accept that a letter of such theological certitude and of such doctrinal worth could have matured in someone other than Paul, even if he had left the writing of it to one of his disciples, Tychicus (Eph 6:21) or Timothy (Col 1:1).

• 1.3 This first page of the letter to the Ephesians is the best comprehensive expression of the Christian mystery in the Bible. It also serves to balance Paul’s great presentation in his letter to the Romans, which could appear to center God’s work in the tragedy of sinful humanity. The Letter to the Ephesians, like the Gospel of John, speaks of a re-creation of the world whereas the Letter to the Romans used more juridical terms: debt and reparation for sin.

Blessed be God! Usually Paul starts his letters with praise and thanksgiving. Here, however, the prayer is unusually lengthy: Paul gives thanks and at the same time proclaims God’s mysterious plan, which he understood through a revelation (3:3).

His mysterious design (v. 9). Actually Paul says: this mystery; this term designated at the time a decision or a secret doctrine. Here Paul speaks of the plan of God the Creator: a plan rooted in the mystery of the three divine Persons. We know that from God the Father proceed the Son and the Spirit, and from him they receive his very divinity, the three being only one God. Besides this communication and this effusion of life in God, before the creation of the world, God the Father wished to communicate his riches, beyond himself, to created beings. It is there that we have the beginning of all human history. God willed that sons and daughters (v. 5) multiply around his only Son and in him, be capable of receiving his Spirit and returning it to him. They would return to him at the end of history, forming one body (v. 10).

God chose us in Christ (v. 4). Note the expression in Christ on which we have commented in 1 Cor 1:4. Every creature comes from God through his Son in whom God contemplates his own riches, and on whom he pours his love. We are as God has loved us, and we are in him, in some way, from the beginning.

In creating us free, God knows that our freedom is fragile: it will be difficult for us to give him a filial response. How can we return to God, at the heart of his mystery, without dying to ourselves? All history must necessarily be a continual death and resurrection, for nations as for persons. So Divine Wisdom foresaw that the Son would be in our midst, with his cross and his resurrection, to show us the love of the Father who has called us (v. 5). And of course, wherever the Son is, the Spirit will be given (vv. 7 and 13).

In Christ we obtain freedom, sealed by his blood (v. 7). This does not mean that Christ shed his blood to make amends to his Father offended by sin, as if God were resentful as we often are, and as if his dignity were offended. Paul is referring to a biblical law: the emancipation of slaves used to be signed in blood (Ex 21:6).

Sealed with the Spirit (v. 13). The Jews were branded, “sealed” in the flesh by the circumcision ritual that showed they belonged to God. Christians, on the other hand, had received the Holy Spirit who acted in them: from the Spirit come faith, hope and love, the many forms of service, the gift of knowledge, miracles and healings. These gifts are the most obvious proof that they have become children of God. These gifts are only a foretaste of all the marvels that God has in store for us.

Paul distinguishes something like two insights: God’s plan in eternity (vv. 1-10) and its realization in time (vv. 11-14). The last two stanzas correspond to two stages in sacred history:

– We have been chosen and called (v. 11). Paul speaks for himself and in the name of the Jewish people chosen to be the people of God.

– You now… (v. 13). Here Paul means the pagan people like the Ephesians, whom he is addressing. And so, the fullness of time had come, that is to say the time of the Gospel proclaimed to the entire world so that everyone could receive the gifts of the Spirit.

This page clarifies some essential points of faith.

From eternity he destined us in love (v. 5). Here we recognize what Paul has affirmed in Romans 8:29-30. We cannot omit the word “predestination.” Many have used this word in the past in a different way from Paul’s. While Paul shows the Father’s decision to pour on created sons and daughters the infinite love which is lived within God, these preachers later spoke of a God who decides freely (and even capriciously) who will, and who will not, be saved. On this subject see “PREDESTINATION” in Romans 9.

It is impossible for us to understand how we can be free if we are known by God in eternity. It is not for that reason that we should share the doubts and anguish of those who believe they are subjected to a destiny or a fearsome “will of God.” In reality, we are “subject” to love and blessings (3) that await our response (see com. on Rom 9).

Paul does not speak of condemnation of anyone: he only affirms that God gives proof of a special love for those he calls to become members of Christ.

Many Christians are shocked when told they have received more than others, that in no other place have people been gifted with truth as they have, and they think: would it not be more honest and more humble to accept that all religions have their own truth? Yes, in a way all have some truth, but to doubt this unique grace that is to know God in Christ, is to deny the entire revelation of the Bible. See on this subject the note “The three sayings of God” in Genesis 12.

God chose us in Christ (v. 4). Many Christian authors have spoken as if, in the beginning, God created man without considering his possible fall and that Christ only came to save the lost sinner. This is not what Paul says here: from the beginning the coming of Christ and the gift of the Spirit together with the laws of life and the course of history are mysteriously linked with the order existing in God himself.

The Beloved (v. 6) is always the first for God and for us the desire to be “saved” cannot be the basis of our faith. It would be just as egoistic as practicing one’s religion in order to enjoy good health. The Son has revealed to us the Glory of the Father and how he returned to the Father. He wished to draw us out of our egoism, even our religious egoism (Jn 17 and Phil 2:9).

• 15. I have been told of your faith and your affection. Paul delights in the faith of the Ephesians but, above all, he prays they may have hope that must be the source of their dynamism. He describes the stages of hope this way: to know the Father; to appreciate the inheritance set apart for his saints; to understand the power of God to bring us to the realization of these hopes.

It is this hope that cracked open the immobility of ancient societies. Paul lived in a world where hope was considered an illness. Any project to transform humanity was taken as an illusion, and so the hopes of a nascent science were quickly smothered. Believers, on the contrary, lived the experience of a resurrection. In Christian countries appeared the certainty of a common destiny of humanity (the word “humanity” was non-existent at the time). People were beginning to be seen as persons in a truer way and it was this that set history in motion, never to return. How astonishing to see in our world so many Christians who believe, but who have very little hope: are they not the ones who carry the hope of the world?

Far above all power (v. 21). In Paul’s days, neither Jews nor Christians doubted that the world was governed by supernatural powers, “angels.” They called them: Rulers, Powers, Authorities, Dominion, and Paul was saying to them: all these Powers are inferior to Christ. In our days we express ourselves differently. Nevertheless, we see the universe subject to the laws of nature, to the forces of matter and of life. It is also subject to obscure forces: collective prejudices, vice and fanaticism. These ruled the world, preventing the emergence of humanity, until the coming of Christ: see Gal 3:23.

God has put all things under the feet of Christ (v. 22). This means the same as the words of our creed: “Jesus is seated at the right hand of God.” It means that in rising, Christ, the God-Human became the First in the universe. All things under his feet except humankind.

Paul adds: “He made him head of the Church.” Christ acts differently in two areas: in the world, where he is the invisible center in charge; in the Church, of which he is the head, where he can show the riches of his Spirit.

• 2.1 The path of humans without Christ leads to death.

We obeyed the urges of our human nature and consented to its desires (v. 3). There is no need to seek a clearer affirmation of what we call original sin. Paul does not speak of a fault committed before our personal sins, and in addition to the sins we are responsible for. It is a flaw easily seen in human condition and in all our acts; it is the liabilities of our life insofar as God has not taken us in hand.

The account of Genesis (chaps. 2–3) has placed in the past this “original” sin, as well as creation. It is a way of speaking proper to Hebrew culture. In fact both our creation by God (v. 10) and our revolt against him are a part of our daily reality.

He raised us to life with Christ (v. 6). Actually an authentic conversion is experienced as a resurrection. Paul is saying more: nothing can stop God’s merciful plan. He sees beyond time and has already raised us with Christ. We are seated with him in heaven, that is to say, assured of victory.

• 11. Another aspect of the human condition without Christ: death goes hand in hand with divisions. Before Christ, humanity was divided and people did not know our common Father. Since they were not mature enough for a quick unification in the true faith, God took that into account when he began to prepare for Christ’s coming. He chose a people and to avoid their being contaminated by the errors of the pagans, he separated them through a law that forbade their living together with other peoples (see Mk 7:14 and Acts 10:1). So there was in the Jerusalem Temple, far from the Sanctuary, a patio open to the pagans and another one, near the Sanctuary reserved for the Jews, and a wall between the two. There came a time when this dividing line became a sign of all the barriers that Christ was going to destroy.

He taught them to share life with non-Jews, forbidden until then. Christ, put on the cross by Jews and pagans, overcomes the hatred of all by a love that forgives and, once risen, gathers all people to himself.

Thus, just as the cross is made of two pieces, one vertical, towards heaven and the other, horizontal, towards the earth, so peace goes in two directions: towards God and towards others. He has made the two peoples one… and reconciled us both to God. These are the two sides of only one thing, because human violence is the other expression of our inability to meet God.

Christ united them, that is to say, whether we like it or not, the Gospel will destroy all differences between people. No matter how much segregation emerges in our societies, our laws and our institutions will collapse perhaps through violence, but better by being discredited through the sacrifices of their victims.

In one Spirit. It is only through the Spirit that each one has communion with others. Often, unity among people means one party, one ideology, one religion. Imposed order destroys both the one who accepts it and the one capable of silencing his adversaries.

Unity in the Church is not uniformity: the believers are not of one mold. It is not a question of having the same options regarding human problems; we have the right to differ in our view of faith provided that we accept all that the Credo contains. The Spirit enables each person to be true to himself and to continue “in communion” with the community. This is how the “new creature” is born: not as the work of politics or of any ideology, but as the work of God, since we are dealing with a new creation as Paul says.

You are of the household of God. In biblical language this means: to belong to God’s family. From there, Paul moves on to another image: you are the household, namely, the true temple of God. The community of believers form the temple, or better, is being transformed into the temple of God.

This imposing vision of the Church and our unity in the Church will perhaps astonish many Christians of today who are usually more aware of their responsibilities towards the world than towards our antiquated Church. Yet, of what Spirit shall we be bearers, and shall we do this work if we are not supported by a community? Solidarity with those who share our options and our culture cannot replace participation in the Christian community. There are probably many things in the Christian community we are not happy with. However, it would be a bad sign if we were unable to recognize in it the truth that is missing in our non-Christian friends, and without which we would lose our reason for living.

• 3.1 Prisoner of Christ. Paul writes this letter from his prison in Rome, but he does not say: prisoner “for the cause” of Christ. He is prisoner of Christ, for he cannot escape from Christ’s continual hold on him, nor from the apostolate that God has destined for him (1 Cor 9:16).

Paul emphasizes what he has meditated on in jail, what seems most new in the work of Christ: this is the “mystery,” or God’s plan calling all people to become a single body, without any racial distinctions. Jesus proclaimed this equality (Mt 20), but the early Christians needed several divine interventions before they were convinced (Acts 10).

The heavenly forces… (v. 10): see commentary on Gal 3:23 and Eph 1:21. We would not be distorting Paul’s thinking by saying that multinational directors, presidents and the great of this world are going to discover the true face of God, who manifests his glory in his poor and his saints (2 Thes 1:10), through the Church.

How fitting it would be to also express in poetry the wonderment of all nature, in discovering what God’s power has achieved after billions of years. Paul believes he is approaching the end, and we as well in this century where events move faster and faster, and we discover every day new signs of human awareness at a world level.

• 14. And now I kneel… without further delay. Paul moves from his presentation to prayer. Such is the way of the interior person (v. 16) who is not satisfied with thinking about God or talking about him as if he were an object. The Spirit preserves in him the awareness of this Presence that gives him life. As St. Teresa said: “I carry the heart of my God and the God of my heart everywhere.”

The Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth has received its name (v. 15). Our time has greatly devalued “the Father” with the obsession of an authority that would smother the personality of its children. This is not Paul’s way: he marvels before the One who alone is from all eternity. The Father is the source of the divine being, from him comes the order and the mystery of the divine persons. From him the universe draws its riches. Paul, speaking of the common destiny of all peoples, recalls that each one of them, every family, has received its name from the Father, which means its identity and its dignity.

Certainly we must recognize that the word Father no longer has the same meaning as in Paul’s time, when father was given a greater authority and respect. Once woman found her rightful place in the family and in society we are inclined to speak of “parents” rather than of “father.” Yet it is not by chance that God revealed himself in a culture—that of the Hebrews—where God was a masculine figure. Indeed they had already passed the primitive culture in which the woman was the center of family and the religion subsequently gave highest place to a female divinity. Among the neighboring peoples gods and goddesses went together. So God could have revealed to them with diverse faces, but this he did not do. Even if the Bible states that in God are all the riches of paternal and maternal love (Is 49:14), it keeps to the word Father. In so doing it insists on the liberty and initiative of God in all that he does: the universe and we ourselves have not come from God as a spontaneous “emanation”, as naturally born from the bosom of the all-powerful divinity. Everything was a lucid and creative decision.

Therefore, the family, with parental authority, is the basis of society, and fatherhood is also seen in the Church: the succession of bishops, with the authority of the hierarchy not dependent on people’s votes, is part of the divine order in the Church. A society which does not acknowledge fathers and which scorns marriage, as well as “spontaneous” churches, are devious structures.

The love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge (v. 19). Paul is certainly thinking of the love Christ has shown and continues to show him personally even in proportion to his trials. The knowledge and experience of this love surpasses all that could ever be imagined. We shall not find it through books and study or transcendental meditation. It will be freely given to us, on God’s initiative, on the way of love of which Christ made himself the model and the center.

• 4.1 Here, Paul returns to an important problem in communities where the style was still very free, we might say very charismatic, since the community counted on the unpredictable action of the Spirit through the charisms of different members. It is necessary that all in their own vocation work for the building up of the one body. Paul enthusiastically names all that we have in common through Christ and the action of the Spirit. It is not merely a temple that is constructed (see chapter 2:19-22); it is the Body of Christ, of the Perfect Man the mature one, in which Christ expresses his fullness.

Jesus of Nazareth lived humbly until his death only once, but having been made the Head of humanity through his resurrection, he suffers everywhere; he works in every field of human activity; gives his life in every possible way; he gathers in himself every form of love, and lives the whole diversity of human existence in the person of his members.

Then, we will no longer be like children. Paul suggests that the Ephesians are still children, at least from time to time, when they allow themselves to be influenced by some trend of opinion. He invites them to become a mature community, capable of being led by the truth, and of building itself up through love. We too should ask ourselves if we have really gone beyond the time when the “faithful” constantly waited for others to think for them, guide them and push them.

• 17. The old self and the new self. This image of Paul opposes two kinds of life that co-exist in every society and in a certain sense, in each of us. Conversion has not installed us in a state of perfection; even if we are at peace with God in a very real sense (Rom 5:1) unity is not in us. We experience temptation and struggle; our decisions both small and great lead us in one of two directions, either the old self hopelessly ruined and a slave of selfishness, or a person transfigured by love.

The self according to God. God created Man in his image, but the one who is truly this image is the risen Christ, conqueror of sin and of death. Here, as elsewhere in the Bible, Man is both Christ and humanity at the same time, and it is each one of us at our place in the “Body.” All that we admire in Christ is also for our benefit.

The white garment that adults put on at baptism denotes the change of life that they are beginning. This renewal may also take place after a retreat or when God unexpectedly makes us abandon a routine Christian life devoid of ambition. Then we put on Christ with rediscovered faith.

Paul immediately points out some of the moral requirements of this daily renewal: frankness, sobriety, cleanliness of language and imagination. Christian faith does not allow us to live in a carefree way, as did the oriental religions in the time of Paul. There much was said about renaissance and knowledge of mysteries, but nothing about the slavery of sex and the evil of social life.

Old self, new self correspond with other expressions of Paul: “according to the flesh” or “according to the Spirit” (Rom 8:5); “children of darkness” or “children of light” (Eph 5:8); “slaves of sin” or “persons free in Christ” (Gal 5:1).

Do not sadden the Holy Spirit. It is easy to understand this expression if we think of the sadness we feel each time we reject a good idea, a desire to do better: sadness of the “Holy Spirit” who suggested it in the first place, sadness of our own spirit, for it knows what we have lost.

• 5.1 Here are a few elements of a new way to live, as was already shown in the previous verses.

To imitate God (Rom 5:6-11) who loves everyone, the good and the bad (Mt 5:48). In a more tangible way we have a model in Christ, the Son of God, who gave himself out of love for us, as the way, the light and life.

Reject all that is shameful (v. 12) and that can only be done in the dark. It is true that much that was shameful has become normal today for many people: will it be so for a person who often seeks light and looks for it in the face in Christ? The witness of one Christian who lives in light (and still more of a community) is enough to condemn what has been taken as normal (v. 13).

To be more sensible and responsible in our lives. Because these days are evil (v. 16): that means that if we are unable to judge, choose, make a personal decision, the very current of daily events will keep us in mediocrity or will lead us to evil. Everything changes when a believer, a couple, a group “awakens” and takes daily or weekly time out to discover what is God’s will for them, in the time and circumstances in which they live.

Do not get drunk (v. 18)! We need stimulants; there is nothing wrong in experiencing a sort of trance to the point of feeling happy and relaxed when ice is broken and tongues untied. The Bible has praise for wine. It is impossible, however, to experience at the same time the ecstasy that comes from the spirit and that which is the effect of alcohol, drugs and dangerous diversions. We must constantly make choices.

Sing and celebrate the Lord in your heart, giving thanks (v. 19)! Experience the comfort of the Spirit and find it in a community gathering.

• 21. In the passage 5:21–6:9, Paul more or less repeats what he wrote in the letter to the Colossians (3:18–4:1). Here he has so much on his mind on the role of Christ as head of redeemed humanity that he will develop in an unexpected way the meaning of marriage.

So wives to their husbands (v. 22). It is not Paul who in the name of God demands that the wife be submissive: it is the society of the time that required it. And Paul says: “Let all kinds of submission become obedience to Christ.”

So, even if Paul’s way of speaking reflects the culture of his day with regard to marriage, there is no reason to scorn his teaching in support of feminism. There have been and there are different cultural models regarding the relationship between husband and wife. In our time the models differ in the economically developed countries from those of the Third World, for the middle and lower classes. What is still better, it is each couple that should find its own balance and the taking of initiatives according to the natural authority and the capacity of each one.

In any case, whether one partner makes a decision or follows it, neither will feel superior or inferior since the ideal for both is to “make oneself slave” (Mk 9:35). Paul says: The husband is the head but being the head is not the same as being the boss. Think of Christ: he has authority since he is the truth of God (which the husband is not to his wife); Paul however prefers to show him as the savior of his partner baptized humanity.

Paul points out what is essential in conjugal love when he recalls the word of Scripture: a man shall leave… (v. 31). He applies this word to the union of God with humanity in Christ, the Beloved (Mk 2:19). For marriage contains a mystery, that is a divine treasure which cannot be understood before the coming of Christ. When it is said that marriage is a “sacrament,” that does not mean primarily that there is a Church ceremony: it signifies that through marriage and the couples who live a life of love “according to Christ,” the mystery of the love of God is manifested among humankind. That is, in our midst, the sign of a covenant that God made with humanity, as the husband with his wife: a covenant of love, fidelity, fruitfulness.

He gave himself up for her. Christ finds us in our sins and he takes charge of us, even to the ultimate consequences: he gives his life to purify us. This is the way to show the main quality of Christian love, which is faithfulness. The self-gift of the spouse is permanent and from that moment on, each will do his best to save the other, that is, to help the other grow and be better. The perfect couple is not the one that lives without problems and accepts mediocrity, but the two who compel each other to give their best.

He washed her by the baptism in the Word (see James 1:18-21 and Jn 15:3). If the ritual of baptism is important, what is even more important is for us to welcome the Word of God that gives us life.

Many young people flee marriage, partly because they fear a risk (total fidelity is indeed a way of losing one’s life: Mk 8:35), partly because they consider that their love is their own business. Paul shows that Christ’s love for us, however personal it may be, never forgets his love for all those who make up his body. It is an example: married Christians are invited to have their place in the transformation of the world through the radiation of their love and their service to others.

• 6.1 Paul reminds children that God asks for obedience, and parents that they must not neglect their duty as educators (see commentary on Sirac 30:1-2). Parents have the difficult task of leading their children to true freedom, teaching them first to obey a law, to serve rather than be served, to share rather than demand. Later, they will show them how to follow the calls of the Spirit, well beyond what is considered good or bad all around them.

Paul reminds the slave of his nobility. Let him live without servility: this is the first step toward genuine liberation.

• 10. Paul has said what he had to say. What does his invitation to be strong mean, when he takes his examples from military life? Is it because he feels the Christians of Ephesus are not sufficiently strong? See verses 18-20: Paul invites them, without saying it, to compare their situation with his. Free or slaves, most of them were people of modest means of the cities near Ephesus. Subjected for a long time to the Roman Empire that imposed peace on them, they were free of serious problems. They were not rich but they were able to content themselves with little. Under a Mediterranean sky they had abundant light and a friendly, natural environment. They found the faith at a time when it cost them little; what would they do the day the Empire became an obstacle and when suddenly they would be classed a bad lot, responsible for all that was wrong?

This is why Paul warns them: peace is only provisional, for the demon is waiting for his hour (11 and 16). Paul asks them to persevere in prayer: the only effective arms against evil are those that Christ has left us: truth, faith, the word of God… and if they believe they have found salvation, let them exert themselves to evangelize others.

Commentaries on Galatians

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 11:50:02 +0000

Who were the Galatians? This rather imprecise name can denote either the communities of Pisidia evangelized by Paul on his first mission (Acts 13:13–14:25), or those that Paul would have founded in the course of his second mission (Acts 16:5–18:23).

Paul writes because the community is in danger. Strange, he does not mention scandals, a conflict of authority as was the case in Corinth. There are indeed tensions and doubts: certain people overdo it and would like to restore Jewish practices. However it would seem neither the promoters of this return to the Law nor those who oppose it would expect such a strong warning from Paul. In fact he has seen through what they do: they want religious practices because they have not understood, or because they have forgotten that to be a Christian is not primarily to belong to a religion but to have faith.

The discovery of the Gospel had been for the Galatians a bath in freedom. Those who were Jews escaped religious practices that touched the whole of existence. Those who were Greek (and pagan) were liberated from a fatalist vision of the world and social prejudices. In both cases it was a complete change. Were they capable of following Paul when he spoke to them of his own experience, when he affirmed that Christ was able to fill our existence, that the Spirit directs us much better than religious obligations do?

At first, the Galatians lived what had been Paul’s life, but it was difficult for the community to maintain themselves along such a new line. Once the time of the first enthusiasm was over the great majority of these new Christians felt the need of rules and practices. They had faith in Christ but by no means could all of them be “spiritual” people.

There were persons who offered a response. They were, doubtless, Christians of Jewish origin, and they knew the benefits of a law. They aspired to assume the direction of the community, but chapter 6 of this letter shows that they also had ulterior motives: a return to Jewish practices opened all the doors of Jewish society. The Jewish communities flourishing throughout the Roman Empire were united and strengthened by common bonds; such relationship proved to be beneficial to them in many ways. Some Christians would prefer that kind of security rather than take the risk of embracing a new faith, and facing challenges and opposition which Christian communities had to face.

Paul’s response is severe; it will, perhaps, appear quite negative vis-a-vis religious practices: but it is the word of God. Relying on the rules and practices of a religion is to enclose oneself within a system, where the reward of one’s good deeds is constantly expected. Faith, on the contrary, is to give oneself to God and to his mystery, as awesome as the cross which is its symbol.

This is enough to understand that the letter to the Galatians speaks to the present when so many are searching for certitude. On the other hand in as much as the Church has to carry a number of Christians who have only a slight experience of life in the Spirit, it is always inclined to descend to their level and to become a religion again. So we must continually react and become conscious again of our identity: rediscover life by faith.

• 1.1 Paul reminds them and stresses the fact that he has been called and sent directly by God. Speaking of apostles he does not first think of Jesus’ Twelve who had been sent by him, but of others who had this title, sent by the Church and God, but in fact chosen by people.

• 6. I am surprised at how quickly you have abandoned God… and have gone to another gospel. There are many ways of preaching the Gospel and making of it a different one, no longer the Good News given by God through Jesus. Some of the Galatians who were of Jewish origin did not understand it. The style of life, in appearance more religious, that they were trying to impose on the community, was in fact a way of doubting Jesus, who alone is Savior.

The one we preached to you (v. 8). Astonishing words for us who are used to receiving different points of view: was Paul then infallible? He knew he was bearer, not only of the Word of God, but also of the “truth of the Gospel.” In fact the faith of the Church has always been the faith of the apostles: we believe in Jesus as the apostles believed, understood and taught. It is impossible to make this a subject of discussion without departing from the Christian faith. The doctrine received from the apostles and guarded by the Church is what we call Tradition.

• 11. The enemies of Paul criticize his authority saying that he was not an apostle like those Jesus had chosen. Paul will then briefly recall his itinerary: see on this subject Acts 9:1-31.

To reveal in me his Son (v. 16). Paul has not only “seen” Christ, he discovered him intimately present in himself. The risen Christ, Word and Wisdom of God, gave him in a unique illumination all the truth of faith (not all the truths which are only partial aspects which we may discover in different stages of life).

The case of Paul, whom Christ called directly, is special. Yet we see that Paul did not impose himself on the Church. Christ sent him to ask Ananias for baptism. Later he saw “Cephas” (the Aramean name for Peter), recognized head of the Church, and James, responsible for the Church of Jerusalem. This “union” or “communion” is indispensable for acting in the name of the Church.

Paul says: They acknowledged the graces God gave me (2:9): they recognized that the Spirit of God was in Paul’s work. The leaders in the Church do not impose a personal policy, but they try to recognize the call of the Holy Spirit.

• 2.1 This meeting in Jerusalem is related in Acts 15 and its commentary is found there.

When they became Christians, the Jews by race and religion continued to observe the Law of Moses in which the great commandments (to know God, not to murder…), the rituals of worship, and national customs are combined. When people of different races began to be converted to Christ, Paul demanded that they should not be forced to follow the Mosaic Law. Naturally, they had to respect their neighbor and were not to steal, but this emerges from the Gospel without having to impose the Mosaic Law.

So that the truth of the Gospel remain intact in you (v. 5). Because the Gospel frees us from all that limits our horizon. God is pure liberty and pure gift. May he be seen (it is not wrong) as the fabulous creator of an immense universe, or (what has more truth) as unique Love and Lover, Father of all who are able to return his love, he cannot tie us to a certain way of dressing nor enclose himself in our cooking and our times of prayer. Time has come for reciprocal kindness (Jn 1:17).

We are concerned, and rightly so, for keeping true faith. Here Paul shows that keeping the truth of the Gospel is not only a matter of formulas; our very way of life, free vis-à-vis of all that is not God, proclaims what the Gospel is.

It does not matter what they were before (v. 6). Peter, James and John had no titles, or money or culture. They may even have been despised by more learned believers. Paul does not pay attention to that; he looks upon them only as the leaders of the Church.

• 11. In the church, Paul feels it is his duty to reprimand the supreme leader, the first pope. Jesus promised Peter that his faith would not fail but he did not say that he would never make a mistake.

Jews did not eat with pagan non-Jews since, for them, it would have been something “impure,” a blemish. When some Jews were converted and entered the Church, if they had maintained this attitude toward their Christian brothers and sisters from another race, they would have kept an inadmissible division within a community renewed by Christ.

Peter (or Cephas: see Jn 1:42) knows that now all people are equal and he accepts for himself, not to take the Law into account. Yet he is afraid of what his friends and compatriots will think. He does not realize that, in order to please them, he is endangering the evangelization of those who are not Jewish. These people, in being seen as impure, are no longer at home in the Church. They are pressured to adopt the Jewish customs and with this, they will become alien to their own people. If they do not comply, they will be second-class citizens in the Church.

This problem is always with us, since often those who give the tone in the Christian community belong to a certain social level: others have no reason to do everything as they do. Each one in the Church comes from a particular milieu with its culture and language: we have the right to be shocked by what is foreign to our own culture but we must bear many things we do not like. The Church has to be open to diverse peoples.

• 15. We are Jews… Paul develops here what his reply to Peter contained: when you welcomed Christian faith, you gave up any hope of being rewarded for fulfilling the commandments; you put instead all your trust in Jesus as a Savior. This challenge has made Christian faith very strong. If now, for fear of scandalizing the Jews you decline from eating with non-Jews, all will understand that you have gone too far and that in fact the Law is still valid.

If we do away with something and then restore it (v. 18). This is exactly what the Galatians are doing in their turn. Paul taught them to be free of the prejudices of their pagan religion just as of the practices of the Old Testament. Now without these practices they feel naked: was faith in Christ sufficient when all around them each one had religion and practices? It was not pleasant to be circumcised, but at least, it gave you an identity.

We have here a summary of what Paul will develop four years later in chapters 2–8 in his letter to the Romans. We must not let the defense of Christian freedom, something that was so new and had not finished cracking cultural and social molds, hide from us what Paul would most like to transmit: “Christ lives in me.” Paul is not a theoretician; what makes him write today and tomorrow urges him to cross seas and traverse mountains is a passionate love of Jesus-God. It would need audacity to comment on this dwelling of Christ in those he loves and who love him. It has taken nothing less than this love without reserve, to bring about the greatest achievement of Christian faith and yet the least noticed: pardon and humility among others: with Christ I am crucified.

• 3.1 A good number of these Galatians are of Jewish origin, the others already have some notion of the Old Testament given that it is read in Church meetings (the New Testament does not yet exist). Paul then will recall first their own experience in baptism, when they received the Spirit; he will later interpret this experience in reading the Old Testament.

You begin with the Spirit and end up with the flesh (v. 3). This phrase has a double meaning. First the Galatians experienced the working of the Holy Spirit and his miracles and now they want to receive circumcision in the flesh. In another sense, they started with the truth of God that was in Jesus: that is “the spirit.” Now they go back to Jewish observances which, though they come from God, many times remained, as any religious practice, at a human level: the flesh.

Those who disturbed the Galatians said: you belong to Christ, but Christ is a descendant of Abraham and a Jew. Then follow Abraham and do as the Jews do: and so, along with Christ, you will be children of Abraham. Paul reports that one is not a son of Abraham or a son of God by race: this is a point that he develops more in Romans 4.

Let us not think that such prejudices have disappeared. There are some who think they are Catholics because they have been baptized at birth: they forget that without faith, baptism is meaningless.

Righteousness or justification (3:8). Like in Romans Paul will use this word abundantly. It means that through faith we are set right with God and our self is re-ordered so as to enter his ways.

• 15. We know that, in the Bible, Testament and Covenant mean the same: the Old Testament is the first covenant of God with humankind. Here Paul compares God with someone making a testament.

First God made a solemn covenant with Abraham. He did not demand anything of him, but made a promise to him. All that God expected of Abraham’s children in order to save them was that they would trust him. After such an important initiative from God, the Law which the Lord gave to Moses later did not really change the situation. Therefore, Paul says, most of the Jews are wrong when they are so concerned about observing the Law and so little concerned about opening their hearts.

• 19. In the preceding paragraph Paul began to show that there were different stages in faith history. The Jews already saw a progression in the revelation of God: they spoke of successive covenants of God with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses. For them the progress was that God had given a more complete law and that his choice was narrowing to the point of concentrating all his promises on the small Jewish community. Paul, as we have seen, shows that progress is elsewhere: God has replaced a religion where faith was, in fact, obedience to a law, by faith which is gift of self to God, as response to God, person to person.

Here Paul says more: there is a pedagogy of God in this change. “The Law led us to the school” (3:24): let us look at the word “pedagogy”: in Greek it signifies “take the child to school.” At this time the children of well-to-do families were entrusted to a servant called “pedagogue” who took the child to school but did not teach. Here Paul says: the Law was the servant, while Christ is the master.

Why then the Law? Paul will raise the question in Rom 3:1; 5:20; 7:7. He gives here his response in 4:1. He points out the negative character of the Law that constantly denounces and condemns: The Law closed out every viewpoint other than that of sin (v. 22). It is good that for a time God obliges us to keep our eyes fixed on our sins, our infidelity and ingratitude towards him, but he is much more concerned in making us grow, consequently becoming able to deal with him, person to person. Some will say: “This simplicity with God, we shall have up there.” That, however, is not what God wishes. He wants his kingdom to be among us now.

The Law was the means of leading the Jewish people to a better understanding of human hard-heartedness in relation to God, and giving them a sense of sin. It served as an education of a people during a certain time.

With this we can understand verse 19: with Moses as their mediator. Paul does not consider the Law something divine and eternal, dictated by God himself. He thinks that God let the angels in charge of diverse historical forces decide together on this temporary arrangement, so that the law would fit a particular time and circumstance; then Moses had to reconcile their diverse demands. The same thought is expressed in 4:3. In short, the Old Testament already contains the divine truth, but it has come down to us through mediators who adapted it to their ways and obscured it.

For each of us, it is necessary to have been submitted to a law, to have learned to obey without discussion during our early years. This first formation is irreplaceable; later we shall know how to obey our conscience without confusing it with our caprices. It was the same for God’s people as a whole: the Law led them to the freedom of the Gospel (5:1). So, if Christ has already taught us, why return to Jewish practice?

• 4.1 As long as the heir of the host is a child. God made people to be free, holy, strong, in the image of Christ. No one is born as an adult; she must be a child first. Similarly humankind has to go through infancy. There was a primitive society, a naive science, a simple culture, a transitional religion. People remained “among slaves”; Paul saw them dependent on “created forces” that govern the world. For him the laws of nature as well as the rules and prejudices of primitive peoples are one with the invisible forces of good and evil (the word we translated as “created forces” also means “directing principle”: Eph 3:10; Col 2:15). Now, through Christ, the great door of freedom opens to us. First, Christ liberates people from religious superstitions and from the prejudices that prevent them from knowing the Father and from becoming his children.

He came born of woman and subject to the Law (v. 4). Christ saves humans because he is a man. Christ came first as the savior of the Jewish people and, to save them, he became one of them. He received his whole formation from the Law, namely, from the people and religion of the Old Testament. This Law was highly positive, but, as time passed, we had to be redeemed from the yoke of this Law to receive the fullness of divine truth.

We must see in this obedience of Christ born of woman and subject to the Law a fundamental disposition of the plan of salvation: God saves us by becoming one of us. The same is now true of the Church, which saves people rather than giving to them or “being interested in them.” The Church cannot bring them a permanent and transforming salvation if it does not share in their very condition.

This is the reason why the Lord wants Third World churches to bear the cross of the people of their continents: their marginalization, their sufferings and humiliations, in order to lead them to authentic salvation. When there are only middle-class churches following occidental or Roman patterns, these churches are unfaithful to their mission.

You want to be enslaved again? (v. 9). We soon tire of liberty, for it always complicates life. It would be much simpler to be told: “This is right, that is a sin.”

Paul said to the Galatians: “You belong to Christ, be guided by his Spirit.” Did they really want to be more pliable with their ready-made judgments? Were they ready to restrain that kind of pride that accompanies the eagerness for social recognition? If not, there would be no Spirit. The Galatians actually preferred to walk along familiar paths. They kept certain festive days and obeyed the rules just like the Jews; they were, in fact, quite content with a mediocre faith and a love that risks nothing.

• 12. Here, a few more personal lines. These Galatians loved Paul, and Paul loved them, but some aspect of faith escaped them. That is why they felt more at ease with others than with Paul, those who had a sense of “religion” and did not fail to profit from it.

• 21. In the history of his ancestor Abraham, Paul discovers an image of conflict opposing the true believer to the “Judaizers”—those who say one is saved by religiously observing practices.

At the start of sacred history is Abraham’s faith and the promise God made to him. It should be noted that this promise was not to be inherited in the same way as family goods, which had to be distributed among all the children. The promise will not come to Ishmael born like any other. (Paul says: “born according to the flesh”.) Rather, what God promised was only destined for the son of promise, Isaac: the one who was born through a miraculous and free intervention of God. Thus, from the very beginning of the Bible, we see that we do not come to faith and to God’s inheritance because we have a right to them, but through grace.

By clinging to their religious observances, the Jews were forgetting that they were, above all, the people of the promise. Chosen by God in preference to other people, their mission was to announce that there are promises of God for all nations. They were wrong in thinking thus: since we are chosen by God, let everyone do what we do and observe our practices. Instead they should have shared their hopes with others; they should have taught others to believe in God’s promise and not put their trust in particular religious practices.

Hagar, the slave woman who gave birth to Ishmael, ancestor of the Arabs, becomes the image of the people of the first covenant, people who received the Law on Mount Sinai in Arabia: they did not achieve true freedom and held the earthly Jerusalem as their capital.

While Sarah, the free woman, with her son Isaac, born according to the divine promise, represents God’s new covenant with those who believe in his promises. These are the free people, the Christians who wait for the heavenly Jerusalem.

Ishmael persecuted Isaac and Abraham sent him away. This means: the inadequately converted Jews are disturbing the Galatians; the Church, then, has to send them away.

• 5.1 Paul does not want converts to be circumcised. See how firmly he speaks to them: this would be a falling away from grace. Why? It was not a sin, Paul could well have tolerated without encouraging it.

Yet for Paul, you cannot preach the Gospel in an authentic way without taking stances that upset others. Again “the truth of the Gospel” is not only in the formulas of dogma: it is also in the stand you take, showing how free we are. If the Gospel is liberation, the apostles should adopt, at least on certain points, positions that disturb and shock. Jesus gave an example in violating the holiest of laws, that of the Sabbath, when it was not necessary to do so.

Such is the necessary scandal in all Christian behavior, which will never be as scandalous as was Jesus’ death on a cross (see 1 Cor 1:17). To save people means, somehow, making them discover who they are before God, and then bringing them to confront the forces that have kept them subjugated and alienated. This is why Paul was so opposed to perpetuating Jewish practices. Following Paul, we could ask in our days: Who are those who give in to prejudices and alienating powers, and who are the persecuted (5:11; 6:12)? Oftentimes, the Gospel is lived more authentically in Christian groups that are politically aware and active than in groups that limit themselves to liturgical practices.

• 13. If the Galatians are looking out for religious practices it is partly because they feel that faith should be expressed in a concrete way. Here Paul tells them: if you are anxious for putting faith into life, look at your community life. We, like them, are terribly accustomed to a double life: on one hand we proclaim we are children of God, we speak of grace, of spiritual life, while we are terribly ordinary, often very dishonest and malicious in daily life or with our rivals within the Church, especially if we have a title to defend.

Paul rightly gives a short list of the works of the flesh and another of the fruits of the Spirit. He places side by side idolatry and the ambitions or divisions so common in religious and practicing groups. It is clear that for him flesh and spirit are not the same as “body” and “soul”: the pettiness and attachment to our privileges are also sins of the flesh, that is of people alien to the Spirit (see com. on 3:3 and Rom 7:16).

• 6.11 At the moment of saying good-bye, once again Paul speaks about the crisis in the community. It is not only a problem of religious practice; there are also certain persons anxious to put up a good show in life (see Phil 3:2-11).

Those who persuade you to be circumcised: they are members of the community. They want to be different from “ordinary” Christians, forming an apparently more serious group, more religious because of being circumcised. Actually, this rite would assure them a welcome to Jewish homes—a good way of making professional contacts. Already at that time the links uniting Jewish communities established in all the cities of the Roman Empire increased their possibilities. For those middle class people it was advantageous to rely on them. Paul instead chose to break up and he was to be persecuted from city to city till the moment in which his adversaries would have him condemned by imperial justice.

The world has been crucified to me. Paul has chosen a different way. He goes on his way, without a home, persecuted by some, despised by others, feared by those who cannot stand his example of complete abnegation, nor his mingling with so many people whom they consider inferior. This is to follow Christ to the cross.

GALATIANS 1

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 11:47:33 +0000

1 • 1 From Paul, an apostle sent not by humans nor by human mediation

but by Christ Jesus and by God, the Father, who raised him from the dead;

2 I and all the brothers and sisters who are with me greet the churches in Galatia: 3 may you receive grace and peace from God our Father and from Christ Jesus our Lord.

4 He gave himself for our sins to rescue us from this evil world, in fulfillment of the will of God the Father:

5 Glory to him for ever and ever. Amen.

There is no other gospel

• 6 I am surprised at how quickly you have abandoned God who called you according to the grace of Christ, and have gone to another gospel. 7 Indeed, there is no other gospel, but some people who are sowing confusion among you want to turn the Gospel of Christ upside down.

8 But even if we ourselves were giving you another gospel different from the one we preached to you, or if it were an angel from heaven, I would say: let God’s curse be on him! 9As I have said I now say again: if anyone preaches the Gospel in a way other than you received it, fire that one. 10 Are we to please humans or obey God? Do you think that I try to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Paul teaches what he received from God

• 11 Let me remind you, brothers and sisters, that the Gospel we preached to you is not a human message, 12 nor did I receive it from anyone, I was not taught of it but it came to me as a revelation from Christ Jesus. 13 You have heard of my previous activity in the Jewish community; I furiously persecuted the Church of God and tried to destroy it. 14 For I was more devoted to the Jewish religion than many fellow Jews of my age, and I defended the traditions of my ancestors more fanatically.

15 But one day God called me out of his great love, he who had chosen me from my mother’s womb; and he was pleased 16 to reveal in me his Son, that I might make him known among the pagan nations. Then I did not seek human advice 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me. I immediately went to Arabia, and from there I returned again to Damascus. 18 Later, after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to meet Cephas, and I stayed with him for fifteen days. 19 But I did not see any other apostle except James, the Lord’s brother. 20 On writing this to you, I affirm before God that I am not lying.

21 After that I went to Syria and Cilicia. 22 The churches of Christ in Judea did not know me personally; 23 they had only heard of me: “He who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith he tried to uproot.” 24 And they praised God because of me.

2 CORINTHIANS 13

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 11:42:45 +0000

13 1 This will be my third visit to you. Any charge must be decided upon by the declaration of two or three witnesses. 2 I have said and I say again, being still far away, just as I did on my second visit I say to you who lived in sin as well as to the rest: when I return to you, I will not have pity. 3 You want to know if Christ is speaking through me? So you will. He is not used to dealing weakly with you, but rather he acts with power. 4 If he was crucified in his weakness, now he lives by the strength of God; and so we are weak with him, but we will be well alive with him, because God acts powerfully with you.

5 Examine yourselves: are you acting according to faith? Test yourselves. Can you assert that Christ Jesus is in you? If not, you have failed the test. 6 I hope you recognize that we ourselves have not failed it.

7 We pray God that you may do no wrong, not that we wish to be acknowledged but we want you to do right, even if in this we appear to have failed. 8 For we do not have power against the truth, but only for the truth. 9 We rejoice if we are weak while you are strong, for all we hope is that you become perfect. 10 This is why I am writing now, so that when I come I may not have to act strictly and make use of the authority the Lord has given me for building up and not for destroying.

11 Finally, brothers and sisters, be happy, strive to be perfect, have courage, be of one mind and live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you. 12 Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you.

13 The grace of Christ Jesus the Lord, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

2 CORINTHIANS 12

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 11:37:44 +0000

Extraordinary graces

12 • 1 It is useless to boast; but if I have to, I will go on to some visions and revelations of the Lord.

2 I know a certain Christian: fourteen years ago he was taken up to the third heaven. 3 Whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know, God knows. But I know that this man, whether in the body or out of the body—I do not know, God knows—4 was taken up to Paradise where he heard words that cannot be told: things which humans cannot express.

5 Of that man I can indeed boast, but of myself I will not boast except of my weaknesses. 6 If I wanted to boast, it would not be foolish of me, for I would speak the truth. 7 However, I better give up lest somebody think more of me than what is seen in me or heard from me. Lest I become proud after so many and extraordinary revelations, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a true messenger of Satan, to slap me in the face. 8 Three times I prayed to the Lord that it leave me, 9 but he answered, “My grace is enough for you; my great strength is revealed in weakness.”

Gladly, then, will I boast of my weakness that the strength of Christ may be mine. 10 So I rejoice when I suffer infirmities, humiliations, want, persecutions: all for Christ! For when I am weak, then I am strong.

11 I have acted as a fool but you forced me. You should have been the ones commending me. Yet I do not feel outdone by those super-apostles, 12 even though I am nothing. All the signs of a true apostle are found in me: patience in all trials, signs, miracles and wonders.

13 Now, in what way were you not treated like the rest of the churches? Only in this: I was not a burden to you—forgive me for this offense!

This is my third visit to you

• 14 For the third time I plan to visit you, and I will not be a burden to you, for I am not interested in what you have but only in you. Children should not have to collect money for their parents, but the parents for their children. 15 As for me, I am ready to spend whatever I have and even my whole self for all of you. If I love you so much, am I to be loved less?

16 Well, I was not a burden to you, but was it not a trick to deceive you? Tell me: 17 Did I take money from you through any of my messengers? 18 I asked Titus to go to you and I sent another brother with him. But did Titus take money from you? Have we not both acted in the same spirit?

19 Perhaps you think that we are again apologizing; but no: we speak in Christ and before God, and I do this for you, dear friends, to build you up. 20 I fear that if I go and see you, I might not find you as I would wish, and you in turn, might not find me to your liking. I might see rivalries, envy, grudges, disputes, slanders, gossip, conceit, disorder. 21 Let it not be that in coming again to you, God humble me because of you and I have to grieve over so many of you who live in sin, on seeing that they have not yet given up an impure way of living, their wicked conduct and the vices they formerly practiced.

2 CORINTHIANS 11

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 11:36:59 +0000

11 1 May you bear with me in some little foolishness! But surely you will. 2 I confess that I share the jealousy of God for you, for I have promised you in marriage to Christ, the only spouse, to present you to him as a pure virgin. 3 And this is my fear: the serpent that seduced Eve with cunning could also corrupt your minds and divert you from the Christian sincerity. 4 Someone now comes and preaches another Jesus different from the one we preach, or you are offered a different spirit from the one you have received, with a different Gospel from the one you have accepted—and you agree!

5 I do not see how I am inferior to those super-apostles. 6 Does my speaking leave much to be desired? Perhaps, but not my knowledge, as I have abundantly shown to you in every way.

Paul commends the apostle Paul

• 7 Perhaps my fault was that I humbled myself in order to uplift you, or that I gave you the Gospel free of charge. 8 I called upon the services of other churches and served you with the support I received from them. 9 When I was with you, although I was in need, I did not become a burden to anyone. The friends from Macedonia gave me what I needed. I have taken care not to be a burden to you in anything and I will continue to do so. 10 By the truth of Christ within me, I will let no one in the land of Achaia stop this boasting of mine.

11 Why? Because I do not love you? God knows that I do! 12 Yet I do and I will continue to do so to silence any people anxious to appear as equal to me: this is my glory. 13 In reality, they are false apostles, deceivers disguised as apostles of Christ. 14 It is not surprising: if Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, 15 his servants can easily disguise themselves as ministers of salvation, until they receive what their deeds deserve.

16 I say again: Do not take me for a fool, but if you do take me as such, bear with me that I may sing my own praises a little. 17 I will not speak with the Lord’s authority, but as a fool, bringing my own merits to prominence. 18 As some people boast of human advantages, I will do the same. 19 Fortunately you bear rather well with fools, you who are so wise! 20 You tolerate being enslaved, and exploited, robbed, treated with contempt and slapped in the face. 21 What a shame that I acted so weakly with you!

But if others are so bold, I shall also dare, although I may speak like a fool. 22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. 23 Are they ministers of Christ? (I begin to talk like a madman) I am better than they.

Better than they with my numerous labors. Better than they with the time spent in prison. The beatings I received are beyond comparison. How many times have I found myself in danger of death! 24 Five times the Jews sentenced me to thirty-nine lashes. 25 Three times I was beaten with a rod, once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked, and once I spent a night and a day adrift on the high seas.

26 I have been continually in hazards of traveling because of rivers, because of bandits, because of my fellow Jews, or because of the pagans; in danger in the city, in the open country, at sea; in danger from false brothers. 27 I have worked and often labored without sleep, I have been hungry and thirsty and starving, cold and without shelter.

28 Besides these and other things, there was my daily concern for all the churches. 29 Who is weak that I do not feel weak as well? Whoever stumbles, am I not on hot bricks?

30 If it is necessary to boast, let me proclaim the occasions on which I was found weak. 31 The God and Father of Jesus the Lord—may he be blessed for ever!—knows that I speak the truth. 32 At Damascus, the governor under King Aretas placed the city under guard in order to arrest me, 33 and I had to be let down in a basket through a window in the wall. In that way I slipped through his hands.

2 CORINTHIANS 10

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 11:35:47 +0000

Paul’s defense and admonition

10 • 1 It is I, Paul, who by the humility and kindness of Christ appeal to you, the Paul “who is timid among you and bold when far away from you!”

2 Do not force me to act boldly when I come, as I am determined and will dare to act against some people who think that I act from human motives. 3 Human is our condition but not our fight.

4 Our weapons for this fight are not human but they have divine power to destroy strongholds—those arguments 5 and haughty thoughts that oppose the knowledge of God. We compel all understanding, that they obey Christ. 6 So I am prepared to punish any disobedience when you should show perfect obedience.

7 See things as they really are. If someone is convinced that he belongs to Christ, let him consider that just as he is Christ’s, so am I. 8 Although I may seem too confident in the authority that the Lord gave me for building you up and not for pulling you down, I will not be put to shame for saying this. 9 Do not think that I can only frighten you with letters. 10 “His letters are severe and strong,” some say, “but as he is, he has no presence and he is a poor speaker.” 11 To such people I say, “Be careful: what my letters say from afar, is what I will do when I come.”

12 How could I venture to equate or compare myself with some people who proclaim their own merits? Fools! They measure themselves with their own measure and compare themselves with themselves. 13 As for me, I will not boast beyond measure, for I will not go past the limits that the God of true measure has set for me: He gave the measuring stick when he made me set foot in your place.

14 It is not the same when someone goes beyond his field to where he has not been able to set foot. But I am he who first reached you with the Gospel of Christ. 15 I am not making myself important where others have worked. On the contrary, we hope that as your faith increases, so too our area of ministry among you will be enlarged without going beyond our limit. 16 So we shall bring the Gospel to places beyond yours without entering into the field of others, or boasting and making ourselves important where the work is already done. 17 Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. 18 It is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.

2 CORINTHIANS 9

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 11:34:57 +0000

More about the collection

9 • 1 It is not necessary for me to write to you about assistance to the saints. 2 I know your readiness and I praised you before the Macedonians. I said, “In Achaia they have been ready for the collection since last year.” And your enthusiasm carried most of them along. 3 So I send you these brothers of ours. May all my praise of you not fall flat in this case! May you be ready, as I said. 4 If some Macedonians come with me, let them not find you unprepared. What a shame for me—and perhaps for you—after so much confidence!

5 So I thought it necessary to ask our brothers to go ahead of us and see you to organize this blessed work you have promised. It shall come from your generosity and not be an imposed task.

6 Remember: the one who sows meagerly will reap meagerly, and there shall be generous harvests for the one who sows generously. 7 Each of you should give as you decided personally, and not reluctantly as if obliged. God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to fill you with every good thing, so that you have enough of everything at all times, and may give abundantly for any good work.

9 Scripture says: He distributed, he gave to the poor, his good works last forever. 10 God who provides the sower with seed will also provide him with the bread he eats. He will multiply the seed for you and also increase the interests of your good works. 11 Become rich in every way, and give abundantly. What you give will become, through us, a thanksgiving to God.

12 For this sacred relief, after providing the saints with what they need, will result in much thanksgiving to God. 13 This will be a test for them; they will give thanks because you obey the requirements of Christ’s Gospel and share generously with them and with all. 14 They shall pray to God for you and feel affection for you because the grace of God overflows in you.

15 Yes, thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

2 CORINTHIANS 8

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 11:33:50 +0000

The collection for those in Jerusalem

8 • 1 Now I want you to know about a gift of divine grace among the Churches of Macedonia. 2 While they were so afflicted and persecuted, their joy overflowed and their extreme poverty turned into a wealth of generosity. 3-4 According to their means—even beyond their means—they wanted to share in helping the saints.

They asked us for this favor spontaneously and with much insistence 5 and, far beyond anything we expected, they put themselves at the disposal of the Lord and of us by the will of God. 6 Accordingly, I urged Titus to complete among you this work of grace since he began it with you. 7 You excel in everything: in the gifts of faith, speech and knowledge; you feel concern for every cause and, besides, you are first in my heart. Excel also in this generous service.

8 This is not a command; I make known to you the determination of others to check the sincerity of your fraternal concern. 9 You know well the generosity of Christ Jesus, our Lord. Although he was rich, he made himself poor to make you rich through his poverty.

10 I only make a suggestion, because you were the first not only in cooperating, but in beginning this project a year ago. 11 So complete this work and, according to your means, carry out what you decided with much enthusiasm. 12 When there is a good disposition, everything you give is welcomed and no one longs for what you do not have. 13 I do not mean that others should be at ease and you burdened. Strive for equality; 14 at present give from your abundance what they are short of, and in some way they also will give from their abundance what you lack. Then you will be equal 15 and what Scripture says shall come true: To the one who had much, nothing was in excess; to the one who had little, nothing was lacking.

16 Blessed be God who inspires Titus with such care for you! 17 He not only listened to my appeal but he wanted to go and see you on his own initiative. 18 I am sending with him the brother who has gained the esteem of the churches in the work of the Gospel; 19 moreover they appointed him to travel with us in this blessed work we are carrying on for the glory of the Lord but also because of our personal enthusiasm.

20 We decided on this so that no one could suspect us with regard to this generous fund that we are administering. 21 Let us see to it that all may appear clean not only before God but also before people. 22 We also send with them another brother who on several occasions has shown us his zeal and, now, is more enthusiastic because of his confidence in you.

23 You then have Titus, our companion and minister, to serve you and, with him, you have our brothers, representatives of the churches and a glory to Christ. 24 Show them how you love, and prove before the churches all the good things I said to them about you.

2 CORINTHIANS 7

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 11:32:46 +0000

7 1 Since we have such promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from all defilement of body and spirit, and complete the work of sanctification in the fear of God.

Welcome us in your hearts

• 2 Welcome us in your hearts. We have injured no one, we have harmed no one, we have cheated no one. 3 I do not say this to condemn you: I have just said that you are in our heart so that together we live, together we die. 4 I have great confidence in you and I am indeed proud of you. I feel very much encouraged and my joy overflows in spite of all this bitterness.

5 Know that when I came to Macedonia, I had no rest at all but I was afflicted with all kinds of difficulties: conflict outside and fear within. 6 But God who encourages the humble gave me comfort with the arrival of Titus, 7 not only because of his arrival, but also because you had received him very well. He told me about your deep affection for me; you were affected by what happened, you worried about me, and this made me rejoice all the more.

8 If my letter caused you pain, I do not regret it. Perhaps I did regret it, for I saw that the letter caused you sadness for a moment but now I rejoice, 9 not because of your sadness, but because this sadness brought you to repentance. This was a sadness from God, so that no evil came to you because of me. 10 Sadness from God brings firm repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly grief produces death. 11 See what this sadness from God has produced in you: What concern for me! What apologies! What indignation and fear! What a longing to see me, to make amends and do me justice!

You have fully proved that you were innocent in this matter. 12 In reality, I wrote to you not on account of the offender or of the offended, but that you may be conscious of the concern you have for me before God. 13 I was encouraged by this.

In addition to this consolation of mine, I rejoice especially to see Titus very pleased with the way you all reassured him. 14 I had no cause to regret my praise of you to him. You know that I am always sincere with you; likewise my praise of you to Titus has been justified. 15 He now feels much more affection for you as he remembers the obedience of all and the respect and humility with which you received him. 16 Really I rejoice for I can be truly proud of you.

2 CORINTHIANS 6

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 11:31:48 +0000

6 1 Being God’s helpers we beg you: let it not be in vain that you received this grace of God. 2 Scripture says: At the favorable time I listened to you, on the day of salvation I helped you. This is the favorable time, this is the day of salvation.

The trials of an apostle

• 3 We are concerned not to give anyone an occasion to stumble or criticize our mission. 4 Instead we prove we are true ministers of God in every way by our endurance in so many trials, in hardships, afflictions, 5 floggings, imprisonment, riots, fatigue, sleepless nights and days of hunger.

6 People can notice in our upright life, knowledge, patience and kindness, action of the Holy Spirit, sincere love, 7 words of truth and power of God. So we fight with the weapons of justice, to attack as well as to defend.

8 Sometimes we are honored, at other times insulted; we receive criticism as well as praise. We are regarded as liars although we speak the truth; 9 as unknown though we are well known; as dead and yet we live. Punishments come upon us but we have not, as yet, been put to death. 10 We appear to be afflicted, yet always joyful; we seem to be poor, but we enrich many; we have nothing, but we possess everything!

11 Corinthians! I have spoken to you frankly and I have uncovered my inner thought. 12 My heart is wide open to you, but you feel uneasy because of your closed heart: 13 repay us with the same measure—I speak to you as to my children—open wide your hearts also.

Have nothing to do with evil

• 14 Do not make unsuitable covenants with those who do not believe: can justice walk with wickedness? Or can light coexist with darkness, 15 and can there be harmony between Christ and Satan? What union can there be between one who believes and one who does not believe? 16 God’s temple must have no room for idols, and we are the temple of the living God. As Scripture says; I will dwell and live in their midst, I will be their God and they shall be my people.

17 Therefore: Come out from their midst and separate from them, says the Lord. Do not touch anything unclean 18 and I will be gracious to you. I will be a father to you, that you may become my sons and daughters, says the all-powerful God.

2 CORINTHIANS 5

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 11:30:39 +0000

5 1 We know that when our earthly dwelling, or rather our tent, is destroyed, we may count on a building from God, a heavenly dwelling not built by human hands, that lasts forever. 2 Therefore we long and groan: Why may we not put on this heavenly dwelling over that which we have? 3 (Indeed, are we sure that we shall still be wearing our earthly dwelling and not be unclothed?)

4 As long as we are in the field-tent, we indeed moan our unbearable fate for we do not want this clothing to be removed from us; we would rather put the other over it, that the mortal body may be absorbed by true life. 5 This is God’s purpose for us, and he has given us the Spirit as a pledge of what we are to receive.

6 So we feel confident always. We know that while living in the body, we are exiled from the Lord, 7 living by faith, without seeing; 8 but we dare to think that we would rather be away from the body to go and live with the Lord. 9 So, whether we have to keep this house or lose it, we only wish to please the Lord. 10 Anyway we all have to appear before the tribunal of Christ for each one to receive what he deserves for his good or evil deeds in the present life.

We proclaim the message of reconciliation

• 11 So we know the fear of the Lord and we try to convince people while we live openly before God. And I trust that you know in your conscience what we truly are. 12 Once more, we do not try to win your esteem; we want to give you a reason to feel proud of us, that you may respond to those who heed appearances and not the reality. 13 Now, if I have spoken foolishly, let God alone hear; if what I have said makes sense, take it for yourselves.

14 Indeed the love of Christ holds us and we realize that if he died for all, all have died. 15 He died for all so that those who live may live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and rose again for them. 16 And so from now on, we do not regard anyone from a human point of view; and even if we once knew Christ personally, we should now regard him in another way.

17 For that same reason, the one who is in Christ is a new creature. For him the old things have passed away; a new world has come. 18 All this is the work of God who in Christ reconciled us to himself, and who entrusted to us the ministry of reconciliation. 19 Because in Christ God reconciled the world with himself, no longer taking into account their trespasses and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

20 So we present ourselves as ambassadors in the name of Christ, as if God himself makes an appeal to you through us. Let God reconcile you; this we ask you in the name of Christ. 21He had no sin, but God made him bear our sin, so that in him we might share the holiness of God.

2 CORINTHIANS 4

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 11:29:39 +0000

We carry this treasure in vessels of clay

4 • 1 Since this is our ministry mercifully given to us, we do not weaken. 2 We refuse to stay with half-truths through fear; we do not behave with cunning or falsify the message of God but, manifesting the truth, we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God.

3 In fact if the Gospel we proclaim remains obscure, it is obscure only for those who go to their own destruction. 4 The god of this world has blinded the minds of these unbelievers lest they see the radiance of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is God’s image. 5 It is not ourselves we preach, but Christ Jesus as Lord; and for Jesus’ sake we are your servants. 6 God who said, Let the light shine out of darkness, has also made the light shine in our hearts to radiate and to make known the Glory of God, as it shines in the face of Christ.

7 However, we carry this treasure in vessels of clay, so that this all-surpassing power may not be seen as ours but as God’s. 8 Trials of every sort come to us, but we are not discouraged. 9 We are left without answer, but do not despair; persecuted but not abandoned, knocked down but not crushed. 10 At any moment we carry in our person the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in us. 11 For we, the living, are given up continually to death for the sake of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may appear in our mortal existence. 12 And as death is at work in us, life comes to you.

13 We have received the same spirit of faith referred to in Scripture that says: I believed and so I spoke. We also believe and so we speak. 14 We know that He who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and bring us, with you, into his presence. 15 Finally, everything is for your good, so that grace will come more abundantly upon you and great will be the thanksgiving for the glory of God.

We long for our heavenly dwelling

• 16 Therefore we are not discouraged. On the contrary, while our outer being wastes away, the inner self is renewed from day to day. 17 The slight affliction that quickly passes away prepares us for an eternal wealth of glory so great and beyond all comparison. 18 So we no longer pay attention to the things that are seen, but to those that are unseen, for the things that we see last for a moment, but that which cannot be seen is eternal.

2 CORINTHIANS 3

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 11:28:29 +0000

The great dignity of Christ’s ministers

3 • 1 Am I again commending myself? Or do I need to present to you letters of recommendation as some do; or should I ask you for those letters? 2 You are the letter. This letter is written in your inner self, yet all can read and understand it. 3 Yes, who could deny that you are Christ’s letter written by us—a letter written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, carved not in slabs of stones, but in hearts of flesh.

4 This is how we are sure of God, through Christ. 5 As for us we would not dare consider that something comes from us: our ability comes from God. 6 He has even enabled us to be ministers of a new covenant no longer depending on a written text but on the Spirit. The written text kills, but the Spirit gives life.

7 The ministry of the Law carved on stones brought death; it was nevertheless surrounded by glory and we know that the Israelites could not fix their eyes on the face of Moses, such was his radiance, though fleeting. 8 How much more glorious will the ministry of the Spirit be! 9 If there is greatness in a ministry which uses to condemn, how much more will there be in the ministry that brings holiness? 10 This is such a glorious thing that in comparison the former’s glory is like nothing. 11 That ministry was provisory and had only moments of glory; but ours endures with a lasting glory.

The veil of Moses

12 Since we have such a great ambition, we are quite confident—13 unlike Moses, who covered his face with a veil. Otherwise the Israelites would have seen his passing radiance fade.

14 They became blind, however; until this day, the same veil prevents them from understanding the Old Covenant and they do not realize that in Christ it is nullified. 15 Up to this very day, whenever they read Moses, the veil remains over their understanding 16 but, for whoever turns to the Lord, the veil shall be removed. 17 The Lord is spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

18 So, with unveiled faces, we all reflect the Glory of the Lord, while we are transformed into his likeness and experience his Glory more and more by the action of the Lord who is spirit.

2 CORINTHIANS 2

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 03:31:29 +0000

2 1 So I gave up a visit that would again be a distressing one. 2 If I make you sad, who will make me happy if not you whom I have grieved? 3 Remember what I wrote you, “May it be that when I come I do not feel sad because of you, who should rather make me happy.” I trust in everyone and I am sure that my joy will be the joy of you all.

4 So afflicted and worried was I when I wrote to you, that I even shed tears. I did not intend to cause you pain, but rather to let you know of the immense love that I have for you.

5 If anyone has caused me pain, he has hurt not me but in some measure, (I do not wish to exaggerate) all of you. 6 The punishment that he received from the majority is enough for him. 7 Now you should rather forgive and comfort him, lest excessive sorrow discourage him. 8 So I beg you to treat him with love.

9 This is why I wrote to you, to test you and to know if you would obey in everything. 10 The one you forgive, I also forgive. And what I forgave, if indeed I had anything to forgive, I forgave for your sake in the presence of Christ, 11 lest Satan take advantage of us; for we know his designs.

We are the fragrance of Christ

12 So I came to Troas to preach the Gospel of Christ, and the Lord opened doors for me. 13 However I could not be at peace because I did not find my brother Titus there, so I took leave of them and went to Macedonia.

14 Thanks be to God, who always leads us in the triumphant following of Christ and, through us, spreads the knowledge of him everywhere, like an aroma. 15 We are Christ’s fragrance rising up to God, and perceived by those who are saved as well as by those who are lost. 16 To the latter, it smells of death and leads them to death. To others it is the fragrance of life and leads to life.

17 But who is worthy of such a mission? Unlike so many who make money out of the word of God, we speak with sincerity: everything comes from God and is said in his presence, in Christ.

2 CORINTHIANS 1

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 03:30:29 +0000

1 1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, to the church of God in Corinth, and to all the saints in the whole of Achaia. 2 May you receive grace and peace from God our Father and from Christ Jesus, the Lord.

Blessed be God, the source of all comfort

• 3 Blessed be God, the Father of Christ Jesus, our Lord, the all-merciful Father and the God of all comfort! 4 He encourages us in all our trials, so that we may also encourage those in any trial, with the same comfort that we receive from God.

5 For whenever the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so, through Christ, a great comfort also overflows. 6 So, if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we receive comfort it is also for you. You may experience the same comfort when you come to endure the same sufferings we endure. 7 Our hope for you is most firm; just as you share in our sufferings, so shall you also share in our consolation.

8 Brothers and sisters, we want you to know some of the trials we experienced in the province of Asia. We were crushed; it was too much; it was more than we could bear and we had already lost all hope of coming through alive. 9 We felt branded for death, but this happened that we might no longer rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10 He freed us from such a deadly peril and will continue to do so. We trust he will continue protecting us, 11 but you must help us with your prayers. When such a favor is obtained by the intercession of many, so will there be many to give thanks to God on our behalf.

The plans of Paul

• 12 There is something we are proud of: our conscience tells us that we have lived in this world with the openness and sincerity that comes from God. We have been guided, not by human motives, but by the grace of God, especially in relation to you. 13 There were no hidden intentions in my letter, but only what you can read and understand. 14 I trust that what you now only partly realize, you will come to understand fully, and so be proud of us, as we shall also be proud of you on the Day of the Lord Jesus.

15 With this assurance, I wanted to go and visit you first, and this would have been a double blessing for you. 16 And from there I thought of going to Macedonia and then, from Macedonia, of coming back to you, that you might send me on my way to Judea. 17 Have I planned this without thinking at all? Or do I change my decisions on the spur of the moment, so that I am between No and Yes?

18 God knows that our dealing with you is not Yes and No, 19 just as the Son of God, Christ Jesus, whom we—Silvanus, Timothy and I—preach to you, was not Yes and No; with him it was simply Yes. 20 In him all the promises of God have come to be a Yes, and we also say in his name: Amen! giving thanks to God. 21 God himself has anointed us and strengthens us with you to serve Christ; 22 he has marked us with his own seal in a first outpouring of the Spirit in our hearts.

Paul refers to a scandal

• 23 God knows, and I swear to you by my own life, that if I did not return to Corinth, it was because I wanted to spare you. 24 I do not wish to lord it over your faith, but to contribute to your happiness; for regarding faith, you already stand firm.

Commentaries on 2 Corinthians

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 03:10:16 +0000

At the end of his first letter to the Corinthians Paul expressed the desire to come back and see them soon. He was unable to return, and they took this badly.

“Judaizing” preachers, that is to say, those Jews insufficiently converted to Christ, whom Paul had to face all the time, were trying to undermine his authority. Paul sent a messenger whom the Corinthians deeply offended: some members of the community were openly rebelling against the apostle. Paul responded in a letter “written in the midst of tears” (2:4) whereby he demanded the submission of the community. One of Paul’s best assistants, Titus, brought the letter and concluded his mission successfully. Upon Titus’ return, Paul, reassured, sent this “second” letter (in fact it was the third or fourth) to the Corinthians.

What is the content of this letter? What Paul feels with regard to the Corinthians and what he suffers from their lack of understanding. It is not much and yet it is a great deal. Paul is incapable of speaking about himself without speaking of Christ. This restless man, eager for understanding and affection, is so permeated with the love of Christ, that he cannot express a suspicion or a reproach without giving most profound sermons on faith. In trying to justify himself he writes the most beautiful pages on evangelization and on what it means to be an apostle of Christ.

We shall see that this letter includes pages which were not a part of it—fragments of other letters or notes sent by Paul to the Church of Corinth: in particular, 6:14-18 was probably written before our First Letter to the Corinthians; chapter 9 (see com. of 9:1); the chapters 10–13 which should contain a good part of the “letter written in tears” (see preceding paragraph).

• 1.3 From the very beginning, Paul describes his own situation as an apostle of Christ—wandering, persecuted, ill—to the Corinthians who know how to take it easy. While they feel proud of their large community and look for brilliant preachers (as will be seen below), Paul shares in the passion of Christ. Paul suggests that they too will know the true consolation of God when it is their turn to suffer for him.

The word comfort will often occur in this letter. God would not be satisfied by just teaching us resignation: comfort is the experience of the presence of God, but relies in part on the signs that show him acting among us. The two go together. Jesus told us to ask so that God would answer and his responses would be a source of joy (Jn 15:24). In any case, God does not free us of trials but gives strength and perseverance to overcome them.

• 12. The Corinthians did not take it well that Paul put off the promised visit. He feels obliged to confess that he has passed the stage of an apostolate based on human projects. He is a man of the Spirit and does not make decisions in the same way as many others do. The Spirit in him matures his decisions and he knows that he is not alone. He will not be one of those who are precipitate in making decisions or who back-pedal because they are not sure of themselves.

In him all the promises of God have come to be a Yes (v. 20). God fulfilled his promises when he sent his Son among us. Christ also did only what his Father wanted. Thus, Christ is a ‘yes’ consenting to the Father’s plan. From there, Paul draws the consequences for Christians. In baptism we say the first yes to Christ. At every Eucharist we repeat the same yes. The “amen” that we say in prayers means yes, it is true. The opposite of all this is sin which is the same as saying ‘no’ to Christ.

In a first outpouring (v. 22). Paul actually says: he gave us the first payment of the Spirit. See commentary on Ephesians 1:14.

• 23. Here Paul refers to the letters preceding this one and which we mentioned in the introduction. We referred to a previous letter that is perhaps preserved in chapters 10–13 of this “second letter.”

I do not wish to lord it over your faith (1:24): see 10:5-6. May it be that, when I come, I do not feel sad (2:3): see 12:21.

Paul alludes here to the triumph of the victorious Roman generals: the prisoners to be massacred later were dragged behind their chariots. Paul sees himself here as “the prisoner of Christ” (Eph 4:1). Jesus had taken him by force (1 Cor 9:16), making him his apostle. We understand these words as we do for Jeremiah (20:7): this irresistible call of God is in fact the access to a higher form of freedom.

The triumph was the occasion for offering a lot of incense: the perfume was the sign of glory for the one who was being honored rather like a god, a sign of death for the prisoners who were there. This comparison allowed Paul to continue in another direction: for some it smells of death (v. 16). The Gospel divides people. Even without going deeper into the mystery they are able to appreciate the “odor,” namely the style of Christian existence. Some are especially aware of the demands of Christian life, which to them seems a death. Others, on the contrary, envy the mysterious force that animates believers in the midst of their trials, and letting them understand that life is there.

Who is worthy of such a mission? In seeing this, the apostle feels inadequate for his mission. He would like everyone to recognize Christ and the radiance of his love through him, but he is a long way from that! On the contrary, the false apostle does not even think about that, but only wishes to be approved and to make money out of the word of God by hiding its demands: such apostles are famous and are not persecuted by anyone.

• 3.1 The preachers who oppose Paul would show letters of recommendation given by some community or some apostle. Whereas Paul relies on personal authority which doesn’t owe anything to anyone. Christ himself made him an apostle as he said in several places.

The pagans of that time surrounded their priests with honor and esteem, and so did the Jews. Throughout the Bible the honor of teaching the Law of God is highlighted and more so the unique role of Moses, who received the Law from God on Sinai. Yet an apostle of Christ is much greater than these.

How much more glorious will the ministry of the Spirit be! (v. 8). As Paul showed in Romans 7:1-13, teaching only the Law as the Jewish priests did, was not a great help to people since, because they are sinners, they do not obey the law and deserve their punishment. Whereas Paul brings believers into live communication with Christ and his Spirit so that, from then on, they can also share in the risen life. The apostles and ministers of the Church fulfill a major role if their words and actions are helpful in uplifting people.

In verses 7-13 Paul refers to the traditions found in the Book of Exodus (Ex 34:29-35). These highlighted Moses’ glory, but Paul mentions them to prove that Christ’s apostles are superior. There is a reference to Moses returning from his encounter with God with his face radiant; but Paul remarks that it did not last. Moses had to cover his face with a veil because his face was so radiant, but Paul notes that when a veil must be used, God does not yet fully reveal himself.

Paul underlines the blindness of the Jews who do not recognize Christ as the promised Savior: they have lost the key to their history and for them the Bible remains a closed book until the day when God, through Christ, gives them its true meaning (Lk 24:27; Rev 5:1). All their history should be understood as a mystery of death and resurrection. To enter into a new Covenant they had to welcome Christ without concern for their own privileges, and become his disciples together with other nations.

We are unlike Moses (v. 13). What a daring affirmation! Moses was the founder of the Jewish people and the supreme authority of the Bible! It is a fact that the least among Christians reflects with unveiled face the glory of the Lord. The Christian is the light of Christ and in earlier times those baptized were called “the enlightened.”

The Lord is spirit. Paul says this twice in verses 17 and 18. He does not confuse Lord, Christ, with Holy Spirit but plays with the words spirit and Spirit. He recalls that the person who turns to the Lord (16) goes beyond a first stage of faith (that Paul calls the letter) where he found God through laws and practices. He enters the adult age of spiritual life where, through God’s Spirit, we know ourselves and act towards God like sons and daughters and free persons. So Paul means: To find the Lord is to receive the Spirit and accede to the “spirit” (see Rom 2:29).

• 4.1 It is worthwhile underlining some features of the portrait of an apostle as Paul sketches it:

– We do not lose heart.

– We do not proceed with trickery nor do we falsify God’s message.

– We are more than your servants.

– Let everyone discover in us the glory of God that shines in Christ’s face.

– We carry the death of Jesus so that his life may be revealed in us.

– We believe and that is why we speak.

We carry this treasure in vessels of clay (v. 7). Usually, God carries out his plans by using inadequate instruments. Graham Greene became famous for his book “The Power and the Glory” in which we see a priest achieving heroic things despite his many personal faults.

For we, the living, are given up continually to death (v. 11). The apostle’s death is necessary so that his work may live. When a good job has been done in one sector of the Church, there has to come the hour of persecution, or of obedience to leaders whose authority we cannot reject, in spite of the fact that they may be unjust or mistaken. Nothing grows without having died first.

• 16. Paul has just reaffirmed his faith; for a few instants he confides what he feels within himself, confronted as he is by a thousand dangers and obstacles.

The outer being… the inner self (v. 16). With these two terms Paul takes up again what he has already said in Rom 8:10-11. There, he opposes “flesh” to “spirit” as here the outer being to the inner self. Here he reveals this strange experience that is his: the discovery in himself of a presence of God increasingly active, and at the same time a precocious wearing away.

With that, will Paul last long enough to see the return of Christ as he hoped a few years earlier (1 Thes 4:15)? He had greatly hoped that his glorious body would cover his earthly tent (5:21; see 1 Cor 15:52)! Now he is doubtful: from day to day it becomes more probable that he must pass through death, of which he has a horror, share the lot of those who have had to shed their clothing of flesh and await the resurrection.

He has no doubt that at death he will meet Christ: compare 5:8 with Phil 1:23 and Rev 14:13. We do not cease to exist, as is said by some, until the day of our resurrection.

So we feel confident always (v. 6). No certitude of faith removes the horror of death; it may perhaps provide even further reasons for increasing it. Jesus experienced a strange agony before being arrested. This trial is only temporary and faith is reassuring “Who will separate us from the love of God?” (Rom 8:35-39).

• 5.11 There are many ways of understanding faith: for each one of us, one or other aspect of Christian life makes more of an impact. What Paul sees in Christ is the great messenger and artisan of reconciliation.

His first conviction is that, with the death of Christ, a new age has begun for divided humanity. If he died for all, all have died (v. 14), namely, the whole history and wisdom of people before him have been surpassed and now God works among us in other ways.

We do not regard anyone from the human point of view (v. 16). Paul confides something of his affective life. Those around him love him, even if they make difficulties for him, and in the Church each one has his friends, those on whom he may count. Paul loves them, but doubtless not all in the same way. To begin with, he accepts persons with different criteria and is not guided (as are many Corinthians) by the appearance of fine speakers (v. 12). And his affectivity has been renewed in the measure that he has been possessed by Christ: he loves them as God loves them and as God would like them to be.

Even if we once knew Christ personally… (v. 16). (Paul says: “If we have known him in the flesh” or, as he was in his humanity.) He no longer sees Christ as a Galilean preacher, enclosed in the context of Jewish life, but rather dominating history. Without a doubt he is also alluding to certain adversaries who consider themselves superior to him because they have known Jesus or belong to his family. He says to them: “we must” (which means: you must) see him differently: do not see him as your cousin!

The one who is in Christ is a new creature (v. 17): first because the barriers that divide and separate people no longer exist for him (see Gal 3:27; Eph 2:14-16). Also because it is not human desires that guide him, but the Spirit of God who recreates him at every instant (Gal 5:13-21).

In Christ God reconciled the world with himself (v. 19). Many people like to say: Jesus is love. This is true, but let us not forget that this love is his response to the love of the Father who wishes to reconcile us; we must do away with the idea of an angry God whom Jesus tries to appease (Rom 3:25).

Who entrusted to us the ministry of reconciliation (v. 18). Christians are not satisfied with only singing the praises of God, and their supreme aspiration is not to find a likeable community. They do their part in the task of universal reconciliation that supposes a denunciation of injustice and sin, and the effort to overcome them. Today the Church says a great deal about this so that we may better understand our mission in the world and in the conflicts and tensions that tear our nations apart.

We present ourselves as ambassadors in the name of Christ (v. 20). This is not only true of the apostles and Paul. It is also meant for us when we go to visit the sick or the needy; when, overcoming suspicion, we approach our brother or sister to create an atmosphere of confidence, so that, shortly, we may arrive at fraternal fellowship with others who have the same problems but who, in spite of that, often remain locked in their selfishness.

He had no sin (v. 21). It is difficult to translate Paul’s words: “He made sin him who did not know sin,” for obviously Paul here speaks according to Hebrew culture where the same word denotes both the sin and the victim who carries the sin. Paul recalls the mystery of the cross: reconciliation is not achieved without voluntary victims who take on themselves the hatred and the sin of humankind.

• 6.3 A distinctive sign of the apostle of Christ: the contrast between the treasure entrusted to him for others, and his own existence hardly enviable and truly unenvied. Like Jesus, he is a sign of contradiction. Paul recalls what he must endure, but does not hide his pride and his conviction: we enrich many, and we possess everything.

The eloquent appeal beginning in verses 11-13 continues in 7:2-16. It is there we find the commentary.

• 14. This passage interrupts the flow of the discourse 6:13 continued in 7:2. What is the meaning of this sudden invitation not to have anything to do with bad people?

In the “first” letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 5:9) Paul recalled a previous message in which he was asking them not to mix with people of immoral behavior. It is quite possible that the present passage comes from that message. Paul himself explains how we should understand these lines when he says in 1 Cor 5:10: “I did not tell you to stay away from the sinners of this world (if it were so, you would have to leave this world), but from the believers who went back to their pagan customs.”

• 7.2 Welcome us in your hearts. Here again the affective side of Paul is revealed. This indefatigable missionary, never overcome or discouraged, was at the same time very sensitive. Paul here recalls the incident we have spoken of in the introduction. Thanks to Paul’s letter, which must have been harsh, the Corinthians were converted, followed Paul and dealt with those who attacked him.

• 8.1 The saints (v. 3) are the Christians of Jerusalem. In the year 48 there was a famine in Judea and in Jerusalem (Acts 11:28) due to the poor harvest of the previous year, a sabbatical year (during which the Jews did not sow so that the earth could rest). To remedy this situation of shortage, economic aid for the Christians of Jerusalem was organized. Later, Paul promised to keep the Jerusalem community in mind during his missions among the pagans (Gal 2:10). Here, Paul exhorts the Churches in Corinth and in the province to take up this collection that they had agreed upon.

Paul does not use the word collection in these chapters. Instead he speaks of the liberality and the greatness of generous giving; of the blessed work of grace. It is more a gift for the one who gives than for the one who receives.

Paul takes great care that the collection, involving large amounts, should be duly taken up. It must be collected and held by people who enjoy the confidence of the community.

In chapter 8:18, Paul surely refers to Luke: probably he had not yet published his Gospel, but was already helping the Churches to preach it.

• 9.1 Here again Paul speaks of the collection as if he had not done so in the previous chapter. Some think that at the same time Paul was writing to the Corinthians to invite them to give (chap. 8), he wrote another message for the churches of Achaia, which was the province of Corinth: this message may have been placed here later, at the end of the letter, because the theme is the same (chap. 9).

• 10.1 The tone of violence in these chapters 10–13 does not fit with the reconciliation previously expressed. They may come from the letter Paul had sent before, following the incident in which various members of the Corinthian community rebelled against him.

In this extraordinary page, a few words immediately situate the discussion.

Some members of the community attack Paul’s authority, feeling supported by those who have not been able to set foot (v. 13). Who are these people? They have the title of apostle, that is, of founders of communities, but by chance they always arrive where others have done the work (v. 15). People compare one “apostle” with another and Paul who never wanted to be served, who never pretended to be a great orator, or “doctor in religion” appears as a man of weak personality. His letters are severe and strong, some say, but as he is, he has no presence and he is a poor speaker (10:10).

Do not force me to act boldly (10:2). Paul sees himself as the apostle of the community, the one who has led them to the faith and communicated the Holy Spirit to them: no one could deny that.

Paul speaks of his power and his weapons in a threatening way. Surely the “power that destroys strongholds” is the Word of God. The Word of God gave birth to the Christian communities and gives them the power to stay united and alive in the face of opposition. The Gospel is “God’s power,” and when it is boldly proclaimed, the forces that oppose it collapse.

In this case, however, it is also a question of Paul’s spiritual power. Naturally, we think of Paul’s conviction, the power of his word, the awareness of his mission, all of which made an impact on the Corinthians. It is also in the nature of apostles and prophets to threaten at times, on behalf of God who intervenes in an obvious way to show they are right. Recall the case with Ananias and Sapphira before Peter (Acts 5).

Paul’s firm intention is to destroy arguments and haughty thoughts which that the knowledge of God (10:5). One might see here nothing but a rivalry between persons, but Paul knows what bothers many of them in his leadership: he does not go along with their game of petty interests and makes them live in the truth. If they do not have the courage to continue in that way, they will be nothing more than a religious group among others: they will have lost the path of the knowledge of God.

Faith is obedience (Rom 1:5): we submit to a teaching from God. That always goes together with obedience in a concrete life situation. If God has intended us to be a Church, he has necessarily wanted obedience to a hierarchy and to an established order. It is such obedience that Paul exacts.

Take note: this right to be obeyed is based on the call of Christ that has made him an apostle and on what the Spirit has done through him. When we see a multitude of preachers setting out on a mission, each one for his own church, we would at times have the right to ask who has sent them. We must also remember that it is not a question of Paul reigning over this community or several of them: he has already left to evangelize further afield (15-16).

• 11.7 In chapters 11 and 12, Paul will compare himself to the “apostles” who managed to be appreciated by the Corinthians, and on which his opponents are relying. Paul wants not to treat them as equal to equal: he is conscious of who he is, he can judge them. A dangerous position, even for someone who believes he is truly inspired by God! And yet, see 1 Cor 2:14-15.

To begin with, Paul is sure of a direct call from Christ: this contact with the risen Jesus has given him a transforming presence of Christ. He knows that his criteria, his decisions, his prophetic intuition have bypassed his adversaries. It is precisely because he has reached a superior level of life in the Spirit that he feels free vis-à-vis the “religious obligations” that are given such importance, even first place, by his opponents: compare paragraph 11:4-6 with Gal 2:6-10 and 5:7-12; see also 1 Thes 3:2-11.

Their attachment to the observance of the Jewish Law does not come from a different, legitimate view of matters of faith. They hold to it, because in their own lives, they have not discovered the best of Christian experience. Jesus had already shown, as in the case of the Pharisees that strict observance of religious rites comes from a lack of true faith (Mk 7:6). Whoever has the experience of life in the Spirit, shocks, without wishing to do so, any “religious” people and such was the case of Paul in the Church.

In 11:22-30, Paul speaks of his labors and the risks he has taken, the persecutions he has known. He does not do this to be well thought of. He wants to show others, and remind himself, that he is gifted with an exceptional grace. All are called to follow Jesus and carry his cross, all are called to evangelize. Why is it that so few undertake the true work of evangelization among “those who are afar,” as Jesus and Paul did? That in itself is a grace, and those who have not received it do not perceive the calls and miss the occasions. Paul intends to remain inimitable, not through vainglory but in fidelity to the way on which Christ has placed him.

APOSTOLATE AND CONTEMPLATION

• 12.1 Here Paul briefly alludes to the ecstasies through which he has been formed anew. The word ecstasy seems to many people rather eccentric; for others it is only appropriate for contemplative living apart from the world. It is quite true that ecstasy, if genuine, is relevant to contemplative life. But what is contemplation?

By “contemplation” we often understand the time given to meditation on the things of God and the discovery of his presence in our lives. In this sense we oppose contemplation to action, or we say that both should go together. Yet the word “contemplation” also and more rightly denotes a new stage in spiritual life where the relationship between our spirit and God are profoundly changed.

In this contemplation, it is not we who discover God or who establish ourselves in silence. God is the one who imposes his presence, who, in us, gives birth to our response. Contemplation is a gift of God; it is a way of knowing God, of being guided, reformed by him that is different from what the majority of Christians experience. It is not exceptional. The transforming and sovereign action of the Spirit is there more efficacious, leading always to the same end: the individual no longer belongs to himself.

This contemplation may be given to those who have retired to convents to answer a call from God; it may be given to those who live the normal life of most people; it is given to apostles. Differing from the practice of transcendental meditation and recollection that come from the East, it eludes our efforts; it is not a matter of leading either a more active or a more retired life. What is essential is that God has taken possession of our liberty (see Jer 1:5).

If Paul has been the apostle we know, if he has had an exceptional understanding of the Christian mystery, it is because he has been a great contemplative – in the sense we have just given. The ecstasies about which he has spoken correspond to the early years following his conversion (see Acts 22:6 and 17); they are proper to an advanced stage of contemplative life, but not the last, which is total and constant union with God.

I was given a thorn in my flesh. Many hypotheses have been offered on what this thorn could be: an illness perhaps (2 Cor 1:8; Gal 4:13) of which the unforeseen relapses reduced him to powerlessness? Or a temptation of the “flesh,” a late consequence of his moral education as rigid as the commandments of the Law? What is certain is that we all aspire to a state of peace in which we feel sure of ourselves, but God for his part, whatever the richness of his gifts, refuses to grant it (1 Cor 2:5; 4:7).

• 14. Paul ends his letter in affirming his authority. Jesus had spoken of a testimony coming both from the apostles and the Holy Spirit; in the same way Paul ends his defense appealing to a discernment which will be the work of the Spirit: verify, examine, recognize. Without a doubt it should be the same in the Church and at all levels; we cannot resolve conflicts or decide on orientation by arguments or votes only. We must necessarily have, besides reflection, times of silence, of true prayer and listening to the word of God.

Notice the “trinitarian” formula in 13:13.

1 CORINTHIANS 16

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 03:03:19 +0000

Commendations and greetings

16 • 1 With regard to the collection in favor of the saints, follow the rules that I gave to the churches of Galatia. 2 Every Sunday, let each of you put aside what you are able to spare, so that no collection need be made when I come. 3 Once I am with you, you will choose the persons whom I may accredit with letters to take your gifts to Jerusalem. 4 And if it seems better for me to go, they will go with me.

5 I will visit you after passing through Macedonia, for I want to go only through Macedonia. 6 I would like to stay with you for a while, and perhaps I will spend the winter so that you may help me on my way wherever I go. 7 I do not want to see you now just in passing, for I really hope to stay with you, if the Lord permits. 8 But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, 9 because I have a door wide open here, even though there are many opponents.

10 When Timothy comes, make him feel at ease with you. Consider that, like me, he is working for the Lord. 11 Let no one look down on him. Help him continue his journey so that he may return to me without difficulties. I am expecting him with the brothers.

12 With respect to our brother Apollos, I have strongly urged him to visit you with the brothers, but he did not want to go at all; he will visit you at his first opportunity.

13 Be alert, stand firm in the faith, be courageous, be strong. 14 Let love be in all. 15 Now, brothers and sisters, you know that in Achaia, there is none better than Stephanas and his family and that they have devoted themselves to the service of the holy ones. 16 I urge you to be subject to such persons and to anyone who works and toils with them.

17 I am glad about the coming of Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus who were able to represent you. 18 In fact, they appeased my spirit and yours. Appreciate persons like them.

19 The churches of Asia greet you. Aquila and Prisca greet you in the Lord, as does the church that gathers in their house. 20 All the brothers and sisters greet you. Greet one another with a holy kiss.

21 The greeting is from me, Paul, in my own hand. 22 A curse on anyone who does not love the Lord! Maranatha! Come, Lord!

23 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. 24 My love to all in Christ Jesus.

1 CORINTHIANS 15

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 03:01:04 +0000

Resurrection is a fact

15 • 1 Let me remind you, brothers and sisters, of the Good News that I preached to you and which you received and on which you stand firm. 2 By that Gospel you are saved, provided that you hold to it as I preached it. Otherwise, you will have believed in vain.

3 In the first place, I have passed on to you what I myself received: that Christ died for our sins, as Scripture says; 4 that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures; 5 that he appeared to Cephas and then to the Twelve. 6 Afterwards he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters together; most of them are still alive, although some have already gone to rest. 7 Then he appeared to James and after that to all the apostles. 8 And last of all, he appeared to the most despicable of them, this is to me. 9 For I am the last of the apostles, and I do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God. 10 Nevertheless, by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace towards me has not been without fruit. Far from it, I have toiled more than all of them, although not I, rather the grace of God in me.

11 Now, whether it was I or they, this we preach and this you have believed. 12 Well, then, if Christ is preached as risen from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is empty and our belief comes to nothing. 15And we become false witnesses of God, attesting that he raised Christ, whereas he could not raise him if indeed the dead are not raised. 16 If the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith gives you nothing, and you are still in sin. 18 Also those who fall asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If it is only for this life that we hope in Christ, we are the most unfortunate of all people.

Christ gave us the way

• 20 But no, Christ has been raised from the dead and he comes before all those who have fallen asleep. 21 A human being brought death; a human being also brings resurrection of the dead. 22 All die for being Adam’s, and in Christ all will receive life. 23 However, each one in his own time: first Christ, then Christ’s people, when he comes.

24 Then the end will come, when Christ delivers the kingdom to God the Father, after having destroyed every rule, authority and power. 25 For he must reign and put all enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed will be death. 27 As Scripture says: God has subjected everything under his feet.

When we say that everything is put under his feet, we exclude, of course, the Father who subjects everything to him. 28 When the Father has subjected everything to him, the Son will place himself under the One who subjected everything to him. From then on, God will be all in all.

29 Tell me: what are these people doing who are baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead cannot be raised, why do they want to be baptized for the dead?

30 As for us, why do we constantly risk our life? For death is my daily companion. 31 I say that, brothers and sisters, before you who are my pride in Christ Jesus our Lord. 32 Was it for human interest that I fought in Ephesus like a lion tamer? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die!

33 Do not be deceived; bad theories corrupt good morals. Wake up, and do not sin, 34 because some of you are outstandingly ignorant about God; I say this to your shame.

The body after the Resurrection

• 35 Some of you will ask: How will the dead be raised? With what kind of body will they come?

36 You fools! What you sow cannot sprout unless it dies. 37 And what you sow is not the body of the future plant but a bare grain of wheat or any other seed, 38 and God will give the appropriate body, as he gives to each seed its own body. 39 Now look: not all flesh is the same; one is the flesh of human beings; another the flesh of animals, and still others the flesh of birds and of fish. 40 There are, likewise, heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the earthly bodies do not shine as do the heavenly ones. 41 The brightness of the sun differs from the brightness of the moon and the stars, and the stars differ from one another in brightness.

42 It is the same with the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in decomposition; it will be raised never more to die. 43 It is sown in humiliation, and it will be raised for Glory. It is buried in weakness, but the resurrection shall be with power. When buried it is a natural body, but it will be raised as a spiritual body. 44 For there shall be a spiritual body as there is at present a living body. 45 Scripture says that Adam, the first man, became a living being; but the last Adam has become a life-giving spirit.

46 The spirit does not appear first, but the natural life, and afterwards comes the spirit. 47 The first man comes from the earth and is earthly, while the second one comes from heaven. 48 As it was with the earthly one, so is it with the earthly people. As it is with Christ, so with the heavenly. 49 This is why, after bearing the image of the earthly one, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one.

The day of Resurrection

50 This I say, brothers: Flesh and blood cannot share the kingdom of God; nothing of us that is to decay can reach imperishable life. 51 So I want to teach you this mystery: although not all of us will die, all of us have to be transformed, 52 in an instant, at the sound of the trumpet. You have heard of the last trumpet; then in the twinkling of an eye, the dead will be raised imperishable, while we shall be transformed. 53 For it is necessary that our mortal and perishable being put on the life that knows neither death nor decay.

54 When our perishable being puts on imperishable life, when our mortal being puts on immortality, the word of Scripture will be fulfilled: Death has been swallowed up by victory. 55 Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?

56 Sin is the sting of death to kill, and the Law is what gives force to sin. 57 But give thanks to God who gives us the victory through Christ Jesus, our Lord.

58 So then, my dear brothers and sisters, be steadfast and do not be moved. Improve constantly in the work of the Lord, knowing that with him your labor is not without fruit.

1 CORINTHIANS 14

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 02:59:30 +0000

Gifts of prophecy and tongues

14 • 1 Strive, then, for love and set your hearts on spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. 2 The one who speaks in tongues does not speak to people, but to God, for no one understands him; the spirit makes him say things that are not understandable. 3 The prophet, instead, addresses all people to give them strength, encouragement and consolation. 4 He who speaks in tongues strengthens himself, but the prophet builds the Church.

5 Would that all of you spoke in tongues! But better still if you were all prophets. The prophet has an advantage over the one speaking in tongues, unless someone explains what was spoken, so that the community may profit. 6 Suppose, brothers and sisters, I go to you and I speak in tongues, of what use will it be to you if I do not bring you some revelation, knowledge, prophecy or teaching?

7 When someone plays the flute, or harp, or any musical instrument, if there are not tones and notes, who will recognize the tune? 8 And if the bugle call is not clear, who will get ready for battle? 9 The same with you. If your words are not understood, who will know what is said? You will be talking to the moon. 10 There are many languages in the world, and each of them has meaning, 11 but if I cannot find any meaning in what is said, I become a foreigner to the speaker, and the speaker to me.

12 As you set your heart on spiritual gifts, be eager to build the Church and you will receive abundantly. 13 Because of this, those who speak in tongues should ask God for the ability to explain what they say.

14 When I am praying in tongues, my spirit prays, but my mind remains idle. 15 What shall I do, then? I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with my mind. I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind. 16 If you praise God only with your spirit, how will the ordinary person add the “Amen” to your thanksgiving, since the outsider has not understood what you said? 17 Your thanksgiving was indeed beautiful, but it was useless for others.

18 I give thanks to God because I speak in tongues more than all of you, 19 but when I am in the assembly, I prefer to say five words from my mind, which may teach others, than ten thousand words in tongues.

20 Brothers and sisters, do not remain as children in your thinking. Be like infants in doing evil, but mature in your thinking. 21 God says in the Law: I will speak to this people through those talking other tongues and through lips of foreigners, but even so they will not listen to me. 22 So, speaking in tongues is significant for those who refuse to believe, not for those who believe, while prophecy is a sign for those who believe, not for those who refuse to believe.

23 Yet imagine that the whole Church is gathered together and all speak in tongues when unbelievers and uninformed people enter. What will they think? That you are crazy. 24 Instead, suppose that each of you speaks as a prophet; as soon as an unbeliever or an uninformed person enters, all of you call him to account and disclose his most secret thinking. 25 Then, falling on his face, he would be urged to worship God and declare that God is truly among you.

26 What then shall we conclude, brothers? When you gather, each of you can take part with a song, a teaching, or a revelation, by speaking in tongues or interpreting what has been said in tongues. But let all this build up the Church.

27 Are you going to speak in tongues? Let two or three, at most, speak, each in turn, and let one interpret what has been said. 28 If there is no interpreter, hold your tongue in the assembly and speak to God by yourself.

29 As for the prophets, let two or three speak, with the others commenting on what has been said. 30 If a revelation comes to one of those sitting by, let the first be silent. 31 Even all of you could prophesy, one by one, for the instruction and encouragement of all. 32 The spirits speaking through prophets are submitted to prophets, 33 because God is not a God of confusion, but of peace.

34 (Let women be silent in the assemblies, as in all the churches of the saints. They are not allowed to speak. Let them be submissive as the Law commands. 35 If there is anything they desire to know, let them consult their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in Church.)

36 Did the word of God, perhaps, come from you? or did it come only to you? 37 Anyone among you who claims to be a prophet or a spiritual person, should acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord’s command. 38 If he does not recognize that, God will not recognize him.

39 So, my friends, set your hearts on the gift of prophecy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. 40 However, everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.

1 CORINTHIANS 13

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 02:56:26 +0000

No gift higher than love

13 • 1 If I could speak all the human and angelic tongues, but had no love, I would only be sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, knowing secret things with all kinds of knowledge, and had faith great enough to remove mountains, but had no love, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I had to the poor, and even give up my body to be burned, if I am without love, it would be of no value to me.

4 Love is patient, kind, without envy. It is not boastful or arrogant. It is not ill-mannered nor does it seek its own interest. 5 Love overcomes anger and forgets offenses. 6 It does not take delight in wrong, but rejoices in truth. 7 Love excuses everything, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love will never end. Prophecies may cease, tongues be silent and knowledge disappear. 9 For knowledge grasps something of the truth and prophecy as well. 10 And when what is perfect comes, everything imperfect will pass away. 11 When I was a child I thought and reasoned like a child, but when I grew up, I gave up childish ways. 12 Likewise, at present we see dimly as in a mirror, but then it shall be face to face. Now we know in part, but then I will know as I am known. 13 Now we have faith, hope and love, these three, but the greatest of these is love.

1 CORINTHIANS 12

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 02:55:03 +0000

Spiritual gifts and harmony

12 • 1 With respect to spiritual gifts, I will remind you of the following. 2 When you were still pagans, you were irresistably drawn to your dumb idols. 3 I tell you that nobody inspired by the Spirit of God may say, “A curse on Jesus,” as no one can say, “Jesus is the Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

4 There is diversity of gifts, but the Spirit is the same. 5 There is diversity of ministries, but the Lord is the same. 6 There is diversity of works, but the same God works in all.

7 The Spirit reveals his presence in each one with a gift that is also a service. 8 One is to speak with wisdom, through the Spirit. Another teaches according to the same Spirit. 9 To another is given faith, in which the Spirit acts; to another the gift of healing, and it is the same Spirit. 10 Another works miracles, another is a prophet, another recognizes what comes from the good or evil spirit; another speaks in tongues, and still another interprets what has been said in tongues. 11 And all of this is the work of the one and only Spirit, who gives to each one as he so desires.

Comparison with the body

• 12 As the body is one, having many members, and all the members, while being many, form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 All of us, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, have been baptized in one Spirit to form one body and all of us have been given to drink from the one Spirit.

14 The body has not just one member, but many. 15 If the foot should say, “I do not belong to the body for I am not a hand,” it would be wrong: it is part of the body! 16 Even though the ear says, “I do not belong to the body for I am not an eye,” it is part of the body. 17 If all the body were eye, how would we hear? And if all the body were ear, how would we smell?

18 God has arranged all the members, placing each part of the body as he pleased. 19 If all were the same part where would the body be? 20 But there are many members and one body. 21 The eye cannot tell the hand, “I do not need you,” nor the head tell the feet, “I do not need you.”

22 Still more, the parts of our body that we most need are those that seem to be the weakest; 23 the parts that we consider lower are treated with much care, 24 and we cover them with more modesty because they are less presentable, whereas the others do not need such attention. 25 God himself arranged the body in this way, giving more honor to those parts that need it, so that the body may not be divided, but rather each member may care for the others. 26 When one suffers, all of them suffer, and when one receives honor, all rejoice together.

27 Now, you are the body of Christ and each of you individually is a member of it. 28 So God has appointed us in the Church. First apostles, second prophets, third teachers. Then come miracles, then the gift of healing, material help, administration in the Church and the gift of tongues.

29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Can all perform miracles, 30 or cure the sick, or speak in tongues, or explain what was said in tongues? 31 Be that as it may, set your hearts on the most precious gifts, and I will show you a much better way.

1 CORINTHIANS 11

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 02:50:17 +0000

Women’s dress and Mediterranean customs

11 • 1 Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ. 2 I praise you because you remember me in everything, and you keep the traditions that I have given you. 3 However I wish to remind you that every man has Christ as his head, while the wife has her husband as her head; and God is the head of Christ. 4 If a man prays or prophesies with his head covered, he dishonors his head. 5 On the contrary, the woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered, does not respect her head. She might as well cut her hair. 6 If a woman does not use a veil, let her cut her hair; and if it is a shame for a woman to have her hair cut or shaved, then let her use a veil.

7 Men do not need to cover their head, for they are the image of God and reflect his glory, while a woman reflects the glory of man. 8 Man was not formed from woman, but woman from man. 9 Nor did God create man for woman, but woman for man. 10 Therefore, a woman must respect the angels and have on her head the sign of her dependence.

11 Anyway, the Christian attitude does not separate man from woman, and woman from man, 12 and if God has created woman from man, man is born from woman and both come from God.

13 Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a woman to pray without a veil? 14 Common sense teaches us that it is shameful for a man to wear long hair, 15 while long hair is the pride of a woman, and it has been given to her precisely as a veil.

16 If some of you want to argue, let it be known that it is not our custom nor the custom in the churches of God.

The Lord’s supper

• 17 To continue with my advice, I cannot praise you, for your gatherings are not for the better but for the worse.

18 First, as I have heard, when you gather together, there are divisions among you and I partly believe it. 19 There may have to be different groups among you, so that it becomes clear who among you are genuine.

20 Your gatherings are no longer the Supper of the Lord, 21 for each one eats at once his own food and while one is hungry, the other is getting drunk. 22 Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Or perhaps you despise the Church of God and desire to humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say? Shall I praise you? For this I cannot praise you.

23 This is the tradition of the Lord that I received and that in my turn I have handed on to you; the Lord Jesus, on the night that he was delivered up, took bread and, 24 after giving thanks, broke it, saying, “This is my body which is broken for you; do this in memory of me.” 25 In the same manner, taking the cup after the supper, he said, “This cup is the new Covenant in my blood. Whenever you drink it, do it in memory of me.” 26 So, then, whenever you eat of this bread and drink from this cup, you are proclaiming the death of the Lord until he comes.

27 Therefore, if anyone eats of the bread or drinks from the cup of the Lord unworthily, he sins against the body and blood of the Lord.

28 Let each one, then, examine himself before eating of the bread and drinking from the cup. 29 Otherwise, he eats and drinks his own condemnation in not recognizing the Body.

30 This is the reason why so many among you are sick and weak and several have died. 31 If we examined and corrected ourselves, the Lord would not have to exercise judgment against us. 32 The Lord’s strokes are to correct us, so that we may not be condemned with this world.

33 So then, brothers, when you gather for a meal, wait for one another 34 and, if someone is hungry, let him eat in his own house. In this way you will not gather for your common condemnation. The other instructions I shall give when I go there.

1 CORINTHIANS 10

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 15:55:09 +0000

10 1 Let me remind you, brothers and sisters, about our ancestors. All of them were under the cloud and all crossed the sea. 2 All underwent the baptism of the land and of the sea to join Moses 3 and all of them ate from the same spiritual manna 4 and all of them drank from the same spiritual drink. For you know that they drank from a spiritual rock following them, and the rock was Christ. 5 However, most of them did not please God, and the desert was strewn with their bodies.

6 All of this happened as an example for us, so that we might not become people of evil desires, as they did.

7 Do not follow idols, as some of them did, and Scripture says: The people sat down to eat and drink and stood up for orgy. 8 Let us not fall into sexual immorality as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand of them fell dead. 9 And let us not tempt the Lord as some of them did, and were killed by serpents; 10 nor grumble as some of them did and were cut down by the destroying angel.

11 These things happened to them as an example, and they were written as a warning for us, as the last times come upon us. 12 Therefore, if you think you stand, beware, lest you fall. 13 No trial greater than human endurance has overcome you. God is faithful and will not let you be tempted beyond your strength. He will give you, together with the temptation, the strength to escape and to resist.

14 Therefore, dear friends, shun the cult of idols.

• 15 I address you as intelligent persons; judge what I say. 16 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a communion with the blood of Christ? And the bread that we break, is it not a communion with the body of Christ? 17 The bread is one, and so we, though many, form one body, sharing the one bread.

18 Consider the Israelites. For them, to eat of the victim is to come into communion with its altar.

19 What does all that mean? That the meat is really consecrated to the idol, or that the idol is a being. 20 However, when the pagans offer a sacrifice, the sacrifice goes to the demons, not to God. I do not want you to come into fellowship with demons. 21 You cannot drink at the same time from the cup of the Lord and from the cup of demons. You cannot share in the table of the Lord and in the table of the demons. 22 Do we want, perhaps, to provoke the jealousy of the Lord? Could we be stronger than he?

Practical solutions

• 23 Everything is lawful for me, but not everything is to my profit. Everything is lawful for me, but not everything builds up: 24 let no one pursue his own interests, but the interests of the other.

25 Eat, then, whatever is sold at the market, and do not raise questions of conscience about it. 26 Because: the earth and whatever is on it belongs to the Lord. 27 If someone who does not share your faith invites you, go and eat of anything served to you without problems of conscience. 28 However, if somebody tells you that the meat is from the offerings to idols, then do not eat out of consideration for those warning you and for the sake of their conscience.

29 I say: “In consideration of their conscience,” not of yours, for is it convenient that my rights be misinterpreted by them and their conscience? 30 Is it good that I bring on me critics for some good thing I am sharing and for which I will give thanks?

31 Then, whether you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do it for the glory of God. 32 Give no offense to the Jews, or to the Greeks, or to the Church of God, 33 just as I try to please everyone in everything. I do not seek my own interest, but that of many, this is: that they be saved.

1 CORINTHIANS 9

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 15:54:19 +0000

Renouncing one’s own rights: the example of Paul

9 • 1 As for me, am I not free? I am an apostle and I have seen Jesus, the Lord, and you are my work in the Lord. 2 Although I may not be an apostle for others, at least I am one for you. You are, in the Lord, evidence of my apostleship.

3 Now this is what I answer to those who criticize me: 4 Have we not the right to be fed? 5 Have we not the right to bring along with us a sister as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas? 6 Am I the only one, with Barnabas, bound to work?

What soldier goes to war at his own expense? 7 What farmer does not eat from the vineyard he planted? Who tends a flock and does not drink from its milk? 8 Are these rights only accepted human practice? No. The Law says the same. In the Law of Moses it is written: Do not muzzle the ox which threshes grain. 9 Does this mean that God is concerned with oxen, 10 or rather with us? Of course it applies to us. For our sake it was written that no one plows without expecting a reward for plowing, and no one threshes without hoping for a share of the crop. 11 Then, if we have sown spiritual riches among you, would it be too much for us to reap some material reward? 12 If others have had a share among you, we could have it all the more.

Yet we made no use of this right and we prefer to endure everything rather than put any obstacle to the Gospel of Christ. 13 Do you not know that those working in the sacred service eat from what is offered for the temple? And those serving at the altar receive their part from the altar. 14 The Lord ordered, likewise, that those announcing the Gospel live from the Gospel. 15 Yet I have not made use of my rights, and now I do not write to claim them: I would rather die! No one will deprive me of this glory of mine.

16 Because I cannot boast of announcing the Gospel: I am bound to do it. Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel! 17 If I preached voluntarily, I could expect my reward, but I have been trusted this office against my will. 18 How can I, then, deserve a reward? In announcing the Gospel, I will do it freely without making use of the rights given to me by the Gospel.

19 So, feeling free with everybody, I have become everybody’s slave in order to gain a greater number. 20 To save the Jews I became a Jew with the Jews, and because they are under the Law, I myself submitted to the Law, although I am free from it. 21 With the pagans, not subject to the Law, I became one of them, although I am not without a law of God, since Christ is my Law. Yet I wanted to gain those strangers to the Law. 22 To the weak I made myself weak, to win the weak. So I made myself all things to all people in order to save, by all possible means, some of them. 23 This I do for the Gospel, so that I too have a share of it.

Faith demands sacrifice

• 24 Have you not learned anything from the stadium? Many run, but only one gets the prize. Run, therefore, intending to win it, 25 as athletes who impose upon themselves a rigorous discipline. Yet for them the wreath is of laurels which wither, while for us, it does not wither.

26 So, then, I run knowing where I go. I box but not aimlessly in the air. 27 I punish my body and control it, lest after preaching to others, I myself should be rejected.

1 CORINTHIANS 8

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 15:53:06 +0000

Can we share in pagan customs?

8 • 1 Regarding meat from the offerings to idols, we know that all of us have knowledge but knowledge puffs up, while love builds. 2 If anyone thinks that he has knowledge, he does not yet know as he should know, 3 but if someone loves (God), he has been known (by God).

4 Can we, then, eat meat from offerings to the idols? We know that an idol is without existence and that there is no God but one. 5 People speak indeed of other gods in heaven and on earth and, in this sense, there are many gods and lords. 6 Yet for us, there is but one God, the Father, from whom everything comes, and to whom we go. And there is one Lord, Christ Jesus, through whom everything exists and through him we exist.

7 Not everyone, however, has that knowledge. For some persons, who until recently took the idols seriously, that food remains linked to the idol and eating of it stains their conscience which is unformed.

8 It is not food that brings us closer to God. If we eat, we gain nothing, and if we do not eat, we do not lose anything. 9 We are free, of course, but let not your freedom cause others, who are less prepared, to fall. 10 What if others with an unformed conscience see you, a person of knowledge, sitting at the table in the temple of idols? Will not their weak conscience, because of your example, move them to eat also? 11 Then with your knowledge you would have caused your weak brother or sister to perish, the one for whom Christ died. 12 When you disturb the weak conscience of your brother or sister and sin against them, you sin against Christ himself. 13 Therefore, if any food will bring my brother to sin, I shall never eat this food lest my brother or sister fall.

1 CORINTHIANS 7

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 15:52:08 +0000

Marriage and abstinence

7 • 1 Now I will answer the questions in your letter. It is good for a man not to touch a woman. 2 Yet to avoid immorality, every man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. 3 Let the husband fulfill his duty of husband and likewise the wife. 4 The wife is not the owner of her own body: the husband is. Similarly, the husband is not the owner of his own body: the wife is.

5 Do not refuse each other, except by mutual consent and only for a time in order to dedicate yourselves to prayer, and then come together again, lest you fall into Satan’s trap by lack of self-control. 6 I approve of this abstention, but I do not order it. 7 I would like everyone to be like me, but each has from God a particular gift, some in one way, others differently.

8 To the unmarried and the widows I say that it would be good for them to remain as I am, 9 but if they cannot control themselves, let them marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

Marriage and divorce

• 10 I command married couples—not I but the Lord—that the wife should not separate from her husband. 11 If she separates from him, let her not marry again, or let her make peace with her husband. Similarly the husband should not divorce his wife.

12 To the others I say—from me and not from the Lord—if a brother has a wife who is not a believer but she agrees to live with him, let him not separate from her. 13 In the same manner, if a woman has a husband who is not a believer but he agrees to live with her, let her not separate from her husband. 14 Because the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband who believes. Otherwise, your children also would be apart from God; but as it is, they are consecrated to God.

15 Now, if the unbelieving husband or wife wants to separate, let them do so. In this case, the Christian partner is not bound, for the Lord has called us to peace. 16 Besides, are you sure, wife, that you could save your husband, and you, husband, that you could save your wife?

• 17 Except for this, let each one continue living as he was when God called him, as was his lot set by the Lord. This is what I order in all churches. 18 Let the circumcised Jew not remove the marks of the circumcision when he is called by God, and let the non-Jew not be circumcised when he is called. 19 For the important thing is not to be circumcised or not, but to keep the commandments of God.

20 Let each of you, therefore, remain in the state in which you were called by God. 21 If you were a slave when called, do not worry, yet if you can gain your freedom, take the opportunity.

22 The slave called to believe in the Lord is a freed person belonging to the Lord just as whoever has been called while free, becomes a slave of Christ. 23 You have been bought at a very great price; do not become slaves of a human being.

24 So then, brothers and sisters, continue living in the state you were before God at the time of his call.

Marriage and virginity

• 25 With regard to those who remain virgins, I have no special commandment from the Lord, but I give some advice, hoping that I am worthy of trust by the mercy of the Lord.

26 I think this is good in these hard times in which we live. It is good for someone to remain as he is. 27 If you are married, do not try to divorce your wife; if you are not married, do not marry. 28 He who marries does not sin, nor does the young girl sin who marries. Yet they will face disturbing experiences, and I would like to spare you.

29 I say this, brothers and sisters: time is running out, and those who are married must live as if not married; 30 those who weep as if not weeping; those who are happy as if they were not happy; those buying something as if they had not bought it, and those enjoying the present life as if they were not enjoying it. 31 For the order of this world is vanishing.

32 I would like you to be free from anxieties. He who is not married is concerned about the things of the Lord and how to please the Lord. 33 While he who is married is taken up with the things of the world and how to please his wife, and he is divided in his interests.

34 Likewise, the unmarried woman and the virgin are concerned with the service of the Lord, to be holy in body and spirit. The married woman, instead, worries about the things of the world and how to please her husband.

35 I say this for your own good. I do not wish to lay traps for you but to lead you to a beautiful life, entirely united with the Lord.

• 36 If anyone realizes he will not be behaving correctly with his fiancee because of the ardor of his passion, and that things should take their due course, let him marry; he commits no sin. 37 But if another, of firmer heart, thinks that he can control his passion and decides not to marry so that his fiancee may remain a virgin, he does better. 38 So then, he who marries does well, and he who does not marry does better.

39 The wife is bound as long as her husband lives. If he dies, she is free to be married to whomsoever she wishes, provided that she does so in the Christian way. 40 However, she will be happier if, following my advice, she remains as she is, and I believe that I also have the Spirit of God.

1 CORINTHIANS 6

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 15:51:03 +0000

Do not bring another Christian to court

6 • 1 When you have a complaint against a brother, how dare you bring it before pagan judges instead of bringing it before God’s people? 2 Do you not know that you shall one day judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you incapable of judging such simple problems?

3 Do you not know that we will even judge the angels? And could you not decide every day affairs? 4 But when you have ordinary cases to be judged, you bring them before those who are of no account in the Church! 5 Shame on you! Is there not even one among you wise enough to be the arbiter among believers?

6 But no. One of you brings a suit against another one, and files that suit before unbelievers. 7 It is already a failure that you have suits against each other. Why do you not rather suffer wrong and receive some damage? 8 But no. You wrong and injure others, and those are your brothers and sisters. 9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the Kingdom of God?

Make no mistake about it: those who lead sexually immoral lives, or worship idols, or who are adulterers, perverts, sodomites, 10 or thieves, exploiters, drunkards, gossips or embezzlers will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. 11 Some of you were like that, but you have been cleansed and consecrated to God and have been set right with God by the Name of the Lord Jesus and the Spirit of our God.

Sexual immorality

• 12 Everything is lawful for me, but not everything is to my profit. Everything is lawful for me, but I will not become a slave of anything. 13 Food is for the stomach, as the stomach is for food, and God will destroy them both. Yet the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord is for the body. 14 And God who raised the Lord, will also raise us with his power.

15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? And you would make that part of his body become a part of a prostitute? Never! 16 But you well know that when you join yourselves to a prostitute, you become one with her. For Scripture says: The two will become one flesh. 17 On the contrary, anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

18 Avoid unlawful sex entirely. Any other sin a person commits is outside the body but those who commit sexual immorality sin against their own body.

19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, given by God? You belong no longer to yourselves. 20 Remember at what price you have been bought and make your body serve the glory of God.

1 CORINTHIANS 5

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 15:50:07 +0000

Expel the immoral brother!

5 • 1 You have become news with a case of immorality, and such a case that is not even found among pagans. Yes, one of you has taken as wife his own stepmother. 2 And you feel proud! Should you not be in mourning instead and expel the one who did such a thing. 3 For my part, although I am physically absent, my spirit is with you and, as if present, I have already passed sentence on the man who committed such a sin. 4 Let us meet together, you and my spirit, and in the name of our Lord Jesus and with his power, 5 you shall deliver him to Satan, for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit be saved in the day of Judgment.

6 This is not the time to praise yourselves. Do you not know that a little yeast makes the whole mass of dough rise? 7 Throw out, then, the old yeast and be new dough. If Christ became our Passover, you should be unleavened bread. 8 Let us celebrate, therefore, the Passover, no longer with old yeast, which is sin and perversity; let us have unleavened bread, that is purity and sincerity.

9 In my last letter I instructed you not to associate with immoral people. 10 I did not mean, of course, those who do not belong to the church and who are immoral, exploiters, embezzlers or worshipers of idols. Otherwise you would have to leave this world. 11 What I really meant was to avoid and not to mingle with anyone who, bearing the name of brother or sister, becomes immoral, exploiter, gossip, drunkard, embezzler. In which case you should not even eat with them.

12 Why should I judge outsiders? But you, are you not to judge those who are inside? 13 Let God judge those outside, but as for you, drive out the wicked person from among you.

1 CORINTHIANS 4

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 15:48:31 +0000

4 1 Let everyone then see us as the servants of Christ and stewards of the secret works of God. 2 Being stewards, faithfulness shall be demanded of us; 3 but I do not mind if you or any human court judges me. I do not even judge myself; 4 my conscience indeed does not accuse me of anything, but that is not enough for me to be set right with God: the Lord is the one who judges me.

5 Therefore, do not judge before the time, until the coming of the Lord. He will bring to light whatever was hidden in darkness and will disclose the secret intentions of the hearts. Then each one will receive praise from God.

6 Brothers and sisters, you forced me to apply these comparisons to Apollos and to myself. Learn by this example not to believe yourselves superior by siding with one against the other. 7 How then are you more than the others? What have you that you have not received? And if you received it, why are you proud, as if you did not receive it?

Comforted Christians and harassed apostles

• 8 So, then, you are already rich and satisfied, and feel like kings without us! I wish you really were kings, so that we might enjoy the kingship with you!

9 It seems to me that God has placed us, the apostles, in the last place, as if condemned to death, and as spectacles for the whole world, for the angels as well as for mortals.

10 We are fools for Christ, while you show forth the wisdom of Christ. We are weak, you are strong. You are honored, while we are despised. 11 Until now we hunger and thirst, we are poorly clothed and badly treated, while moving from place to place. 12 We labor, working with our hands. People insult us and we bless them, they persecute us and we endure everything; 13 they speak evil against us, and ours are works of peace. We have become like the scum of the earth, like the garbage of humankind until now.

14 I do not write this to shame you, but to warn you as very dear children. 15 Because even though you may have ten thousand guardians in the Christian life, you have only one father; and it was I who gave you life in Christ through the Gospel. 16 Therefore I pray you to follow my example. 17 With this purpose I send to you Timothy, my dear and trustworthy son in the service of the Lord. He will remind you of my way of Christian life, as I teach it in all churches everywhere.

18 Some of you thought that I could not visit you and became very arrogant. 19 But I will visit you soon, the Lord willing, and I will see, not what those arrogant people say, but what they can do. 20 Because the kingdom of God is not a matter of words, but of power. 21What do you prefer, for me to come with a stick or with love and gentleness?

1 CORINTHIANS 3

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 15:11:55 +0000

There are many workers, the building is one

3 • 1 I could not, friends, speak to you as spiritual persons but as fleshly people, for you are still infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk and not solid food, for you were not ready for it and up to now you cannot receive it 3 for you are still of the flesh. As long as there is jealousy and strife, what can I say but that you are at the level of the flesh and behave like ordinary people.

4 While one says: “I follow Paul,” and the other: “I follow Apollos,” what are you but people still at a human level?

5 For what is Apollos? What is Paul? They are ministers and through them you believed, as it was given by the Lord to each of them. 6 I planted, Apollos watered the plant, but God made it grow. 7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who makes the plant grow.

8 The one who plants and the one who waters work to the same end, and the Lord will pay each according to their work. 9 We are fellow-workers with God, but you are God’s field and building.

10 I, as a good architect, according to the capacity given to me, I laid the foundation, and another is to build upon it. Each one must be careful how to build upon it. 11 No one can lay a foundation other than the one which is already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Then if someone builds with gold upon this foundation, another with silver and precious stones, or with wood, bamboo or straw, 13 the work of each one will be shown for what it is. The day of Judgment will reveal it, because the fire will make everything known. The fire will test the work of everyone. 14 If your work withstands the fire, you will be rewarded; 15 but if your work becomes ashes, you will pay for it. You will be saved, but it will be as if passing through fire.

• 16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit abides within you? 17 If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him. God’s temple is holy, and you are this temple.

Do not divide the Church

• 18 Do not deceive yourselves. If anyone of you considers himself wise in the ways of the world, let him become a fool, so that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s eyes. To this, Scripture says: God catches the wise in their own wisdom. 20 It also says: The Lord knows the reasoning of the wise, that it is useless.

21 Because of this, let no one become an admirer of humans, for everything belongs to you, 22 Paul, Apollos, Cephas—life, death, the present and the future. Everything is yours, 23 and you, you belong to Christ, and Christ is of God.

1 CORINTHIANS 2

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 15:11:05 +0000

2 • 1 When I came to reveal to you he mystery of God’s plan I did not count on eloquence or on a show of learning. 2 I was determined not to know anything among you but Jesus, the Messiah, and a crucified Messiah. 3 I myself came weak, fearful and trembling; 4 my words and preaching were not brilliant or clever to win listeners. 5 It was, rather, a demonstration of spirit and power, so that your faith might be a matter, not of human wisdom, but of God’s power.

The Spirit teaches us wisdom

• 6 In fact, we do speak of wisdom to the mature in faith, although it is not a wisdom of this world or of its rulers, who are doomed to perish. 7 We teach the mystery and secret plan of divine wisdom, which God destined from the beginning to bring us to Glory.

8 No ruler of this world ever knew this; otherwise they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. 9 But as Scripture says: Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it dawned on the mind what God has prepared for those who love him. 10 God has revealed it to us, through his Spirit, because the Spirit probes everything, even the depth of God.

11 Who but his own spirit knows the secrets of a person? Similarly, no one but the Spirit of God knows the secrets of God. 12 We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God and, through him, we understand what God in his goodness has given us.

13 So we speak of this, not in terms inspired by human wisdom, but in a language taught by the Spirit, explaining a spiritual wisdom to spiritual persons. 14 The one who remains on the psychological level does not understand the things of the Spirit. They are foolishness for him and he does not understand because they require a spiritual experience. 15 On the other hand, the spiritual person judges everything but no one judges him. 16 Who has known the mind of God so as to teach him? But we have the mind of Christ.

1 CORINTHIANS 1

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 15:09:58 +0000

1 • 1 From Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and from Sosthenes, our brother, 2 to God’s Church which is in Corinth; to you whom God has sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with those who everywhere call upon the name of our Lord Christ Jesus, their Lord and ours.

3 Receive grace and peace from God our Father, and Christ Jesus our Lord.

4 I give thanks constantly to my God for you and for the grace of God given to you in Christ Jesus. 5 For you have been fully enriched in him with words as well as with knowledge, 6 even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you. 7 You do not lack any spiritual gift and only await the glorious coming of Christ Jesus, our Lord. 8 He will keep you steadfast to the end, and you will be without reproach on the day of the coming of our Lord Jesus. 9 The faithful God will not fail you after calling you to this fellowship with his Son, Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Divisions among the faithful

• 10 I beg of you, brothers, in the name of Christ Jesus, our Lord, to agree among yourselves and do away with divisions; please be perfectly united, with one mind and one judgment.

11 For I heard from people of Cloe’s house about your rivalries. 12 What I mean is this: some say, “I am for Paul,” and others: “I am for Apollo,” or “I am for Peter,” or “I am for Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided or have I, Paul, been crucified for you? Have you been baptized in the name of Paul?

14 I thank God that I did not baptize any of you, except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one can say that he was baptized in my name. 16 Well, I have also baptized the Stephanas family. Apart from these, I do not recall having baptized anyone else.

The folly of the cross

• 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to proclaim his Gospel. And not with beautiful words! That would be like getting rid of the cross of Christ. 18 The language of the cross remains nonsense for those who are lost. Yet for us who are saved, it is the power of God, 19 as Scripture says: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and make fail the foresight of the foresighted. 20 Masters of human wisdom, educated people, philosophers, you have no reply! And the wisdom of this world? God let it fail.

21 At first God spoke the language of wisdom, and the world did not know God through wisdom. Then God thought of saving the believers through the foolishness that we preach.

22 The Jews ask for miracles and the Greeks for a higher knowledge, 23 while we proclaim a crucified Messiah. For the Jews, what a great scandal! And for the Greeks, what nonsense! 24 But he is Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God for those called by God among both Jews and Greeks.

25 In reality, the “foolishness” of God is wiser than humans, and the “weakness” of God is stronger than humans.

26 Brothers and sisters, look and see whom God has called. Few among you can be said to be cultured or wealthy, and few belong to noble families. 27 Yet God has chosen what the world considers foolish, to shame the wise; he has chosen what the world considers weak to shame the strong. 28 God has chosen common and unimportant people, making use of what is nothing to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no mortal may boast before God. 30 But, by God’s grace you are in Christ Jesus, who has become our wisdom from God, and who makes us just and holy and free. 31 Scripture says: Let the one who boasts boast of the Lord.

Romans 16

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 12:57:21 +0000

Greetings

16 1 I recommend to you our sister Phoebe, deaconess of the church of Cenchreae. 2 Please receive her in the name of the Lord, as it should be among brothers and sisters in the faith, and help her in whatever is necessary, because she helped many, among them, myself.

3 Greetings to Prisca and Aquilas, my helpers in Christ Jesus. 4 To save my life, they risked theirs; I am very grateful to them, as are all the churches of the pagan nations. 5 Greetings also to the church that meets in their house. Greetings to my dear Epaenetus, the first in the province of Asia to believe in Christ. 6 Greet Mary, who worked so much for you.

7 Greetings to Andronicus and Junias, my relatives and companions in prison; they are well known apostles and served Christ before I did.

8 Give greetings to Ampliatus, whom I love so much in the Lord. 9 Greetings to Urbanus, our fellow worker, and to my dear Stachys. 10 Greetings to Apelles, who suffered for Christ, and the family of Aristobulus. 11 Greetings to my relative Herodion and those in the household of Narcissus, who works in the Lord’s service. 12 Greetings to Tryphaena and Tryphosa, who toil for the Lord’s sake. 13 Greetings to Rufus, elected of the Lord, and his mother who was a second mother to me. 14 Greetings to Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas and the brothers and sisters staying with them. 15 Greetings to Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, Olympas and all the holy ones in Christ Jesus with them. 16 Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ send their greetings.

A warning

• 17 Brothers and sisters, I beg of you to be careful of those who are causing divisions and troubles in teaching you a different teaching from the one you were taught. Keep away from them, 18 because those persons do not serve Christ our Lord, but their own interests, deceiving with their soft and entertaining language those who are simple of heart. 19 Everybody knows that you are very obedient, and because of that I am happy, but I want you to be sensible in doing good and firm against evil. 20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan and place him under your feet.

May Christ Jesus, our Lord, bless you. 21 Timothy, who is with me, sends you greetings, and so do Lucius, Jason and Sosipatros, my relatives.

22 I, Tertius, the writer of this letter, send you greetings in the Lord.

23 Greetings from Gaius, who has given me lodging and in whose house the church meets. 24 Greetings from Erastus, treasurer of the city, and from our brother Quartus.

Glory be to God!

25 He is able to give you strength, according to the Good News I proclaim, announcing Christ Jesus.

Now is revealed the mysterious plan kept hidden for long ages in the past.

26 By the will of the eternal God it is brought to light, through the prophetic books, and all nations shall believe the faith proclaimed to them.

27 Glory to God, who alone is wise, through Christ Jesus, for ever! Amen.

Romans 15

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 12:56:19 +0000

15 1 We, the strong and liberated, should bear the weakness of those who are not strong, instead of pleasing ourselves. 2 Let each of us bring joy to our neighbors helping them for the good purpose, for building up. 3 Christ himself did not look for his own contentment, as Scripture says: The insults of those insulting you fell upon me. 4 And we know that whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction, for both perseverance and comfort given us by the Scripture sustain our hope. 5 May God, the source of all perseverance and comfort, give to all of you to live in peace in Christ Jesus, 6 that you may be able to praise in one voice God, Father of Christ Jesus, our Lord.

7 Welcome, then, one another, as Christ welcomed you for the glory of God. 8 Look: Christ put himself at the service of the Jewish world to fulfill the promises made by God to their ancestors; here you see God’s faithfulness. 9 The pagans instead give thanks to God for his mercy, as Scripture says: Because of that, I will sing and praise your name among the pagans. 10 And in another place: Rejoice, pagan nations, with God’s people. 11 And again: Praise the Lord, all people and let all nations speak of his magnificence. 12 Isaiah says: A descendant of Jesse will come who will rule the pagan nations and they will hope in him.

13 May God, the source of hope, fill you with joy and peace in the faith, so that your hope may increase by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Paul feels responsible for the Christians of Rome

• 14 As for me, brothers and sisters, I am convinced that you have goodwill, knowledge and the capacity to advise each other; 15 nevertheless I have written boldly in some parts of this letter to remind you of what you already know. I do this according to the grace God has given to me 16 when I was sent to the pagan nations. I dedicated myself to the service of the Good News of God as a minister of Christ Jesus, in order to present the non-Jews to God as an agreeable offering consecrated by the Holy Spirit. 17 This service of God is for me a cause of pride in Christ Jesus.

18 Of course, I would not dare to speak of other things but what Christ himself has done through me, my words and my works, 19 with miracles and signs, by the power of the Holy Spirit—so that non-Jews may obey the faith. In this way I have extended the Good News to all parts, from Jerusalem to Illiricum.

20 I have been very careful, however, and I am proud of this, not to preach in places where Christ is already known, and not to build upon foundations laid by others. 21 Let it be as Scripture says: Those not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.

Help for the Christians in Jerusalem

• 22 This work has prevented me from going to you. 23 But now there is no more place for me in these regions, and as I have wanted for so long to go and see you, 24 I hope to visit you when I go to Spain. Then you could help me go to that nation, once I have fully enjoyed your company.

25 Right now I am going to Jerusalem to help that community. 26 Know that the churches of Macedonia and Achaia have decided to make a contribution for the poor among the believers of Jerusalem. 27 They have decided to do that and, in fact, they were indebted to them. For the non-Jews have shared the spiritual goods of the Jews and now they must help them materially. 28 So I am to complete this task and give over the amount that has been collected. Then I will go to you and from there to Spain. 29 And I am sure that when I go to you, I will go with all the blessings of God.

30 I beg of you, brothers and sisters, by Christ Jesus our Lord and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in the fight, praying to God for me; 31 pray that I may avoid the snares of the enemies of faith in Judea, and that the community of Jerusalem may welcome the help I bring. 32 And so I will go to you with joy and, God willing, be refreshed in your company. 33 The God of peace be with you. Amen.

Romans 14

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 12:55:01 +0000

The weak and the strong

14 • 1 Welcome those weak in faith and do not criticize their scruples. 2 Some think they can eat any food, while others, less liberated, eat only vegetables. 3 If you eat, do not despise those who abstain; if you abstain, do not criticize those who eat, for God has welcomed them. 4 Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? Whether he stands or falls, the one concerned is his master. But he will not fall, for his master is able to keep him standing.

5 Some judge one day to be better than the other; let us act according to our own opinion. 6 The one who distinguishes among days does that for the Lord; and the one who eats eats for the Lord and in eating gives thanks to the Lord. And the one who does not eat does it for the Lord and gives him thanks as well.

7 In fact, none of us lives for himself, nor dies for himself. 8 If we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord. Either in life or in death, we belong to the Lord; 9 It was for this purpose that Christ both died and come to life again to be Lord both of the living and of the dead.

10 Then you, why do you criticize your brother or sister? And you, why do you despise them? For we will all appear at the tribunal of God. 11 It is written: I swear by myself—word of the Lord—every knee will bend before me, and every tongue shall give glory to God. 12 So each of us will account for himself before God.

13 Therefore, let us not continue criticizing one another; let us try, rather, never to put in the way of our brother anything that would make him stumble or fall. 14 I know, I am sure of this in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself, it is only unclean for those who consider it unclean. 15 But if you hurt your brother or sister because of a certain food, you are no longer walking according to love. Let not your eating cause the loss of one for whom Christ died.

16 Don’t put yourself in the wrong with something good. 17 The kingdom of God is not a matter of food or drink; it is justice, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18 and if you serve Christ in this way, you will please God and be praised by people. 19 Let us look, then, for what strengthens peace and makes us better.

20 Do not destroy the work of God because of food. All food is clean, but it it is wrong for you to make others fall by what you eat. 21 And it may be better not to eat meat, or drink wine, or anything else that causes your brother or sister to stumble.

22 Keep your own belief before God, and happy are you if you never act against your own belief. 23 Instead, whoever eats something in spite of his doubt is condemned by his conscience, because whatever we do against our conscience is sinful.

Romans 13

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 12:53:42 +0000

Submission to authority

13 • 1 Let everyone be subject to the authorities. For there is no authority that does not come from God, and the offices have been established by God. 2 Whoever, therefore, resists authority goes against a decree of God, and those who resist deserve to be condemned.

3 In fact, who fears authority? Not those who do good, but those who do evil. Do you want to be without fear of a person in authority? Do good and you will receive praise. 4 They are the stewards of God for your good. But if you do not behave, fear them for they do not carry arms in vain; they are at the service of God when they judge and punish wrongdoers.

5 It is necessary to obey, not through fear but as a matter of conscience. 6 In the same way you must pay taxes, and the collectors are God’s officials. 7 Pay to all what is due them; to whomever you owe contributions, make a contribution; to whom taxes are due, pay taxes; to whom respect is due, give respect; to whom honor is due, give honor.

8 Do not be in debt to anyone. Let this be the only debt of one to another: Love. The one who loves his or her neighbor fulfilled the Law. 9 For the commandments: Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not covet and whatever else are summarized in this one: You will love your neighbor as yourself. 10 Love cannot do the neighbor any harm; so love fulfills the whole Law.

Children of the light

• 11 You know what hour it is. This is the time to awake, for our salvation is now nearer than when we first believed; 12 the night is almost over and day is at hand. Let us discard, therefore, everything that belongs to darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. 13 As we live in the full light of day, let us behave with decency; no banquets with drunkenness, no promiscuity or licentiousness, no fighting or jealousy. 14 Put on, rather, the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not be led by the will of the flesh nor follow its desires.

Romans 12

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 12:52:28 +0000

Christian life: be concerned for others

12 • 1 I beg you, dearly beloved, by the mercy of God, to give yourselves as a living and holy sacrifice pleasing to God; that is the kind of worship for you, as sensible people. 2 Don’t let yourselves be shaped by the world where you live, but rather be transformed through the renewal of your mind. You must discern the will of God: what is good, what pleases, what is perfect.

3 The grace that God has given me allows me to tell each of you: don’t pretend too much but think with sober judgement each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

• 4 See, the body is one, even if formed by many members, but not all of them with the same function. 5 The same with us; being many, we are one body in Christ, depending on one another. 6 Let each one of us, therefore, serve according to our different gifts. Are you a prophet? Then give the insights of faith. 7 Let the minister fulfill his office; let the teacher teach, 8 the one who encourages, convince.

You must, likewise, give with an open hand, preside with dedication, and be cheerful in your works of charity.

• 9 Let love be sincere. Hate what is evil and hold to whatever is good. 10 Love one another and be considerate. Outdo one another in mutual respect. 11 Be zealous in fulfilling your duties. Be fervent in the Spirit and serve God.

12 Have hope and be cheerful. Be patient in trials and pray constantly. 13 Share with other Christians in need. With those passing by, be ready to receive them.

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not wish evil on anyone. 15 Rejoice with those who are joyful, and weep with those who weep. 16 Live in peace with one another. Do not dream of extraordinary things; be humble and do not hold yourselves as wise.

17 Do not return evil for evil, but let everyone see your good will. 18 Do your best to live in peace with everybody. 19 Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but let God be the one who punishes, as Scripture says: Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. 20 And it adds: If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him to drink; by doing this you will heap burning coals upon his head. 21 Do not let evil defeat you, but conquer evil with goodness.

Romans 11

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 12:51:31 +0000

A remnant of Israel has been saved

11 • 1 And so I ask: Has God rejected his people? Of course not. I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. 2 No, God has not rejected the people he knew beforehand. Don’t you know what the Scripture says of Elijah when he was accusing Israel before God? 3 He said: “Lord, they have killed your prophets, destroyed your altars, and I alone remain; and now they want to kill me.” 4 What was God’s answer? “I kept for myself seven thousand who did not worship Baal.” 5 In the same way now there is a remnant in Israel, those who were chosen by grace. 6 It is said: by grace, not because of what they did. Otherwise grace would not be grace.

7 What then? What Israel was looking for, it did not find, but those whom God elected found it. The others hardened their hearts, 8 as Scripture says: God made them dull of heart and mind; to this day their eyes cannot see nor their ears hear. 9 David says: May they be caught and trapped at their banquets; may they fall, may they be punished. 10 May their eyes be closed so that they cannot see and their backs be bent forever.

Do not despise those who stumbled

11 Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall? Of course not. Their stumbling allowed salvation to come to the pagan nations and this, in turn, will stir up the jealousy of Israel. 12 If Israel’s shortcoming made the world rich, if the pagan nations grew rich with what they lost, what will happen when Israel is restored?

13 Listen to me, you who are not Jews: I am spending myself as an apostle to the pagan nations, 14 but I hope my ministry will be successful enough to awaken the jealousy of those of my race, and finally to save some of them. 15 If the world made peace with God when they remained apart, what will it be when they are welcomed? Nothing less than a passing from death to life.

16 When the first fruits are consecrated to God, the whole is consecrated. If the roots are holy, so will be the branches. 17 Some branches have been cut from the olive tree, while you, as a wild olive tree, have been grafted in their stead, and you are benefiting from their roots and sap. 18 Now therefore, do not be proud and despise the branches, because you do not support the roots, the roots support you. 19 You may say, “They cut off the branches to graft me.” 20 Well and good. But they were cut off because they did not believe, while you stand by faith. Then do not pride yourself on this too much, rather beware: 21 if God did not spare the natural branches, even less will he spare you.

22 Admire at the same time both the goodness and severity of God: he was severe with the fallen and he is generous with you, as long as you remain faithful. Otherwise you will be cut off. 23 If they do not keep on rejecting the faith they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them back again. 24 If you were taken from the wild olive tree to which you belonged and, in spite of being a different species, you were grafted into the good olive tree, it will be much easier and natural for them to be grafted into their own tree.

Israel will be saved

25 I want you to understand the mysterious decree of God, lest you be too confident: a part of Israel will remain hardened until the majority of pagans have entered. 26 Then the whole of Israel will be saved, as Scripture says: From Zion will come the Liberator who will purify the descendants of Jacob from all sin. 27 And this is the covenant I will make with them: I will take away from them their sins.

28 Regarding the Gospel, the Jews are opponents, but it is for your benefit. Regarding election, they are beloved because of their ancestors; 29 because the call of God and his gifts cannot be nullified.

30 Through the disobedience of the Jews the mercy of God came to you who did not obey God. 31 They in turn will receive mercy in due time after this disobedience that brought God’s mercy to you. 32 So God has submitted all to disobedience, in order to show his mercy to all.

33 How deep are the riches, the wisdom and knowledge of God! His decisions cannot be explained, nor his ways understood! 34 Who has ever known God’s thoughts? Who has ever been his adviser? 35 Who has given him something first, so that God had to repay him? 36 For everything comes from him, has been made by him and has to return to him. To him be the glory for ever! Amen.

Romans 10

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 11:49:38 +0000

They tried to achieve their own perfection

10 • 1 My brothers and sisters, I wish with all my heart that the Jews be saved and I pray to God for them. 2 I can testify that they are zealous for God, but this is not the way. 3 They don’t know God’s way of righteousness and they try to achieve their own righteousness: this is why they did not enter God’s way of righteousness. 4 For Christ is the aim of the Law and it is then that the believer reaches this righteousness.

5 Moses, indeed, speaks of becoming just through the Law; he writes: The one who obeys the Law will find life through it. 6 But the righteousness coming from the faith says instead: Do not say in your heart: Who will go up to heaven? (because in fact Christ came down from there) 7 or who will go down to the world below? (because in fact Christ came up from among the dead). 8 True righteousness coming from faith also says: The word of God is near you, on your lips and in your hearts. This is the message that we preach, and this is faith.

9 You are saved if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and in your heart you believe that God raised him from the dead. 10 By believing from the heart, you obtain true righteousness; by confessing the faith with your lips you are saved. 11 For Scripture says: No one who believes in him will be ashamed. 12 Here there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; all have the same Lord, who is very generous with whoever calls on him.13 Truly, all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

14 But how can they call upon the name of the Lord without having believed in him? And how can they believe in him without having first heard about him? And how will they hear about him if no one preaches about him? 15 And how will they preach about him if no one sends them? As Scripture says: How beautiful are the feet of the messenger of good news. 16 Although not everyone obeyed the good news, as Isaiah said: Lord, who has believed in our preaching? 17 So, faith comes from preaching, and preaching is rooted in the word of Christ.

18 I ask: Have the Jews not heard? But of course they have. Because the voice of those preaching resounded all over the earth and their voice was heard to the ends of the world. 19 Then I must ask: Did Israel not understand? Moses was the first to say: I will make you jealous of a nation that is not a nation, I will excite your anger against a crazy nation. 20 Isaiah dares to add more: I was found by those not looking for me, I have shown myself to those not asking for me. 21 While referring to Israel, the same Isaiah says: I hold out my hands the whole day long to a disobedient and rebellious people.

Romans 9

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 11:46:26 +0000

Why have the Jews not believed?

9 • 1 I tell you sincerely in Christ, and my conscience assures me in the Holy Spirit that I am not lying: 2 I have great sadness and constant anguish for the Jews. 3 I would even desire that I myself suffer the curse of being cut off from Christ, instead of my brethren: I mean my own people, my kin. 4 They are Israelites whom God adopted, and on them rests his Glory. Theirs are the covenants, the Law, the worship and the promises of God. 5 They are descendants of the Patriarchs and from their race Christ was born, he who as God is above all distinctions. Blessed be He forever and ever: Amen!

6 We cannot say that the promise of God has failed. For not all Israelites belong to Israel. 7 And not because they are of the race of Abraham are they all his children, for it was said to him: The children of Isaac will be called your descendants. 8 This means that the children of God are not identified with the race of Abraham, but only with the children born to him because of the promise of God. 9 To such a promise this text refers: I shall return about this time and Sarah will have a son. 10 And listen: Rebecca, the wife of our father Isaac, became pregnant, 11 and before the twins were born, or had done anything right or wrong, in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, 12 not on the merits but of who is called, she was told: The elder will serve the younger, 13 as the Scripture says: I chose Jacob and rejected Esau.

God is not unjust

• 14 Shall we say that God is unjust? Of course not. 15 However God said to Moses: I shall forgive whom I forgive and have pity on whom I have pity. 16 So what is important is not that we worry or hurry, but that God has compassion. 17 And he says in Scripture to Pharaoh: I made you Pharaoh to show my power in you, and for the whole world to know my name. 18 And so God takes pity on whom he wishes, and hardens the heart of whomsoever he wishes.

19 Maybe you say: “Why then does God complain, if it is impossible to evade his decision?” 20 But you, my friend, who are you to call God to account? Should the clay pot say to its maker: Why did you make me like this? 21 Is it not up to the potter to make from the same clay a vessel for beauty and a vessel for menial use?

22 Thus God endures very patiently vessels that deserve his wrath, fit to be broken, and through them he wants to show his wrath and the extent of his power. 23 But he also wants to show the riches of his Glory in others, in vessels of mercy prepared for glory. 24 And he called us, not only from among the Jews, but from among the pagans, too, 25 as he said through the prophet Hosea: I will call “my people” those that were not my people, and “my beloved” the one who was not beloved. 26 And in the same place where they were told: “You are not my people,” they will be called children of the living God.

27 With regard to Israel, Isaiah proclaims: Even if the Israelites are as numerous as the sand of the sea, only a few will be saved. 28 This is a matter that the Lord will settle in Israel without fail or delay. 29 Isaiah also announced: If the Almighty Lord had not left us some descendants, we would have become like Sodom and similar to Gomorrah.

30 What are we saying, then? That the pagans who were not aiming at true righteousness found it (I speak of righteousness through faith); 31 while Israel, striving to observe a law of righteousness, lost the purpose of the Law. 32 Why? Because they relied on the observance of the Law, not on faith. And they stumbled over the stumbling stone (Christ), 33 as it was said: Look, I am laying in Zion a stone that will make people stumble, a rock that will make them fall; but whoever relies on him will not be deceived.

Romans 8

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 11:45:04 +0000

We have received the Spirit

8 • 1 This contradiction no longer exists for those who are in Jesus Christ. 2 For, in Jesus Christ, the law of the Spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death. 3 The Law was without effect because flesh was not responding. Then God, planning to destroy sin, sent his own Son, in the likeness of those subject to the sinful human condition; by doing this, he condemned the sin in this human condition. 4 Since then the perfection intended by the Law would be fulfilled in those not walking in the way of the flesh, but in the way of the Spirit.

Life through the Spirit

• 5 Those walking according to the flesh tend towards what is flesh; those led by the spirit, to what is spirit. 6 Flesh tends towards death, while spirit aims at life and peace. 7 What the flesh seeks is against God: it does not agree, it cannot even submit to the law of God. 8 So, those walking according to the flesh cannot please God.

9 Yet your existence is not in the flesh, but in the spirit, because the Spirit of God is within you. If you did not have the Spirit of Christ, you would not belong to him. 10 But Christ is within you; though the body is branded by death as a consequence of sin, the spirit is life and holiness. 11And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is within you, He who raised Jesus Christ from among the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies. Yes, he will do it through his Spirit who dwells within you.

12 Then, brothers, let us leave the flesh and no longer live according to it. 13 If not, we will die. Rather, walking in the Spirit, let us put to death the body’s deeds so that we may live.

14 All those who walk in the Spirit of God are sons and daughters of God. 15 Then, no more fear: you did not receive a spirit of slavery, but the Spirit that makes you sons and daughters and every time we cry, “Abba! (this is Dad!) Father!” 16 the Spirit assures our spirit that we are sons and daughters of God. 17 If we are children, we are heirs, too. Ours will be the inheritance of God and we will share it with Christ; for if we now suffer with him, we will also share Glory with him.

The universe, too, waits for its redemption

• 18 I consider that the suffering of our present life cannot be compared with the Glory that will be revealed and given to us. 19 All creation is eagerly expecting the birth in glory of the children of God. 20 For if now the created world was unable to attain its purpose, this did not come from itself, but from the one who subjected it. But it is not without hope; 21 for even the created world will be freed from this fate of death and share the freedom and glory of the children of God.

22 We know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pangs of birth. 23 Not creation alone, but even ourselves, although the Spirit was given to us as a foretaste of what we are to receive, we groan in our innermost being, eagerly awaiting the day when God will give us full rights and rescue our bodies as well.

24 In hope we already have salvation. But if we saw what we hoped for, there would no longer be hope: how can you hope for what is already seen? 25 So we hope for what we do not see and we will receive it through patient hope.

• 26 We are weak, but the Spirit comes to help us. How to ask? And what shall we ask for? We do not know, but the spirit intercedes for us without words, as if with groans. 27 And He who sees inner secrets knows the desires of the Spirit, for he asks for the holy ones what is pleasing to God.

Who shall separate us from the love of God?

• 28 We know that in everything God works for the good of those who love him, whom he has called according to his plan. 29 Those whom he knew beforehand, he has also predestined to be like his Son, similar to him, so that he may be the Firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And so, those whom God predestined he called, and those whom he called he makes righteous, and to those whom he makes righteous he will give his Glory.

31 What shall we say after this? If God is with us, who shall be against us? 32 If he did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not give us all things with him? 33 Who shall accuse those chosen by God: he takes away their guilt. 34 Who will dare to condemn them? Christ who died, and better still, rose and is seated at the right hand of God, interceding for us?

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Will it be trials, or anguish, persecution or hunger, lack of clothing, or dangers or sword? 36 As the Scripture says: For your sake we are being killed all day long; they treat us like sheep to be slaughtered.

37 No, in all of this we are more than conquerors, thanks to him who has loved us. 38 I am certain that neither death nor life, neither angels nor spiritual powers, neither the present nor the future, nor cosmic powers, 39 were they from heaven or from the deep world below, nor any creature whatsoever will separate us from the love of God, which we have in Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Romans 7

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 11:43:59 +0000

The Christian is not bound by the Jewish religion

7 • 1 You, my friends, understand law. The law has power only while a person is alive. 2 The married woman, for example, is bound by law to her husband while he is alive; but if he dies, she is free from her obligations as a wife. 3 If she gives herself to another while her husband is alive, she will be an adulteress; but once the husband dies, she is free and if she gives herself to another man, she is not an adulteress.

4 It was the same with you, brothers and sisters: you have died to the Law with the person of Christ, and you belong to another, who has risen from among the dead, so that we may produce fruit for God. 5 When we lived as humans used to do, the Law stirred up the desires for all that is sin, and they worked in our bodies with fruits of death. 6 But we have died to what was holding us; we are freed from the Law and no longer serve a written law—which was the old; with the Spirit we are in the new.

7 Then, shall we say that the Law is part of sin? Of course not. However, I would not have known Sin, had it not been through the Law. I would not be aware of greed if the Law did not tell me: Do not covet. 8 Sin took advantage of the commandment to stir in me all kinds of greed; whereas, without a Law, Sin lies dead.

9 First there was no Law and I lived. Then the commandment came and gave life to Sin: 10 and I died. It happened that the Law of life had brought me death. 11 Sin took advantage of the commandment: it lured me and killed me through the commandment.

12 But the Law itself is holy, just and good. 13 Is it possible that something good brings death to me? Of course not. This comes from Sin that may be seen as sin when it takes advantage of something good to kill: the commandment let Sin appear fully sinful.

The Law without Christ makes humans divided

• 14 We know that the Law is spiritual; as for me, I am flesh and have been sold to sin. 15 I cannot explain what is happening to me, because I do not do what I want, but on the contrary, the very things I hate. 16 Well then, if I do the evil I do not want to do, I agree that the Law is good; 17 but, in this case, I am not the one striving toward evil, but it is sin, living in me. 18 I know that what is right does not abide in me, I mean, in my flesh. I can want to do what is right, but I am unable to do it. 19 In fact I do not do the good I want, but the evil I hate. 20 Therefore, if I do what I do not want to do, I am not the one striving towards evil, but Sin which is in me.

21 I discover, then, this reality: though I wish to do what is right, the evil within me asserts itself first. 22 My inmost self agrees and rejoices with the law of God, 23 but I notice in my body another law challenging the law of the spirit, and delivering me as a slave to the law of sin written in my members. 24 Alas, for me! Who will free me from this being which is only death? 25 Let us give thanks to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!

So, with my conscience I am a servant of the law of God, and with my mortal body I serve the law of sin.

Romans 6

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 11:42:55 +0000

Through baptism we died with Christ

6 • 1 Then, what shall we say? Shall we keep on sinning so that grace may come more abundantly? 2 Can we live again in sin? Of course not: we are now dead regarding sin.

3 Don’t you know that in baptism which unites us to Christ we are all baptized and plunged into his death? 4 By this baptism in his death, we were buried with Christ and, as Christ was raised from among the dead by the Glory of the Father, so we begin walking in a new life. 5 If we have been joined to him by dying a death like his so we shall be by a resurrection like his.

• 6 We know that our old self was crucified with Christ, so as to destroy what of us was sin, so that we may no longer serve sin—7 if we are dead, we are no longer in debt to sin. 8 But if we have died with Christ, we believe we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, once risen from the dead, will not die again and death has no more dominion over him. 10 For by dying, he is dead to sin once and for all, and now the life that he lives is life with God.

11 So you, too, must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Do not allow sin any control over your mortal bodies; do not submit yourselves to its evil inclinations, 13 and do not give your members over to sin, as instruments to do evil. On the contrary, offer yourselves as persons returned from death to life, and let the members of your body be as holy instruments at the service of God. 14 Sin will not lord it over you again, for you are not under the law, but under grace.

15 I ask again: are we to sin because we are not under the Law, but under grace? Certainly not. 16 If you have given yourselves up to someone as his slave, you are to obey the one who commands you, aren’t you? Now with sin you go to death, and by accepting faith you go the right way. 17 Let us give thanks to God for, after having sin as your master, you have been given to another, that is, to the doctrine of faith, to which you listen willingly. 18 And being free from sin, you began to serve true righteousness—19 you see that I speak in a very human way, taking into account that you are not fully mature.

There was a time when you let your members be slaves of impurity and disorder, walking in the way of sin; convert them now into servants of righteousness, to the point of becoming holy.

20 When you were slaves of sin, you did not feel under obligation to righteousness, 21 but what were the fruits of those actions of which you are now ashamed? Such things bring death. 22 Now, however, you have been freed from sin and serve God. You are bearing fruit and growing in holiness, and the result will be life everlasting. 23 So on one side is Sin: its reward, death; on the other side is God: he gives us, by grace, life everlasting in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Romans 5

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 11:41:43 +0000

Now we are at peace with God

5 • 1 By faith we have received true righteousness, and we are at peace with God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. 2 Through him we obtain this favor in which we remain and we even boast to expect the Glory of God.

3 Not only that, we also boast even in trials, knowing that trials produce patience, 4 from patience comes merit, merit is the source of hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us because the Holy Spirit has been given to us, pouring into our hearts the love of God.

6 Consider, moreover, the time that Christ died for us: when we were still helpless and unable to do anything. 7 Few would accept to die for an upright person; although, for a very good person, perhaps someone would dare to die. 8 But see how God manifested his love for us: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us 9 and we have become just through his blood. With much more reason now he will save us from any condemnation. 10 Once enemies, we have been reconciled with God through the death of his Son; with much more reason now we may be saved through his life. 11 Not only that; we even boast in God because of Christ Jesus, our Lord, through whom we have been reconciled.

Adam and Jesus Christ

• 12 Therefore, sin entered the world through one man and through sin, death, and later on death spread to all humankind, because all sinned. 13 As long as there was no law, they could not speak of disobedience, but sin was already in the world. 14 This is why from Adam to Moses death reigned among them, although their sin was not disobedience as in Adam’s case—this was not the true Adam, but foretold the other who was to come.

15 Such has been the fall, but God’s gift goes far beyond. All died because of the fault of one man, but how much more does the grace of God spread when the gift he granted reaches all, from this unique man Jesus Christ. 16 Again, there is no comparison between the gift and the offense of one man. The disobedience that brought condemnation was of one sinner, whereas the grace of God brings forgiveness to a world of sinners. 17 If death reigned through the disobedience of one and only one person, how much more will there be a reign of life for those who receive the grace and the gift of true righteousness through the one person, Jesus Christ.

18 Just as one transgression brought sentence of death to all, so, too, one man’s good act has brought justification and light to all; 19 and as the disobedience of only one made all sinners, so the obedience of one person allowed all to be made just and holy.

20 The Law itself, introduced later on, caused sin to increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 and as sin caused death to reign, so grace will reign in its own time, and after making us just and friends of God, will bring us to eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Romans 4

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 11:40:35 +0000

Abraham, father of the just

4 • 1 Let us consider Abraham, our father in the flesh. What has he found? 2 If Abraham attained righteousness because of his deeds, he could be proud. But he cannot be this before God. 3 Because Scripture says: Abraham believed God who took it into account and held him to be a just man.

4 Now, when someone does a work, salary is not given as a favor, but as a debt that is paid. 5 Here, on the contrary, someone who has no deeds to show but believes in Him who makes sinners righteous before him: such faith is taken into account and that person is held as righteous. 6 David congratulates in this way those who become righteous by the favor of God, and not by their actions: 7 Blessed are those whose sins are forgiven and whose offenses are forgotten; 8 blessed the one whose sin God does not take into account!

9 Is this blessing only for the circumcised or is it also for the uncircumcised? We have just said that, because of his faith, Abraham was made a just man, 10 but when did this happen? After Abraham was circumcised, or before? Not after, but before. 11 He received the rite of circumcision as a sign of the righteousness given him through faith when he was still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those uncircumcised who come to faith and are made just. 12 And he was to be the father of the Jews, provided that besides being circumcised, they also imitate the faith Abraham showed before being circumcised.

13 If God promised Abraham, or rather his descendants, that the world would belong to him, this was not because of his obeying the Law, but because he was just and a friend of God through faith. 14 If now the promise is kept for those who rely on the Law, then faith has no power and nothing is left of the promise. 15 For it is proper of the Law to bring punishment, and it is only when there is no Law that it is possible to live without breaking the Law.

16 For that reason, faith is the way and all is given by grace; and the promises of Abraham are fulfilled for all his descendants, not only for his children according to the Law, but also for all the others who have believed.

Abraham is the father of all of us, 17 as it is written: I will make you father of many nations. He is our father in the eyes of Him who gives life to the dead, and calls into existence what does not yet exist, for this is the God in whom he believed.

18 Abraham believed and hoped against all expectation, thus becoming father of many nations, as he had been told: See how many will be your descendants. 19 He did not doubt although his body could no longer give life—he was about a hundred years old—and in spite of his wife Sarah being unable to have children. 20 He did not doubt nor did he distrust the promise of God, and by being strong in faith, he gave glory to God: 21 he was convinced that He who had given the promise had power to fulfill it.

22 This was taken into account for him to attain righteousness. 23 This was taken into account: these words of Scripture are not only for him, 24 but for us, too, because we believe in Him who raised Jesus, our Lord, from among the dead, 25 he who was delivered for our sins and raised to life for us to receive true righteousness.

Romans 3

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 11:39:21 +0000

What advantage is it to be a Jew?

3 • 1 Then, what is the advantage of being a Jew? And what is the use of circumcision? 2 It is important from any point of view. In the first place, it was to the Jews that God entrusted his word.

3 Well now, if some of them were not faithful, will their unfaithfulness do away with the faithfulness of God? Of course not. 4 Rather, it will be proved that God is truthful, every human a liar, as the Scripture says: it will be proved that your words are true and you will be winner if they want to judge you.

5 If our wickedness shows God to be just, would it be right to say that God is unjust when he gets angry and punishes us? (I speak in a human way.)

6 —Not at all because, otherwise, how could God judge the world?

7 —But if my lie makes the truth of God more evident, thus increasing his glory, is it correct to call me a sinner?

8 —Then, your only choice would be to sin, so that good may come of it. Some slanderers say that this is my teaching, but they will have to answer for those words.

9 Do we have, then, any advantage? Not really. For we have just demonstrated that all, Jews and non-Jews, are under the power of sin, 10 as the Scripture says:

Nobody is good, not even one,

11 no one understands, no one looks for God.

12 All have gone astray and have become base. There is no one doing what is good, not even one.

13 Their throats are open tombs, their words deceit.

14 Their lips hide poison of vipers, from their mouth come bitter curses.

15 They run to where they can shed blood, 16 leaving behind ruin and misery. 17 They do not know the way of peace.

18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.

19 Now we know that whatever the Scripture says, it is said for the people of the Law, that is for the Jews. Let all be silent then and recognize that the whole world is guilty before God. 20 Still more: no mortal will be worthy before God by performing the demands of the Law. What comes from the Law is the consciousness of sin.

Faith, the way to salvation

• 21 But, now it has been revealed altogether apart from the Law, as it was already foretold in the Law and the Prophets: 22 God makes us righteous by means of faith in Jesus Christ, and this is applied to all who believe, without distinction of persons. 23 Because all have sinned and all fall short of the Glory of God; 24 and all are graciously forgiven and made righteous through the redemption effected in Christ Jesus. 25 For God has given him to be the victim whose blood obtains us forgiveness through faith.

So God shows us how he makes us righteous. Past sins are forgiven which God overlooked till now. 26 For now he wants to reveal his way of righteousness: how he is just and how he makes us righteous through faith in Jesus.

27 Then what becomes of our pride? It is excluded. How? Not through the Law and its observances, but through another law which is faith. 28 For we hold that people are in God’s grace by faith and not because of all the things ordered by the Law. 29 Otherwise, God would be the God of the Jews; but is he not God of pagan nations as well? 30 Of course he is, for there is only one God and he will save by faith the circumcised Jews as well as the uncircumcised nations. 31 Do we, then, deny the value of the Law because of what we say of faith? Of course not; rather we place the Law in its proper place.

Romans 2

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 11:37:50 +0000

The Jews also must fear judgment

2 • 1 Therefore, you have no excuse, whoever you are, if you are able to judge others. For in judging your neighbor, you condemn yourself, for you practice what you are judging. 2 We know that the condemnation of God will justly reach those who commit these things, 3 and do you think that by condemning others you will escape from the judgment of God, you who are doing the same?

4 This would be taking advantage of God and his infinite goodness, patience and understanding, and not to realize that his goodness is in order to lead you to conversion. 5 If your heart becomes hard and you refuse to change, then you are storing for yourself a great punishment on the day of judgment, when God will appear as just judge.

6 He will give each one his due, according to his actions. 7 He will give everlasting life to those who seek glory, honor and immortality and persevere in doing good. 8 But anger and vengeance will be the lot of those who do not serve truth but injustice. 9 There will be suffering and anguish for everyone committing evil, first the Jew, then the Greek. 10 But God will give glory, honor and peace to whoever does good, first the Jew then the Greek, 11 because one is not different from the other before God.

Everyone is judged by his conscience

12 Those who, without knowing the Law, committed sin, will perish without the Law, and whoever committed sin knowing the Law, will be judged by that Law. 13 What makes us righteous before God is not hearing the Law, but obeying it. 14 When the non-Jews, who do not have law, practice naturally what the Law commands, they are giving themselves a law, 15 showing that the commandments of the Law are engraved in their minds. Their conscience, speaking within them also shows it, when they condemn or approve their actions. 16 The same is to happen on the day when God, according to my gospel, will judge people’s secret actions in the person of Jesus Christ.

17 But suppose you call yourself a Jew: you have the Law as foundation and feel proud of your God. 18 You know the will of God and the Law teaches you to distinguish what is better, 19 and so you believe you are the guide for the blind, light in darkness, 20 a corrector of the foolish and instructor of the ignorant, because you possess in the Law the formulation of true knowledge. 21 Well, then, you who teach others, why don’t you teach yourself? If you say that one must not steal, why do you steal? 22 You say one must not commit adultery, yet you commit it! You say you hate idols, but you steal in their temples! 23 You feel proud of the Law, yet you do not obey it, and you dishonor your God. 24 In fact, as the Scripture says, the other nations despise the name of God because of you.

25 Circumcision is of value to you if you obey the Law; but if you do not obey, it is as if you were not circumcised. 26 On the contrary, if those who are uncircumcised obey the commandments of the Law, do you not think that, in spite of being pagans, they make themselves like the circumcised? 27 The one who obeys the Law without being marked in his body with circumcision, will judge you who have been marked with circumcision and who have the Law which you do not obey. 28 For external things do not make a true Jew nor is real circumcision that which is marked on the body. 29 A Jew must be so interiorly; the heart’s circumcision belongs to spirit and not to a written law; he who lives in this way will be praised, not by people, but by God.

Romans 1

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 11:36:28 +0000

1 • 1 From Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,

an apostle called and set apart for God’s Good News,

2 the very promises he foretold through his prophets in the sacred Scriptures,

3 regarding his Son, who was born in the flesh a descendant of David,

4 and has been recognized as the Son of God endowed with Power,

upon rising from the dead through the Holy Spirit.

Through him, Jesus Christ, our Lord, 5 and for the sake of his Name,

we received grace and mission in all the nations, for them to accept the faith.

6 All of you, the elected of Christ, are part of them,

you, the beloved of God in Rome, called to be holy:

7 May God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, give you grace and peace.

Paul longs to visit them

8 First of all, I give thanks to my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is spoken of all over the world. 9 And God, whom I serve in spirit by announcing the Good News of his Son, is my witness that I remember you in my prayers at all times. 10 I pray constantly that, if it is his will, he make it possible for me to visit you. 11 I long to see you and share some spiritual blessings with you to strengthen you. 12 In that way, we will encourage each other by sharing our common faith.

13 You must know, brothers and sisters, that many times I have made plans to go to you, but till now I have been prevented. 14 I would like to harvest some fruits among you, as I have done among other nations. Whether Greeks or foreigners, cultured or ignorant, I feel under obligation to all. 15 Hence my eagerness to proclaim the gospel also to you who are in Rome.

• 16 For I am not ashamed at all of this Good News; it is God’s power saving those who believe, first the Jews, and then the Greeks. 17 This Good News shows us the saving justice of God; a justice that saves exclusively by faith, as the Scripture says: The upright one shall live by faith.

Humankind under God’s “wrath”

• 18 For the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and injustice of those who have silenced the truth by their wicked ways. 19 For everything that could have been known about God was clear to them: God himself made it plain. 20 Because his invisible attributes—his everlasting power and divinity—are made visible to reason by means of his works since the creation of the world.

So they have no excuse, 21 for they knew God and did not glorify him as was fitting, nor did they give thanks to him. On the contrary, they lost themselves in their reasoning and darkness filled their minds.

22 Believing themselves wise, they became foolish: 23 they exchanged the Glory of the immortal God for the likes of mortal human beings, birds, animals and reptiles. 24 Because of this God gave them up to their inner cravings; they did shameful things and dishonored their bodies.

25 They exchanged God’s truth for a lie; they honored and worshiped created things instead of the Creator, to whom be praise for ever, Amen! 26 Because of that, God gave them up to shameful passions: their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 Similarly, the men, giving up natural sexual relations with women, were lustful of each other, they did, men with men, shameful things, bringing upon themselves the punishment they deserve for their wickedness. 28 And since they did not think that God was worth knowing, he gave them up to their senseless minds so that they committed all kinds of obscenities.

29 And so they are full of injustice, perversity, greed, evil; they are full of jealousy, murder, strife, deceit, bad will and gossip. 30 They commit calumny, offend God, are haughty; they are proud, liars, clever in doing evil. They are rebellious towards their parents, 31 senseless, disloyal, cold-hearted and merciless. 32They know of God’s judgment which declares worthy of death anyone living in this way; yet not only do they do all these things, they even applaud anyone who does the same.

Commentaries on 1 Corinthians

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 11:25:22 +0000

Some persons praise the first Christians as if they had been models of all virtue. In fact, there were no more miracles then than now. Here as elsewhere, Paul addresses men and women living in a world as real as our own. Corinth had its own particular character among the Mediterranean cities. Situated on a tongue of land separating two gulfs, it had the best part of its privileged site. The two ports of the east and west had been joined by a kind of paved way on which boats were pulled by means of enormous wagons drawn by bullocks. This spared sailors having to detour to GreeceCorinth, there was a sportive celebration—rather similar to the Olympic Games of our day—every two years. This drew large crowds of people. We notice in these two letters of Paul very clear allusions to these different aspects of Corinthian history: slavery, prostitution, stadium sports. by the south: a very long voyage at the time and very dangerous. Obviously it had to be paid for; this financially benefited the town; it also needed labor which meant many slaves. The city had a sanctuary dedicated to the goddess Aphrodite, the goddess of “love” for the Greeks, around which had developed (with the help of money) a prostitution that had nothing sacred about it other than its name. The prostitutes were counted in the thousands. Quite near

In Corinth, there existed a dynamic, though not well ordered Church, composed of Jews and Greeks converted by Paul. Many of them were in danger of returning to the vices of their former lives, once the enthusiasm of their first years as Christians had worn off. Those responsible in the Church apparently were not capable of dealing with many problems: internal divisions and doubts about faith. They therefore called upon Paul, who wrote the present letter, because he could not interrupt his work in Ephesus.

We notice the authority with which Paul, from afar, leads the Church in the name of Christ; also his manner of teaching: before answering any question, he reasserts the foundations of the faith.

The Corinthians, in the midst of a pagan world, were concerned about matters that are again relevant in our times:

–     about celibacy and marriage,

–     about living together with those who do not share the Christian faith,

–     about conducting the assemblies, for both the celebration of the eucharist and the use of “spiritual gifts,”

–     about the resurrection of the dead.

• 1.1 From Paul called to be an apostle.… to God’s church in Corinth… with those who everywhere call upon the name of our Lord Christ Jesus. With these three expressions Paul defends his authority. He reminds the Corinthians, so easily entrenched in their rivalries, that they are part of a greater reality, the Universal Church of God.

Called to be holy. You have to become holy, but you already are. Holy, in the biblical sense, is the person or thing that belongs to God. The baptized have been consecrated to God and form part of the people who belong to God, the assembly of the holy ones, which is the Church.

God’s call does not allow them to remain as they are. Their conscience readily adapted to the moral norms of their milieu, but now, God’s call demands a renunciation of a certain vision of existence based on ‘the natural.’ They will have to be orientated, as best they can, towards an ideal of life found in the person of Christ.

In Christ. A single Greek preposition used by Paul is to be translated into English as in or through or with, according to the case. “In Christ” has many meanings:

– We are sons and daughters of God, made after the image of the only Son of God, and God loves us in Christ.

– God the Father saves us through Christ.

– The Father calls us to share with Christ his inheritance.

– We have become part of the body of Christ; we live in Christ and have received his Spirit.

– The word “Christian,” used for the first time in Antioch (Acts 11:26) to denote the disciples of Christ, was still not widely used; often in Christ means Christian. So “marry in Christ” signified “to marry in a Christian way.”

See Paul’s acts of thanksgiving in verses 4-9: what certitude of riches present in a community where all is far from perfect!

In his advice to the Corinthians, Paul shows us how to act when reviewing the activities of our parish or our apostolic group. Instead of being discouraged by the problems we face and accusing one another when something fails, the first thing to do is to remember what we already have in common.

These communities, in fact, like our own had to face their problems and their weakness. Each generation of Christians must learn to follow Jesus and “build Church,” or better still “be Church.”

He will keep you steadfast to the end (v. 8). The hope that maintains the “tone” of faith is the return of Christ. The first Christian generation expected to witness his glorious coming: he would judge the world and take his own with him (1 Thes 4:13).

• 10. The first sin of the Church is the division among believers. Several apostles (see 12:28) passed through Corinth. Certain members of the community profited by this to affirm their own identity by declaring allegiance to one leader rather than another: a way of satisfying vanity and the need of self-assertion.

Agree among yourselves and do away with divisions (v. 10): be a united family. This admonition is understood when the Church is a community sharing the same concerns. It is a little different when the church gathers together large numbers of people of different backgrounds who are perhaps opposed to one another in daily life. In this case the Christian community must be united, not by ignoring reality and never talking of inequalities, but by recognizing individual and collective faults in daily life. The Church can never be a reunion of passive or “heavenly” people.

I am for Peter (v. 12). Paul says “for Cephas” like in 3:22; this was the aramaic nickname Jesus gave him. Apollos: see Acts 18:24.

Christ did not send me to baptize (v. 17). When the Church is fully absorbed in its own problems, Paul reminds them of their mission: Is our first concern to preach the Gospel, or to dispute for the posts of guides and ministers of the community?

• 17. Even if these Christians in Corinth are not great “intellectuals,” as good Greeks that they are, they enjoy fine discourses and want to be seen as cultured persons. At this time throughout the Roman Empire people are in search of esoteric doctrines and some people in the Church see in faith the means of acceding to a higher knowledge. So Paul will tell them that all Christian wisdom is contained in the cross.

That would be like getting rid of the cross of Christ (v. 17). The cross should be present in the message we preach and in the way we preach it.

Moreover in evangelization it will always cost us to work with poor resources in a world subject to media. We need to count on the grace of God because we are weak and without titles of prestige. It will cost us to remind our communities of the poverty of Jesus and to be criticized by those who are well off in the world.

See whom God has called (v. 26). The Church of Corinth is formed of ordinary people: this is their strength. Everybody has his place and his mission in the Church. Ordinary people and poor communities, often persecuted and calumniated, have a primary role in the evangelization of the world. God wants them to evangelize the rich and at times, even the hierarchy.

• 2.1 I myself came weak, fearful and trembling. Paul indeed must have felt weak when for the first time he was bringing the Gospel to a brilliant Greek city well used to slavery and immorality. We experience the same feelings towards the evangelization of the modern world; preparation is important but what is it to prepare ourselves? Paul invites us to accept the mystery of the cross and to find there the strength of the Spirit.

It was a demonstration of Spirit and power (v. 5). The power of Spirit, the power of prayer, the power of suffering. The Spirit is poured out after Jesus has suffered and died. With him, we can expect everything. Healings and miracles are worthless (and the devil takes advantage of them) unless they affirm faith in Jesus crucified, acting through the humble, and present in the poor.

• 6. Paul never intended to be considered a wise or eminent speaker by his audience. Yet he speaks of wisdom to the mature in faith (v. 6). The text says in more precise terms: “to the perfect ones.” At that time, several religions were calling “perfect” any believer who had received some secret information not given to all the members of the sect. In the Church also some considered themselves as belonging to a higher class of believers because of gifts of the Spirit they had received, especially if they were able to speak endlessly on matters of faith.

Paul opposes them with his own gifts as prophet and apostle. He is capable of teaching these essential truths which need few words but which can only be presented by those who have experienced the living God. What are these secrets? Firstly, what God is for us and what God wishes to give us (vv. 7 and 12).

Christian faith proposes that which no human doctrine, no religion could have given us. At times, comparing ourselves with those who follow a spiritual way outside Christianity, it would seem that we are saying the same thing with different words. This is partly true regarding our attitudes and our choices in life, but we should not be afraid to confess the riches God has given us in Christ: his Spirit gives us what no one has ever penetrated.

Such knowledge is not intellectual, it is a gift of the Spirit that sows and develops in us the one and only truth. It is very difficult to give an explanation of a truly spiritual experience. We can only speak of wisdom to those who have attained a certain spiritual level. That is why Paul tells the Corinthians that most of them are unable to criticize him.

The one who remains on the psychological level (v. 14). (Paul says precisely: “the psychic man”) does not reach the truth of Christ. However the spiritual person, not necessarily the intellectual person, knows by gift of God the things of God.

The spiritual person judges everything and no one judges him. He who sees has no way of convincing the blind person that there are colors. He sees them, however, and knows that if the blind person does not see them, it is not because the thing is doubtful, but because the blind person has neither eyes nor criteria for that. It is the same with the spiritual person and the carnal one.

• 3.1 As a good architect I laid the foundation (v. 10). Paul is founder of churches and others come after him, apostles, prophets or teachers, to preach and encourage the people. Paul is not jealous, but it could be that some of them seek their own prestige, forgetting that the Church belongs only to God. It could also be that the believers compare one apostle with another, and do this readily inasmuch as they are ignorant of what apostolic work really is.

Fire will test the work of everyone (v. 13). This image suggests many things. To Paul as well as to the readers the day of God’s judgment seemed to be imminent and everyone thought that God would purify and cleanse the world by fire. So Paul concludes that whatever we did not do according to the will of God and with the means he wanted will be destroyed by fire. Remember what happened with many apostolic projects that were but a smoke screen (how many tons of documents fit for the fire!). To serve Christ without really pure intentions, will not merit hell of course, but a personal purification will be necessary. This text supports the belief in Purgatory, that is, a process of purification at the time of death or after death for all whose transformation by the Spirit of God was only half-concluded (see commentary on Mt 5: 21).

• 16. Do you not know that you are God’s temple (v. 16)? Christ is the new Temple that takes the place of the temple of the Jews (Jn 2:19 and Mk 15: 38). The Temple of God is Christ because in him abides all the divine Mystery. The Temple of God is likewise the Church because in her the Holy Spirit is working. The Temple of God is also each home and each believer (see 6:19) because the Spirit lives in each one of them.

• 18. Everything is yours and you belong to Christ (v. 23). We have here a decisive word on Christian freedom.

On the other hand, remember what non-believing philosophers have said: People created God out of their own misery. Whatever was lacking in order for them to feel great and happy, they attributed to a superior being, who had everything. In worshiping him, they felt identified with him and forgot their own misery. This theory is not completely false: in fact people make idols for themselves, be they singers, athletes or politicians; and they feel happy when their idols have and do everything they themselves cannot do or have. They die for causes not their own and they feel proud of people and institutions that exploit them. A Christian is wary of authority becoming idols: he exists and thinks for himself. Even in the Church he is face to face with God with no other intermediary but Christ, and he does not indulge in the cult of personalities.

• 4.8 The Corinthians feel rich in their faith, rich in their spiritual gifts. They have made fair progress in the road of knowledge, and as people expert in the matter, they charitably look down on Paul, the poor Jewish preacher.

The Apostle knows that his own culture and strong personality would have given him a bright future. He sees at the same time the narrow-mindedness of his adversaries but allows them to make fun of him. They think he is a fool, and in a way he is. However, even if taken for a fool he brought them to Christ.

• 5.1 Paul knows that such a sinner cannot be brought to repentance unless he experiences the bitterness of his treachery. So the community must ask that he suffer in health and belongings (Paul says “delivered to Satan for the ruin of the flesh:” see in Job 1:12 and 2:6 the meaning of delivered to Satan). This excommunication is not merely a human gesture. What the Church binds on earth is bound in heaven (Mt 18:18). God is committed to send trials that may be at the same time a warning to the Church and a way of repentance for the sinner.

You should be unleavened bread (v. 7). The believers have been spiritually raised with Christ. As the Jews used unleavened bread to celebrate the Passover, in the same way the Christians have to be, in a figurative sense unleavened bread, that is, they must lead a sinless life before God, and so worthily celebrate their Passover, which is the Resurrection of Christ. Jesus compared the kingdom of heaven to yeast that leavens the whole mass. Here Paul uses the same comparison to show how evil spreads everywhere.

Those who do not belong to the Church (Paul says: those of this world) (v. 10). Believers are not afraid of living among sinners, because they themselves are, first, sinners among others (1 Jn 1:8-9) and have as mission to make known the mercy of Christ who ate with sinners. Yet they are not willing to live in a Church community with those who are hardened in sin and refuse to put right a public scandal.

Why should I judge outsiders? (v. 12). Jesus taught us the way to follow, but we cannot demand of unbelievers that they understand and accept our moral standards regarding reconciliation, sex, abortion, as long as their conscience is unable to recognize the criteria of the Gospel. The authorities of the Church are not commissioned to condemn them, but to be witnesses to the light.

• 6.1 “We carry treasures from God in vessels of clay” (2 Cor 4:7). How far is our daily life from what we pretend it is: children of God reborn in the Spirit! What do the members of our own family think about this! What do our near neighbors think of us!

Paul points out the contradiction between the contempt of believers for the false “justice” of the world, and the fact of lawsuits among them. What should they do? Settle their differences in the way indicated by the Gospel (Mt 18:15), in so far as there is a real community. How beautiful it would be to follow the letter of the Gospel (Mt 5:40)!

• 12. Everything is lawful to me, but not everything is to my profit. People without conscience quoted the first part of this sentence to justify their immoral behavior.

Food is for the stomach.… the body is for the Lord (v. 13). Paul contrasts what is purely biological in our body with what makes up our whole person. To eat and drink are requirements of the stomach (modern language: body). In sexual union the body is given (modern language: person). This is why the believer who belongs to Christ cannot give himself to a prostitute.

Paul finds himself with the same problem that had led him to intervene in 1 Thes 4. For the Jews, all the criteria for morality were in the commandments of the Law. It was not usually questioned to what degree these commandments were the expression of an eternal order or depended on the beliefs and the culture of past time. Whatever the Law condemned—interpreted by the religious community—was a sin. Yet the Greeks and the pagans were ignorant of this law. Paul recalls the commandments on sexual matters (5:11 and 6:10; Eph 5:3), as Jesus had done (Mk 7:21), but he is careful not to make it the only criterion of what is good and bad. For him what obliges Christians to control and even strongly curb the practice of sexuality is their life in Christ. They want to respond to a call from God rather than satisfy the demands of nature.

Paul’s way of responding is of particular interest for us today in the universal moral crisis. For centuries and through necessity, sexuality was seen above all as the means of procreation; and from there began the search for the natural law ordering sex, pleasure and procreation. Today, union is no longer, primarily, for procreation even if procreation is desired. The cultural evolution and feminine promotion have made of sexual union, for an ever-increasing number of couples, the occasion of an exceptionally deep human exchange.

At the same time, personal liberation—and the liberation of women who carry all the weight of maternity—has thrown doubt on former moral laws, seen as belonging to a certain time and culture. Almost all countries that are considered “developed” have had to take into account pre-marital sex, homosexuality, abortion on the mother’s decision, the choice of maternity without marriage. Christians get in touch with these questions with religious references their contemporaries lack. Yet if they don’t have other motivation than a natural law valid for all, limiting sexuality to procreation and only within marriage, they will probably get bogged down in endless discussions that are scarcely convincing.

So they must do what Paul did. Without forgetting the laws in the Old Testament, recognized by the apostles and the tradition of the Church up to our day, it must be said that the sexual conduct of a Christian obeys, first of all, a logic of faith in Jesus Christ. It is less a matter of defining what is “good” or “evil” than showing where the practice and the experience of love and sexuality should lead us. To proclaim moral principles of sexuality, without first highlighting the eminent dignity of our humanity created in the likeness of God, and then consecrated to Christ by baptism and conversion, is wanting to gather the fruits without having planted the tree.

• 7.1 In this chapter Paul begins to answer some of the questions put to him by the Corinthians in writing. The first are about marriage and chastity.

Christian life encouraged the esteem for chastity. That esteem could be inspired as well by other non-Christian motives. Many doctrines in the Greek world considered evil and unclean whatever came from the body; and so, for some Christians, perfection meant living like angels, condemning among other things, marriage.

Paul does not teach everything on marriage, but only clarifies the relation between chastity and marriage. Spouses belong to Christ with all their being, consecrated by baptism. Therefore they cannot become slaves to the demands of their bodies. Love rather than sex guides them.

But the appeal of sex is there (v. 2). Paul says precisely: Because of “porneia” let each one take… This “porneia” has many meanings: prostitution, illegitimate unions, and many other things that go along with the word “porno.” Paul is probably referring to sexual attraction, a force that rebels against our moral projects (similar to the revolt of the flesh in Rom 7:21). He does not say a person should marry “in order to” avoid misconduct but “because” sex is a reality strong enough to impose its demands.

Many are shocked by Paul not speaking of the positive aspect of sexuality at the service of love, but we must not forget that twenty centuries are between him and us. In Paul’s time the Greeks considered the sharing of themselves to be an ideal: a spouse for children, a friend for love, and prostitutes for pleasure. Here, on the contrary, Paul presents sexual life as a commitment of the whole human person (6:13) and not the “work of the flesh”: something that is very important.

Christianity was to reveal the dignity of marriage and conjugal love; but only in the twelfth century in Christian countries would there be an awareness of the great beauty of a couple’s love. What is here revolutionary is the reminder of the equality of rights of husband and wife according to the teaching of Jesus (Mk 10:1-12).

Lest you fall into Satan’s trap (v. 5). We should recall these words when speaking about Christian birth control. Paul says that, except in special cases where a special grace is given, it is not good for husband and wife to abstain from intimate relations for a long time.

• 10. I command married couples (v. 10). We read after a while: To the others I say (v. 12), referring again to married persons. It is almost obvious that in v. 10 Paul addresses married couples recognized by the Church; and in v. 12, all those married before they were baptized, but whose partners do not yet belong to the Church.

If she separates… (v. 11). Paul stresses a teaching of Jesus (Mt 5:32 and 19:5). This fundamental law of marriage as a commitment lasting to death is a divine law: not I but the Lord (v. 10). See also Eph 5:22.

If the unbelieving… (v. 15). Paul makes an exception for those who at the time of their conversion and baptism were married. In this one case the new Christian, starting a new life, obtains freedom from the marriage ties if his or her partner does not want to accept his (or her) conversion. Even while praising the desire of the believer to convert his spouse, Paul’s advice is that sometimes it would be better to separate, notwithstanding the possibility of a new marriage in the new faith. It is important to remember that Paul was living in a pagan world where separation and divorce were legal and constantly practiced.

Your children also would be apart from God (v. 14). Paul says precisely: “your children would be unclean”, using this word with the meaning that Jesus gave it: children who do not yet share the privileges of God’s people. Would it be right to think that children of Christian parents are alien to God as long as they have not been baptized? Grace has already touched them through the tenderness, the care and the prayers of their parents. We must not use false arguments when we invite Christian parents, (and rightly so) not to delay the baptism of their children.

• 17. Let each one continue living as he was (v. 17). Paul responds to the thirst for improvement of social conditions that are always real. Free people and slaves lived side by side, often in the same houses; and it was not always a distinction between rich and poor. Paul simply wants to put in its right place ambitions that devour the lives of many people, causing them to forget all the rest. Paul puts interior freedom above recognized liberty and he sees possessing Christ as supreme riches.

Yet if you can gain your freedom, take the opportunity. There are conditions of work and of social life that prevent us from doing God’s will and being truly free. However one quickly forgets that each social situation has its element of slavery. The quality of life is not to be confused with better-paid employment, especially if judged according to the criteria of the Gospel. In a world we call inhuman, our slavery largely depends on our whims and our ready response to advertising.

We translate: If you can gain your freedom, take the opportunity. It could also be translated as: Even if you could gain your freedom, take advantage of the present situation, that is, instead of being concerned so much for the advantages of becoming free, live your life fully today.

• 25. A new question to which Paul must reply. In Corinth, a city with a bad reputation where thousands of prostitutes lived in the vicinity of the temple of Aphrodite (as was the custom with pagans) the new community was discovering the way of virginity.

Choosing chastity “for the kingdom of God” is not a way of gaining time and freedom for apostolic work: it is taking a direction that opens to the love of God with new possibilities. Paul defends this choice he himself made. If Christ, to whom we are consecrated by baptism, is a living person, present to us, if he is the Spouse (Mk 2:19), the choice is valid, even if for most people it looks as strange as voluntary poverty.

Paul’s response goes further than the question of the Corinthians when he adds: time is running out. He points to much more than a prompt return of Christ, familiar to the first Christians. The coming of Jesus has shortened time in a figurative way: we can no longer settle down in the present world as we did before when we could see no further than the present. We are entirely turned towards what is to come. A Christian lives in the present, but all that matters most for him comes in the “after.” Let us not argue with Paul as if he were reasoning on the consequences of a certain coming of Jesus Christ: he is not theologizing but speaks like someone already possessed by Christ.

Paul then points out that all Christian commitments are likely to cause division for those who wish to live according to the logic of their baptism, seen as a total consecration to Christ. Married life or family life can present many obstacles to spiritual freedom and apostolic desires: see the words of Jesus in Mark 10:29.

• 36. If anyone is not sure (v. 36). This can also be interpreted as: “if anyone feels he cannot behave correctly with his young virgin.” In this case Paul would be referring to a spiritual trial that in fact took place in the primitive church. Some Christians shared their house with a girl who could have been their girl friend, both consecrating their virginity to the Lord. Paul, in this case, would invite them not to persevere in this commitment if they did not feel capable of keeping their virginity.

• 8.1 We live in a pluralist society, where many do not share our faith and wonder sometimes if we should take part in their feasts or activities that are not in harmony with our faith. For example, how to deal with relatives or neighbors of another religion. What a married woman may do when her husband does not share her scruples. May a person belong to a group or party when many of its members are opposed to the Church? This is the problem that Paul deals with when answering about meat sacrificed to idols. The discussion begun here continues in paragraph 10:23–11:1.

There were many sacrifices of animals in the pagan temples. After the sacrifices, in a room of the temple a banquet was celebrated at which the meat of the victims was served. Christians were often invited to these banquets by their pagan friends. On other occasions, meat from these sacrifices was offered to them in the homes of their pagan friends. Even in the public market, most of the meat was from animals offered to idols.

Paul does not want the Christians to become a group of fanatics keeping themselves apart from society. Although it is true that offering sacrifice to idols is a sin, not for that reason is the meat unclean. False gods do not exist and have no power. Besides Jesus said that it is not what enters into a person that makes him unclean, but what comes out of his heart (Mk 7:15).

Knowledge puffs up, while love builds (v. 1). Christians with an informed conscience could perfectly well eat of that meat, knowing it was not sinful. However it was their duty to respect the opinion of others and so avoid scandalizing those unable to understand their reasons.

In 8:2 the words in brackets were most probably added later. Here, Paul contrasts the knowledge of God we can acquire and express by means of words and ideas, and another more authentic riches that is God’s presence to the one he knows and treats in a special way.

In verses 8:10, 11 and 12, Paul speaks of those of weak or unformed conscience, meaning the believers who have not yet had sufficient religious instruction or who have been badly instructed. They think that something is sinful when in reality it is not; or they are weak and follow others when their conscience reproaches them for doing so.

What if others with an unformed conscience see you, a person of knowledge, sitting at the table in the temple of the idols (v. 10). This is more serious. Some in the community already follow a path that will be denounced by John in Revelation (2:23), those who later would be known as the “Nicolaites.” They wanted to be very open and not separate from the non-Christians around them, so they preferred not to manifest their convictions. Finally one could not tell what truth they were witnesses to. In 10:14-22 Paul will clearly state that a Christian may not participate in such a banquet in the temple. For the present he does not say it openly, but he shows that such an attitude should be shocking for many people.

• 9.1 Have we not the right to be fed? In asking the Corinthians to forget their right to eat sacrificed meat, Paul gives himself as an example and tells them how he also renounces his right to be supported by the churches. The churches gave food and drink to the apostles who visited them and took care of the Christian women attending them (v. 5), as in the case of Jesus (Lk 8:2). However, to give proof of detachment, Paul did not accept this favor and lived by the work of his hands (Acts 18:3).

I am bound to do it. Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel (v. 16). As happened with Jeremiah (Jer 1) Christ the Lord began ruling the life of Paul from the day he called him.

I made myself all things to all people (v. 23). Paul gives a guideline for apostles of all times. Apostolic movements require their members to know their environment very well and the problems of their companions. Committed Christians must share the life-style and human aspirations of their companions in everything that is not sinful. Becoming like Paul, “a Greek among the Greeks,” not in appearance but in reality, they will be able to express simply and in all truth their faith in Christ; in that way they will offer to those whose daily life they share, the possibility of one day finding their place in the Church. From then on it will be the entire life of the new convert with all that is linked to his culture and his milieu that will be renewed by faith.

• 24. Paul is now ready to tell the Corinthians that they may not share the cult of idols. To justify his position (for the Corinthians it was very strict), Paul presents two arguments:

– no racing contest is won without self-sacrifice;

– the Bible has many examples of how God punished those who practiced a cult of idols.

As athletes who impose upon themselves a rigorous discipline (v. 25). Like them, we must renounce many things that are not evil. We need discipline to be really free, whether in the use of alcohol or tobacco, or not idly waste time in front of the television or reading magazines. While the world lures us to be spectators and consumers, we must be agents of salvation, the salt of the earth. The second paragraph recalls the example of Israel (see Ex 32 and Num 21).

The rock was Christ (10:4). The Jewish legends said that the rock mentioned in Ex 17:5 followed the Israelites in their journey. Paul does not affirm that legend as true. He only recalls it as an image of Christ, present in his Church.

• 10.15 And the bread that we break, is it not a communion with the body of Christ? (v. 16). Paul will return to speak of the Eucharist in 11:18. This communion through the body and blood of the Risen Christ, besides being a personal encounter with Christ, makes of all of us one body. We form one body. This does not only mean that we feel united, but that the Risen Christ unites us to himself and, so doing, gives the community new strength.

The idol is nothing. The idol in itself was just a material thing, like an image. Yet the Jews thought (and Paul also mentions it) that the cult of idols was addressed to the devils. In fact, when people are now being dragged along by crazy trends or rhythms, or attitudes, and sacrifice to their idols what their families need for survival, and make themselves dependent on “mortals,” we know that in reality they are serving the devil.

• 23. Everything is lawful for me, but not everything is to my profit (v. 23). Paul draws the same practical deductions as in 8:1-13. Except in the cases mentioned, where the believer refuses to share directly in something evil, the supreme rule of conduct will be to seek what is good and respect the conscience of others.

• 11.1 Is it important for a woman to wear a veil while praying in Church? Mediterranean traditions required it and perhaps the new custom originated in “mystery religions.” In an earlier paragraph (9:20) Paul said he was “all for all.” Here we notice that he didn’t always have a fair regard for customs contrary to Jewish tradition.

Paul speaks here according to his Jewish culture, chiefly male-centered, and repeats the same arguments of Jewish teachers (vv. 5-10). Then suddenly he realizes that he is denying the equality proclaimed by Jesus and tries to turn back (vv. 11-12). By the way Paul ends the discussion, we see that he himself was aware of the weakness of his arguments.

Let us not lessen these flashes of light thrown at us by Paul: the angels participate in Christian worship (Mt 18:10 and Rev 5:8; 8:3), even our exterior bearing is in a way an active sharing in the liturgy of the Eucharist.

This paragraph helps us to understand that many things in the Church and in Christian life are no more than customs or human traditions, although they maintain among us respectable values. Those in authority, like Paul, cannot impose them on the community.

• 17. Without making any transition Paul passes to the most important act of the Christian assembly, the Eucharist. These lines are the oldest testimony relating to the Supper of the Lord and were written in the year 55 A.D., some years ahead of the Gospels.

The community gathered in a friendly house. After the supper, solemnized by the singing of the psalms, the leader of the community said a prayer of thanksgiving, remembering the last supper of Jesus, and repeated his words to consecrate the body and blood of Christ. Then everyone received communion from the same bread and the same cup.

In 10:16 Paul recalled two aspects of the Lord’s Supper:

– it is the communion of the body and blood of the Lord;

– it affirms a union of love among all: we form one body.

Here Paul denounces the Corinthians for their sin with regard to these two points.

Each one eats at once his own food to avoid sharing with those who are poorer, or to evade the company of certain persons. We can imagine that the groups spontaneously formed and occupied various rooms in the same house: actually each one joined the group from his own milieu. Perhaps the buffet is more promising where the rich are, while the poor are in the yard.

Another is getting drunk and therefore not disposed to receive the body of Christ.

In not recognizing the Body (v. 29). This term points out at the same time:

– the one who does not distinguish consecrated bread from ordinary bread and does not receive it with due respect, as the body of Christ;

– the one who ignores his brothers and sisters in the celebration of the Eucharist. He does not recognize the body of Christ as formed by all the assembled Christians.

The Eucharist is the center and heart of the life of the Church, which is, before all else, a communion with God and with others. The Church is not only an instrument for spreading the Good News, but the place here on earth where people can already experience the union between themselves and Christ.

You are proclaiming the death of the Lord until he comes (v. 26). All the Eucharists celebrated around the world each day and every minute of the day, remind us that the death of Christ fills up the time until his coming.

History cannot cease, nor civilization be stagnant as happened in past centuries. Not only does technical progress force us to advance, but also the requirements of justice springing from the death of the innocent (and here God is the innocent) destroy the established order. Jesus’ death does not allow the world to rest or have peace. The Church reminds us of the death of Christ, not to preserve the past, but to draw from this unique event new energy for both reconciling and condemning.

This is the reason why so many among you are sick (v. 30). The Lord uses many signs to admonish us. Sometimes through personal illness; more often, through the weakness and spiritual anemia of the Church. Fulfilling the requirements for a worthy celebration of the Eucharist would be sufficient to renew the Church.

• 12.1 Let us notice the order followed by Paul: the Spirit comes after the Word, the Son. The spiritual gifts distributed in our days are the fruit of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

In the Church of Corinth the Holy Spirit reveals his presence by giving many believers spiritual gifts. All marvel when some of them, touched by the Spirit, begin praising God with words understood by no one. They feel still more the presence of God when a prophet reveals to some of them what is on their conscience or gives to someone a special message from God.

Paul intervenes in two ways. First to establish order. Pagans went wild in the frenzied celebration of their feasts, while the Spirit makes everyone more responsible. When a frenzied individual cried out something senseless or scandalous, it was proof that he was not inspired.

Paul reminds us that the gifts of the Spirit (sometimes called charisms) have several aspects. They are gifts, especially evident in miracles. But they are also ministries (v. 5), that is services, as is evident in the leading of a community. These should also be called works, because in them a person must not praise himself, but all must be seen as the work of God.

If Paul said that these services come from Christ, people might think that most important in the Church is the authority of those who govern in the name of Christ and at times are considered his “vicars.” Yet these gifts and ministries are also related to the Holy Spirit. The Spirit blows where he pleases and multiplies, among believers of simple heart, gifts and initiatives that renew the church. The mission of the ministers (bishops, priests or lay ministers) is not only to govern and command the Church, but also to recognize the true work of the Spirit in the community.

Who gives to each one as he so desires (v. 11). The Spirit gives the Church what it needs at the right place and the right time. These paragraphs reveal the concerns of the Church of that time, very different from ours today. Now the Spirit reminds the Church of its mission in the world. Many believers possess gifts that, without being apparent in miracles, inspire their exemplary and fruitful lives. Whereas, in those early times, the newly converted Christians discovered that God was among them. Through gifts of prophecy, wisdom, teaching, the Church unfolded day by day the innumerable consequences of the death and resurrection of Christ.

Words of wisdom that indicate an attitude to adopt. Words of knowledge that reveal something that is hidden, or what God is about to do. Faith (not in the meaning we usually give it, but as in Mk 11:22) that means certitude that God wishes to do something and urges us to ask for a miracle. Thus, it was that the Church discovered God’s presence within herself as well as the power issuing from the death and resurrection of Christ.

The same Spirit… the same Lord… the same God. God is the fountain of the various gifts granted to the Church and God is also the model of how diversity may be coupled with unity.

• 12. A detailed comparison with the body helps us to understand what the Church is, showing at the same time how we must complement and respect each other.

We cannot have a true community unless each of us shares in its life, placing our talents at the service of others. Even the least gifted may have riches that will be revealed at the right time. Even the misfortunes of someone may become the riches of the group that welcomes him/her. As soon as one is really committed to a Christian life, the spirit awakens in him new and sometimes unsuspected capabilities. If we pay attention to the riches of our brothers and sisters and awaken in them the consciousness of their dignity and responsibility, we shall see a new resurgence in the Church, fruit of the Spirit. It would take too long to recall the harm done to the Church in some places because of the passivity of Christians in a clericalized church.

At the end of the paragraph Paul lists the various gifts according to their importance. First, not what appears more miraculous, but what is most constructive for the Church. That is why apostles occupy the first place. These are not only the twelve chosen by Jesus, but also those who, like them and accepted by them, are founding new communities and governing those already existing. Then, in second place, come the prophets, who not only announce words of God, but also strengthen the community with the gifts of faith and wisdom that inspire their preaching.

In the last place are those who receive the gift of speaking in tongues, although in Corinth it was as if they had already reached Heaven.

• 13.1 I will show you a much better way (12:31). As the Corinthians marveled at the spectacular and wonderful things worked by the Spirit, Paul tells them that the only important thing is the ability to love.

Love or charity? At the beginning both words meant the same thing. Later on, the word “charity” came to mean the help given in the form of alms, although the giving of alms alone is not real love. On the other hand, for many people, true love is only that of a man and a woman. So it is irrelevant whether we say charity or love, but we have rather to clarify what love really is. Paul does just that in the present text.

If I could speak… if I had… To love is more important than performing miracles, more important than doing great things for others and dying for a cause, all of which can be done without love.

When I was a child. Already Paul outlines what he will explain in chapter 15 when he speaks of our life after the resurrection. Just as the caterpillar must completely change itself to become a butterfly (not merely by sprouting wings), and just as a child’s game has no sense for an adult, so will it be for our present life: work, study, love, our understanding of God and the world, the life of the Church—all will be no more than a forgotten past. Paul experienced a love of God that invaded him and divinized his least desires, and he knew it was already God’s possession of him, which would be eternal: love would never end.

Faith, hope, love (v. 13). Paul quite often joins these three “virtues,” that is the three movements in the Christian soul. In no other place does he state this more clearly than here. There is no authentic love without faith and hope.

The greatest of those is love. Sometimes this sentence is used to misrepresent what is essential to Christian life. For many say, “I do good to my neighbor, what else does God ask of me?” It would not be difficult to prove that such love is very limited, selfish and impure. It is a “love” in which divine love lives in very cramped conditions and so is unable to transform our life. We would need, first of all, great hope in a Christian sense that is a passion for eternal things and then the yielding of ourselves to the Spirit who would complete his work of love in us. Love reaches its perfection when we are in God: I will know him as he knows me. As long as we do not see God, love is immature; this is the time when love must grow through faith and the knowledge of God’s word; also through hope and perseverance as we follow Jesus poor, free and in the midst of trials.

• 14.1 It seems that the assemblies in Corinth were very disorderly. People did not wait for their turn to speak, but spoke at the same time, especially the women. Paul invites them to be silent. Those with spectacular gifts felt more important and did not respect the most elementary order. Some who pretended to be inspired spoke and acted very strangely and at times shamefully.

Paul establishes an order of priority, giving preference to those gifts that most help strengthen the Church. He compares the Church to a building. We build it when we help others to grow, to be better and more united. What makes a person better is charity, and not the performance of extraordinary gifts and charisms, as miracles, languages and such. This is why extraordinary performances do not mean holiness; God can use anybody, even sinners, to perform for others’ benefit. The truth of a religion does not rely on the fact that its preachers can heal the sick or do similar things, thereby filling stadiums and impressing large audiences. It depends on its fidelity to the teaching of the Apostles, as found in the Church.

The spirits speaking through prophets are submitted to prophets (v. 32). What comes from the Spirit always blends with what comes from a person. Those who think they are inspired must be careful not to lessen what comes from the Spirit with their own beliefs and desires. No inspiration allows us to disregard our community or rightful authority.

The verses 34-35 have from the beginning scandalized people because of their harshness towards women and in certain texts they have been removed. If they are Paul’s they must be understood in the light of 11:1-16. The apostle was infallible regarding faith but no decision touching the organization of the Church whether it comes from Paul or someone else is beyond criticism or irrevocable, even in the case when it could be at a given moment “an order of the Lord.”

• 15.1 Have we here the response to a last question of the Corinthians? Many Greeks thought that at death the immortal soul leaves the body and remains alone. Was it admitted to the paradise of souls? Did it come to the great reservoir of souls already gone or who were to return, forgetting all the past lived on earth? Others held (as do a good number of Christians today), that all ends with death: see 1 Thes 5:13. Paul will therefore remind the Corinthians that faith in the resurrection is at the heart of the Christian message.

I remind you of the gospel. Here certainly we may speak of Good News, for death as something unknown is and always has been the great burden of human life (Sir 40:1).

How can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? (v. 12). Paul begins with the resurrection of Jesus as a fact: and from that he then draws consequences: our own resurrection.

We hear it said at times, even among believers that the resurrection of Jesus is not an historical fact. This is true in the sense that resurrection escapes the historical dimension. We know and we believe it because there are witnesses, and in no other way does history proceed. Nevertheless there is a vast difference: history deals with testimonies on which we have some ideas: a war, a meeting between two people, an invention. On the contrary, for the resurrection of Jesus, the witnesses can only speak of apparitions of Jesus or meetings with him. This experience led them to believe something much greater: Jesus had begun a life about which we have no idea, even sharing the power of God! We, then, in this very special case, shall believe not only what they saw but also what they believe, and that is in no way comparable with historical processes. But all the same, Jesus’ resurrection and coming in glory is a fact (see com. on Mk 16).

I have passed on to you (v. 3). Paul will not recall a tale, or a “myth,” these stories full of wisdom that abounded with the Greeks. They bared an order in the world, a meaning of life, but were only stories. Today certain people speak of the resurrection in the same way. They say: “It matters little what took place, the gospels are not directly interested in what happened to Jesus, for them it was important that strange events would give courage to the disciples and the hope of another life.” Paul says precisely the contrary: the resurrection of Jesus is a fact.

• 20. Whoever shares the faith of the apostles has accepted resurrection as a fact. Paul immediately goes to the consequences for us: shall we also enter another life?

All die for being Adam’s (v. 22). See the commentary in Rom 5:12 concerning Adam and Christ. The myths of various religions in the past projected onto some mysterious personage our own condition, but were unable to do more than give a meaning to life. They could not change it. Faith instead tells us that the Son-of-God-made-human has lived among us and lived for all of us. Let us leave aside our individualistic vision in which each one sees no more than his own destiny: for God the entire venture of creation and salvation is that of Adam, one and multiple at the same time. Jesus who is himself Man has lived it fully for us all.

Then the end will come, when Christ delivers the kingdom to God the Father (v. 24). Here again, let us leave aside simplistic images. Let us remember that there is only one God. Here, the Son is the Word of God made flesh who has taken on his shoulders the whole history of humankind. He who is eternally returning to the Father from whom he is born brings to the eternity of God all creation. There will not be a re-beginning of history. God will be all in all, we will receive God from God and we will have all, finally becoming ourselves. That, surely, surpasses all we could have imagined, but Paul adds: The last enemy to be destroyed will be death (v. 26). John will say the same in Revelation (21:4).

Why do they want to be baptized for the dead? (v. 29). Perhaps some of them were concerned for the fate of their parents who died without knowing the Gospel, and were baptized in their name. Paul does not give his opinion about this practice. He only takes the opportunity to argue in favor of the resurrection.

• 35. How will the dead be raised? With what kind of body will they come? (v. 35). Here indeed is the question we often ask: we would like to imagine, to know what we shall then be. But how can a human being imagine, know, this new world which is even now being prepared: is it not like a child still enclosed in the universe of its mother’s womb, and trying to imagine the world into which it will be projected?

All that Paul can do is to throw light on the mystery by using comparisons.

What you sow is not the body of the future plant (v. 37). Jesus spoke of the grain that is sown (Jn 12:24). With this example he destroyed those primitive ideas that some people still have nowadays: that angels will come to gather the dust of the dead, that corpses will come out of their tombs… In reality, our present body is the grain and the risen body, the spike or ear, will not be the recomposition of the actual body that is put in the earth.

Not all flesh is the same (v. 39). Paul explains that one and the same word can express many different things that have some likeness. For example, the word “light” is used to designate the very different ways in which the sun, the moon and stars, each shines with its own special color. During Paul’s time the word “body” was used for many things, even to designate the sun and the stars, called “heavenly bodies.” So, when it is said that the dead are raised with their own body, this does not mean with the same shape (with arms and legs and hair…) or the same life, although it will be the same person.

Just as the ear of wheat comes from a grain of wheat, it will be the same person as before, marked by all that has made him grow (the risen Christ rightly wished to show the marks of his passion on his glorious body). Since no one becomes himself alone, but in union and in relation with others, we shall know in all the fullness of their transfigured persons, those who have helped us most to develop our riches.

For there shall be a spiritual body as there is at present a living body (v. 44). Resurrection comes from what is within, it is like a transfiguration. Each one will have the body he/she deserves; a body that best expresses what he/she has become and what he/she is in God. Could we hope for anything more beautiful than that hope which is beautiful even in its logic? But is it certain? Paul is affirmative with all the boldness of faith. No reasoning can prove faith: only the experience of the working of the Spirit which even now is transfiguring us and will give us day by day, more than an intuition, a certitude of where we are going.

Earthly… heavenly… (vv. 45-49). We all have a double heritage: by nature we are in solidarity with the human race in the person of Adam—man, animal and earthly—but we also belong to this human community which mysteriously forms itself around Christ who is Spirit, source of life and who comes from heaven. Baptism has not made us pass from one to another. Moreover, faithful as we may be, our Adam will continue to grow and increase in weight, with his weakness and temptations, but at the same time our inner being will be strengthened, this embryo of a celestial person, waiting for its true birth.

Flesh and blood cannot share the kingdom of God; nothing of us that is to decay can reach imperishable life (v. 50). It is the opposition between what can only rot and decompose, and the definitive, unaltered which is proper to the world where God is (Rom 8:21). Life has its logic: persons who have chosen to enjoy the present life hardly believe in that other world.

Not all of us will die (v. 51). Paul thinks that Christ is to return soon. On this supposition, he says that those who are alive when Christ returns will not have to “travel” with him to Heaven (that would be a materialist image), but will be transformed. Resurrection is not simply to live again as happened to Lazarus.

• 16.1 With respect to the collection, see Romans 15:25 and 2 Corinthians chaps. 8 & 9.

Sunday, the first day of the Jewish week. See Acts 20: 7. During the time of Paul, Christians began to observe Sunday, the day of Christ’s resurrection, rather than the Saturday (or Sabbath) of Moses and the Jews.

Through the list of greetings to be passed on, we can form some idea of these first believers from whom we have received the faith. We can see that in spite of their weakness the Christians of Corinth form a real Church, since it is a community where many are active and together trying to solve the problems of their life “in Jesus Christ.”

The Risen Christ

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 11:17:10 +0000

The Risen Christ:

Has Jesus of Nazareth Been Distorted?

Jesus’ figure, as it emerges from the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, is the figure of a rabbi, a teacher of the Law in the purest tradition of the people of Israel (Jn 3:2). Although, later on, the first Christian Community gave more importance to the conflicts with the Pharisees than actually occurred, they did not forget that Jesus’ teaching was very close to the teaching of the Pharisees on many points (Mk 2:16; 12:28; 12:32). Both disciples and opponents saw him as a self-taught master of the law (Jn 7:15). How then did we go from there to the figure of Christ as it appears particularly in Paul’s letters: the Lord of history, the new Adam, the one who received the ineffable “Name”?

The apostles believed in the resurrection of Jesus and so did the entire Christian community who were born of this conviction. There was no doubt that he was the Messiah; people also believed that he was God’s Son in a very special sense, different from what the Jews understood by this term. A long time was needed to draw all the inferences from this. This passage was undoubtedly more difficult for those who had known Jesus personally and who had seen him through the eyes of their Jewish culture, not because Jesus was not utterly Jewish, including his way of teaching, but because what they loved in him was preventing them from seeing beyond.

They certainly recognized themselves in James’ letter, the most “Jewish” of the apostolic writings. While acknowledging Jesus as “our Lord,” the author of the letter sees Jesus first as the teacher of a new law which included the best of the Old Testament (2:1 and 8). With the help of the impact of the Nazareth group, the “brothers of Jesus,” the Christian communities of Palestine would grow fond of this image they had of the Galilean rabbi. He had risen, of course, but he had not set the world clock back to zero, and his heritage was first of all an example of doing good, not just teaching the Law.

Within just a few generations, these “Judeo-Christians” would find themselves like strangers to the faith of the Church whose center had moved from Jerusalem to Antioch, then to Rome. It is there that Paul played a decisive role that he himself did not choose. He did not invent Christ the Lord and Redeemer: he was already present in Peter’s first proclamations (Acts 2:32-36; 3:15). Paul, however, had not been influenced (and at the same time limited) by the image and the words of the Galilean rabbi. On the contrary, his conversion had been an encounter with God himself in the person of Jesus, and he saw the Master’s itinerant preaching as the first stage of a wider destiny (2 Cor 5:16).

If Jesus had not risen, he would have remained a teacher; until then, his words were perhaps more important than he himself was. But his body disappeared from the tomb; this first-ever happening, if true, did not fit into the laws of the universe. So the visions of the resurrected one conveyed but one message: Jesus, the Lord! This went far beyond Jeremiah exultant in glory or Elijah taken up to heaven. On the day of Pentecost Peter said that God had raised his holy servant (Act 3:15) and he added: “God has made him Lord.” Before long Jesus will be recognized as “the son of the woman taken up to heaven to seize the book of history” (Rev 12:5; 5:7). Paul and John have authority to speak about him because they are true witnesses; both of them were privileged to get a glimpse of the above (Rev 4:1; 2 Cor 12:2).

From that moment, it was knowing who Jesus was that gave the understanding of his words, because he was God born of God. From that point on, his whole human adventure was a new beginning.

Therefore, when Paul speaks of Christ as the “image of God” (Col 1:15), he is not primarily inviting us to find the goodness of the Father in Jesus’ gestures: instead he is thinking more directly about the Son who, from the beginning, is the manifestation, the projection and the active wisdom of the forever invisible God. Christ is the one who passed through our history and our time so that, through him, all of creation including humankind would be seen as part of the divine mystery (Col 1:20).

In the gospels, Jesus chose to be the proclaimer of the Reign of God. With Paul, however, there is not just Kingdom, but our life in the risen Christ (Col 3:1). There we see the gap between Christian faith and the position of the non-Christian Jews who were the most sympathetic toward Jesus and acknowledged him as one of their own. Paul was not the one who built a wall of misunderstanding; the scandal was found in Jesus’ resurrection as well as in his death on the cross.

These are not less scandalous for today’s Christians. Although we have faith, at times we are besieged by doubt: is all of that certain? Many books written by unbelievers, or even by educated Christians, will reinforce our doubts: “The resurrection? There is no other basis than an empty tomb—and do we even know that? Yet, all these reasons do not overcome a deep-seated conviction in the hearts of believers. Then, people interpreted; they believed; they saw…. To say that he had risen was a way of exalting him and of reasserting the hope of the community…” A sense of God tells them that truth is found in the mystery rather than in the interpretations that seek to do away with it (1 Jn 2:27).

We have just said “a sense of God,” because it is not a matter of human feeling: we believe, which means first of all that we receive the testimony of the apostles and of the Church, and we believe the way they did. If we welcome faith, God will not leave us alone with our doubts, there is also an added promise: the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:18). There can be no lasting faith without a spiritual experience (Heb 12:18-24), and this is even truer for those living in a culture impervious to faith, as we are.

Commentaries on Romans

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 11:14:22 +0000

Jesus presented himself as the Savior. First of all he wanted to save the Jewish people. He spoke to them of the kingdom and they understood: God would reign over them just as he would reign in their lives. Their collective aspirations were not unknown to him, but he oriented them towards a more universal mission: it was truly “good news” for them.

With the beginning of the mission into Roman territory the Gospel had equally to be good news for the Greeks of the Roman Empire who were listening to the word of the apostles. Protected by solid structures that no-one questioned, they did not share the Jewish longing for liberation. In absorbing them the Roman Empire had practically reduced to nothing the pride and ambitions of nations great and small, leaving a void for religious concerns to take root. These people were interested in all that related to the human person and searched high and low in a jumble of doctrines and religions as a means of escaping Fate. So it was essential to speak to them of Christ, as the one who unravels our contradictions and gives us life.

In this letter to the Christians of Rome, capital of the Empire, Paul intends to respond to the concerns of the Greeks but without thereby neglecting the Jews. Jews were numerous in the Roman community as in all of the Roman Empire, and for those who believed in Christ it was difficult to reposition themselves towards God after a great majority of their own people had rejected the Christian faith. Up to then they had shared the hope of their people thinking that all Israel would recognize the coming of the Savior God. Now they were apparently no more than a minority on the margin of a long, biblical history.

The Letter to the Romans is for the most part a long exposition about Christian vocation. To us it will seem difficult, because that is what it is. We shall find there discussions and use of biblical texts which will often disconcert us, for Paul discusses as he had learned to do in the rabbinical schools of Jerusalem. It must be remembered that Paul’s teaching does not stem from a doctrinal system or from a theology: rather it constantly springs from his own experience. The encounter with the Risen Christ, the call made to Paul that put him at the service of the Gospel, the long experience as an apostle, the gifts of the Spirit acting in him and constant communion with Jesus: these were the sources of his vision of faith.

So Paul spoke of God’s salvation as if forgetful of the explosive Palestinian context where Jewish nationalism was at grips with the Romans and where all religious hopes were politicized. God’s salvation is the salvation of the human race, a total project, but taking place in the heart of people; all will depend on our response to God’s call: can we trust him?

Paul, marked by his own history, presents the beginning of faith as dramatic conversion. People are slaves to Sin (it would be necessary to understand what Paul means by that). We have been created to share the life of God, and as long as we do not achieve this we carry within ourselves a conscious or unconscious rebellion against God. Must we turn towards religion? We would gain very little, says Paul, with insistence that will shock many people: as long as we believe in becoming “good” through religious practices we turn our back on the only power that can free us: God’s merciful love. The only response he expects from us is our act of faith, a faith which immediately frees us.

This salvation is the one announced by the Bible, but it will disconcert those believers who do not go beyond religious practices. These belong to a first stage of sacred history that ended with Jesus’ death. Our baptism gives us entrance to a mysterious world which is no other than the Risen Christ: from now on we are “in Christ”, and living by his Spirit. The gift of the Spirit opens a new era where all is inspired by the law of love, for those who have become true sons and daughters of God.

Paul then returns to the problem of the Jewish people: what are we to think of all this history of Israel to which God promised a savior, and who finally fail to recognize him? Paul shows that two questions are not to be confused: the call of a people to whom God entrusts a special role in history and the call of persons who belong to this people. For each one faith in Christ will be the result of a free call of God.

Paul sent this letter in 57 or 58 probably from Corinth. Up till then he addressed himself to the communities he knew and whose difficulties he was aware of. This time it is not the case; at the end of his exposé he will speak in a fairly general way of Christian life and very specially of the way to accept one another among persons of very different origins. In Rome as elsewhere, it was not easy to unite in one community, Jews and converted pagans. Paul already preached what we ourselves find difficult to put into practice: accept those who are different.

The Letter to the Romans in the Church

It is now impossible to speak of the letter to the Romans without saying at least a word on the place it has held and continues to hold in Protestant Churches. It has been considered by many as the key to the interpretation of the whole bible.

It is known that Luther deepened the Reformation by commenting on this epistle. He was not wrong in seeing in this letter the condemnation of a Church established in the world, where faith had been degraded, becoming no more than practice devoid of faith which saves. The Christianity of the Middle Ages was in fact a people, rather like what the people of Israel had become. A person was a Christian by birth and continued to be one; he/she could be a believer, but as one is in any culture whatever. It was thought that salvation was gained by religious rites and by the practice of good deeds that merited heaven.

It was therefore very important to remember that faith is at the heart of every conversion, and that this conversion is the response to a freely given call from God. This letter emphasizes Christ the Savior and this emphasis was sufficient to devaluate the whole religious system which at the time was crushed by tradition and devotions. There was faith, at a time when preaching rarely touched on anything other than morality with its catalogues of moral principles. There was the word of God directed towards the individual person at a time when people were quite happy to trust Church leaders. It was then, a radical criticism of the Church which ended up looking at itself instead of turning towards God, and of a Church whose whole system—political, doctrinal and repressive, blocked the horizon.

We have said, however, that this letter had its roots in Paul’s experience as a Jew, a Pharisee and as an apostle called directly by Christ. It is from that point that Paul spoke of sin and justification, of call, of salvation through faith. For their part, Luther and his contemporaries read this letter against the backdrop of their own problems—or better—of their anguish.

They magnified the perspective of sin and eternal condemnation, victims of a philosophy (nominalism) in which nothing was good or bad in itself but only if God declares it so. Because of that everything Paul said about predestination of the Jewish people was interpreted by them as a personal predestination to heaven or hell.

When Paul spoke of justification—a word which at that time had a large and imprecise meaning—he meant that God re-establishes in us an order which is the true one; they understood instead that, if we believe, God will accept us even if nothing has been changed in us. The great perspectives of humankind and history as a battlefield of sin and grace, were reduced to a personal problem: am I really free or am I enslaved to sin or grace. Taking literally Paul’s images and comparisons, a doctrine of original sin was developed in which we all pay now and forever, for the sin of our first ancestors.

Several generations of protestants and catholics have been marked by these controversies: salvation through faith alone, or through faith and works, or through faith, works and sacraments? The love of the Father who saves and of Christ the Savior were eclipsed in fact by an obsession for salvation: how can I escape from this rigid frame in which God confines me? The concept of a just God, of inexorable decisions, which so easily condemns people into hell would traumatize the Occident and prepare a revolt in the next centuries, that of militant atheism.

It is not pointless for us today to know this. We are all children of our time and the remedy, if we do not wish to be enslaved, is to not give over-importance to one biblical text to the detriment of others. When you have become familiar with Paul and first with the letter to the Romans you see that for him the Father of Jesus is really father, and passionately loved. Thousands of details are to be discovered in Paul that disclose his experience of a continual communion and a life “in” the Triune God, an experience very close to that of St. John.

That will not prevent us from finding in this letter just what Luther, after St. Augustine, saw there: a genial presentation of the mystery of humanity redeemed by Christ. There is a certain forgetfulness perhaps of this letter and of this doctrine which too often has allowed Catholics to hem themselves in by their practices and their sacraments, and neglect mission.

• 1.1 Paul, an apostle called and set apart for God’s Good News. Paul speaks of the Gospel three times in this paragraph. In his time the word Gospel, which signifies Good News, conveyed the meaning of victory. Paul presents himself as one announcing the liberating message given to all humankind.

What is Paul’s Gospel? He develops it briefly in the following lines. The Son of God has come down to earth and after sharing our common condition, has through his Resurrection, taken possession of the Glory due to him.

An apostle called and set apart… (v. 1). The twelve apostles were selected by Jesus and confirmed in their mission by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Here Paul reminds us that he himself was made an apostle by Jesus, who met him on the road to Damascus.

Recognized as the Son of God (v. 4). Another possible translation: constituted, or designated as Son of God. That does not mean that Jesus was not the Son of God before his resurrection, but he was so really one of us that nothing of his divinity showed. On the day of the resurrection, the Spirit of God “invaded” his human nature: from now on he is present and active in our history as the Son of God.

Paul usually reserves the term “God” for God the Father, fountain of the divine being, from whom all divine initiatives originate. The Father communicates his life to the Son. The Son, for his part, reflects this life back to the Father in such a way that they mutually generate the Holy Spirit. The whole vocation of a Christian is rooted in this life of God, and that is why Paul constantly mentions the names of the three divine Persons.

We will encourage each other by sharing our common faith (v. 12). The apostle, as well as the believer, needs to share anxieties, hopes and a common faith. The Church is a fellowship and in order to develop our Christian life, we must multiply meetings in which we can be in communion with one another.

• 16. I am not ashamed… (v. 16). He who is proclaimed Savior by Paul is a crucified Jew, an unknown carpenter. How often they laughed at Paul when he spoke about this dead man who had risen from the tomb to be the Judge of humankind!

It is God’s power… (v. 16). The miracles that accompany the preaching of the Gospel are signs of God’s powerful action in transforming people and history in every place where the Gospel is preached and inspires those who hear it.

Upright… righteous… righteousness (v. 17). The word justice used by Paul also signifies uprightness. On the other hand, when he speaks of the justice of God usually he is not saying that God is just: his justice denotes an intervention to keep order in the world. In a special way the justice of God has humans to become just, that is, upright before his eyes. It is a matter of understanding that the words justice and just had a wide meaning in the Christian vocabulary and now simply designate all that is good: being just speaks of a life as God would have it. The just person is rather like a saint, in the way we understand it today, or putting it more modestly, she is as she should be in God’s eyes.

For that reason we shall at times translate God justifies us by: God makes us just and holy, or: God gifts us with true righteousness.

The Jews, like most humans, thought that people become righteous by their own efforts. Paul retorts that the righteousness God wants is something much greater and beyond what human efforts can achieve. We are upright and friends of God when he allows us to approach him after making us holy by his grace.

The apostles preached the Gospel to two classes of persons:

– the Jews, prepared by God to receive the Savior,

– the Greeks (or people who spoke the Greek language). In fact the Jews considered Greek all those who were subjects of the Roman Empire. These people did not know the Word of God, nor did they have any hope in him.

Paul shows that all people need the Gospel. Because the world lives in sin, and all of us to a greater or lesser degree are responsible for existing evil, we must believe in the Gospel if we want to be saved.

• 18. In these paragraphs Paul speaks of the pagan world of the Greeks, which included the great majority of humankind who had not received the word of God. In reality, God had not been absent from their conscience, and through centuries of civilization and religious research they tried to know God and the truth. Paul shows the failure of such human endeavor; ignorance and immorality are much more prevalent in the countries where God had not spoken as he did to the Jews.

They knew God and did not glorify him as was fitting… (v. 21). We have to compare this text with another famous one, found in Wisdom 13, and with the speech of Paul in Acts 17:27-29. In these verses the Bible shows clearly that it is possible for everyone to know God. Anyone who looks at the world and reflects on life easily finds signs of the presence of God. Yet, when one lives in sin, truth is silenced. People do not openly deny God; they simply ignore him.

Faith is neither an option nor a luxury, as if we could well do without it. Certainly a majority on the planet do without it comfortably. Yet, if we were to withdraw all that comes from faith in our culture and life, the world would die for want of hope, as is already the case with nations and ideologies that have renounced it. This is why, in announcing the Gospel we free people who are truly in need of the Gospel, even though they may feel satisfied with themselves.

God gave them up to their inner cravings. Paul stresses the fact of homosexual relationships. In the Greek world, sexual relations especially between men were accepted and even praised by the greatest philosophers. Paul says: such an attitude is not the sign of a more open or free spirit, but comes from their ignorance of God.

This condemnation which only repeats those of the Old Testament (Lev 20:13) astonishes even Christians in the countries where the real religion is liberalism. Total sexual license with, in particular, the acceptance of such relationships flows from an idolatry proper to the liberal society, which has become a society of consumption. There, for those who are well off and in good health, the ideal is to satisfy every desire and profit from life to the maximum. Once God has been replaced by creatures, animals or fabricated articles, one can have him say everything, because, in fact his Glory is not known and darkness fills the mind.

In fact, homosexual relationships are a form of idolatry of one’s body. It is not, of course, a question of condemning those inclined towards homosexuality, whether it be by nature, or much more often, through cultural deformation.

• 2.1 You have no excuse, whoever you are… Paul addresses the Jews, who wait for God’s judgment on the world and are convinced that they will not be condemned, since they have the true religion. Paul reminds them of something we ourselves know: the greater our religious knowledge, the more arguments we have to justify our faults.

God will give glory… (v. 10). Paul has just condemned the injustice and wrongdoing of the pagan world. Now he recognizes that many who have not received a religious education do indeed live justly. In the next paragraph Paul affirms that:

– God will judge each one according to his own lights; our conscience will fully agree with this judgment of God on us;

– God also has sons and daughters among those who do not believe: he will judge them as he does for us, according to the path on which he has placed them.

On different occasions Paul opposes letter and spirit (vv. 27-29).

Letter denotes the written commandments that Jews observe but which remain exterior to them; the aim of these commandments was to lead them to conversion of heart: this is the spirit God wants. Two sets of words are in contrast in Paul’s letters: flesh, old covenant, commandments, Law, letter… and Spirit, spirit, new covenant, promise…

• 3.1 We have just demonstrated that all, Jews and non-Jews, are under the power of sin (v. 9). This is the central sentence of the paragraph. The Jews must, like others, rely on faith and be converted. That is what they have difficulty in understanding, since they have always been believers. They think they are good and are true believers, because they have been instructed in the faith. They trust in being saved merely for being marked in their body by circumcision.

What is the advantage of being a Jew? (v. 1). This is probably what the Jews will ask on hearing of salvation offered to those who do not know the Law, which means the religion taught by God. The same question is asked by Christians in modern times from the very moment they no longer believe that anyone living without Christ and the Church will go to hell. They think: “How fortunate if we were like them: we would be saved without having to follow a burdensome Christian morality!” Paul sees no advantage for the Jew, and we none for the Christian, except in terms of responsibility: God has entrusted his words to them.

In this way our baptism gives us membership with a minority called “people of God,” to whom God entrusts a mission to the world, along with many others who go to God without explicit knowledge of his secrets and his Christ. Baptism is not an assurance that gives us the right to feel better than others.

What comes from the Law is the consciousness of sin (v. 20). The Jewish law, or the law of Moses, is that body of religious, liturgical, moral and social laws governing the people of Israel (see 7:4). In the letters of Paul, the Law sometimes designates the Bible and at other times the Jewish religion. Many Jews thought that they deserved a reward for practicing the Law, but Paul says: true holiness is neither the result of our works nor a reward for them.

• 21. Paul has developed two points: the world lives in sin; and the practice of the Law is not enough to obtain salvation. He then presents the Good News: God has come to save us through Christ.

All lack the glory of God. God is not satisfied with the actual state of humankind, even if the latter feel quite satisfied with their mediocre condition. He calls us to share his Glory, that is, everything in God that makes him great, happy and everlasting. God has created us to bring us into communion with him, and as he is out of reach, he reaches out his hand to us and makes us just (v. 21). We have already said in 1:17 that when Paul speaks of the justice of God he means God’s way of making us upright at his eyes. God makes us just and holy.

Now, confronting all those who think they are worthy before God because of their own efforts, because they fulfill all the commandments, Paul says: true holiness must be given to us. For there is no other righteousness or holiness than sharing the perfection and love that are in God himself.

Paul finds it very hard to explain the mystery of salvation with the religious words available at the time, many of which refer to a violent God. He has just spoken of the justice of God, but has pointed out that this “justice” is before anything else, a merciful intervention that makes us holy. He spoke of God’s anger, but the result of this anger is the coming of the Savior. He tells us now that God made Christ the victim we needed for the atonement of our sins; but we must not think that God, in anger, demands the suffering of an innocent victim. God is the one who provides the victim, and the coming of Jesus expresses the immensity of the Father’s love. In a few words, Paul gives to these terms a totally different and new meaning. The divine way of restoring justice is not by condemning, but by saving; by love God conquers evil in such a way that those who never knew love will be saved.

Many of the Jews converted to Christ thought it useful to continue practicing the religious prescriptions of the Bible, such as circumcision, observance of the Sabbath, cleansings, etc. (Col 2:16) and wanted other believers of the pagan world to observe them as well. Paul rejects that, because the Law had two dimensions. On one hand, it was the divine teaching for human life, such as how to know God, not to kill, etc… and on the other, it was the Law of the Jewish people, with all their own values, rites and customs, unlike that of any other nation. So, since God is God of all nations, he will not oblige them to give up their own culture and to live as the Jews do.

• 4.1 Paul then asks his Jewish brothers to go back to the sources of revelation. Long before the Law was given to Moses, there was the faith of Abraham. That means that faith is both more fundamental and more universal. The Law, instead, is a form of religion proper to the Jews and of value only for a period of their history. He asks: “How did Abraham become the friend of God and why is he taken as the model of believers? Was it because he believed in God’s promises, or because he had received the rite of circumcision?” It is like asking a Christian today: “What is important, to believe in Christ, or to be baptized?”

The answer is clear; we become the friends of God by believing in his promises. The rite of baptism ratifies with a divine seal the gift of God and our commitment to him.

Therefore, baptism and the other sacraments are the “signs” of faith and have no value without faith. Baptism is the beginning of our living for God in the Christian community. Communion has no meaning unless we live in unity and share the fullness of the life of the Church.

Worthy of notice is the fact that Christian people are now less concerned with rites and devotions that were so important to past generations. At the same time renewal movements give more stress to essentials: our faith and surrender to Christ.

He did not doubt although his body could no longer give life. Abraham had a faith similar to the Christian who believes in the resurrection of Christ. We also are asked to believe in a God who gives life and for whom nothing is impossible.

Faith has no power (v. 14). Here Paul points out something that many times we fail to see. To believe in God who rewards good and obedience to his laws is already faith (Heb 11:6). This faith, however, consisting in respect and awareness of justice remains very far from Abraham’s confidence in God’s promise. Faith is found in every religion, but for Christians faith is everything.

• 5.1 In this paragraph, Paul shares his own experience to help us discover changes in our life from the moment we have gone beyond the Law or, for us: beyond any religion.

To begin with there is a feeling of peace: we are at peace with God (v. 1). Perhaps we felt well before, with no sin and no debt. The peace we now discover reveals our former emptiness: being alien to God, we were alien to a part of ourselves. It is only now that we are conscious of it, and what do we believe? We believe in the personal love of God for us and we see it in Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Through him we obtain this favor in which we remain (v. 2). It is not necessary for us to “sense” it to be in this state and it would be a mistake to search for a group where we could be “sensitively” aware of God. That is a form of self-satisfaction, and such is not the way of God’s true friends. It is not a matter of seeing or feeling but of believing what God does. Yet there are thousands of instances when we are conscious of this presence of God in us. Paul, who battled so much for Christ, says that it is in trials that we can discover the power of Christ working in us and making us mature (2 Cor 12:9).

And we even boast to expect the Glory of God (v. 2). The great Christian hope, unknown to those who have not met Christ is the certitude of a destiny surpassing all that could be imagined, hoped for, experienced by the greatest sages and mystics of all religions: total communion with God himself.

Hope does not disappoint us. In contrast to the people of the Old Testament, who remained always in what was temporary or provisional while waiting for ultimate truth and justice, the Christian already experiences what will one day fully enjoy. Something of that flavor or fragrance of the divinity has been poured into our hearts (v. 5) and that is the peace that God grants us when his Spirit comes to us.

Christ died for us when we were still sinners (v. 6). We are accustomed to hear about Christ dying for our sins, and often enough we are not touched, for his sacrifice seems to be far away and quite unreal. When by the grace of God we understand it, love suddenly pours from our hearts. Return love for love: this is the beginning of true conversion.

We have become just through his blood (v. 9). The text says precisely: We have been justified. Was the blood of Christ necessary? We have said with regard to 3:25 that Paul depended on the religious vocabulary of his time: the forgiveness of sins for the Jews was obtained by the blood of sacrificed victims. The prophets had already declared that the streams of blood from the Temple were of no value without obedience to God. Certain people understood that the true sacrifice able to reconcile the world was the sufferings and humiliations of the faithful minority of God’s people (Is 52:13). Whatever the explanation given, the salvation of the world passes through the sufferings and the death of the innocent, and the people of God must accept to be among the victims of violence. So it is that the violent death and the blood shed by Jesus are part of God’s language and also part of human experience. Paul knew this well, he who had taken part in the murder of Stephen (Acts 22:20).

• 12. Let us try to understand the thinking of Paul, inasmuch as he develops it here. In the first two chapters, he showed that without faith in Christ, humans lived in sin, including the Jews who had received the word of God. Then he asserted that salvation is brought about not by obedience to a law, but only by faith. Through this we are reconciled to God and we enter into a relationship of friendship with God who guides us towards the goal of the whole of life, which is to share the “Glory” of God, or his life in eternity.

Paul now widens his horizon. Jesus has come not only to reconcile sinners, many sinners, but to save humanity as a whole. In modern terms, we would say that he came to save human history; in biblical language, he has come to save “Adam.”

For Paul, as for the Jews of his time, Adam meant both the first human created by God and the whole of humankind. The children of Adam are only one with the ancestor whose name they bear. Indeed, from the beginning of humankind to the present generation, only one Adam comes to life, distrusting, rebellious and violent.

Sin entered the world through one man. Here Paul refers to the narrative in Genesis, but not to insist, as others have done after him, on the importance of the sin committed by the first human. In fact, Jesus did not speak of such sin, and the Scripture before him showed much reservation (see Wis 10:2 and Sir 49:16). Paul intends to point out a double solidarity that affects us: in Adam all humans are sinners, in Christ all have been reconciled. God created the world and has visited it to save the human race as a whole, united in Christ. This is why Paul puts the first parent of the old traditions in opposition to that that is the first in the plan of God. If the role of the first forebear remains very mysterious, Paul asserts clearly that humanity is not naturally at peace with God and that it cannot reach its goal as long as it is not saved by Christ.

We do not say that human nature is evil: God created it. It may perhaps be helpful to remember that during the 16th and 17th centuries, the history of the West was greatly influenced by the controversies about original sin. What nonsense was said (God had condemned all humankind to hell because of the sin of Adam)! This led to a reaction under the form of aggressive atheism in order to get rid of such a capricious and evil God. Thus it was asserted that humans are born good and that the society is guilty in making them evil.

The teaching of the apostles maintains that although human nature is good, we are born alienated. To speak to us of this situation, John uses two expressions: “the world” and “the ruler of this world,” that is, the devil (see commentary on John 3:16 and 1 John 2:15). Paul, for his part, will talk of sin. In these passages, sin refers to the totality of forces that have imprisoned humankind and which bring it to evil. We are not totally responsible for the sins that at times we do without really willing them (7:16-24), and this proves our slavery and alienation. And Sin begins with our difficulty in recognizing truth and judging according to truth.

This foretold the other Adam who was to come (v. 14). To the picture of human destiny presented in Genesis (chaps. 2 and 3), Paul presents in contrast another image, that of the crucified Christ. To the scene of sin near the forbidden tree, Paul compares that of redemption fulfilled on the “tree” of the cross. In the first scene there are three characters: Man (Adam), Sin (the serpent), Death. In the second, there are four: Man (Christ), Sin, Death and Justice (or new and holy life).

The gift of God more than compensated for sin (v. 16). The damage caused by sin from the very beginning increases each day; at times we feel crushed and powerless by the evil forces present everywhere. Paul, however, sees the greatness of the gift of God: while humankind increases and sin enters into all areas of society, God calls more people to free themselves.

There is something more. In this paragraph, somewhat complicated, Paul hints that the redemption of Christ does much more than correct the errors of humankind. God is not satisfied with helping us and making us better, for, after beginning to lift up men and women, he invites them to reign in life, which is to share his own Glory.

How much more will there be a reign of life for those who receive grace (v. 17). Christ embraces all of us, gathers us in his sacrifice, and becomes the new head of humankind. Perhaps Paul is thinking at times of the salvation of only those who have listened to the Gospel, believed in Christ and entered the Church. Note however that he stresses the fact that Christ saves a world of sinners. Christ is the new Adam and the head not only of believers, but of humankind as well. Humans continue today to be drawn by the flood of evil originated by Adam. Humankind is also saved as a whole, as long as people try to lift up their brothers and sisters. He who does not share in this task loses salvation, because what God wants is not “my” salvation but the salvation of Adam.

The Law caused sin to increase (v. 20). It was an error to see the Law as the great gift of God (yet the Old Testament said it!). Let us say rather that because of the Law the Jews discovered much sooner than other nations how great was their need to be saved. Its first result was to increase sin, because from then on they knew what their duty was and did not do it.

• 6.1 We are now dead regarding sin (v. 2). If we say that the Law has been abrogated we risk a misunderstanding. We do not mean that from now on we shall follow our instincts: we have been freed of a situation where the Law seemed to govern everything, but in fact sin found in us an accomplice: distrust of God. Dead to sin: this means that sin no longer finds a response in us. Dead: it is indeed the right word since it has been a definitive step, one that is intimately linked to the death of Christ. To die with him so as to rise with him: this is the meaning of baptism.

In the early Church, mostly adults were baptized: they had been evangelized and committed themselves to the community of the holy people of God. Baptism followed a conversion. When Paul speaks of baptism we must understand that it takes in the entire journey through conversion, including catechumenate , initiation in Christian life… Otherwise, baptism would be no more than a rite.

We are all plunged into his death (v. 3). Baptism means entering into Christ to share the benefits of his sacrifice. It also means the acceptance of a complete change of life, that of Christ in his death and resurrection.

• 6. You must consider… It is evident that baptism, even when received with faith, does not make us perfect immediately. Is it enough for us to give our whole attention to commandments? What if the fear of temptation and daily faults paralyze us? Beware of scruples and guilt complexes! Paul proposes a different way: it is most important for us to believe that sin has no power over us. Our eyes will be fixed on Christ knowing that we belong to him and that he himself transforms us. Such an apparent carefree attitude serves us more effectively than nervousness. It is the way Saint Thérèse of Lisieux suggested for those who feel incapable of great things.

Do not allow sin any control over your mortal being. The faithful, although conscious of belonging totally to Christ, commit sins every day. Their sins, however, do not deprive them of what is most important, trust in the Father, which allows them to stand up after each fall (1 John 2:1). They know that they are and always will be sinners whom God forgives, as long as they try to amend and be better. We achieve freedom day by day by voluntarily submitting to the requirements of a better life.

In Paul’s time there were cases of slaves being exchanged by owners. A free person with debts could sell himself to his debtor in payment of his debts. The comparison used by Paul teaches us to be meekly at the disposal of the Spirit, as slaves who are not owners of their own persons. Let us look at what the Spirit advises before making any decision.

The Christian’s life must appear like slavery to whoever looks at it externally. Yet the Christian feels and knows himself to be free. The best example might be that of a mother totally dedicated to her sick child: she is totally free, because she has no other law than her love.

• 7.1 The last chapter presented Christ who frees us from sin and death and becomes our only master. Then Christians of Jewish origin could ask: What about the Law of the Old Covenant? Is it no longer of value? Was it not given by God himself?

You have died to the Law (v. 4). The Law was provisional: the time of the Law ended with the death of Christ. Here we find one of Paul’s great intuitions. The death of Jesus was seemingly no more than a minor event in the troubled history of the Jewish people under Roman occupation. Yet it is more than a turning point, a rupture in the history of the world. Before that time was the era of a minor humanity; after it, the time when God could act and make himself known fully and clearly (Gal 4). The death of Jesus marks the death of ancient history. The Christian way of counting the years from the death of Christ is not one among other possibilities: it responds to a reality.

The baptized Jews are no longer obliged to follow all the commandments of this Law that was the supreme authority. Of course, many of the commandments deal with justice and mercy and are not to be neglected. Even so Christians are not left with a religion of commandments: faith in Jesus Christ, the only Savior, inspires all our actions.

We have died to what was holding us (v. 6). The Law of Moses, the great gift of God to Israel was part of a provisional stage, when humankind was not entirely free. The Christians of today see in the laws an indication of God’s will but reserve the right to act according to the criteria of their faith. No law or even religious decree can prevail over a well-informed conscience. An ordered life creates more beauty than any religious constitution could ever achieve.

See the same theme in 2 Cor 5:14: “if he died for all, then all have died.”

First there was no Law and I lived (v. 9). It would be erroneous to think that Paul is speaking about his own past. He is rather playing a role and speaks on behalf of Man (see commentary 5:12-14). The other actors in the drama are Sin, the Law and Death.

For the Jews the conclusion is clear: the Law with its commandments had no power to renew the human person.

• 14. Paul describes the situation of the person who knows the commandments, but not the love of God. He is not a liberated person, but a divided one. Two opposing forces struggle within him; on one side the Law that tells him what to do, and on the other another law in his flesh, that is, in his nature. He is not really free.

There is something well disposed within human beings: the spirit; and something that resists the demands of duty: the flesh (see Mk 14:38). The flesh does not mean the body; this word designates what in us is weak in face of duty and God’s call to holiness. See commentary on 8:5.

Our liberty is impotent when faced with sin, that is, it can do nothing against the forces of evil dragging down all humankind. Dullness of spirit in our fellow workers, family problems, the general spread of pornography, selfishness and consumerism: the flesh within us becomes an accomplice in all these evils.

In this chapter Paul continues to play the role of the one who still does not know Christ and remains divided and enslaved. The next chapter will deal with the opposition between the spirit and the flesh for those who believe in Christ. For them there is a solution to their conflicts: they live in peace. And so Paul ends crying out: who will free me…? Thanks be to God.

• 8.1 After having shown at length the limitations of a religious law, a reality in every religion that stresses the observance of practices, Paul speaks of life in the spirit: for that is, first of all, Christian life. It would seem that what follows is a long theological discussion: and Paul is arguing the way he learned in the rabbinical schools. In fact, if we look closely, it is not the development of a thesis: all comes from the spiritual experience of Paul.

When a Christian believes he has received the Spirit of God, it is not merely because he has been told that confirmation gave him the Spirit. If in Christian life there is a characteristic experience it is that of the Spirit of God working in us. Of course we should always shun the temptation to want to experience through our senses the things of God instead of believing in his word: nevertheless there is a Christian experience. See commentary on Acts 21:5.

Paul, for his part, knows what life is when permanently directed by the Spirit: he has evaded the situation of the sinner divided between his conscience and his bad habits and found unity in his availability to God. He will boldly speak of total transformation for those who believe in Christ, even if later he had to recognize that this transformation is more in the process than in the accomplishment.

God sent his own Son (v. 3). Would he have sent him only to speak to us, to give us his laws, to give us great examples of divine love? The salvation that God gives us is quite different. Look at what happens when someone wants to help the marginalized: in vain do we assist them materially; they will not become responsible unless they themselves face their own problems. God knew that. It is not he who pities sinners and says: “How sad! So irresponsible! I will dress them up in white and forget their sins, so they may look holy and be seated at my side.” God does not want to disguise reality, but to create humankind anew. So one of the human race must personally defeat Sin (that is, the power of death that keeps humankind paralyzed and divided).

He sent him… in the likeness (v. 3). In the likeness: Jesus carries on his shoulders the sins of others, but he did not commit any sin (Heb 2:14 and 4:15). Since the sacrifice of Christ the power of his Spirit has made believers capable of being victorious over the forces of death.

Through love and forgiveness God created a new world without rancor or desire of revenge or hidden remorse of conscience. We are at peace with him; we are at peace with each other.

• 5. The human life of Christ prepared the way for the communication of the Spirit to those who were to be adopted in order, later on, to be made divine, that is, transformed in God. First comes Christ, then the Spirit. This is why Paul reminded us first of the saving work of Christ (chaps. 5 and 6); now he tells us about the Spirit.

Those walking according to the flesh. What flesh signifies has been discussed in part in the commentary on 7:14. Without doubt, Paul has in mind the inner conflicts that each of us experience, and flesh refers to a human reality that weighs upon us. Nature can never be regarded in its pure state; the human nature of people of this twentieth century, with their instincts and desires, their images, the things that appear impossible to do away with, is mostly dependent on our education and culture. The tension we experience between flesh and spirit is partly the tension between our culture—the present liberal culture with its unbridled search for pleasure and the latest craze—and the spirit of Christ that seeks only the service of the Father. In such a context, the “resurgence” of sexual freedom among certain groups, which call themselves Christian, should not surprise us. They always speak of rights as if a Christian should have other rights before the Father of whom he should be a servant as Jesus had been and renounce himself.

In verse 5, we read, tend towards what is flesh. The Greek verb refers to what one keeps in his heart, his ambitions and plans. The same word appears in verse 7 which we translate as seeks. This refers to what our nature instinctively desires and what we plan whenever we conform to the ambitions of our contemporaries. Flesh tends towards death… flesh seeks against God: this may come as a shocking statement for us who live in a world estranged from faith, but where many good things happen nevertheless. We simply say that the Spirit of God works even in places where people do not know him by name. Yet there is no life as long as people do not call in question the ready-made ideas. To please God, it will always be necessary to be among the marginalized, as Abraham was, that is, to run counter against the flesh.

Those walking according to the Spirit (v. 5). Should we write according to the Spirit or according to the spirit? In biblical culture spirit is both God’s and ours. The spirit is what God gives to humans; it is also their ready acceptance of God’s action. In this paragraph we should sometimes use spirit, our spirit visited by God, at other times it would be necessary to say spirit, God’s way of working in us; again at other times Spirit is God-who-communicates.

What Paul writes here is not a theory of what should take place in us, but what comes directly from his experience. The Spirit that has been given to him habitually possesses but a part of him, that is, his spirit. The rest, what he calls the flesh (it should be termed: the living reality, the basis of his psychology), continues to be what it was. Perhaps it can unwind more freely now that Paul is not always trying to repress it and subject it to the Law as he attempted to do before (7:15-25). Actually, it cannot be subjected; it can only desire rest and nourishment, dreams of sex and well-being.

Paul then is present as from the outside to these desires of the flesh, but he is firmly filled with the spirit. His spirit is now under the influence of the Spirit and knows the joy of letting himself be carried along. Paul then continues to see and feel contradiction within himself (2 Cor 12:7), but it is no longer a bruising test of strength: he is taking part in a victory of the Spirit.

Paul does not forget that others are less advanced than he is and still have to painfully conquer their liberty. He does not tell them that the flesh is evil, but that we must put to death the works of the flesh (v. 13): what we call mortification.

The Spirit that makes you sons and daughters (v. 15). The Greek text could be: “Spirit of adoption” but also “spirit of sons having all the rights of their father” (like in Gal 4:5). In no way does Paul want to emphasize the difference we often make by saying: “Jesus is the only Son, and we, adopted children”. Speaking like that, we place a barrier, slight though it be, between God and us, and the Gospel does not so desire, from the moment we have known the Father.

Those led by the Spirit tend towards what comes from the Spirit. Then we begin to freely desire a new way of living in imitation of Christ. The desires of the Spirit animate our life. We experience them as an interior call, a security and a joy.

In following the desires of the Spirit we really feel free; this life, however, is demanding. Each day we have to go a little further in putting to death the body’s deeds (v. 13), that is, everything that paralyzes us and makes us cling to this world. Put to death: we call it “mortification.”

The Spirit assures our spirit that we are sons and daughters of God (v. 16). Whoever lives in the spirit lives in the light. While we remain firm in the teaching of Christ and share in the life of the Church, the Spirit gives us internal knowledge and joy in the things of God. The Spirit guides us and inspires us each day showing us how to please God.

• 18. The description of “living in the Spirit” continues. The believer who looks around notices that not only his community, but also the whole world is being transformed.

The glory that will be revealed and given to us. Though the Spirit dwells in our innermost being, we expect the transformation of our whole being. Now, though we have the peace of Christ, temptations and sufferings prevent us from enjoying glory and being fully free. With the transformation of our whole being (Paul calls it the body: v. 23) we shall reach the glorious freedom of the children of God.

It is impossible to consider the human being apart from this world in which we live. Are there elsewhere in the Universe other intellectual beings? The Bible does not speak of it: it merely tells us that all creation is guided by the same mystery of death and resurrection which marks our destiny and which the Son of God has taken on himself.

Who has subjected it (v. 20)?: Is it God or humans? The result is hardly different. Paul shows us that sin has destroyed the order of nature. Some texts in the Old Testament show us nature standing for God against human crimes (Jer 14; Jn 3:7 and 4:11; Wis 5:17-20). It is certain that humanity has developed with aggressiveness and violence; hence the domination of women by men and the bellicose masculine spirit. Hence a science driven by the will to conquer nature: was not Adam’s sin the will to take by force knowledge and happiness?

The Bible notices that the progress of society usually involves exploitation and servitude. Scientific discovery has been used to destroy millions of lives and the progress of the liberal world keeps more people marginalized living in misery than there are living at ease.

Modern science has justly shown that the people are the summit towards which the whole current of life tends. We must not forget that we are brothers/sisters to and in solidarity with all that has life. The Bible does not invite us to dream of a nature brought back to the state of an earthly paradise, to be enjoyed by a few rich people. It does not demand that animals be treated as persons with rights. True love respects the order of creation and the “love of animals” is not a substitute for true and responsible love that knows how to accept and commune with free persons.

The whole of nature has been entrusted to Adam: he must bring it back to God, using it in such a way that he himself becomes an offering to God (Rom 12:1 and 15:7). That is the meaning of the sacrifice of animals in the Old Testament. The growing concern about human responsibilities towards creation opens our eyes to an aspect of sin, but also obliges us to ask where our history is taking us.

Creation groans and suffers the pangs of birth (v. 22). We see in the world more contradictions and tensions than peaceful progress: in fact this earth is not our permanent residence. On the contrary it is a place of sorrow, and dark faith prepares us for what we await from God: we wait for our full status of sons and daughters. Nature cannot but participate with us at this birth (v. 22) of which the passion of Jesus is the sign. It will share in the “liberty and glory of the children of God”: it would be difficult to think that resurrected persons will not have a place in a spiritualized and transfigured world.

• 26. We do not know how to pray. We often think that we pray only when we are saying something and asking for things. Paul shows that words are not as important as the deep desire of the Spirit of God within us.

The Spirit intercedes for us. It is good to present our problems and worries to God, using words that the Spirit inspires. And still better when the Spirit invites us to remain in silent prayer and God communicates his peace to us.

• 28. In the last pages Paul has described God’s action in us through his Spirit. In fact, the providence of the Father covers all the events of our lives. Nothing happens in the world, in our family, in our lives merely by chance or because it was so destined.

Those whom he knew beforehand. Paul stresses the Father’s personal attention for each one of us. God knows us in Christ from the beginning of the world: children known before they are born, but also destined for a unique place in creation!

He calls them. Whatever be the way we come to know Christ, it is a personal call of God who gives us the opportunity to believe.

He made them just and upright. God put us in order, in an order pleasing to him. That goes far beyond an ordering on a moral level for those who needed it—and besides such an ordering does not guarantee that we always keep to the right path. More deeply something has been achieved in us, something has been sown in the world: we are the bearers of innumerable orderings from which a new conscience will originate and appear in humanity, during our lifetime or centuries later.

Those whom he knew beforehand (v. 20). On reading this verse some have thought that we are not really free, and that those elected by God are saved automatically. In fact, we do not read that some are elected for salvation, others not. Paul only says that they are elected to know Christ, which is not the same as salvation.

The kingdom of God extends much farther than the Church. The great majority of humankind do not know Christ and the Gospel. Yet God knows how to lead and save them, for the sacrifice of Christ saves all humankind. Paul is addressing believers and reminds them that to believe in Christ is a great personal grace; let them not be discouraged.

See also commentary on 9:14.

Who shall be against us? Paul is thinking of the evil surrounding us that frequently drags us down. He is thinking of the Day of Judgment when the accuser, the Spirit of Evil, could face us with the faults we have committed. He thinks of our troubled conscience that often brings us remorse. None of these will be stronger than the love and forgiveness of Christ. The believer should not be alarmed at his repeated faults or doubt the love of God, but try to live according to the truth.

• 9.1 Paul, being a Jew, shares the worries of the few Jews who have believed in Christ. Why did the chosen people not recognize their Savior? If they were a chosen nation, why were so few selected?

It is the same worry of Catholic families when their children do not go to church or when teenagers declare they have lost their faith. It is the same uneasiness we feel in the course of a mission: those who habitually go to church are perhaps the hardest to lead to conversion and are the ones that most obstruct the evangelization of outsiders.

Faith is not transmitted in heritage from father to son, mother to daughter. There have certainly been times and cultural systems where a whole nation followed the same religion and apparently shared the same faith. The Book of the Acts shows how on several occasions the conversion of the head of the family brought about the baptism of the whole household (Acts 11:14; 16:33). Faith however will always be a grace of God. In our days people have acquired complete autonomy and live in a world where all beliefs meet: faith can no longer be a family possession.

• 14. In this paragraph, Paul already anticipates the objection: “If God calls whomever he wishes, will our act of faith really be free?” (v. 19). This is and will always be a mystery. Paul does not intend to explain this, but asserts that God grants to whomever he wishes the grace of coming to Christ (see John 6:44). The experience of his conversion in which God took his freedom by force, as he does with the great prophets, brings him to use very strong words which seem to negate our freedom, especially in v. 22 which can be translated more strongly as: “if God endured with patience vessels prepared to be broken.”

We have two observations on this:

Paul uses Old Testament texts in which God speaks of saving or destroying the people of Israel (v. 27), of loving Israel, giving it good land, and of giving poor land to the people of Esau or Edom (v. 13), of making Pharaoh more stubborn to bring him to defeat (v. 17). All these are problems of collective failures or salvation, at the level of history, which Paul employs to clarify a historical fact: a great majority of the Jewish people did not recognize Christ. It would be very risky to draw from these conclusions about the responsibility of those who believe and those who do not. We will fall into a still greater confusion if we would apply this text, as others have done, to individual salvation, and discuss about those who will go to heaven and those who will be condemned. It is clear that this question has nothing to do with the argument of Paul: to know God is a grace which God gives to whomever he wills, but he surely gives other graces that other people be saved without knowing Christ.

Then we take note that all speakers, including Paul, say at times words that are somewhat excessive which will be clarified later by showing other aspects of the same reality. We ought to see other words of Scripture to re-establish the balance. If God calls us to a relationship of love and faithfulness with him (Hos 2:21), it is precisely because we are free and responsible (Sir 15:14). If God has destined someone for hell, how could he call him and demand that he live a holy life? It would be the cruelest of jokes.

PREDESTINATION

We must not confuse two different ideas of predestination.

For Paul, predestination refers to the loving plan of God from the very beginning. It was then that God decided how to lavish on each of us the riches of his love through his Son. See commentary on Ephesians 1:5.

It was not the same for the people of the sixteenth century, like Luther, Calvin and many Catholic theologians with them. They thought that God created man without worrying about his possible sin or providing for the coming of Christ. As a result of Adam’s sin, the Justice of God condemned all his descendants to hell. Then the Mercy of God decided to save some of them by sending Jesus. This predestination after the sin would mean that no one could escape this blessing or this curse of God.

Paul, speaking of predestination, only praised God for his overflowing love. They, instead, were obsessed by concern for their own salvation, thinking of a whimsical God who perhaps had destined them to hell. Luther escaped from this obsession by stressing the merciful Jesus more than a frightening God.

In that same despairing century our Lord Jesus made several apparitions asking people to honor his Sacred Heart, so reminding us that he was only love for us. It is not “Jesus” only who is a loving God. The Father who predestines us is love just as his Son is love.

Speaking of predestination, we say:

– God, who is not controlled by time, has no before or after. He sees and determines at the same time the beginning and the end for each of us. No life fails because of the negligence or bad faith of God (Rom 8:28; James 1:13). No one can prevent his saving plans (Rom 8:37).

– Our salvation is a gift of God. No one can believe and please God unless he has been called (Rom 11:5; Phil 2:13). No one is to be proud of his merits or demand a reward (Eph 2:9; Phil 3:9).

– God is the one who works everything in us, as long as we open ourselves to his action. Those who refuse to be receptive are responsible for their own condemnation. The Church therefore speaks of “predestination” to express this saving work; but she has never spoken of predestination with regard to hell. Compare Matthew 25:34, the kingdom prepared for you, with 25:41, the fire reserved for the Devil.

Only a few will be saved (v. 27). Jews, who  have believed in Christ, instead of complaining, should give thanks to God for having called them. God saves the world by means of small groups and, even in the Church, not many people take the Gospel seriously: because this is also a grace of God.

Now Paul explains why the Jews lost the purpose of the Law (v. 31). They wanted to become holy relying on their own efforts. In this, some Christians today resemble them. They feel quite sure of their actions and are content with their lives. This presumption prevents them from seeing themselves as sinners.

They try to achieve their own perfection (v. 3). Many Christians likewise would like to come to God with hands full when, in fact, Christ invites us just to receive. In this way we receive the sacraments, not because we are worthy, but by extending our open hands like beggars.

• 10.1 Paul continues to develop the same theme of Israel’s unbelief using the Jewish method of discussion of the time. He distinguishes in the Bible various lines of thought. Apparently a great number of Old Testament texts only speak of fidelity in keeping the commandments but other texts make more of the gratuity of God’s gift. This once more makes clear that there is not “one” religion of the Bible: it is not enough to read any text and take it literally (which is called “fundamentalism”). The Bible gives us a series of testimonies where we recognize a path and a pedagogy from God. Throughout the centuries and in different cultures, Jewish and then Greek, he leads his people to the fullness of truth.

We have, perhaps, become used to a “progressive” view of history, rather as if all had to develop or “radiate” from what exists. Yet Jesus has shown that times succeed one another but are not alike. If there is progress, and in a sense that is evident, it happens through upheavals and changes of perspectives.

Even in the Church there have been turning points in the course of this century. We must surely abandon the idea of a Church that, starting from western Christianity would by means of missions gradually extend to the rest of the world. Paul points out a different perspective: the current of grace could desert zones it had previously enriched to make other lands fruitful. He affirms that it is not caprice on God’s part; for him it is a matter of bringing the whole of humanity to maturity and he alone knows the way. We note at the same time how he defends the privileged role of the Jewish people. The same could be said of our ancient Christian bastions: their role, much less prominent, surely remains decisive, in as much as a remnant still remains faithful.

THE DESTINY OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE

• 11.1 The two paragraphs 11-24 and 25-32 speak of the destiny of the Jewish people. As Jesus had announced, the Jews were dispersed throughout the world, becoming a nation without territory, united only through its Law, its traditions and the certitude of it being God’s chosen people.

In times that still ignored the respect of those of other religions, a great number of Jews formed minority groups in Christian countries. It is a fact that people convinced of being the faithful of the one and only God quite naturally become insupportable to others (Esther 9). The Jews then have suffered from Christian fanaticism equal to their own. Christians did not see that their faith condemned religious fanaticism. They thought Israel was being punished for the crime of its ancestors in condemning Jesus: they saw in the tragedy of Israel, as in the survival, a sign from God.

In the course of this century Christians have become conscious of the non-violent character of the Gospel and that their vocation is to be a minority in the world: this has been a big step forward. It is time then to re-evaluate the role of the Jewish people, another minority given a place in history by God. They have not ceased being active in the world, often in saying what we ourselves should have said and did not and do not say. It seems that God willed this emulation between Jews and Christians, as Paul understands it. He clearly affirms that at the end of the world Israel would be reconciled with Christ and that Jews and Christians would recognize that their separate histories are one.

• 12.1 Paul here begins the second part of his letter: as in his other letters, he will try to be more practical here than in the first part.

Give yourselves as a living and holy sacrifice pleasing to God. It is not only Sunday that belongs to God—even if the weekly Eucharist is essential to Christian life. It is not only specific duties that we are to accomplish. God wants all that springs from our person.

Don’t let yourselves be shaped by the world where you live. We are invaded by propaganda, fashion, and songs without considering the weight of our cherished past. All that is the world: it encloses us in its logic and its would-be necessities. Yet we should be free for our heart to be only for God! We however become accustomed to what everyone does and still more to the sweet slavery of money. Without being aggressive or pessimistic the Christian will always challenge the world.

Inner renewal must transform you. Before adopting a rule of life, you must first have its spirit. You do not imitate St. Francis by wearing a habit: you must first be shattered by the love of the poor Christ. Christian renewal springs from new criteria, from a new vision of existence, of the modern world and of our liberty. Baptism that makes new Christians of us, initiates a renewal of our spirit enlightened by God. See Eph 4:3.

You will know what God wants. Following the best rules is not enough; we must constantly force ourselves to discover, meditate and understand the will of God in all the events of our life.

Take for example our body. See 1 Cor 12. We all form one body and we cannot give up our responsibility. Where Christians are very much in a minority, they usually depend a lot on the community that takes much of their time: this is the case Paul has in mind. He stresses that each one has his specific function in the Church: we are far from religious practice where the mass has mostly “listeners” who are silent.

• 4. From the way he speaks about Christian community, Paul lets us know that in his time it was not organized as in our churches today. In the early Church not everything depended upon priests educated apart from the common people and sent to the Christian communities from outside. As we said in Acts 14:23, the community elected a council of elders or presbyters, approved by the apostles. The most respected among them were the “prophets.” The body of presbyters, who had authority over the Church, were those who celebrated the Eucharist.

Everybody’s gifts were taken into account by the organization, which considered also as gift the ability to serve in the Church. See Ephesians 4:11 and commentaries on 1 Timothy 4:14.

Throughout history the Church has had to change its organization and constantly adjust itself to new social structures and cultural development.

Give with an open hand. Paul passes from the good discharge of ministries to the ministry of love for others.

• 9. Verses 9-13 presents a program of Christian life. Rather than the commandments concerning external acts, Paul stresses internal attitudes and dispositions.

Do not return evil for evil (v. 17). A demanding commandment of forgiveness so often formulated by Jesus. It is a false wisdom that would advise us to return evil for evil, mean behavior for mean behavior, a tooth for a tooth… It is also false wisdom (v. 16) to strive to be noticed by adopting customs of a higher social class, or to dream of a life without material problems, or to regard more highly moneyed people, the powerful or good speakers.

• 13.1 In the world where Paul lived, many people sought in religion an evasion from their family tasks and social duties (see 2 Thes 3:6-12). Paul stresses the “mystical” aspect of Christian life, but does not want such an evasion, so opposed to all his biblical formation. He will therefore insist on civil obedience in the context of a society far removed from our democracies of today.

This text of Paul has been distorted in the past by authoritarian governments, who after imposing their law by violence, expected to be obeyed as if they were the legitimate servants of God and the public good. It is still distorted today in many places—supposed colonies of imperialist countries; central power sees to the sending of preachers who will invite Christians to be silent in the face of injustice and economic plunder, using this paragraph to support their message. It is quite true that in a sense public servants are “God’s agents.” But do we not also find in the Bible that the devil gives power to those that serve him (Lk 4:5-7; Rev 13:1-9; Jn 12:31 and 14:30)?

Paul and his readers lived in a world where hardly anyone doubted the legitimacy of Roman authority. And as neither the common good nor peace can exist without authority and obedience, Paul declares that obedience to established authority comes from God. When he speaks of those who resist authority he has in mind those who try to impose their own interests or the interest of the group. What he does not accept is an anti-social attitude, a point that will arise in 1 P 2:12 and Tit 3:1 when authority begins to mistrust Christians.

No one may use these words to condemn those who resist for reason of conscience. In any case, it is only to God that a Christian submits his conscience. When the authorities demand something that is against truth and justice, he resists with the means his conscience reveals to him, ready to suffer punishment provided by human laws, and even to give his life. The great majority of the martyrs the Church honors today were condemned in their time as subversive persons and enemies of social order.

They are the stewards of God for your good (v. 4). We have to ask, then, if authority promotes goodness. When the laws favor only a minority, or allow corruption, or are oppressive to the poor, they are not at the service of God: let us remember Isaiah 5:8; 10:1-3; Amos 5:7-12.

The believer recognizes but one Lord: he will not accept that certain magnates become real “lords” capable of eliminating those who oppose their absolute power.

Jesus, for his part, refused to take part in politics (Mk 12:13-17), but he did not speak against those who wished to participate. He was free enough to denounce authority and to break the most sacred laws when they became oppressive.

During the past century the Church has reminded us very often that no authority can deprive a human being of his rights, and that everyone should be careful to elect authorities who serve the common good. In these matters, let us hear the doctrine of the Church: Gaudium et Spes 73-76.

• 11. You know what hour it is. This is the time to awake. Paul was just recalling the duties of a Christian in this world and he already turns to the opposite direction: beware of settling down in this world. The Christian is always awaiting the coming of Christ.

During the first thirty years of the Church, all waited for the imminent return of Jesus. When it became clear to them that history was being extended, they began thinking more of each one’s last end: it was then that they would meet Christ. In the present century we have come to realize that history is going towards an end and that we not only have to be ready for the last hour, but that we must also work for the evangelization of the world. The Gospel is the power that, directly or indirectly, brings all human history to maturity; by living holy and responsible lives we hasten the coming of the kingdom of God (2 P 3:11-12).

• 14.1 Were the people in Paul’s audience really different from us? Reminding them of great truths, were they capable of smoothing the blocks that make community life so difficult?

Welcome those weak in faith. The Christians of Rome were mainly recruited among foreigners. Jews or Greeks came from different cultures and religions and had not wholly rejected their ancient customs. If the Jews wanted special meat, the vegetarians for their part would only complicate the problem. If the Jews had their Sabbath, others had their days of “fasting” and days of ill omen. In the beginning people were courteous towards one another; but then with time and pride, they did not fail to provoke a neighbor “in a spirit of faith.”

Paul reminds us of what Jesus had taught (Mk 7:19): there is no food or drink that is forbidden. Paul rejects, however, the disputes about all these things. Do not criticize their scruples. Whoever has overcome common prejudices must respect the conscience of others. Each must sacrifice his own comfort for the well-being of others when this is required. We find similar difficulties when Christians of different backgrounds, races or political groups have to live together. It is an opportunity for them to show respect for one another.

Whatever we do against our conscience is sinful (v. 23): an important affirmation of the liberty of conscience. Perhaps it is often forgotten; but St. Thomas Aquinas himself reminds us that no law or religious authority should be followed against our conscience. It is, therefore, a grave responsibility to acquire good criteria through readings, conversations, reading the Bible, knowing that the Spirit is at work in all the life of the Church.

• 15.14 Here we see how gentle Paul was. He has the authority of an apostle of Christ and is able to solve the problems of the Church of Rome. Yet, he takes great care not to create divisions or rivalries, and he shows respect for the founders and leaders of the Roman community.

As a priest of Christ (v. 16). This term must not be interpreted as meaning what we understand by the Church’s priests. The first Christians did not use the word priest to designate their ministers, in order not to confuse them with the Jewish or pagan ministers who offered victims to God. Here, however, Paul compares himself to them. He does not present burnt offerings to God, but instead, he presents the pagans and reconciles them to God. This is the new and spiritual worship (12:1) that the apostles offer to God.

Still today there is danger of forgetting the difficult and often misinterpreted work of reconciling persons who have become both liberated and aware of their human worth. Only those who dedicate themselves to this evangelization can rightly celebrate the Eucharist.

• 22. The trip to Spain would mean going farther than Rome, center of the known world. This gives us an idea of how zealous Paul was in creating new communities in all parts of the world, without waiting for the newly founded ones to attain perfection. Today the mission is not beyond Rome or overseas: every Christian community should investigate beyond the frontiers of a “nice” area where a person feels at home. Then, perhaps, millions of others would be discovered who live at close range but nevertheless are “far way.”

I am going to Jerusalem to help that community. The attempt of the Jerusalem community to have common ownership of all their possessions had failed (Acts 2:44). So Paul organizes a collection for them in all the Greek communities, hoping this caring assistance would strengthen the links between Christians of Greek origin and Jewish Christians. It is often difficult to avoid tensions in the Church between groups of different cultures or classes. Quite often, it is even difficult to dialogue. Then the service of love will make hearts agree where minds cannot come to an understanding.

• 16.17 Brothers and sisters, I beg of you to be careful. There is no letter of Paul without this warning against divisions and against those who preach a “different Gospel.” The doctrine of the Church is the doctrine of the apostles, the witnesses of Jesus. There is a hierarchy, that is, a legally constituted authority, and Paul demands obedience in matters of faith.

The last sentence is a prayer of thanksgiving to God. It is similar to another prayer, more developed, with which he begins the letter to the Ephesians.

Introduction to the Letters of Paul

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 11:09:11 +0000

From the beginning the churches took care to preserve the letters they received from the Apostles, since in them they had authoritative witnesses to the faith. It was more difficult then than it is today to gather these documents, and even save the perishable material of papyrus from dampness.

Before long, there was an initial collection of the first seven epistles arranged in the order of decreasing length: the four “great” letters to the Romans, to the Corinthians and to the Galatians, and “the letters from captivity”. Others came to be added: first, those to the Thessalonians which are actually the oldest; and then those that were passed on under the patronage of Paul: the letters to Timothy and Titus which were written some twenty or thirty years later, and the beautiful letter to the Hebrews, written most likely under the influence of Paul but by an unknown author. A phrase from the “second letter of Peter” (not written by himself but about fifty years after his death) is evidence that from this time the letters of Paul were counted among the inspired Writings (2 P 3:15-16).

Paul saw himself as “the apostle to the pagan nations”, seeing there his personal vocation beside Peter (to whom God had confided the charge of evangelizing the Jewish world) not only in Palestine, but also throughout the Roman Empire, wherever they were established. Paul received this mission from Jesus himself at the time of his conversion (Acts 22:21; Gal 2:7); so highly fundamental was it in the divine project of the mission and extension of the Church that it remained unfinished at the time of his death. The spirit of Paul, one of the great manifestations of the spirit of Jesus, is always at work in our midst through his letters.

Commentaries on Acts

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 11:04:18 +0000

Commentaries on Acts

INTRODUCTION

During the three years of public life, Jesus set down the foundations of the Church: he gathered his first disciples and associated them with his mission (Mk 3:13-16). He put Peter in charge of the community (Mt 16:18) and made him the guardian of the faith (Lk 22:31) within the new People of God. He made the twelve apostles and the disciples a community of witnesses (Jn 15:16) and promised them the gift of the Spirit who would help them come to know the fullness of the Light which Jesus came to bring into the world (Jn 16:13).

Now, the Lord is risen, and from the pierced side of Jesus, a new people, a new world is born, like the child coming to life in the blood and water flowing from its mother’s womb (Jn 19:34). This gospel community, enlightened by the word of Jesus, enlivened by his Spirit, sets out to announce God’s marvelous deeds to the ends of the earth and to gather together in unity, the scattered children of God (Jn 11:52).

Two great giants stand out in this evangelization: Peter and Paul. Peter will devote himself in particular to the evangelization of the Jews, while Paul will become the apostle to the Gentiles (Gal 2:7-8).

Luke, the author of the third gospel, writes about this nascent Church in the book of the Acts of the Apostles, which was probably first called Acts of Apostles. If, as in the case of the gospels, earlier accounts of the Acts existed which Luke would have drawn upon to write his text, the harmony achieved in editing these various texts is indeed remarkable since it is very difficult to identify these different texts today.

Certain scholars believe that at the outset the Acts of the Apostles and the third gospel were one and the same text that was only divided up later. One point is certain, however: by the beginning of the second century, the Acts of the Apostles were already a separate text. However, the testimony concerning the beginnings of the Church has come down to us in two different forms: the “current text,” coinciding with the majority of ancient manuscripts of Syrian and Egyptian origin, and the said “Western text,” which is longer and where the disputes between the Jews and the first Christians are more in evidence.

The Book of the Acts does not follow a rigorous outline. One can, however, pick out some clear-cut divisions in the text which allow us to glimpse Luke’s project. Without focusing exclusively on Peter and Paul, Luke devoted the greater part of his work to them. In spite of many exceptions, Peter dominates the first twelve chapters, while Paul dominates the second part of the book.

From the geographical point of view, one can notice that the Acts bring us from Jerusalem, through Judea and Samaria, to Rome, thus following the mission to which Jesus appointed his apostles on ascension day (Acts 1:8). In the first seven chapters we are in Jerusalem, then in chapter 8 and those following, we see – of course, with some exceptions – the Church taking root in Judea, in Samaria and along the coastal plain; from chapter 13 onwards, we accompany Paul to Asia Minor and to Greece and finally, in chapter 28, to Rome, to the Palace of the Emperor, that is to say, to the heart of the pagan world.

There, the Book of the Acts ends abruptly, as if Luke, like the runner whose job is to accompany the Good News of salvation as it is spreading out from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth, has achieved his goal and thus fulfilled his contract. This in itself is sufficient to remind us that the Acts, no more than the gospels, do not pretend to be a biography of Peter and Paul, or a detailed history of the early Church, but a testimony to the work of the Holy Spirit.

Indeed, the Holy Spirit is the veritable actor in the birth of the Church: this is the reason why many commentators, ever since the first Christian centuries, have not hesitated to call this book “The Gospel of the Holy Spirit.” With only slight modification we could use here the words of John in Jn 20:3: “The Spirit has accomplished many other signs which have not been written of in this book. These have been recorded so that you may believe that the Spirit is at work in the Church of Jesus Christ.”

Luke’s intention in the Acts is to highlight, in particular through the diverse preaching of Peter and Paul, how the mystery of Christ and of the Church has been announced and prepared for in the Old Testament, but also how this double mystery – Christ and the Church – fulfills the Old Testament.

In this perspective, Luke readily highlights the parallels between Jesus and his Church, and also between the people of the Old Testament and the Church: by way of example, let us mention the parallels between the death of Stephen and that of Christ, between the journey to Jerusalem of Paul and that of Christ, but also the opposition between the Tower of Babel and Pentecost.

Continuing in this same line of inquiry, Jerusalem constantly flows from the pen of Luke, (58 times). As he has done in his gospel, where the Holy City is mentioned 30 times, Luke points to Jerusalem as the place where salvation is accomplished and from where the Good News is to be taken to all nations.

• 1.1 Throughout the Book of the Acts, the apostles affirm that they are “witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus” (2:32; 3:15; 5:32; 10:41; 13:31…). This testimony is not based on vague sentiments or doubtful visions, but on the “proofs” that Jesus gave to his apostles after his resurrection and which are echoed in the gospels.

The reference to the forty days is important. Inspired by the number of weeks – forty – which the child spends in its mother’s womb, the symbolic number forty indicates both the time of trial or growth and that of maturity: it is the time of waiting for new life. During forty days in the desert, Jesus prepared himself for his mission of Savior; during forty days the apostles will prepare themselves for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and for their mission of witness. It is in Jerusalem that the apostles will receive the baptism in the Spirit that will make them into new people. The Spirit that hovered over the waters (Gen 1:2) during the first days of creation, will descend upon them and inaugurate the new dispensation. The Church of which they will be the “pillars” will be first and above all the work of the Holy Spirit. It is in the Spirit that the apostles will find the strength to be witnesses of the Risen One in the very midst of the world.

You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, even to the ends of the earth. Luke outlines here the geographic framework of the Book of Acts (see Introduction to the Acts of the Apostles). At the same time, he demonstrates how the dynamic of the Old Testament is reversed with the death and resurrection of Jesus.

From the first pages of the Book of Genesis, we know that the sky and the earth belong to God: he is their Creator and all belongs to him.

Later with the call of Abraham and the journey of Moses, we discover that in this universe there is one country which is particularly blessed by God, it is the Land of Promise; when David settles in Jerusalem, this city becomes the city of David, and at the same time, the city of God. From then on the Psalmist can say: “God preferred Jerusalem to all the towns of Jacob” (Ps 87:2) and in this Holy City, it is on the Temple Mount that God has prepared his dwelling (1 K 8:29). Thus gradually, according as God walks side by side with his people, lighting up the way with his Word, all eyes become fixed on Jerusalem and on the Temple.

Now, it is when people have destroyed the true Temple (Jn 2:19), the humanity of the Son by nailing him to the cross, that God brings forth life from death, and from then on, a new dynamic will burst forth from Jerusalem towards the other countries of the Promised Land (Judea and Samaria), and from the Promised Land to the ends of the earth. Each of the gospels in their own way, finishes with the sending of the disciples. Similarly, from the first pages of the Acts, Jesus reminds his Church of the demands of mission: when the Church, or even when the smallest community ceases to be missionary, she is no longer the Church of Christ.

After Jesus said this, he was taken up before their eyes (v. 9). Jesus multiplied the “proofs” of his resurrection for those whose vocation would be to become witnesses of the risen Christ (v. 3), but now he must let the disciples know the significance of the resurrection. In this final apparition on the day of his ascension, Jesus revealed to them the meaning of his own story: having come from the Father, he returns to the Father but he does not return alone, he brings with him a “captive people” (Eph 4:8) whom he snatches from the power of darkness in order to bring them into his Kingdom of Light (Col 1:13), he goes to prepare a place for us, so that where he is, we may be too (Jn 14:2-3).

For the moment, the disciples are still in this world, where they must bear witness to the new reality of the kingdom of God inaugurated by Jesus: a Kingdom which is not like the earthly kingdoms founded on power and money (Lk 22:25-26), but a Kingdom of love, of justice, of peace. This Kingdom is not to be found in the clouds, it is already in our midst (Lk 17:20-21) and it grows each time we let ourselves be guided by the Spirit of God.

• 12. The apostles cannot begin such a difficult mission before they have received the Holy Spirit. They have done everything that depended on them and now can only put themselves in the hands of God and wait perseveringly in prayer for the time he has fixed.

As John has done in giving us the word of Jesus to his mother, present at the foot of the cross (Jn 19:26-27), Luke here reveals to us the spiritual maternity of Mary. She is there sharing in the longing of the apostles, she is the New Eve, the new mother of all the living (Gen 3:20).

Mary, mother of Jesus, played a decisive role during those days when the apostles tried to reflect together on all they had seen and learned from Jesus, in order to clarify the message they had to give to the world. Mary, only witness of the annunciation and of the private life of Jesus, helped them perceive the mystery of his divine personality.

Luke does not speak about this: from now on Mary keeps herself in the background. Different from those “brothers of Jesus” who long for power in the Church, she is but a praying presence. From that moment the Church has a hierarchy but all those called to receive the Spirit are full members of this community or communion.

• 15. Peter is acting here as head of the primitive Church. The death of Judas has left a vacancy in the “college of apostles” whose twelve members bring to mind the twelve sons of Jacob. Just as the Israel of old never accepted being deprived of one or many of its tribes, so too, Peter, will not permit the group of the Twelve to have one of its members amputated.

Peter will find a way to allow God to make known his choice. We may be surprised today that such an important decision could have been made by casting lots. Is this not a sort of washing one’s hands of the decision-making process? We must not forget that this episode is happening in a community whose religious culture welcomes signs from God. They know the qualities they would want to see in the candidates and two are eligible. Now the question is which one to choose? They pray to God to make his decision known and promise to accept the outcome. This election process, in the spirit of prayer and of abandonment to God, is it not finally as good as certain election processes, not excluding those used by the cardinals in conclave, where the real challenges to the Church have often been compromised by the dishonest voting of interested parties?

It is good to focus in this passage on the conditions which Peter laid down: To have followed Jesus from John’s baptism until the day when he was taken from us.” The Good News begins with the preaching of John and culminates with the ascension (Acts 13:14-31). In this way Mark’s is the typical gospel, Matthew and Luke have both added an introduction, the infancy narratives, while John makes use of a prologue to act as a kind of preface. For each of the evangelists, it is the resurrection accounts that dominate their gospels and give them meaning.

Like on so many occasions in the Old Testament (Jacob, Samuel, David…) God again chooses the second and possibly even the more simple person: let us examine the “calling card” of the first: Joseph named Barsabbas, also known as Justus while it is Matthias, without any other name or nickname, who is chosen by God.

• 2.1 Pentecost was one of the greatest feasts of the Jewish calendar. Originally an agricultural feast, in the latter centuries of the Old Testament it became the celebration of the giving of the Law to Moses on Mt. Sinai. For this occasion, like for the Passover, many Jews from the countries around the Mediterranean came on pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

It was during the Jewish Passover, which commemorated the liberation from slavery in Egypt, that Jesus, by his own death and resurrection, offered the world freedom from death and sin; it is on the day when the gift of the Law on Sinai is celebrated, the day when God made his covenant with the chosen people, that God now gives his Spirit to the “Israel of God” (Gal 6:16).

That very day the baptism of fire announced by John (Lk 3:16) takes place. God sends the Spirit of his Son and, with this, the Church is born. For the Church is not a human institution, or the work of a group of believers; it comes from God’s initiative, and God wills that individuals of every nation witness this event.

What happened at Pentecost was as unique as what was accomplished by the resurrection. Nevertheless it follows the pattern of other interventions of God in history. On one hand, the Spirit constantly brings about our apostolic renewals, religious awakenings, and dynamic communities that become the new blood of the Church, which constantly grows old and constantly needs renewal.

The Spirit comes to give life to the Church. It also comes to confirm or affirm the believers. The baptism of fire that the apostles receive is normally conferred on us through confirmation (see commentary on 8:9).

The rushing wind is a sign, because spirit means both breath and wind in the Hebrew culture. Inspired by the Spirit, Peter speaks up. He now knows the truth and believes, and this is why he can boldly proclaim it (Jn 15:26 and 16:13).

Each one heard them speaking in his own language. The repetition of this expression on three occasions (verses 6, 8, 11) is an indication to us that here is a key for understanding this passage. The miracle of Pentecost is not really in the fact that the apostles, all of Palestinian origin, began to speak in foreign languages, but in the fact that all the foreigners heard the proclamation of God’s wonderful deeds in their own language: that is the miracle of Pentecost. Many other New Testament texts refer to the “gift of tongues” (Acts 10:46; 19:6; 1 Cor 12; 14:2-19) but here in the Pentecostal text God outlines the basis of all evangelization: those who are called to have faith in Jesus, to become members of the Church, are not required to renounce their language and their culture, as the Jewish proselytes of old were expected to. On the contrary, God wishes to be praised and blessed by people of all languages and cultures: in this way the diversity of the members in the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:12-13) will be clearly visible for all to see, likewise the gathering together through Jesus and his Spirit of God’s scattered children will also be visible (Jn 11:52).

Throughout her history, the Church has tended to forget the miracle of Pentecost when she imposed her language and her culture while evangelizing new peoples. Throughout her history, the Holy Spirit has also warned the Church against such temptations in the persons of apostles who live by the spirit of Pentecost.

• 14. This is the first proclamation of Jesus’ resurrection. Peter, once again, aware of his responsibility in the group of the Twelve, speaks on behalf of all. He cites the texts of the Old Testament: Joel, the Psalms, etc. and demonstrates their fulfillment in Jesus and in the nascent Church.

I will pour out my Spirit. The Father sends the Spirit of Jesus to all people; he makes of all people his prophets, his witnesses.

I will perform miracles in the sky… Peter continues quoting the prophet Joel who announces the day of Yahweh, that is to say, in the Old Testament, the day of God’s judgement. According to Joel it appears that the people of Israel alone will escape punishment; but Peter expands the text and affirms (v. 39), at the end of his speech, that the salvation which comes from God is promised to all, to those who are near and to those who are afar, to all those represented here by the foreigners of diverse nationality.

God raised him to life. Peter recalls how Jesus showed many signs of love during his public life: in spite of that, or more precisely, because of that, he was delivered into the hands of pagans: how mysterious it is that people reject God’s love. More than 700 years before the coming of Jesus, the prophet Hosea was already familiar with this rejection of God’s love (Hos 11:1-4) and Jesus, himself, announces it in the parable of the murderous vineyard tenants (Mt 21:33-39). However, God, whose love is more powerful than our sins (Rom 5:20), raised him from the dead and made him the source of salvation for all (vv. 33 and 36).

Repent. Peter uses these words of Jesus at the beginning of his speech (Mt 4:17) – the Church is beginning to fall into the steps of Jesus – now it is no longer a question of receiving the baptism of John the Baptist, which was only a ritual of purification, highlighting the desire to repent. We must receive baptism “in the Name of Jesus.”

What shall we do?… Repent. In those days, to repent and to be converted meant to share the life of the infant Church which showed to the nation the way of salvation taught by Jesus. The Church did not appear as a new religion opposed to Judaism, but as a center of more authentic life.

Save yourselves from this crooked generation (v. 40). This means that the entire generation was missing the unique opportunity they were given. For God asked them to take the most decisive step in Sacred History; even Roman oppression could be overcome by a people able to put the Gospel into practice. At the same time Jesus made them discover the love of God the Father for which the whole Bible had prepared them.

Some three thousand were added to their number (v. 41). They already knew of Jesus, but were not committed to him. They were converted by the common action of the Holy Spirit and the apostles. A church in which signs of the Spirit acting could not be seen could not say that Jesus lives in her midst.

• 42. Those who have been baptized feel strongly united by the new faith and long for a communal life. As they gather in private houses and the communities are not too big, they can know each other and share everything.

Luke tells us what they did and we must note the order of priorities:

–    first the teaching of the apostles

–    then comes Christian fellowship, with more attention to the weak (chap. 4)

–    only then may the breaking of bread, that is, the Eucharist, be celebrated

–    finally common prayers of thanksgiving to prolong the Eucharist.

In some communities today life is lacking because the first point, which is the basis for all the rest, is not given priority.

The Spirit of Jesus comes to us through the Word and the Eucharist: these are the sources of the Church’s dynamism. By the word, we do not mean the study of the Bible merely to know the Bible. The Bible helps us realize how God continues to speak to us through the actual achievements of our life, the community and the world.

The expression breaking of the bread could mean any Jewish meal that began with a blessing. But very early the Christians reserved this word for reference to the Eucharist that they celebrated remembering the last supper of the Lord (Acts 20:7; 1Cor 10:16).

Joy and simplicity of heart gave witness to the change in their lives and the authenticity of their fraternal sharing. They were deeply reconciled persons.

It was not the naive joy that is easily found in Christian groups who have no thought for the problems of the world. Neither they nor their enemies could ignore that Jesus had taken on the problems of national reconciliation. They were enjoying the favor of the people who considered them to be concerned and responsible persons.

• 3.1 We might sometimes think that Jesus cured all the sick. This is not true, since he did not heal this cripple who was in the Temple every day. This new sign brings about another proclamation.

Why are you amazed at this? The miracle was done in the Name of Jesus, that is, by the Power over every creature that Jesus received from the Father at the time of his resurrection. Jesus was in their midst as the servant of the Lord (Is 42:1; 52:13), but speaking of his Name was a way of stating his divinity (Mk 16:17; Phil 2:9).

I know that you acted out of ignorance. Yet Peter demands that they admit their guilt. All of us must confess a similar guilt in the injustices and crimes of our times.

He must remain in heaven (v. 21). The coming of Jesus inaugurated the “last days” in which the Gospel reconciles humanity with God, and changes human consciousness thus speeding up the course of history which, in the end, forces humankind to solve their problems together. Humanity is on its way to the coming of Christ and the restoration of the world, namely, the Resurrection.

He sends him to bless (v. 26). This blessing comes to those who accept reconciliation with God upon seeing the love he revealed to us in Jesus. The blessing is not for us alone, rather, through us – the people of God – it reaches all the families of the earth.

• 4.1 The Jewish leaders judge Peter and John. The Holy Spirit judges the leaders of the Jews.

These leaders believe they possess the truth because they are learned and have authority. It is impossible for them to back down before ordinary men who refute their statements. Meanwhile Peter points out how strange it is to be arrested for having healed a sick man (v. 8).

These leaders were Sadducees and they did not believe in the resurrection of the dead: Acts 23:6.

This text suggests that all of us can be the witnesses of Christ and of the truth, if we are determined to be involved. Oftentimes, because we only rely on our own strength instead of counting on the Spirit of Christ, we remain silent before our co-workers or our leaders.

What we have seen and heard (v. 20). It is John speaking: see 1 John 1:1.

• 23. We can meditate on the way this church gathering develops: an event (the arrest) is shared by all. For them this confrontation with the authorities is something new. They connect what happened with the Word of God. In this case they refer to Psalm 2; then they begin common prayer and ask for courage to continue to do God’s works.

• 32. Here we might understand that this sharing had become a rule in the early Church. In fact, if we pay attention to 4:36 and 5:4 it becomes clear that everyone admired what some of them did.

Jesus did not ask for this; yet they were doing it, inspired by the desire of every true believer to remove all divisions between brothers and sisters, especially those created by money. Placing everything in common, however, requires not only a spirit of detachment, but also a sense of responsibility and organization. The believers in Jerusalem lived at a time when work and foresight were not very important, and they soon consumed what they had, without being concerned about working, and eventually became the “poor of Jerusalem.” Paul was to organize collections in other churches in order to assist them (Gal 2:10; Rom 15:25; 2 Cor 8).

• 5.1 As children many of us were taught about the wonders God did in the past, as if God only acted in those days. The Jews of that time thought exactly the same way. The Bible spoke of the time of Moses when those who rebelled against God’s prophet were killed by divine intervention (Num 12:1; 16:1; 17:16). God continues to work in the Christian community, and the ordinary believers of Jerusalem suddenly discover that Peter, the fisherman, is not inferior to Moses. See also Acts 13:11; 1 Cor 11:30.

The couple’s sin does not consist in having kept part of their goods. Nobody was forcing them to sell their property and to give the money to the community. They wanted to deceive the apostles and give the impression they were donating everything, when in fact they were not.

We must be very careful when we speak of God’s punishment. For a Christian, the only punishment is to be forever separated from God. Death itself does not mean that God wants to punish us. Yet the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira served as a warning and a sign for the others.

Here the word church appears. Its exact meaning is “the assembly gathered by God,” and before Jesus’ time, the Jews used it to mean the new people that God was going to form in the messianic age. The believers continue to be proud of being Jewish, of being the people of God; nevertheless, little by little, the Holy Spirit separates them from the official community. They are already aware that they are the new people (Ps 22:32) gathered by God. The Church still means only the Christian community of Jerusalem. As other communities arise – other churches – “the Church” will refer to the entire people of God.

• 12. So an ever-increasing number of men and women, believed in the Lord (v. 14). All the Jews believed in God who spoke through the prophets. It was easy for them to believe in the prophets of the past after the religious authorities acknowledged them and placed their warnings in all the books of the Bible. But it was quite a different thing to recognize Jesus as the prophet that God had sent them but whom they had rejected. The text states that to believe in the Lord and join the community are two inseparable steps. A person cannot belong to Jesus without belonging to the new people he has brought to life through water and the Spirit.

Verses 15-16 do not hesitate to compare Peter to Jesus.

• 17. Could this confrontation of the apostles with the rulers of the people be similar to what happens today in many countries when the Church denounces violations of human rights?

There are many Christians who say: it is not the same, since the apostles in their time were persecuted for proclaiming Jesus; whereas now, only Christians involved in politics are punished.

This, however, is not true. In Jesus’ day, the Jewish people were both dominated and divided. Jesus spoke as a totally free man, teaching a way towards freedom, which today we would call non-violent action. The authorities did away with him to defend the security of their nation (Jn 11:48) and their own political system. For the disciples of Jesus, to be converted meant to acknowledge complicity with those who put Jesus to death and to take the path indicated by him. Since they were living among oppressors and resentful people, this was a very dangerous road (Lk 21:12-16).

In fact, when the priests judged Peter and John, they only demanded that they break away from this man (Jesus) whom they had legally condemned.

Proclaiming Jesus means preaching universal reconciliation (Eph 2:14), which is achieved at all levels of human life, including the economic and political. The Church would not be following Christ, nor would it be proclaiming Jesus as the only Savior (5:31), if it refused to be concerned that entire nations are condemned to die slowly through lack of food, education, and health. This critical concern, however, would not be Christian preaching if it did not convince us to believe in the saving plan of God.

• 33. Gamaliel was one of the most renowned among the masters of the Law. Here we see the open mind of this old Jewish teacher who knows that God’s ways are not always the ways of humans.

If their project or activity is of human origin (v. 38). Jesus had said something similar (Mt 15:13). Yet that does not seem evident. Are we not aware of many false doctrines that last? If they have lasted for centuries, perhaps it is due to the fact that in spite of the error and the evil they sow, they contain useful or necessary principles for a given time, or for certain human groups. Perhaps they make very important statements that the Church should proclaim but cannot or does not want to do. Experience shows that the majority of humans are not ready to embrace the Christian faith: must God abandon them because of that? Can we, who have Christ, say with certitude that such and such a one is not “the prophet.” Maybe God’s will is that he be the prophet of a certain group and help them in their searching for God (Acts 17:27).

Gamaliel was Paul’s teacher in Jerusalem for doubtless three or four years, a little after these events (Acts 22:3). Paul’s conversion will be providentially prepared through contact with this open and sincere man, and equally so through the death of Stephen (7:54-60).

• 6.1 We must not think that Jesus indicated in every detail how the apostles were to organize the Church. A conflict took place between two social groups. It seems that these Hellenists followed the Essene party, who did not accept the legitimacy of the High Priests and who refrained from participating in the Temple rituals. The clash of ideas between “Hebrews” and “Hellenists” causes mutual mistrust so that it became necessary to give some autonomy to the Hellenists. Since the apostles identified more readily with the Hebrews, the others would have their own ministers for certain functions.

The community chooses seven men and the apostles give them a share in their authority, because any mission has its roots in Christ through the apostles.

The candidates must be filled with faith and the Holy Spirit, because they are not only entrusted with material services. And even if it were only for material services the Church would have much to suffer from competent administrators who lacked the Spirit of the Gospel. Were these seven men the first deacons? Luke mentions nothing beyond service, and “deacon” denotes servant, usually steward. In fact, this term, “deacons,” will from the start give the meaning of every ministry in the Church: ministry means “service” (1 Cor 12:15). Ministers are at the service of the community assembled by the Spirit to witness to the salvation given by Jesus. All through the centuries, the ministers of the Church would be tempted to misuse the role entrusted to them for the good of the community. Many will take advantage of their “service” to put themselves over the community: they will let others serve and honor them and will not hesitate to be called princes of the Church. What is true for those called to a high rank in the hierarchy is equally true for all those priests or lay people entrusted with lesser responsibilities: all must remember the words of Jesus (Lk 22: 24-27).

• 8. Philip will be mentioned in Acts 8:5 and 21:8. Stephen is the only one remembered here.

Being a Hellenist (see previous paragraph), Stephen did not share the blind faith of the Jewish people in their Temple and its rituals. He understood that the Church had to become free from the patterns of the past and move away from the Jews, if they refused to believe.

Stephen’s long discourse before the Sanhedrin (the Great Council) is an outstanding summary of the Old Testament. It emphasizes the increasing initiatives of God who calls, gives, promises, corrects and saves. Confronting this untiring love is the permanent rebellion of Israel who despises God and rejects those he sends. The prophet Hosea, eight centuries before Christ, already expressed the drama of the rejected love of God by his people (Hos 11:1-4). Stephen proclaims it again: this drama reached its culmination when Jesus, the Son-of-God-made-man, was nailed to the cross (Acts 2:23; 3:15; 4:10).

Stephen dies as Christ did. He becomes the first martyr (martyr means witness). He is a witness to Christ because he proclaims him, but even more so because he does as Christ did, he forgives his murderers.

Like Peter after Pentecost, Stephen still hopes for a conversion of the Jewish people: a minority at least will be converted. This hope will fade in time with the persecutions raised against the Church. The murder of Stephen would be the first sign leading the converted Jews to understand that apostolic work must be undertaken beyond the frontiers of the Jewish fortress.

Later, when it becomes clear that the Jewish community has rejected the Gospel, Paul will strive to build among pagan nations a network of communities, a new people of God. Then Paul and the other apostles will search for all those who, in any nation, have been predestined by God. They see the Church as a people of “saints.”

However, it again appears that many in the Church are not converted. As soon as the community grows and organizes itself, all the defects Jesus denounced in the Jewish Synagogue take place among the Christians and in the structures of the Church.

You always resist the Holy Spirit. This was and remains true in the Church that enjoys the assistance of the Spirit. The people of God always tend to take on the criteria and aims of any human group. Peace with those in political power, security for the future, unity and strength for the Christian organizations are more attractive than the words of the Gospel: sell all your belongings, preach on the rooftops, go to the poor, do not be called “father.”

The only way to escape from this return to “the Synagogue” is to do what the first Christians did after Stephen’s death: leave our beloved nest for the mission of proclaiming the whole Gospel.

• 8.1 The death of Stephen leads to a resurrection. Instead of Stephen, the Church will have a new apostle in Saul who, after his conversion, will become “St Paul.” So God heard the prayer of Stephen for his murderers.

The illegal execution of Stephen unleashes the persecution against the Hellenist Christians. The apostles and others in the Hebrew group were not persecuted, because they were considered loyal to the Jewish religion and traditions.

Concerning Saul’s attitude, see what he himself will say later in Galatians 1:13.

• 4. The persecuted Christians proclaim their faith and start Christian communities in Samaria.

Evangelization brings happiness: God reveals himself, and through his Spirit he heals bodies and hearts. God becomes present. What a marvelous and moving thing! Joy, rather than fear and sectarianism, will always surround authentic Christians.

• 9. Who is the most important person in this passage? Simon? No: it is the Holy Spirit.

Philip is one of the seven. He baptizes but he cannot communicate the gifts of the Spirit.

Baptism and the laying on of hands are the two stages of Christian initiation; they refer to two different aspects of life in the church. Baptism is the renewal of the individual through faith. While, the laying on of hands expresses the transmission of the Spirit in an uninterrupted way, beginning with those who received it at Pentecost.

This laying of hands (which has become confirmation in today’s Church) was then usually followed by these manifestations we read of in the Acts (19:6) and in Paul (1 Cor 12 and 14). The spectacular aspect of these gifts is often what impresses us most; they were part of a global experience that is still given in one way or another to those who have surrendered to the Spirit.

Simon, a magician, quack or hypnotist, gave Peter the opportunity to condemn a false understanding of spiritual gifts. Simon thought the apostles were more powerful magicians than he was, and wanted to buy the power of working certain miracles. Peter gives us to understand that looking for miracles is clearly not the way to prepare for receiving the Spirit. In any case, such things are not bought.

The manifestations of the Spirit are not always like the ones mentioned in Acts (see Acts 19:6 and 1 Cor 12). This is because God adapts his gifts to the needs of the Church.

Communities of simple, poor people are those that receive more gifts of healing for the sick. Because they lack normal resources, God becomes present. Prayer groups receive the gift of tongues, which is one of the gifts that strengthen piety. The gift of prophecy manifests itself in various ways according to context. Where faith leans heavily on the certainty of divine justice and the fear of God, we see predictions and revelations of the secrets of the heart. Whereas, among those with a more rational and intellectual bent, the prophet is often characterized by the gift of speaking with assurance and the ability to stress a point in such a way that the community or individuals recognize the voice of God.

The Spirit continues to be at work in many believers who, perhaps, neither speak in tongues nor work healings, but act under the inspiration of the Spirit. They produce the ‘fruits of the Spirit’ (Gal 5:22-24) and are thus authentic witnesses of Jesus.

Baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus (v. 16). See the note on 19:5 on that subject.

• 26. Note how the Holy Spirit leads Philip towards a man who was neither a Jew nor a Samaritan, the first person of another race to receive the Gospel.

The Ethiopian who is baptized is simply a man who ‘fears the Lord.’ This is the way they referred to people of other races who were attracted to the religion of the Jews and to faith in the one God. Without following all the Jewish customs, they read the Bible and liked to take part in the Jewish ceremonies.

The conversation with Philip begins on the basis of a text from Isaiah 53:7. This poem, called Servant of the Lord, speaks of a just man unjustly condemned who, through his sufferings, atones for the sins of all humankind. In this text the apostles saw one of the passages which best prefigured Christ: see commentary on Mark 14:24 and 1 Peter 2:24-25. Isaiah’s poem concludes with a veiled reference to the resurrection of the “Servant of the Lord.” It is marvelous to see how Philip can give a testimony of the Resurrection with such conviction that the Ethiopian believes in him.

• 9.1 This is a decisive event in the beginning of the Church. Christ comes in person to win over the fiercest persecutor of the Christians.

The conversion of Saul, who will become Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, is also found in Acts 22 and 26.

It would be wrong to present Paul as an evil man who finally finds the right path. As shown in Acts 22:3-4; Gal 1:14 and Phil 3:4-11, Paul from his youth felt the need to dedicate himself to the service of God. This is why he went to Jerusalem to study the Law, that is, religion, with the best teachers of his day. His interest in the things of God made him uninterested in looking for a wife: he did not marry. To this young man, dependable and responsible, the Jews entrusted the difficult task of eliminating from their communities the new and suspicious doctrine of the Christians. Paul is in charge of the repression of Christ’s followers and he does this in a very harsh way, for the good of his religion.

Why do you persecute me? (v. 4) Who is this Lord who calls me a persecutor, when my only ambition is to serve God? Until that time Paul felt good, like the Pharisee of the parable (Lk 18:9), and thanked God for having made him a responsible, dependable and active believer. Now, faced with the light of Christ, he discovers that his merits and services are of no use to God; his faith is mainly human fanaticism; his self-assurance as a believer is disguised pride. Paul sees himself as a sinner, violent and rebellious; but at the same time, he understands that God has welcomed him, chosen him and forgiven him: this man is my chosen instrument (v. 15).

Paul is no longer the Pharisee of the parable; rather he has put himself in the place of the publican. “My God, have mercy on me, a sinner!” This is the characteristic conversion of a militant Christian. However active we may be, we will be unable to present ourselves as witnesses to Christ, if we do not admit to being forgiven sinners. This is why there is such Christian concern for universal reconciliation.

From then on, Saul (who will take the name Paul) will be a chosen instrument of Christ to spread the Church to other countries. Until then the Church, which was led by and made up of Jews, did not go beyond the Jewish people. Paul was a Jew too, but had been educated outside his country. He enjoyed the culture of the Greeks as much as that of his own race. Because of that and because of his exceptional personality, he was to be the apostle to the Greeks.

The Church must constantly renew itself, and is renewed through the conversion of adults. Christian communities, even when they want to be open to people who do not participate in community affairs (for example, workers, or at times, young people), are usually unable to be really open. Thus the Lord calls some people from different walks of life that, once they have received the faith of the Church, will be able to evangelize those of their own milieu and to preserve their freedom with regard to traditional groups.

In crucial times in history, Christ called new men and women whom his Church needed: Francis of Assisi and, closer to us, John XXIII.

The Way: this is what Christianity was called; the word expressed the fact that it is not only a matter of religious teachings, but rather a new way of life enlightened by hope.

• 19. For three years Paul preaches his faith and relates his own experience in the province of Damascus, also called Arabia (see Gal 1:17 and 2 Cor 11:32).

Paul is already going his own way. He does not separate from the Church, as his journey to Jerusalem shows, since he goes there to meet the apostles. Yet he preserves his independence as he waits for the promptings of the Spirit.

• 32. Peter appears in his role of “inspector” of the churches (the word bishop means inspector).

It is said here that he visits the saints. In the years prior to Christ, the word “saints,” namely, those consecrated to God, was used especially to designate the new people of God since the coming of the Messiah (see Dn 7:27). Christians are the new people of God since they are the Church (see 5:11); they are also the saints.

The raising of Tabitha is similar to what Jesus did. It is an echo of the Resurrection of Christ, as the raising of Lazarus (Jn 11) or the widow’s son had been (Lk 7:11).

God wished to grant these signs to strengthen faith in Jesus’ resurrection. Besides the people who had been witnesses of his Resurrection, it was necessary that, in various places, the communities could see for themselves that God “raises the dead” (see Heb 11:19). Similar resurrections have been seen in the Church even in this century.

• 10.1 This is a new intervention of the Holy Spirit so that the Church would go beyond the Jewish world and the Gospel would reach other people. Cornelius (like the Ethiopian of 8:27) is a God-fearing man, that is to say, a foreigner who believes in the one God of the Jews, without being a member of the Jewish community.

The heavens were opened to him (v. 11). He may have seen a tent coming down – an image of God’s dwelling place in the world – which contained creatures considered unclean.

The Jewish religion included a whole series of prohibitions for believers. It distinguished between clean animals, namely those that could be eaten, and unclean ones that could not. The same regulations applied to people; Jews could not mix with non-Jews. Thus Peter’s vision, in which he is invited to eat unclean animals, means that he must not hesitate to go and stay in the house of Cornelius the Roman.

We do not know if Peter would have hesitated to baptize a non-Jew (and uncircumcised) as Cornelius was. The manifestation of the Holy Spirit forced his hand.

At last someone of another race is baptized! In many places today as well, the Church is in danger of being reduced to a closed social group, and, perhaps, of becoming antiquated. Popes and bishops invite us to go forward and to dialogue with all people. Yet it would seem that only the intervention of an angel could convince us to go to other people.

He sent his people (v. 36). Peter presents Jesus. Jesus’ life was that of an authentic prophet, who comes to continue the work of previous prophets, spokespersons of God’s word. But, in Jesus, God was offering the good news of peace, that is, God was reconciling humankind with himself, once and for all. We are easily reminded of one of Paul’s central points: see Rom 5:1-11; 2 Cor 5:11-21 and Eph 2:14-16.

Judge of the living and the dead (v. 42). This expression comes from religious concepts of the time, making a distinction between the judgment of those who would witness Christ’s return at the end of the world (the living) and those who had died before (the dead). See the same in 1 Thes 4:17.

One receives forgiveness through his Name. Through his Name, that is to say, through his own power and effectiveness. This confirms Jesus’ divine authority.

• 11.1 That Peter went to baptize a non-Jew seems to us the most normal thing. Let us not forget that the Christians of Jerusalem remained Jews, with their education, their prejudices and their sensibility. They did not see how a person could be part of Jesus’ family without first belonging to the people of God who, for them, identified itself with the Jewish nation. Could someone become their brother without first being circumcised? The warning they gave Peter is the first witness of the constant pressure that Christians have always brought to bear on their priests and bishops throughout history. Everytime that someone would like to open our Church to people of another culture, a powerful group will only be willing to accept those who consent to lose their own identity and be Christians in the way we ourselves are. These believers in Jerusalem are not acting in bad faith and they accept Peter’s explanations. Like him, what courage the leaders of the Church will need to respond to the calls of the Holy Spirit when faced with the prejudices of a group!

• 19. Antioch, 500 kilometers north of Jerusalem, was the principal town of the Roman province of Syria, a pagan country, where Greek was spoken but where there was an important Jewish community. Luke does not tell us who presented the Christian faith to the pagans for the first time, nor how that happened. The Christians of Jewish origin that did it would deserve a statue, or better still a feast in our liturgy. So there is at Antioch for the first time a community where Jews and non-Jews are assembled: the future of the Church was there. The Jerusalem community is the Rome of the primitive Church. It is conscious of its authority and immediately asks to examine more closely this extraordinary new happening: a Church where Jews accept to rub shoulders with the uncircumcised.

The Jerusalem community behaved as having authority over the new churches; the case of Antioch would touch everyone since, for the Palestinian Jews, accepting pagans was something of a scandal. Did not the Law of Moses forbid living with “uncircumcised” people?

• 27. There is mention of prophets. Among the gifts that the Holy Spirit granted to converts, the gift of “prophecy” was one of the most outstanding. On various occasions the “prophet” would receive from God an insight into future events of the community, or something concerning one of its members. They would also give homilies “in the Spirit.” Everyone would recognize the hand of God in the conviction and wisdom with which they spoke, discovering a word relevant to the present in a biblical passage.

The first gesture of fraternal assistance among Christians of different countries is underlined. In this paragraph the elders or “presbyters” (it is the same word) are mentioned. The leaders of the Christian community were so called, following the Jewish custom.

• 12.1 This second persecution reaches the entire Christian community of Jerusalem (see 8:1). James (the greater) was one of the pillars of the church together with Peter and John (Gal 2:9).

Peter’s second release (see the first in 5:19) brings out the powerful intercession of the Church on behalf of its leader, and also the will of Christ to keep his church beyond reach of the power of evil (see Mt 16:18).

Report this to James (v. 17). This James is the “brother of the Lord”: he was already accepted as responsible for the church in Jerusalem.

• 13.1 This is the beginning of Paul’s missions; for the time being he is sent as Barnabas’ assistant.

It is very difficult to know how the Church organized itself in the beginning. It did not have the same kind of hierarchy with three orders that we have now: bishops, presbyters (or priests) and deacons: this started only at the end of the first century. The Churches of Jerusalem and Antioch were certainly not directed as those in small towns. Most of the time, the communities chose their elders among the most trusted men. They had to be recognized or installed either by the apostles or some other superior authority and accepted by the neighboring communities. Their ministry as leaders included baptism, the celebration of the Eucharist and the anointing of the sick. This institution of the Elders (see 14:23 and 11:30) copied exactly the organization of the Jewish communities.

However, wherever there were prophets accepted as such (this was the case in Antioch), they enjoyed greater authority, somewhat like the apostles (1 Cor 12:28 and Eph 2:20).

Paul and Barnabas are not considered apostles yet, but they are prophets. As for the teachers: they are those who have the ability to teach doctrine and morality based on Scripture, for the service of the community.

Luke gives the details of the beginning of this mission. It emerges from the initiative of the Holy Spirit, but responds to the life of fervor of the community of Antioch. Note also that the community agrees to have two of its five leaders leave, and that Saul and Barnabas are ready to face the risks of this adventure.

The laying on of hands invokes the grace of God upon these two missionaries.

• 4. This first mission begins in a very traditional way. Jews could travel throughout the Roman empire: in any important city they would find other Jews involved in trade and always gathered in communities, in “synagogues.” From Antioch, Barnabas and Saul travel by sea to the island of Cyprus, Barnabas’ homeland.

The meeting with Sergius Paulus has the value of a sign: the Gospel not only convinces simple people, but also authorities. Paul is aware that he must witness before “kings and rulers” (Lk 21:12). The prophetic gifts of Saul are seen when he meets Sergius Paulus. From then on, the Book of Acts will no longer speak of Saul but of Paul: had the governor authorized him to use his family name? For Paul, who was already a Roman citizen (16:37), it is a further step in becoming integrated into the world of the non-Jews.

Paul and his companions. Once the mission began, Paul becomes the obvious leader. They do not stay in Cyprus; they leave there groups of believers who have been hastily instructed.

When they arrive on the continent, at the inhospitable area of Perga, John Mark leaves them. Paul’s daring plans may have scared him. They go through the mountain range of modern Turkey and reach the heart of the province of Pisidia – Antioch (which must not be confused with the other Antioch).

Luke gives all the details of the events at Antioch in Pisidia, because they were typical of the situations Paul was going to face in various parts of the Roman empire.

Paul speaks at the Sabbath gathering in the “synagogue” (house of prayer of the Jews). The worship involves psalms and biblical readings (obviously, from the Old Testament). Then, one or several of the leaders make comments. Since Paul is a visitor, out of deference, they ask him to speak.

Paul’s discourse, this return to the history of Israel may seem to us to hold little interest, as was the case for Peter’s (chapter 2) and Stephen’s (chapter 7). But it was the Jewish way of preaching, and for all these emigrants, there was nothing more interesting than being reminded of this history that they knew by heart and which gave them their identity in the midst of other peoples. So Paul presents this history, highlighting a series of facts that gives it meaning and clearly leads to Christ. Paul shows that God’s promises to Israel have been fulfilled in the resurrection of Christ.

We have here a way of understanding the Gospel that we must not lose. We hold that the Jewish and later the Christian faith is “historical.” That means first of all that God has been revealed through history: our faith is not a doctrine developed by thinkers, nor has it sprung from legends. It also means that the resurrection of Jesus marks a new departure for all human history and that year-by-year history presses on towards an end where the sole issue will be Judgment and the Kingdom of God. We cannot simply preach a doctrine that is always true, we must show how the Gospel is a living power and how the Spirit of God is at work in events.

The audience reacts in various ways. Those who are listening are not all Jews; there are also those “who fear the Lord,” or “proselytes” whom we have already met in the Ethiopian (8:30) and Cornelius: these are considered second-class believers by the Jews.

From the first words, Paul greets them the same way he greets the Jews. Then, in his preaching, he does not emphasize the observance of the Law, which only the Jews could fulfill and which made them feel superior to others: instead, Paul declares that the Law is surpassed (v. 38). He stresses the promises of God addressed to all people. Those who “fear God” are delighted by a Gospel that makes them God’s children, just as the Jews are.

They all invite Paul to speak on the same theme the following Saturday. At that time Paul makes an important decision: Instead of restricting himself to the Jews during the week, he prefers to go to those who “fear God,” people whom he wins over because he is not racist in any way. These people, in turn, bring others to the gathering on the following Sabbath – pagans who had never been involved with the Jews but now mix with them.

Then a crisis occurs. The assembly divides into two factions. Those Jews who are most close-minded and proud are afraid when they see themselves surrounded by “unclean” pagans; they oppose Paul and even try to throw him out. Rich and pious women intervene. From that moment, a Christian community separate from the Jews is formed.

Is not all this factual? If we do not often have such crises in our own Church, it is perhaps because the apostles are few, as in Paul’s time and we have not yet had the visit of the one who will be heard beyond our walls.

All those destined for everlasting life (48). This expression does not condemn those who have not believed. It simply states that the coming to faith was a gift for those believers: God entered their life and made them bearers of a current of divine life that would transform the world (Jn 17:3).

• 14.1 What happened in Antioch in Pisidia happens here as well: Paul and Barnabas speak fearlessly. This is one of the characteristics of the genuine apostle, moved by the Holy Spirit. This self-assurance has a powerful influence on the conversion of the audience, but it is not a natural human gift. Paul will indicate that God gives it to preachers who place their trust in God, especially when they feel the weakest and the least prepared (see 1 Thes 2:2 and 2 Cor 12:10).

• 7. Once beyond the town of Iconium, where many citizens spoke Greek, there was nothing to help the missionaries, including the problem of language. There was also the weight of the traditional religion. It would seem to us at times that it should be easier to teach the faith in a place where everyone had a religion, and therefore a certain faith in God. This is not so. Having religion meant submitting to the totalitarian authority of customs and social traditions linked to this religion. People were enclosed in a system of interested relationships with their divinities where it was impossible even to imagine the reaction of a free person in relation to God. The non-believers in our modern societies have in fact been freed of many prejudices and confusions.

Paul saw that he had the faith to be saved. This man must have been still far from faith that recognized Jesus, Christ and Son of God, but it was the same faith of many of those Jesus healed in the Gospel. God does not call only theologians, even if they are needed in the Church; the others, the “little ones” should feel that they also are the very substance of the Church.

The crowd is astonished by the miracle, but it is clear they have not understood. They want to return thanks, as they always did, since God once more showed his mercy: Paul did not come for that. All happens as at Iconium and Antioch: the presence of Jews in every city of the Empire, the close communications between their communities made them formidable enemies for those who had the central authorities of Jerusalem against them. The Jews were to persecute the Christian communities and indispose the Roman authorities against them up to the Jewish War of 66-70 that brought about the ruin of their nation.

The difficulties of Lystra in fact helped Paul to define his objectives: he will no longer risk going to the provinces where it is difficult for him to speak and to be understood, and where he himself does not feel at home. From now on, he will evangelize the cities situated at the great crossroads, as well as the ports, and will leave to others the care of spreading the Gospel in the inner regions.

• 21. Derbe marks the end of the mission. Paul and Barnabas go back the same way they had come. They visit all the communities established on the continent. Then they will sail for Antioch without returning to the island of Cyprus.

In those days the Church did not have parishes, clergy, institutions, or books. The apostle had to organize the Church in such a way that it might continue. There was a book, the Jewish bible, namely, the Old Testament. The prophets inspired by God would draw new teachings from this book, by discovering a sign of Christ in the past. From time to time apostles or prophets coming from other churches would visit the community.

There will be gatherings around the celebration of the Lord’s Supper (see 1 Cor 11); besides the Eucharist, everyone will share with others their own spiritual gifts (see 1 Cor chapters 12–14). Just as the Jewish communities had leaders called “elders” or presbyters, Christians also lay their hands on leaders, “presbyters,” who will lead and preside over the Eucharist (see commentary on 13:1).

So we understand that a mission does not reach its goal if it does not succeed in forming adult communities, with their own leaders and with the active participation of their members.

• 15.1 We see the first internal conflict in the Church. Paul himself relates it in Gal 1:1-10.

Already for two or three centuries the migrant Jews in Greek-speaking lands had been attracting numerous pagans to their faith. These had, practically, to be integrated into the Jewish people since the Bible – the Old Testament – demanded without distinction, faith in the One God, circumcision, Jewish dress, respect for the alimentary taboos of the Jews…

A good number of Christians in Jerusalem did not see entry into the Church any differently. The Pharisees among them were more categorical in expressing their point of view (v. 5) while James did it with more nuance: pagans were saved by faith in Christ, but this remained linked to observance of the law. This signified that for these Christians, without being fully conscious of it, faith was integration with the people of God, but this people of God remained identified with Israel. Paul’s missions created a new element: communities formed in Greek countries with a majority of non-Jews and Paul laid down no condition for their baptism. For them the people of God was the Christian community. Would the Church be divided? Would Paul become the initiator of another “Christian” Church, more radical in its appreciation of salvation by faith alone in Christ? The meeting at Jerusalem was an effort of the whole Church to clarify its faith and safeguard its unity.

The manner of resolving the conflict clarified the communal aspect of the Church. The “elders” in charge of the mother-Church in Jerusalem met with the apostles who were the supreme authority in the Church. Simon Peter addresses them, referring to the experience he had in the case of Cornelius (chapter 11), and he opened the way to total freedom with regard to the Jewish religion.

• 13. The intervention of James, a firmly conservative leader of the Jerusalem Church, insisted on measures with the purpose of not scandalizing Christians of Jewish origin. Even if the law is not obligatory, Christians of pagan origins would be asked to abstain from certain things most repugnant to Jews: the problem of blood (black pudding!) and unbled meat first of all, and also marriages between relatives, and food used in pagan sacrifices.

• 22. If we re-read chapter 2 of Galatians, then Acts 21:25, we may think that Luke has combined here two events: the meeting at Jerusalem as well as a decision James took later for the Churches that depended directly on Jerusalem and where the Christians of Jewish origin formed the majority. That helps to understand the decree that follows.

The final decision of the “Council” of Jerusalem, as it is presented here, is doubtless the best the apostles and the Holy Spirit could do at the time. Let us frankly say that the settlement could only be provisional and lacked doctrinal justification. To impose Jewish laws was to penalize non-Jews; it was also a way of saying that the Church was unable to live according to the “newness” of the Gospel, free of the past, free of religious discipline. In fact, a few years later, there was no question of these laws since the Church had freed itself of the Jewish community, just as it had been rejected by the Jews.

The following expressions are to be noted: the apostles, the elders, and the whole community… it has seemed right to the Holy Spirit and to us: the decision of the community united to its apostles guarantees the presence of the Holy Spirit. On several occasions in history, similar debates have taken place, but then it was not a question of freeing the Gospel of the Old Testament laws; it was the laws and customs of the Church that had become the impossible burden to carry (v. 10) for a large human majority. Only when a debate is wide open, as was the one at Jerusalem, does it succeed in pointing out the obstacles and ecclesiastical taboos. As long as the central organisms stifle the liberty of expression, the mission weakens and encloses itself within a traditional clientele decreasing day by day.

• 36. This is the year 50. It has been thirteen years since Paul encountered Christ on the road to Damascus and now another stage of his life is starting. He acts as the leader in charge. The apostles and the Church in Jerusalem officially recognized the mission that Christ had given him on the day of his conversion: he will be the apostle to the pagan nations of the Roman world (Gal 2:7-9; Eph 3:8-9).

The sudden breakup between Paul and his friend Barnabas should not surprise us: faith does not destroy one’s personality. Time and thanksgiving tend to lessen conflicts. Some years later Paul, who is imprisoned, will be helped by Mark (Phil 24), and much later, imprisoned again, Paul will ask Mark to come and help him (2 Tim 4:11).

• 16.1 For Paul it is not enough to have established Elders in every community; he also wants to have assistants who are to visit and strengthen the existing communities and form new ones, as Paul himself does. Timothy becomes the first of these. The apostle takes into account the good testimony that believers give of Timothy. When it is a matter of looking for leaders for the Church, Paul will always demand that they have a good reputation (see 1 Tim 3:7 and Titus 1:6).

A detail shows us how Paul was able to give in. He does not want pagans to be circumcised: this ritual has no value for a Christian. Yet, since Timothy is Jewish, Paul circumcises him according to the Jewish rite, so that he will not have any problems with believers of Jewish origin, and so that they will be better able to minister among them.

Luke gives but a few details of a journey that probably lasted two years. Paul’s letters give us an idea of the unremitting work he undertook to form believers and their leaders: a mission is more than gathering people together and preaching to them; it has to arouse and convert those who will give life to the community – a life of its own and which will continue to develop.

On two occasions the Holy Spirit prevents Paul from carrying out his plan to develop the Church in the Roman province of Asia. The Spirit shows him he must go beyond, to Macedonia that was the first province of Europe. Thus God’s will that the Gospel be taken as soon as possible to Rome, the center of the empire, is carried out. Paul, who is so dynamic and enterprising, follows the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

• 9. Suddenly the text mentions we, that is to say, that Luke is beginning to relate his own involvement. We must conclude that in Troas, Paul and Silas met Luke, a doctor from Antioch who was waiting for them. He may have arrived by boat while the two missionaries were traveling inland.

• 16. From the beginning, the Gospel proves its freeing power that in a first time results in the imprisonment of the apostles. Paul frees a female fortune-teller. This gift is condemned in the Old Testament (the Bible seems to recognize that it is not necessarily a question of fraud). This fortune-telling appears to be linked to dark powers that deny the absolute over-ruling power of God regarding the destiny of his children (Col 2:15; 1 Cor 2:8): wanting to know the future is in fact always to doubt God. The master of this girl put forward an argument that was meant to impress the authorities in a society where customs were sacred – the same argument the Jews used and will use against Paul (and later many “Christian” societies will use it against true believers): these people introduce customs which are not lawful for us Romans to adopt and practice.

In Roman jails there was a main room and in the center of the pavement a grill closed the opening through which the most dangerous prisoners were thrown into an underground cell. They throw Paul and Silas there. They are perfectly free in spite of their chains. Though they have been beaten and are wounded, they feel like praising God. In the silence of the night, the jailers and the other prisoners listen to them.

God is also listening. How many similar episodes, wherever a witness of Christian freedom has been at the risk of one’s life and liberty!

We who take the time, and rightly so to prepare for baptism, might be surprised by this very swift baptism of a whole family. It could be said that it was a special case: let us stress also that all this happened in a very different world from our own.

Note also that Paul knows how to defend his rights (v. 37).

• 17.1 In this mission, we should note the case of Thessalonica, capital of Macedonia. The Christian community will begin with people of Greek origin, worshippers of God, whom Paul met in the synagogue, and with other Greek pagans. The few Jewish converts (v. 4) will probably become the pillars and the educators of the community. They had a lasting experience of God’s word and knew how to use the Bible. They sang the psalms, had some idea of a liturgy in the framework of a community, and had a better grasp of moral principles. Paul will always be careful not to let the Jews bring the converts back to a religion of commandments, but it was doubtless that among them he would, for a time, find the better prepared elements. Persecution prevents Paul from staying more than two months. How could a church formed under such conditions and consisting of pagans with little training survive? Yet it persevered: see the Letters to the Thessalonians.

• 16. Athens was the most famous city in the Greek world. Even after the loss of political control, Athens remained the cultural center of the Roman world. Paul goes there, as he always aims for large cities or ports, where news travels from one place to another and spreads through sea travel.

He is offered the chance of speaking before the philosophers and the authorities of Athens, and he accepts. For these intellectuals he formally states his message, but it is a flop. It might have been expected. Usually those who accept the faith are those whose life draws nearer to Christ. His audience was only interested in novelties; they were masters, and Paul had no title. Paul confronted the Christian faith with the other religions, showing that for all peoples it was time to begin a new worldwide age. A first part recalled the fact of religious plurality: it was only a first stage in God’s plan. Then came the Gospel: all humanity was to unite in order to prepare for God’s judgment. It was there without a doubt that Paul would have given his own witness, but they did not allow him to finish his discourse.

Different than what the Jews often did (see again Wisdom 11–15), Paul does not attack images and the honor given to them. Paul knows that in all religions, many people give images their due place and do not confuse these traditional images and rites with the true and only God, for they have a certain idea of him. Paul only wants to show that this God is far beyond the figures we attribute to him, and immediately affirms the unity of humankind in the plan of God. From one stock he created the whole human race. Let us not resume the outmoded discussions to know if Paul condemns or not the theories of human origin from different individuals. Paul affirms that the race is one in God’s plan: the first among them, the model, the elder brother is not the little prehistoric ancestor but Christ, Son of God.

He wanted them to seek God by themselves – and eventually to find him. An astonishing affirmation of a humanity to which God has not said everything and which has to advance by groping and making many mistakes. God has so willed it, even if dictators think to impose a truth. Here, Paul does not condemn philosophers without faith, or whose theories have many harmful aspects.

How many interesting perspectives! Are we to be satisfied in just condemning our world in crisis? Never has humanity known such an upheaval in its conditions of life, such challenges to face, such changes to accept in everyday life. It is normal for a person to be disoriented, to have to grope and make enormous errors: this is part of God’s plan. Very often the Church is unable to say what is the best choice: are not Christians the Church? And they are divided. God has not the habit of supplying prophets who would think and know for others. We can only reaffirm what is our faith: everything should end with judgment and the judgment will be made before Christ. Peoples are saved and condemned according to whether they accept or not this God who became one of us and one of those who serve.

Later, however, Paul points out that God prefers to overlook that time. Christ has come: starting with him, who is the head (Col 1:18), the dispersed children of God are going to be gathered in one body (Jn 11:52; Eph 1:10), and since he is the definitive truth, all must believe in the Gospel. God judges the world through Christ, that is to say, that people are saved or condemned depending on whether they accept or reject this God who appeared humble.

• 18.1 Corinth, the main port of Greece and capital of the province of Achaia with 600,000 inhabitants, of whom 400,000 are slaves, is a religious, commercial and cultural center. It has countless temples with thousands of prostitutes serving in them. The city is famous for its luxury and its corruption. Paul goes there and remains eighteen months – until the end of the year 52. This date is exact: history tells us that Gallio was governor of Achaia during the year 52.

Aquila and his wife, Priscilla, had just arrived in Corinth. They were perhaps already Christians, but Jewish Christians were not different from others before the decree of the emperor.

Aquila and Priscilla simply place themselves at Paul’s service to help him. They will assist him on other occasions with the natural availability of people who do not feel tied to any city or country.

A vision: there are not many in this book. Perhaps Paul was wondering whether it would not be better for him to retire for a time as he had already done and as Jesus had advised in case of persecution (Mt 10:23). The devil increases the opposition when someone sets foot on his field: in this center of corruption, grace would triumph.

The Jews brought him before the court. Here we have a new example of the problems Paul met in the great Roman centers. Different peoples co-exist and many conflicts are settled within communities according to their proper laws and customs. Gallio, the Roman governor, has no wish to be dragged into the jungle of traditions and disputes, especially with the Jews who enjoyed religious privileges within the Roman Empire.

The Jews are furious in seeing the success of Paul that relies on the Word of God, that is, on their own sacred books. They fear that the boldness of the Christians might stir a reaction from the pagans, in which case they, too, would be the victims.

They seized Sosthenes – and beat him. A sure bet would be that this Sosthenes, a Jew, is the one mentioned in 1 Cor 1:1. Even if he already acted as a prominent member of the Christian group, it is doubtful whether the Jews would have attacked him before the authorities: most probably it was a group of bystanders falling on a well-known Jew.

Paul had made a vow (v. 18). He shaved his head as it was said in Numbers 6:5. All that Paul had written to turn converted pagans away from the Jewish Law did not prevent him, a Jew, from feeling at ease with the traditional forms of Jewish piety. He knew that faith alone saves, but it was his wish to mark with a vow some secret agreement he had made with the Lord.

• 23. In this short paragraph Luke combines the end of the second journey and the beginning of the third.

Paul does not stay in Ephesus, the capital of the province of Asia. He is in a hurry to return, after two and a half years of mission. He goes up to Jerusalem and returns to Antioch, which is the first and the main among the churches in the pagan world. Paul goes there to rest after every journey. The life of this large community, with years of experience, and the contact with its apostles, helped him to see what the future of the Church would be.

When he leaves again, Paul visits the churches established on his second mission. This takes him several months, so he will only arrive at Ephesus in 54. Meanwhile a church had been established there.

• 24. During Paul’s absence, Aquila, Priscilla and others resumed the first contacts that he had established in the Jewish community. An important success: the integration of Apollos who will be one of the most valued missionaries (1 Cor 3:6; 4:6; 15:12). Apollos, we are told, knew something of The Way (v. 26). We have already met this term which denoted Christianity: not only a religion, nor only a faith or morale, but all that together and more. Apollos, like the twelve men mentioned in 19:1-7, had probably been in Palestine when Jesus was already known there. His teaching had not yet given rise to a movement nor made a stir equal to that resulting from John the Baptist’s preaching, which was followed by baptisms and commitments.

• 19.1 For three years, Paul wanted to evangelize Ephesus. Ephesus was one of the most beautiful and largest cities in the empire.

Luke wanted to relate the baptism of these twelve disciples of John the Baptist. As we have just said they knew something of Jesus’ teaching, but as for being his disciples, they lacked what was most important: they had not received the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit came down upon them (v. 6). See Acts 8:14-17. We must not forget that in the beginning, the Christian language was limited. We know that the Holy Spirit is much more than the manifestations that follow the laying on of hands. So we have such statements as: we have not heard that there is the Holy Spirit, while other texts state: that the Holy Spirit be received. The laying on of hands is meant to confirm the change worked at baptism through the experience of the gifts of the Spirit (1 Cor 12:7). Many Christians would be surprised today if they have never had this tangible experience of God. Let us not say that these gifts are no longer useful or that such things do not happen today. What is important, surely, is to believe and live one’s faith rather than to feel it. Such an experience, however, is often the shock that gives rise to a re-blossoming of our faith: it shows us that God is near, and he is master of our inner self. Perhaps our rationalist temperament and our Church life, mistrustful of all that is a personal expression, serves as a dampener of the gifts of the Spirit; perhaps it is rather the poverty of our commitment to Jesus.

They were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Are we to presume that in the beginning baptism was in the name of Jesus and not in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit? It is not certain.

In the name of signifies: by the power of; maybe the baptism in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit was called the baptism in the name of Jesus to distinguish it from the baptism of John and the baptisms of other religions. It is also possible that at the moment of receiving the water in the name of the Holy Trinity, the person baptized had to make a personal invocation in the Name of Jesus. Possibly also in early times, baptism was given “in the Name of Jesus” and later the Church modified the formula in order to distinguish itself from groups that believed in Jesus but without recognizing him as Son of God, born of the Father. There would be nothing to astonish us in such a change: the Church of the apostles had given the first formula; the same Church gave the second formula attributed to Jesus in Mt 28:19.

• 11. Many are the signs that Jesus promised for those who would believe (Mk 16:15-18). Similar things happen today when the Church becomes missionary again.

We are impressed by the cures. Perhaps the in-depth conversion of those who confess their magic practices and burn their precious books is more important. Apparently they did not do it at the time of their baptism but later, when they were more convinced of their faith.

• 21. The success of the Gospel was so great that it staggered idolatry. It appeared, however, alongside many other religions. The Roman world was full of religious restlessness, and from Asia in particular came many doctrines, cults and teachings that claimed to free people from death. The Gospel was different from all of them since, while those doctrines were merely theories, the apostles were proclaiming a fact: a Jew named Jesus has risen and we have seen him risen.

There is a chaotic disturbance. The group of idol-makers defend their interests. The Jews who lived quietly among the pagan population are worried, lest they be confused with the Christians, so they try to excuse themselves.

• 20.1 Paul remained two and a half years in Ephesus, and some details in his letters let us see that Luke’s account is very incomplete. The greater part of Paul’s activity is not mentioned, in particular the evangelization of the neighboring towns of Ephesus by a team of his assistants: see the Introduction to Ephesians. Paul had much to suffer, and was perhaps imprisoned (Introduction to the Philippians). It was at this time that he wrote his letter to the Galatians and the First Letter to the Corinthians.

Paul goes to Macedonia (where Thessalonica is located) and to Greece (where he spends some time in Corinth). There in Corinth, as he perseveres with his plan to go to Rome, he writes to the Romans.

• 7. Luke tells us that the Eucharist took place on the day after the Sabbath – already our Sunday: the Christians had separated from the Jews, replacing the Sabbath with the following day, the first day of the week, the day of Jesus’ resurrection. Doing so they were putting on their calendar the major event of their faith.

Naturally they meet in a home and this is the beginning of the Christian gathering. They share instruction and reflection, concluding with thanksgiving (or Eucharist) and communion with the body of the Lord.

Each one could speak, and Paul as prophet and apostle had a good deal to say, prepared or inspired. What might have been Paul’s long discourse? He read and interpreted texts from the Scripture that were referring to Jesus; he gave witness of his own commitment to Christ; he related the many happenings in his mission when the Spirit of Christ was at work.

This part of the celebration could be prolonged: the prophets, even Paul, tend at times to overdo it, but they could not separate without ending with “the breaking of bread”, the Eucharist.

With the unlucky fall of one of the youth and the intervention of Paul, the participants witness God’s power over death (see 10:36).

• 17. Paul returns to Palestine. He had a presentiment or he knew by a revelation of the Holy Spirit that another phase of his life was about to begin: the years of prison and trials. So he wished to say goodbye to all the leaders of the Church in the Roman province of Asia. He did not know all of them well, since the evangelization of this province had been the work of his team of assistants (20:4). These leaders are called elders in verse 17 and inspectors (or “episcopes,” from which we have bishops) in verse 28. See on this subject the commentary on Phil 1:1.

Paul gives his own example and develops the obligations of “pastors” in the Church (v. 28). He then invites them not to enclose themselves in the role of president or administrator of the community: they must prepare it for difficult times. Let them compare themselves with Paul and ponder on the sacrifices that the apostolic task demands of him. Is it good for them to rely on another – an apostle of course – when they are confronted with difficulties?

In verses 28-30, we have the warning of divisions and heresies in the Church: the same message will reappear in the Pastoral Letters (2 Tim 3:1-9). We are used to seeing Christians divided. For Paul, it was unthinkable. When he speaks of “the Churches of Christ” (Rom 16:4 and 16; 1 Cor 4:17; 11:16), he is only thinking of the local communities who communicate among themselves and all accept without discussion the same faith and tradition of the apostles. Paul alludes to what awaits him: all that we can do is to follow Christ, who has acquired his Church by his own blood. Only in heaven will a leader of the Church find rest and retirement (20:32).

In verses 33-35 Paul takes up the resignation discourse of Samuel (1 S 12:3). How quickly can a person be self-serving and look after self in any apostolic work.

The text also mentions the “bishops” (that word means inspectors). We do not know if they are the elders themselves, or only some of them, those with greater responsibility.

• 21.5 Paul goes up to Jerusalem, and manifestations of the Spirit follow. Paul is warned that he should not go, and this happens when he himself leaves chained by the Spirit (20:22) that means without the possibility of making any other decision. It is the right moment to see how the Spirit of God is one with the spirit of the person he inspires: those who warn Paul know and declare that he will meet with trouble and they would not want it. Paul knows and he wants it. Today, such manifestations are not part of the ordinary experience of Christians, with the exception of certain charismatic groups. Yet on looking into the subject it would seem that many people do receive such warnings but attach little importance to them.

The Spirit passes through our spirit as does light through thick colored glass and takes its color. Many manifestations that certain people seek are current mainly in primitive religions, even the non-Christian: must we take it that they are the most desirable religious experiences? However, if the Spirit of God wills to use our parapsychological senses to let us feel his presence in this firmly closed fortress that we call “our own self” and where we pretend to be the only rulers, “Praise the Lord! Alleluia.” Let him have us speak in tongues, laugh and cry, if such breaks the ice and opens the doors of our reason that has already seemingly known everything.

A good number of Christians make fun of such happenings. They are free to believe or not: there are so many illusions and much charlatanism. All they have to do is to ask themselves whether or not they are systematically denying any divine manifestation in a world we believe we know well, through human experience. If God no longer has the right to intervene in a world given up to reason and the laws of science, how can there be a true and trustful communion with him?

That is important. Whoever renounces and gives self to God sees the Spirit becoming more and more active in her life, not through visions and marvels, but through silent inspiration. This becomes so habitual that a person cannot live without it and knows through experience that the inner inspiration is right even though reason suggests another way of acting. Such a person mistrusts her own projects and follows this spiritual instinct.

The primitive Church had its prophets, but always wanted community discernment to judge whether it was truly God’s Spirit (1 Cor 14:29; 1 Thes 5:21; 1 Jn 4:1-3). The Bible already spoke of prophets who spoke without being sent, or dreamed what they wanted to dream (Jer 29:16). The account of the journey helps us to get an idea of how these first communities welcomed brothers and sisters from other parts at a time when communication was limited. Besides, would there have been a Eucharistic celebration with these foreigners without at least asking about themselves and their Church? It was quite different when apostles or prophets were passing by for then they were granted manifestations of the Spirit, with a more developed knowledge of the Word, as well as news of the universal Church.

• 17. The Christians of Jewish origin praise Paul when he gets to Jerusalem but, at the same time, they humiliate him. There is a rumor among them that Paul, besides not imposing the Judaic Law on Christian converts from paganism, also suggests that the Jews abandon the Law. They asked him to prove his fidelity to the past by becoming godfather to a few believers who had made a fairly costly vow – because if Paul had come from the Greeks, he would have money and could pay well!

Those who insist are the elders working with James “the brother of the Lord”: all are Jews from Palestine who, in spite of their faith, are still attached to the customs of the Old Testament.

They point out the importance of the Jerusalem community: thousands of Jews in order to make their demands respected. They may still have been more numerous than the Christians in the pagan world: this was the inheritance of the past. Paul accepts for the sake of peace, but it will be his downfall.

• 27. There are several similarities between Paul’s arrest and Stephen’s a few years before (see 6:9). The Jews from Asia draw up several accusations: the most serious one being that Paul brought an “uncircumcised” man into the Temple; this profanation was punishable by death. This is the man who is spreading his teaching everywhere against our people, our law and this Sanctuary. There were similar accusations against Christ and Stephen.

This is a false accusation. Nevertheless, the Jews are not totally wrong: through his teachings, Paul forms Christians who replace the Temple worship with faith in Christ; they replace the Law with a life of obedience to the Spirit and Jewish nationalism with universal Christian community.

The Roman troops occupying Jerusalem and seeking order were stationed in a fortress adjacent to the Temple and overlooking it. Thanks to this, the soldiers were able to intervene before Paul met the same fate as Stephen.

• 22.1 Paul here gives personal witness. He will stress he is still faithful to the religion of his fathers: but he has not been able to prevent Christ, the Lord, from imposing himself on him. Paul will quote Gamaliel (Acts 5:34); and then a Christian Jew very faithful to the Law, Ananias (v. 12). The crowd listens. The reaction comes when Paul says that the pagans will share the privileges of the Jews. The pagans: our enemies, impure people and enemies of God! The same affirmation had been decisive in the condemnation of Jesus (Mt 21:42).

• 23.1 To understand the chapters dealing with Paul’s trial we have to remember that justice in the Roman empire was very well organized. The supreme tribunal was in Rome: this was the Tribunal of Caesar, and Roman citizens fearing a mistrial in their province could appeal to the Tribunal of Caesar. There were governors (or procurators) who administered justice in each province. In the Jewish territory, the Romans who occupied the country kept the important cases for themselves, but they left the rest to the Jewish tribunals, especially religious affairs. Paul was to go through various tribunals, beginning with the Sanhedrin, or religious court of the Jews, all the way to the tribunal of Caesar.

Thus, through Paul, the words of Jesus entrusting to his apostles the mission of proclaiming him before Jewish and pagan authorities was to be fulfilled.

Paul tries to make the resurrection of Christ the theme of his declaration. There was a trial to condemn Jesus. Now, Paul tries to have the governors pay attention to the cause of the risen Jesus, and he succeeds.

In every age, such will be the zeal of the witnesses of Christ when they are accused: to demonstrate that they are not acting out of self-interest, nor from any human motive, but because they are the servants of Christ.

• 26.1 Paul did not have the best audience for his speech: an operetta king, Agrippa, to whom the Roman governor, the real authority, wishes to make a gesture; the famous Bernice, sister of Agrippa, who is his concubine before going off to make other conquests; and then all those who have come for a moment of relaxation before the cocktail, including the Roman officers who know very little of the religious quarrels among Jews. So we have a third account of Paul’s conversion (see chpts. 9 and 22). This time, Paul shows his conversion is not surprising: he has found what God had for so long promised his people: the resurrection of the dead.

I asked them to repent. It is precisely what the prophets said. It was not enough to proclaim oneself a Jew; all had to convert. And here, Paul speaks openly before this audience who are not outstanding in their moral virtue, except perhaps the Roman Festus.

That the Messiah would rise from the dead. Here again is the decisive point. Paul questions the religion of many Christians, who, according to polls accept Christ as Word of God but do not believe in the resurrection. Something beyond death? Perhaps… “I am not like those who think they know everything, I’m searching…” Precisely, as long as we are searching we have not taken the leap of faith. To accept Christ, is to renounce the totalitarian reason with its proven truths. Reason is at home in science but shortsighted in the face of essential truths. As long as there is no belief in the resurrection, there is no understanding of human destiny: a person may be educated, have a religious culture but be unable to grasp the truth. Even if the words of St. Anselm shock us, they are true: “Believe in order to understand.”

Paul is not so preoccupied about defending himself as he is about convincing others: Agrippa and Festus are people like everyone else and they need Christ. Festus is amazed by Paul’s biblical background and his enthusiasm: Agrippa, moved, says nothing. In fact, if they have been impressed, uneasiness will soon pass: “serious matters” will again take up their time.

• 27.1 Paul is taken to Rome with a group of prisoners. It is not difficult for us to imagine that even if the officer shows him much consideration his situation is not all comfort. This officer has his own authority besides that of the ship’s captain: the soldiers know that if a prisoner should escape, his guard would be executed (see 12:19 and 27:42). This account is a very interesting document on navigation in the Mediterranean at that time. Luke has given plentiful details: what a contrast with the account of Jonah and the tempest, written doubtless by someone who had never sailed. It is obvious that Paul was familiar with this kind of journeying: in 2 Cor 11:25, he states having been shipwrecked three times. Paul’s inner strength stands out in the description of the storm: Paul knows he is to testify before the tribunal of the emperor.

• 28.1 Paul almost perished at sea; on approaching the shore he narrowly escaped being butchered by his guards, and then the episode of the viper: see the promises of Jesus in Mk 16:17-18. Note the first gesture of Paul on arriving at a place the Gospel had not yet reached: he will heal the sick in the name of Christ. Would that he come and do the same in our peripheral urban areas where it seems, the Church has not yet disembarked.

• 11. When they get to Rome, Paul is treated fairly well. Instead of being put in jail, he is allowed to stay in the city, handcuffed (with his right arm tied to the left arm of the guard).

• 17. In Rome, Paul immediately wants to meet the authorities of the Jewish community. At this particular time, even if Judaism generally rejected Christian preaching, there had been no official condemnation. Christianity was for them a “sect,” a group, such as Pharisaism or the Essenes. Aware of how news traveled from one community to another in the Jewish world, Paul wanted to make the first move.

For him, it is important not to be considered as a traitor to his country for accusing the Jewish authorities. He is even more anxious to openly attack the refusal to believe in Jesus. The Christian community has already done what it could do among the Jews in Rome but he wants to strike harder.

Luke wished to end his book with the account of this meeting. Here Paul repeats almost all that he said when he first preached at Antioch of Pisidia (13:46-47): the Gospel is to be first preached to the Jews, but if they reject it, that will not prevent the word of God being proclaimed to all the nations.

Without any hindrance. That is the last word: the Gospel has gone out to conquer and nothing will stop it (Rev 6:2). Paul remained two whole years in this house, that is to say, in partial captivity: it was the delay fixed by the law for preventive detention. It is most probable that all ended with a not proven verdict. Some authors, in a hurry to consider as fables elements given in the Pastoral Letters on a later activity of Paul, assert that he was then condemned to death. There is no reason why Luke would have hidden it; it is still less probable when Luke alludes to a change of residence.

Acts 28

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:56:37 +0000

On Malta

28 • 1 After being saved, we learned that the island was called Malta. 2 The natives were very cordial. They lit a big bonfire and took good care of us all, since it was raining and cold.

3 Paul gathered a bundle of dried twigs and as he threw them into the fire, a viper suddenly came out because of the heat and entwined itself around his hand. 4 When the natives saw the viper hanging from his hand, they said to one another: “Surely this man is a murderer: he has barely escaped from the raging sea, yet divine justice will not allow him to live.” 5 But Paul shook off the viper into the fire and did not suffer any harm. They waited to see him swell and die; 6 but after observing him for a while they saw that nothing happened to him, so they changed their minds and began to say that he was a god.

7 Near this place was an estate owned by the head of the island, named Publius. For three days this man welcomed us hospitably. 8 It so happened that his father was in bed with fever and dysentery. Paul went to see him; he prayed and laid his hands on him and healed him. 9 Because of this, the rest of the sick people on the island came to see him and were cured. 10 So they showered us with kindness, and on our departure they provided us with everything we needed.

From Malta to Rome

• 11 After three months, we boarded a ship that had spent the winter at the island. It belonged to an Alexandrian company and carried the figurehead of Castor and Pollux as insignia. 12 We sailed for Syracuse, staying there for three days 13 and, after circling the coast, we arrived at Rhegium. On the following day, a south wind began to blow, and at the end of two days we arrived at Puteoli, 14 where we found some of our brothers who invited us to stay with them for a week. And that was how we came to Rome.

15 There the brothers and sisters had been informed of our arrival and came out to meet us as far as the Appian Forum and the Three Taverns. When Paul saw them, he gave thanks to God and took courage. 16 Upon our arrival in Rome, the captain turned the prisoners over to the military governor but permitted Paul to lodge in a private house with the soldier who guarded him.

Paul meets the Jews in Rome

• 17 After three days, Paul called together the leaders of the Jews. When they had gathered, he said to them: “Brothers, though I have not done anything against our people or against the traditions of our fathers, I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans. 18 They examined me and wanted to set me free, for they saw nothing in my case that deserved death. 19 But the Jews objected, so I was forced to appeal to Caesar without the least intention of bringing any case against my own people. 20 Therefore, I have asked to see you and speak with you, since it is because of the hope of Israel that I bear these chains.”

21 They answered: “We have not received any letter about you from Judea, and none of the brothers who have come from there have brought any message or said anything against you. 22 But we wish to hear from you what you think, although we know already that everywhere people speak against this sect that you belong to.”

23 They set a day for him and came in great numbers to his lodging. So Paul explained everything he wanted to tell them regarding the kingdom of God and tried to convince them concerning Jesus, taking the Law of Moses and the Prophets as his starting point. This continued from morning till night. 24 Some were convinced by his words, others were not. 25 Finally the Jews left, still arguing strongly among themselves; and Paul sent them away with this statement:“What the Holy Spirit said has come true, when he spoke to your ancestors through the prophet Isaiah:

26 Go to this people and say to them: However much you hear, you will not understand; you will see and see again but not perceive.

27 The heart of this people has grown hard; they have covered their ears and closed their eyes, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest their spirit understand, and I should heal them.

28 Let it be known to you, then, that this salvation of God has been sent to the pagans: they will listen.”

30 Paul stayed for two whole years in a house he himself rented, where he received without any hindrance all those who came to see him. 31 He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught the truth about Jesus Christ, the Lord, quite openly and without any hindrance.

Acts 27

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:55:43 +0000

Departure for Rome

27 • 1 When it was decided that we should sail for Italy, they handed over Paul and the other prisoners into the care of an officer of the Augustan battalion, named Julius. 2 We boarded a ship of Adramyttium bound for the Asian coasts, and we left accompanied by Aristarchus, a Macedonian from the city of Thessalonica. 3 We arrived at Sidon on the next day. Julius was very kind to Paul, letting him visit his friends and be cared for by them. 4 From there, we sailed along the sheltered coast of Cyprus, because the winds were against us. 5 We sailed across the seas off Cilicia and Pamphylia and arrived at Myra in Lycia. 6 There the captain found a ship from Alexandria sailing for Italy and made us board it.

7 We sailed slowly for several days, and arrived with great difficulty at Cnidus. As the wind did not allow us to enter that port, we sailed for the shelter of Crete with the Cape of Salmone within sight. 8 We turned with difficulty and arrived at a place called Good Ports, near the city of Lasea.

9 Time passed and the crossing began to be dangerous: we had already celebrated the feast of the Fast. 10 Then Paul said to them: “Friends, I believe that it would not be very wise to proceed with our crossing for we could lose not only the cargo and the ship but also our lives.” 11 But the Roman officer relied more on the ship’s captain and the owner of the ship than on the words of Paul. 12 And as the port was not suitable for wintering, the majority agreed to set out from there in the hope of reaching the harbor of Crete called Phoenix, overlooking Africa and Choros, where they could spend the winter.

Storm and shipwreck

13 Then the south wind began to blow and they thought that they had gained their purpose; they weighed anchor and sailed along the island of Crete. 14 But a little later, a strong wind called “the northeaster” swept down on them, from across the island. 15 The ship was dragged along and could not face the wind, so that we remained adrift.

16 As we were crossing under the lee of the small island of Cauda, we managed – but with effort – to secure the lifeboat. 17 After lifting it aboard, they used cables to undergird the hull, and since we feared running aground on the sands of Syrtis, they lowered the sea anchor. So we continued to be dragged along.

18 The storm lashed at us so strongly that on the next day they began throwing the cargo overboard. 19 On the third day the sailors with their own hands threw out the ship’s gear. 20 For several days neither the sun nor the stars could be seen, and the tempest had not subsided: we lost all hope of saving ourselves.

21 As we had not eaten for days, Paul stood up among them and said: “Friends, if you had followed my advice when I told you not to set sail from Crete, we would not be in such danger now, and we could have avoided this loss. 22 But now I invite you to regain courage for no one among you shall die; only the ship shall be destroyed. 23 Last night there appeared to me an angel of my God to whom I serve, 24 and he said to me: ‘Paul, do not be afraid, you must present yourself before Caesar’s tribunal, and God has guaranteed you the life of all those who sail with you.’

25 Have courage, therefore, my friends, for I trust in God that it will be just as he told me. 26 But we have to run aground on some island.”

27 Near midnight on the fourteenth night, as we were drifting in the Adriatic Sea, the sailors suspected that land was near. 28 They measured the depth of the water and it was thirty-seven meters. After a while, they measured it again and it was twenty-seven meters. 29 They feared that we might hit some rocks, so they cast out four anchors from the stern and waited anxiously for morning. 30 Then the sailors tried to escape from the ship under the pretext of extending the cables of the anchors from the bow, so they lowered the lifeboat into the sea. 31 But Paul said to the captain and to the soldiers: “If they leave the ship, you cannot be saved. 32 So the soldiers cut the mooring cables of the boat and let it fall.

33 As they waited for dawn, Paul urged everyone: “For fourteen days you have not eaten anything because of anxious waiting. 34 I ask you to eat now if you want to live; be sure that not even a hair of your head will be lost.” 35 Having said this, he took bread, gave thanks to God in everybody’s presence, broke it and began to eat. 36 All were encouraged and they too ate. 37 They were two hundred and seventy-six persons in all. 38 When they had eaten enough, they threw the wheat into the sea to lighten the boat.

39 When morning came, they did not recognize the land but noticed a bay with a beach, so they decided to run the ship aground, if possible. 40 They cast off the anchors and left them in the sea; at the same time, they loosened the ropes of the rudders, hoisted the foresail to the wind and headed for the beach. 41 But they struck a sandbank and the ship ran aground. The bow stuck and was immovable, while the stern was broken up by the violent waves.

42 The soldiers then planned to kill the prisoners for fear that some of them might escape by swimming. 43 But the captain, who wished to save Paul, did not allow them to do this. He ordered those who knew how to swim, to be the first to jump into the water and head for the shore, 44 and the rest to hold on to planks or pieces of the ship. So all of us reached land safe and sound.

Acts 26

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:54:46 +0000

Paul’s speech before King Agrippa

26 • 1 Agrippa said to Paul: “You may speak in your own defense.” So Paul stretched out his hand and began in this way:

2 “King Agrippa, you have just heard about the accusations of the Jews. I consider myself fortunate in having the opportunity to defend myself against all this before you today, 3 for you are an expert in the customs of the Jews and their disputes. Therefore I beg you to listen to me patiently.

4 All the Jews know how I have lived from my youth, how I have lived among my own people and in Jerusalem. 5 They have always known me and they can tell you, if they wish, that I have lived as a Pharisee in the most rigorous sect of our religion. 6 If I am now tried here, it is because of the hope I have in the promise made by God to our ancestors. 7 The hope of attaining this promise is behind the fervent worship that our twelve tribes render to God night and day. Yet now, O king, the Jews accuse me for this hope! 8 But why refuse to believe that God raises the dead?

9 I myself in the beginning thought that I had to use all possible means to counteract the Name of Jesus of Nazareth. 10 This I did in Jerusalem and, with the authorization of the chief priests, I put in prison many who believed; and I cast my vote when they were condemned to death.

11 I went round the synagogues and multiplied punishments against them to force them to renounce their faith; such was my rage against them that I pursued them even to foreign cities.

12 With this purpose in mind I went to Damascus with full authority and commissioned by the chief priests. 13 On the way, O King, at midday I saw a light from heaven, more brilliant than the sun, that dazzled me and those who accompanied me. 14 We all fell to the ground and I heard a voice saying to me in Hebrew: ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? In vain do you kick against the goad.’

15 I answered: ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And the Lord said: ‘I am Jesus whom you persecute. 16 Get up now and stand on your feet. I have revealed myself to you to make you servant and witness to what I have just shown you and to what I will show you later on. 17 I will rescue you from all evil that may come from your own people or from the pagans to whom I am sending you. 18 For you shall open their eyes that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God; and, through faith in me, may obtain forgiveness of their sins and a place among those who are sanctified.’

19 Since that time, King Agrippa, I did not stray from this heavenly vision; 20 on the contrary, I began preaching first to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and throughout Judea, and then to the pagan nations, that they should repent and turn to God, showing the fruits of true conversion. 21 I was carrying out this mission when the Jews arrested me in the Temple and tried to kill me. But with the help of God, I still stand here today to give my testimony both to the great and the small.

22 I do not teach anything other than what Moses and the Prophets announced beforehand: 23 the Messiah had to die, and after being the first to be raised from the dead, he would proclaim the light to his people as well as to all nations.”

24 As Paul came to this point of his defense, Festus said in a loud voice: “Paul, you are mad; your great learning has deranged your mind!” 25 But Paul answered: “I am not mad, Most Excellent Festus, but everything I have said is reliable and true. 26 The king is acquainted with all these things, so to him I speak with such confidence. I am convinced that he knows everything about this case, for these things did not happen in a dark corner. 27 King Agrippa, do you believe the Prophets? I know that you do.”

28 Agrippa said to him: “You almost believe that you have already made me a Christian!” 29 Paul answered him: “Whether little or more, I would that not only you but all who hear me this day may come to be as I am – except for these chains.”

30 Then the king rose and, with him, the governor, Bernice and all the attendants. 31 When they went out they talked among themselves and said: “This man has done nothing to deserve death or imprisonment.” 32 And Agrippa said to Festus: “Had he not appealed to Caesar, he could have been set free.”

Acts 25

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:53:59 +0000

The trial before Festus

25 1 Three days after Festus arrived in the province, he went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem. 2 There the chief priests and the elders accused Paul again. 3 In a very hypocritical way, they asked as a favor from Festus that Paul be brought to Jerusalem; but they were planning to kill him on the way. 4 Festus answered that Paul was under custody in Caesarea and, as he himself had to go there shortly, he added, 5 “Let those of you who have the authority go down with me to Caesarea, and if this man has done anything wrong, let them accuse him.”

6 Festus did not stay in Jerusalem for more than eight or ten days, and then he went to Caesarea. The next day, he took his seat on the tribunal and sent for Paul. 7 When Paul arrived, the Jews who came from Jerusalem stood around him and presented many serious charges that they could not prove. 8 Paul defended himself from all these saying, “I have not committed any offense against the Law of the Jews, or against the Temple or against Caesar.”

9 Then Festus, who wanted to please the Jews, asked Paul: “Do you wish to go up to Jerusalem to be tried before me?” 10 Paul answered, “I am on trial before Caesar’s tribunal; here I have to be tried. I have done no wrong to the Jews: you yourself know this very well. 11 If I have committed any crime which deserves death, I accept death. But if I have not done anything of which they accuse me, no one can give me up to them. I appeal to Caesar.”

12 So Festus, after conferring with his council, answered, “You have appealed to Caesar. To Caesar you shall go.”

13 Some days later King Agrippa and his sister Bernice arrived in Caesarea to greet Festus. As they were to stay there several days, Festus told the king about Paul’s case and said to him,

14 “We have here a man whom Felix left as a prisoner. 15 When I was in Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews accused him and asked me to sentence him. 16 I told them that it is not the custom of the Romans to hand over a man without giving him an opportunity to defend himself in front of his accusers. 17 So they came and I took my seat without delay on the tribunal and sent for the man.

18 When the accusers had the floor, they did not accuse him of any of the crimes that I was led to think he had committed; 19 instead they quarreled with him about religion and about a certain Jesus who has died but whom Paul asserted to be alive. 20 I did not know what to do about this case, so I asked Paul if he wanted to go to Jerusalem to be tried there. 21 But Paul appealed to be judged by the emperor. So I ordered that he be kept in custody until I send him to Caesar.” 22 Agrippa said to Festus: “I would like to hear that man.” Festus answered him: “Tomorrow you shall.”

23 On the following day, Agrippa and Bernice arrived with great ceremony and entered the audience hall with the commanders and the elders of the city. Festus ordered that Paul be brought in and said:

24 “King Agrippa and all here present, here you see this man about whom the whole community of the Jews came to see me, in Jerusalem as well as here, protesting loudly that he must not live. 25 I, for my part, am convinced that he has not done anything that deserves death. But after he appealed to be judged by the emperor, I decided to send him on. 26 Well, if I have no definite information, what can I write to Caesar about him? Therefore I present him before all of you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, that you may examine him and that I may know what to write. 27 For it seems absurd to me to send a prisoner without indicating the charges against him.”

Acts 24

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:53:07 +0000

The case before Felix

24 1 After five days Ananias the High Priest came down to Caesarea with some of the elders and a lawyer named Tertullus. And they presented their case against Paul before the governor. 2 Paul was called in and Tertullus accused him in this way:

3 “Most Excellent Felix, thanks to you – your labors and your wise reforms – our people now enjoy great peace. We accept all this in every way and in every place, and we are totally grateful to you. 4 So as not to take more of your time, I beg you to listen briefly to us with your usual kindness. 5 We have found that this man is a pest, he creates division among the Jews throughout the world and is a leader of the Nazarene sect. 6 He even tried to profane the Temple, so we seized him. We would have judged him according to our law, 7 but Lysias the commandant intervened in a very violent way and took him from us. 8 Then he declared that his accusers must present themselves before you. By examining him yourself, you will learn from him about all that we accuse him of.”

9 The Jews confirmed this, firmly maintaining that all this was so.

10 Then the governor motioned to Paul who said:

“As I know that you have administered this nation for many years, I make my defense with much confidence. 11 You yourself can ascertain that not more than twelve days ago I went up to Jerusalem to worship, 12 and that they did not find me disputing with anyone or inciting the people, either in the Temple or in the synagogues or in the city. 13 So they cannot prove the things of which they now accuse me.

14 But this I admit before you, that I serve the God of our ancestors according to the Way that they call a sect. I believe everything written in the Law and in the Prophets, 15 and I have the same hope in God that they have, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both the good and the sinners. 16 So I strive always to have a clear conscience before God and before people.

17 After many years, I came to bring help to those of my nation and to offer sacrifices. 18 On that occasion, they found me in the Temple; I had been purified according to the Law and there was no crowd or commotion. Yet all began with some Jews from Asia 19 who ought to be here before you to accuse me, if they have anything against me. 20 Let these men say what crime they found in me when I stood before the Sanhedrin, 21 unless it was for having declared in a loud voice when I was before them: ‘Today I am being judged on account of the resurrection of the dead.’”

22 Felix who was well-informed about the Way, postponed the case and said to them, “When the commandant, Lysias, comes down, I will examine the case thoroughly.” 23 So he ordered the captain to keep Paul under guard, giving him certain liberty and without preventing his friends from attending to him.

24 After some days, Felix came with his wife Drusilla who was a Jew. He sent for Paul and let him speak about faith in Christ. 25 But when Paul spoke about justice, self-control and the future judgment, Felix was frightened and he said to him: “You may leave now; I shall send for you some other time.” 26 Felix was hoping that Paul would give him money, so he sent for him often and conversed with him.

27 Two years passed, and Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus; and as Felix wanted to remain on good terms with the Jews, he left Paul in prison.

Acts 23

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:50:23 +0000

23 • 1 Paul looked directly at the Council and said, “Brothers, to this day I have lived my life with a clear conscience before God.” 2 At that the High Priest Ananias ordered his attendants to strike him on the mouth. 3 Then Paul said, “God is about to strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the Law, and you break the Law by ordering me to be struck!” 4 At this the attendants protested, “How dare you insult God’s High Priest?” 5 Paul answered, “Brothers, I did not know that he was the High Priest. For Scripture says: You shall not curse the ruler of your people.’’

6 Paul knew that part of the Council were Sadducees and others Pharisees; so he spoke out in the Council, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, son of a Pharisee. It is for the hope in the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial here.”

7 At these words, an argument broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the whole assembly was divided. 8 For the Sadducees claim that there is neither resurrection, nor angels nor spirits, while the Pharisees acknowledge all these things.

9 Then the shouting grew louder, and some teachers of the Law of the Pharisee party protested, “We find nothing wrong with this man. Maybe a spirit or an angel has spoken to him.”

10 With this the argument became so violent that the commander feared that Paul would be torn to pieces by them. He therefore ordered the soldiers to go down and rescue him from their midst and take him back to the fortress.

11 That night the Lord stood by Paul and said, “Courage! As you have borne witness to me here in Jerusalem, so must you do in Rome.”

The plot to kill Paul

12 When it was day, certain Jews formed a conspiracy: they bound themselves by an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul. 13 There were more than forty of them who joined in this conspiracy.

14 They went to the high priests and the elders and said, “We have bound ourselves by oath not to taste food until we have killed Paul. 15 Now then, it is up to you and the Council together to convince the Roman commander to bring him down to you on the pretext that you want to investigate his case more thoroughly. We, for our part, are prepared to kill him before he gets there.”

16 But the son of Paul’s sister heard about the planned ambush, so he went to the headquarters and informed Paul. 17 Paul sent for one of the officers and said, “Take this young man to the commander for he has something to report to him.” 18 So the officer took him and brought him to the commander, saying, “The prisoner Paul called me and asked me to bring this boy to you because he has something to tell you.”

19 The commander took him by the hand and drawing him aside asked him privately, “What is it that you have to report to me?” 20 The boy replied, “The Jews have agreed among themselves to ask you tomorrow to have Paul brought down to the Council as if to inquire more thoroughly about him. 21 But do not be persuaded by them, for there are more than forty of them ready to ambush him, having bound themselves by an oath not to eat or drink until they have killed him. They are now ready to do it and are awaiting your decision.” 22 The commander let the boy go with this advice, “Do not tell anyone that you gave me this information.”

Paul is transferred to Caesarea

23 Then the commander summoned two of his officers and said to them, “Get ready to leave for Caesarea by nine o’clock tonight, with two hundred infantrymen, seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen. 24 Provide horses also for Paul to ride, so that he may be brought safely to Felix the governor.”

25 He then wrote the governor a letter to this effect:

26 “Claudius Lysias greets the Most Excellent Governor Felix and communicates to him the following: 27 The Jews had arrested this man and were about to kill him when I intervened with my troops and took him out of their hands, since I knew he was a Roman citizen. 28 As I wanted to know what charge they had against him, I presented him before the Sanhedrin 29 and I discovered that the accusation related to matters of their Law, but there was nothing that deserved death or imprisonment. 30 When I was informed that the Jews had prepared a plot against this man, I decided to send him to you and told his accusers to present their complaints before you. Farewell.”

31 The soldiers acted in accordance with these instructions. They took Paul and brought him to Antipatris by night. 32 On the following day, they returned to the fortress but the horsemen continued journeying with him. 33 Upon entering Caesarea they handed the letter to the governor and presented Paul to him. 34 When Felix had read the letter, he asked Paul from which province he was, and when he learned that Paul was from Cilicia, 35 he said to him: “I shall hear your accusers when they come.” And he ordered that he be kept in custody in the palace of Herod.

Acts 22

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:49:25 +0000

Paul addresses the Jews

22 • 1 “Brothers and fathers, listen to what I have to say to you in my defense.” 2 When they heard him speaking to them in Hebrew, they became more quiet. So he went on.

3 “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up here in this city where I was educated in the school of Gamaliel, according to the strict observance of our Law. And I was dedicated to God’s service, as are all of you today. 4 As for this way, I persecuted it to the point of death and arrested its followers, both men and women, throwing them into prison.

5 The High Priest and the whole Council of elders can bear witness to this. From them I received letters for the Jewish brothers in Damascus and I set out to arrest those who were there and bring them back to Jerusalem for punishment. 6 But as I was traveling along, nearing Damascus, at about noon a great light from the sky suddenly flashed about me. 7 I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me: ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ 8 I answered: ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And he said to me: ‘I am Jesus the Nazarean whom you persecute.’ 9 The men who were with me saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me. 10 I asked: ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ And the Lord replied: ‘Get up and go to Damascus; there you will be told all that you are destined to do.’ 11 Yet the brightness of that light had blinded me and so I was led by the hand into Damascus by my companions.

12 There a certain Ananias came to me. He was a devout observer of the Law and well spoken of by all the Jews who were living there. 13 As he stood by me, he said: ‘Brother Saul, recover your sight.’ At that moment I could see and I looked at him. 14 He then said, ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will, to see the Just One and to hear the words from his mouth. 15 From now on you shall be his witness before all the pagan peoples and tell them all that you have seen and heard. 16 And now, why delay? Get up and be baptized and have your sins washed away by calling upon his Name.’

17 On my return to Jerusalem I was praying in the Temple, when I fell into a trance 18 and saw him. He spoke to me: ‘Get ready to leave Jerusalem without delay, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’ 19 I answered: ‘Lord, they know well that I imprisoned those who believed in you and had them beaten in every synagogue, 20 and while the blood of your witness Stephen was being poured out, I stood by and approved it and even guarded the cloaks of his murderers.’ 21 Then he said to me: ‘Go, for I am sending you far away to the pagan nations.’”

22 Up to this point the crowd listened to Paul, but on hearing the last words, they began to shout, “Kill him! He does not deserve to live!” 23 They were screaming and waving their cloaks and throwing dust into the air. 24 So the commander ordered Paul to be brought inside the fortress and questioned after flogging, to find out why they made such an outcry against him.

25 But when the soldiers had strapped him down, Paul said to the officer standing there, “Is it legal to flog a Roman citizen without a trial?”

26 On hearing this the officer went to the commander and said, “What are you doing? That man is a Roman citizen.” 27 So the commander came and asked him, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?” “Yes,” answered Paul. 28 The commander then said, “It cost me a large sum of money to become a Roman citizen.” Paul answered, “I am one by birth.”

29 Then those who were about to question him backed away, and the commander himself was alarmed when he realized that he had put a Roman citizen in chains.

Paul appears before the Sanhedrin

30 The next day the commander wanted to know for certain the charges the Jews were making against Paul. So he released him from prison and called together the High Priest and the whole Council; and they brought Paul down and made him stand before them.

Acts 21

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:45:24 +0000

On to Jerusalem

21 1 When we had finally taken leave of them, we put out to sea and sailed straight to Cos, and the next day to Rhodes, and from there to Patara. 2 There we found a ship that made for Phoenicia; we went aboard and set sail. 3 We caught sight of Cyprus but passed it by on our left, as we continued on towards Syria. We landed at Tyre, where the ship had to unload cargo. 4 There we found the disciples and stayed a week. Warned by the Spirit, they told Paul not to go to Jerusalem.

• 5 But when it was time, we departed and continued on our journey. All of them, wives and children included, came out of the city with us, and on the beach we knelt down and prayed. 6 After that we said good-bye to one another; we boarded the ship and they returned home.

7 We continued our journey, sailing from Tyre to Ptolemais, where we greeted the brothers and sisters and spent a day with them. 8 On the following day we left and came to Caesarea. There we entered the house of Philip the evangelist and we stayed with him. He was one of the Seven 9 and had four unmarried daughters who were gifted with prophecy.

10 We were there some days when a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. Coming to us, he took Paul’s belt and bound his own feet and hands with it, saying, 11 “Thus speaks the Holy Spirit: This is how the Jews in Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and hand him over to the foreign power.”

12 When we heard this, we, together with these people of Caesarea, begged Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. 13 Then he answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” 14 When he would not be persuaded, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.”

15 After this we got ready and went up to Jerusalem. 16 With us were some of the disciples of Caesarea who brought us to the house of a Cypriot where we were to stay. He was called Mnason and was one of the early disciples.

Paul is received by the Church of Jerusalem

• 17 When we arrived in Jerusalem the brothers welcomed us warmly. 18 The next day Paul went with us to James’ house where all the elders had gathered. 19 After greeting them, Paul began telling them in detail everything God had done among the non-Jews through his ministry.

20 After hearing this, they all praised God, but they said, “You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews of Judea have come to believe, and all of them are zealous for the Law. 21 Yet they have heard that you teach the Jews who live in pagan nations to depart from Moses, telling them not to have their sons circumcised and to renounce Jewish customs. 22 We shall gather the assembly for, in any case, they will hear that you have arrived. 23 Then do as we tell you.

There are four men among us who have made a vow. 24 Take them and purify yourself along with them and pay the sacrifice for them to shave their heads. In that way everyone will know that there is nothing true in what they have been told about you, but that you go on keeping the Law.

25 As for the non-Jews who have become believers, we sent them a letter to tell them that they are only obliged not to eat meat offered to idols, or blood, or flesh of strangled animals; and also to avoid prohibited sexual union.”

26 So the next day Paul took the men; he purified himself with them and entered the Temple to give notice of what day the sacrifice would be offered for each of them to end his time of purification.

Paul is arrested in the Temple

• 27 When the seven days were almost over, some Jews from Asia, who saw Paul in the Temple, began to stir up the whole crowd. They seized him 28 shouting, “Fellow Israelites, help! This is the man who is spreading his teaching everywhere against our people, our law and this Sanctuary. And now he has even brought non-Jews into the Temple area, defiling this Holy Place.” 29 They said this because earlier they had seen Trophimus, an Ephesian, with Paul in the city and they thought that Paul had taken him into the Temple.

30 Then turmoil spread through the whole city. People came running from all sides. They seized Paul and dragged him outside the Temple. At once the gates were shut.

31 They would have killed him, had not a report reached the commander of the Roman troops that all of Jerusalem was rioting. 32 At once the commander took some officers and soldiers and rushed down to the crowd.

On seeing him with the soldiers, the crowd stopped beating Paul. 33 The commander went over to Paul, arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains; then he inquired who he was and what he had done. 34 But some in the crowd shouted one thing and others another. As the commander was unable to find out the facts because of the uproar, he ordered Paul to be brought to the fortress. 35 When Paul reached the steps, he actually had to be carried up by the soldiers because of the violence of the mob, 36 for a multitude of people followed shouting, “Kill him!”

37 Just as he was about to be taken inside, Paul said to the commander, “May I say something to you?” He replied, “So you speak Greek! 38 Are you not the Egyptian, then, who caused a riot some time ago and let a band of four thousand terrorists out into the desert?” Paul answered, 39 “I am a Jew, a citizen of Tarsus, a well-known city in Cilicia. I beg you, let me address these people.”

The commander agreed. 40 So Paul standing on the steps, motioned to the people with his hand and, when they were silent, he began to speak to them in Hebrew.

Acts 20

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:39:53 +0000

Paul returns to Macedonia

20 • 1 After the uproar died down, Paul called his disciples together to encourage them. Then he said goodbye and set out on his journey to Macedonia. 2 He traveled throughout those regions and spent himself in speaking and encouraging them. He finally arrived in Greece.

3 When he had been there for three months, he wanted to set sail for Syria, but as the Jews were plotting against him, he decided to return by way of Macedonia. 4 When he was about to leave for the Asian province, some companions went with him, Sopater, son of Pyrrhus, from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy, Tychicus and Trophimus from Asia. 5 So they went ahead and waited for us in Troas, 6 while we set sail from Philippi as soon as the festival of Unleavened Bread was over. Five days later we joined them in Troas where we spent a week.

The Eucharist at Troas

• 7 On the first day of the week we were together for the breaking of the bread, and Paul, who intended to leave the following day, spoke at length. The discourse went on until midnight, 8 with many lamps burning in the upstairs room where we were gathered. A young man named Eutychius was sitting on the window ledge, 9 and as Paul kept on talking, Eutychius grew more and more sleepy, until he finally went sound asleep and fell from the third floor to the ground. There they found him dead.

10 Paul went down, bent over him and took him in his arms. “Do not be alarmed,” he said, “there is life in him.” 11 Then he went back upstairs, broke the bread and ate. After that he kept on talking with them for a long time until daybreak and then he left. 12 As for the young man, they lifted him up alive and were greatly comforted.

13 We went on ahead to the ship and sailed for Assos, where we were to pick up Paul. This was the arrangement since Paul intended to travel by foot. 14 In fact, we met him at Assos and taking him aboard, we went on to Mitylene. 15 We sailed from there and arrived off Chios the next day. A day later we came to Samos and the following day we reached Miletus.

16 Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so as not to lose time in Asia, for he was eager to reach Jerusalem by the day of Pentecost, if at all possible.

Paul’s farewell to the Ephesian elders

• 17 From Miletus Paul sent word to Ephesus, summoning the elders of the Church. 18 When they came to him, he addressed them, “You know how I lived among you from the first day I set foot in the province of Asia, 19 how I served the Lord in humility through the sorrows and trials that the Jews caused me. 20 You know that I never held back from doing anything that could be useful for you; I spoke publicly and in your homes 21and I urged Jews and non-Jews alike to turn to God and believe in our Lord Jesus.

22 But now I am going to Jerusalem, chained by the Spirit, without knowing what will happen to me there. 23 Yet in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that imprisonment and troubles await me. 24 Indeed I put no value on my life, if only I can finish my race and complete the service to which I have been assigned by the Lord Jesus, to announce the good news of God’s grace.

25 I now feel sure that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom of God will ever see me again. 26 Therefore I declare to you this day that my conscience is clear with regard to all of you. 27 For I have spared no effort in fully declaring to you God’s will.

28 Keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock the Holy Spirit has placed into your care. Shepherd the Church of the Lord that he has won at the price of his own blood. 29 I know that after I leave, ruthless wolves will come among you and not spare the flock. 30 And from among you, some will arise corrupting the truth and inducing the disciples to follow them.

31 Be on the watch, therefore, remembering that for three years, night and day, I did not cease to warn everyone even with tears. 32 Now I commend you to God and to his grace-filled word, which is able to make you grow and gain the inheritance that you shall share with all the saints.

33 I have not looked for anyone’s silver, gold or clothing. 34 You yourselves know that these hands of mine have provided for both my needs and the needs of those who were with me. 35 In every way I have shown you that by so working hard one must help the weak, remembering the words that the Lord Jesus himself said, ‘Happiness lies more in giving than in receiving.’”

36 After this discourse, Paul knelt down with them and prayed. 37 Then they all began to weep and threw their arms around him and kissed him. 38 They were deeply distressed because he had said that they would never see him again. And they went with him even to the ship.

Acts 19

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:39:03 +0000

Paul in Ephesus

19 • 1 While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior of the country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples 2 whom he asked, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” They answered, “We have not even heard that anyone may receive the Holy Spirit.” 3 Paul then asked, “What kind of baptism have you received?” And they answered, “The baptism of John.”

4 Paul then explained, “John’s baptism was for conversion, but he himself said they should believe in the one who was to come, and that one is Jesus.” 5 Upon hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 Then Paul laid his hands on them and the Holy Spirit came down upon them; and they began to speak in tongues and to prophesy. 7 There were about twelve of them in all.

8 Paul went into the synagogue and for three months he preached and discussed there boldly, trying to convince them about the Kingdom of God. 9 Some of them, instead of believing, grew obstinate and criticized the way publicly. So Paul departed from them and took the disciples with him. He taught daily in the lecture hall of a certain Tyrannus. 10 He did this for two years, so that all those who lived in the province of Asia, both Jews and non-Jews, heard the word of the Lord.

• 11 God did extraordinary deeds of power through the hands of Paul. 12 Even handkerchiefs or cloths that had touched his skin were laid upon the sick and their illnesses were cured, and evil spirits also departed from them.

13 Some Jews who traveled around driving out evil spirits, also tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus over those possessed by evil spirits, saying, “I command you by this Jesus whom Paul preaches.” 14 Among them were the seven sons of a Jewish priest named Sceva. 15 But one day, when they entered a house and dared to do this, the evil spirit said to them, “Jesus I recognize and Paul I know; but who are you?” 16 Then the man with the evil spirit sprang at them and overpowered first one and then another. And he handled them so violently that they fled from that house naked and mauled. 17 This became known to all the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus; all of them were very impressed and the name of the Lord Jesus came to be held in great honor.

18 Many of those who had become believers came forward and openly acknowledged their former practices. 19 Many who had practiced magic arts collected their books and burned them in front of everyone. When the value of these was assessed, it came to fifty thousand silver coins.

20 In this way, the word of the Lord spread widely and with power.

The silversmiths’ riot

• 21 When all these events were completed Paul, led by the Holy Spirit, decided to travel through Macedonia and Achaia again and then go on to Jerusalem. And he said, “After I have been there, I must visit Rome also.” 22 So he sent two of his assistants, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia ahead of him, while he himself stayed on for a time in Asia.

23 About that time the city was deeply troubled because of the way. 24 It all began because of a certain silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver models of the temple of the goddess Artemis and whose business brought a great deal of profit to the workers. 25 He called them, together with others who did similar work, and said, “Friends, you know that our prosperity depends on this work. 26 But, as you can see and hear for yourselves, this Paul has led astray a great number of people, not only here in Ephesus, but also throughout most of the province of Asia. And he has convinced them that gods made by human hands are no gods at all. 27 The danger grows that not only our trade will be discredited, but even that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will count for nothing. She whom Asia and all the world worships may soon be stripped of her renown.”

28 On hearing this they became enraged and began shouting, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” 29 The uproar spread throughout the whole city. The mob rushed to the theater, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, two Macedonians who were Paul’s traveling companions. 30 Paul wished to face this crowd, but the disciples would not let him. 31 Some of the officials of the Asian province also, who were friends of Paul, sent him a message begging him not to show himself in the theater.

32 Meanwhile the whole assembly was in an uproar. Some shouted one thing, and some shouted another and most of them did not know why they were there. 33 Some of the crowd wanted a certain Alexander to speak, whom the Jews put forward. Alexander intended to make a speech of defense before the crowd, 34 but when they recognized that he was a Jew, they chanted all together for about two hours, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

35 Finally the town clerk was able to calm the mob. He said, “Citizens of Ephesus, who does not know that Ephesus is keeper of the temple of the great Artemis, and of her image which fell from the sky? 36 Since these things are undeniable, you must calm yourselves and do nothing rash. 37 These men whom you brought here are not temple-robbers nor have they spoken ill of our goddess. 38 If Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen want to bring charges against anyone, the courts are open and there are officials. Let them bring charges against each other. 39 If there is anything further that needs to be investigated, let it be done in the lawful assembly. 40 For as it is today, we are in danger of being charged with rioting, since there is no valid excuse we can give for this wild demonstration.” 41 And the town clerk dismissed the assembly.

Acts 18

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:38:09 +0000

Paul in Corinth

18 • 1 After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. 2 There he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, following a decree of the Emperor Claudius which ordered all Jews to leave Rome. 3 Paul went to visit them and then stayed and worked with them because they shared the same trade of tentmaking. 4 Every Sabbath he held discussions in the synagogue, trying to convince both Jews and Greeks.

5 When Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul was able to give himself wholly to preaching and proving to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah. 6 One day when they opposed him and insulted him, he shook the dust from his clothes in protest, saying, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. I am not to blame if from now on I go to the non-Jews.”

7 So Paul left there and went to the house of a God-fearing man named Titus Justus who lived next door to the synagogue. 8 A leading man of the synagogue, Crispus, along with his whole household, believed in the Lord. On hearing Paul, many more Corinthians believed and were baptized.

9 One night, in a vision, the Lord said to Paul, “Do not be afraid, but continue speaking and do not be silent, 10 for many people in this city are mine. I am with you, so no one will harm you.” 11 So Paul stayed a year and a half in that place, teaching the word of God among them.

12 When Gallio was governor of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the court. And they accused him, 13 “This man tries to persuade us to worship God in ways that are against the Law.”

14 Paul was about to speak in his own defense when Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of a misdeed or vicious crime, I would have to consider your complaint. 15 But since this is a quarrel about teachings and divine names that are proper to your own law, see to it yourselves: I refuse to judge such matters.” 16 And he sent them out of the court.

17 Then the people seized Sosthenes, a leading man of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal; but Gallio paid no attention to it.

18 Paul stayed on with the disciples in Corinth for many days; he then left them and sailed off with Priscilla and Aquila for Syria. And as he was no longer under a vow he had taken, he shaved his head before sailing from Cenchreae.

19 When they reached Ephesus, he left Priscilla and Aquila behind and entered the synagogue to hold discussions with the Jews. 20 But although they asked him to stay longer, he declined. 21 And he took leave of them saying, “God willing, I will come back to you again.” Then he set sail from Ephesus. 22 On landing at Caesarea, he went up to greet the Church, and then went down to Antioch.

• 23 After spending some time there, he left and traveled from place to place through Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening the disciples.

• 24 A certain Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, arrived at Ephesus. He was an eloquent speaker and an authority on the Scriptures, 25 and he had some knowledge of the way of the Lord. With great enthusiasm he preached and taught correctly about Jesus, although he knew only of John’s baptism. 26 As he began to speak boldly in the synagogue, Priscilla and Aquila heard him; so they took him home with them and explained to him the way more accurately. 27 As Apollos wished to go to Achaia, the believers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly strengthened those who, by God’s grace, had become believers, 28 for he vigorously refuted the Jews, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Messiah.

Acts 17

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:37:19 +0000

Difficulties in Thessalonica

17 • 1 Paul and Silas took the road through Amphipolis and Apollonia and came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. 2 As Paul used to do, he went to the synagogue and on three Sabbaths he held discussions with them about the Scriptures. 3 He explained and proved to them that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead, and he said, “Such a Messiah is this Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you.”

4 Some of them were convinced and joined Paul and Silas. So too did a great number of Greeks sympathetic to Judaism and many prominent women.

5 This only made the Jews jealous, so they gathered some of the good-for-nothing street loafers and formed a mob to start a riot in the town. They came to the house of Jason, in an attempt to bring Paul and Silas before the people’s assembly. 6 Not finding them there, they dragged off Jason and some believers to the city authorities shouting, “These people who have turned the world upside down have come here also, 7 and Jason has given them hospitality. They all disregard the decrees of the Emperor and claim that there is another king, Jesus.”

8 In this way they upset the crowd and the city officials who heard them. 9 The officials released Jason and the others on bail.

10 As soon as night fell, the believers sent Paul and Silas off to Beroea. On their arrival they went to the Jewish synagogue. 11 Its members were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica and welcomed the message with great enthusiasm. Each day they examined the Scriptures to see if these things were so. 12 Many of them came to believe, as did numerous influential Greek women, and many men as well.

13 But when the Jews of Thessalonica came to know that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul in Beroea also, they hurried there to cause a commotion and stir up the crowds. 14 At once, the believers sent Paul away to the coast; but both Silas and Timothy stayed in Beroea. 15 Paul was taken as far as Athens by his escort, who then returned to Beroea with instructions for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible.

Paul in Athens

• 16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he felt very uneasy at the sight of a city full of idols. 17 He held discussions in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing people, as well as daily debates in the public square with ordinary passersby.

18 Epicureans and Stoic philosophers debated with him, some of them asking, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others commented, “He sounds like a promoter of foreign gods,” because he was heard to speak of Jesus and ‘the Resurrection.’ 19 So they took Paul and led him off to the Areopagus hall, and said, “We would like to know what this new teaching is that you are talking about. 20 Some of the things we hear you say sound strange to us, and we would like to know what they mean.”

21 Indeed, all Athenian citizens, as well as the foreigners who live there, have as their favorite occupation talking about or listening to the latest news.

22 Then Paul stood up in the Areopagus hall and said, “Athenian citizens, I note that in every way you are very religious. 23 As I walked around looking at your shrines, I even discovered an altar with this inscription: To an unknown God. Now, what you worship as unknown, I intend to make known to you.

24 God, who made the world and all that is in it, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands, being as he is Lord of heaven and earth. 25 Nor does his worship depend on anything made by human hands, as if he were in need. Rather it is he who gives life and breath and everything else to everyone. 26 From one stock he created the whole human race to live throughout all the earth, and he fixed the time and the boundaries of each nation. 27 He wanted them to seek him by themselves, even if it were only by groping for him, succeed in finding him.

Yet he is not far from any one of us. 28 For in him we live and move and have our being, as some of your poets have said: for we too are his offspring. 29 If we are indeed God’s offspring, we ought not to think of divinity as something like a statue of gold or silver or stone, a product of human art and imagination.

30 But now God prefers to overlook this time of ignorance and he calls on all people to change their ways. 31 He has already set a day on which he will judge the world with justice through a man he has appointed. And, so that all may believe it, he has just given a sign by raising this man from the dead.”

32 When they heard Paul speak of a resurrection from death, some made fun of him, while others said, “We must hear you on this topic some other time.” 33 At that point Paul left. 34 But a few did join him, and believed. Among them were Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus court, a woman named Damaris, and some others.

Acts 16

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:36:28 +0000

Paul recruits Timothy

16 • 1 Paul traveled on to Derbe and then to Lystra. A disciple named Timothy lived there, whose mother was a believer of Jewish origin but whose father was a Greek. 2 As the believers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him, Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him. 3 So he took him and, because of the Jews of that place who all knew that his father was a Greek, he circumcised him.

4 As they traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions of the apostles and elders in Jerusalem, for the people to obey. 5 Meanwhile, the churches grew stronger in faith and increased in number every day.

6 They traveled through Phrygia and Galatia, because they had been prevented by the Holy Spirit from preaching the message in the province of Asia. 7 When they came to Mysia, they tried to go on to Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to do this. 8 So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas.

Paul goes to Macedonia

• 9 There one night Paul had a vision. A Macedonian stood before him and begged him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!” 10 When he awoke, he told us of this vision and we understood that the Lord was calling us to give the Good News to the Macedonian people.

11 So we put out to sea from Troas and sailed straight across to Samothrace Island, and the next day to Neapolis. 12 From there we went inland to Philippi, the leading city of the district of Macedonia, and a Roman colony. We spent some days in that city.

13 On the sabbath we went outside the city gate to the bank of the river where we thought the Jews would gather to pray. We sat down and began speaking to the women who were gathering there. 14 One of them was a God-fearing woman named Lydia from Thyatira City, a dealer in purple cloth.

As she listened, the Lord opened her heart to respond to what Paul was saying. 15 After she had been baptized together with her household, she invited us to her house, “If you think I am faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us to accept her invitation.

Paul and Silas in prison

• 16 One day, as we were on our way to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and gained much profit for her owners by her fortune-telling.

17 She followed Paul and the rest of us shouting, “These people are servants of the Most High God. They will make known to you a way of salvation.” 18 The girl did this for several days until Paul was annoyed. Then he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you, come out of her!” The spirit went out of her that very moment.

19 When her owners realized that all the profits they expected had gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the local authorities. 20 And when they had turned them over to the officials, they said, 21 “These people are Jews and they are disturbing our city. They have come here to introduce customs which are not lawful for us Romans to adopt or practice.”

22 So they set the crowd against them and the officials tore the clothes off Paul and Silas and ordered them to be flogged. 23 And after inflicting many blows on them, they threw them into prison, charging the jailer to guard them safely. 24 Upon receiving these instructions, he threw them into the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

A miraculous deliverance

25 About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening. 26 Suddenly a severe earthquake shook the place, rocking the prison to its foundations. Immediately all the doors flew open and the chains of all the prisoners fell off. 27 The jailer woke up to see the prison gates wide open. Thinking that the prisoners had escaped, he drew his sword to kill himself, 28 but Paul shouted to him, “Do not harm yourself! We are all still here.”

29 The jailer asked for a light, then rushed in, and fell at the feet of Paul and Silas. 30 After he had secured the other prisoners, he led them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 They answered, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you and your household will be saved.” 32 Then they spoke the word of God to him and to all his household.

33 Even at that hour of the night, the jailer took care of them and washed their wounds; and he and his whole household were baptized at once. 34 He led them to his house, spread a meal before them and joyfully celebrated with his whole household his newfound faith in God.

35 The next morning the officials sent police officers with the order, “Let those men go.” 36 So the jailer said to Paul and Silas, “The officials have sent an order for you and Silas to be released. You may leave and go in peace.”

37 But Paul said to him, “They flogged us publicly, and jailed us without trial, men who are Roman citizens; and now they want to smuggle us out secretly? Oh no! Let them come themselves and lead us out.”

38 The police officers reported this to the officials, who were afraid when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens. 39 So they came and apologized to them, took them out and asked them to leave the town.

40 Once outside the prison, Paul and Silas went to Lydia’s house where they met and encouraged the brothers and sisters, and then departed.

Acts 15

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:35:42 +0000

The council at Jerusalem

15 • 1 Some persons who had come from Judea to Antioch were teaching the brothers in this way, “Unless you are circumcised according to the law of Moses, you cannot be saved.”

2 Because of this there was trouble, and Paul and Barnabas had fierce arguments with them. For Paul told the people to remain as they were when they became believers. Finally those who had come from Jerusalem suggested that Paul and Barnabas and some others go up to Jerusalem to discuss the matter with the apostles and elders.

3 They were sent on their way by the Church. As they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria they reported how the non-Jews had turned to God, and there was great joy among all the brothers and sisters.

4 On their arrival in Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the Church, the apostles and the elders, to whom they told all that God had done through them. 5 Some believers, however, who belonged to the party of the Pharisees, stood up and said that non-Jewish men must be circumcised and instructed to keep the law of Moses. 6 So the apostles and elders met together to consider this matter.

7 As the discussions became heated, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that from the beginning God chose me among you so that non-Jews could hear the Good News from me and believe. 8 God, who can read hearts, put himself on their side by giving the Holy Spirit to them just as he did to us. 9 He made no distinction between us and them and cleansed their hearts through faith. 10 So why do you want to put God to the test? Why do you lay on the disciples a burden that neither our ancestors nor we ourselves were able to carry? 11 We believe, indeed, that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they are.”

12 The whole assembly kept silent as they listened to Paul and Barnabas tell of all the miraculous signs and wonders that God had done through them among the non-Jews.

• 13 After they had finished, James spoke up, “Listen to me, brothers. 14 Symeon has just explained how God first showed his care by taking a people for himself from non-Jewish nations. 15 And the words of the prophets agree with this, for Scripture says,

16 After this I will return and rebuild the booth of David which has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins and set it up again. 17 Then the rest of humanity will look for the Lord, and all the nations will be consecrated to my Name. So says the Lord, who does today 18 what he decided from the beginning.

19 Because of this, I think that we should not make difficulties for those non-Jews who are turning to God. 20 Let us just tell them not to eat food that is unclean from having been offered to idols; to keep themselves from prohibited marriages; and not to eat the flesh of animals that have been strangled, or any blood. 21 For from the earliest times Moses has been taught in every place, and every Sabbath his laws are recalled.”

The council’s letters

• 22 Then the apostles and elders together with the whole Church decided to choose representatives from among them to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. These were Judas, known as Barsabbas, and Silas, both leading men among the brothers. 23 They took with them the following letter:

Greetings from the apostles and elders, your brothers, to the believers of non-Jewish birth in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia. 24 We have heard that some persons from among us have worried you with their discussions and troubled your peace of mind. They were not appointed by us. 25 But now, it has seemed right to us in an assembly, to choose representatives and to send them to you, along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, 26 who have dedicated their lives to the service of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27 We send you then Judas and Silas who themselves will give you these instructions by word of mouth.

28 We, with the Holy Spirit, have decided not to put any other burden on you except what is necessary: 29 You are to abstain from blood from the meat of strangled animals and from prohibited marriages. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”

30 After saying good-bye, the messengers went to Antioch, where they assembled the community and handed them the letter. 31 When they read the news, all were delighted with the encouragement it gave them. 32 Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets, spoke at length to encourage and strengthen them. 33 After they had spent some time there, the messengers were sent off in peace by the believers; 34 Silas, however, preferred to stay with them and only Judas went off. 35 So Paul and Barnabas continued in Antioch, teaching and preaching with many others the word of God.

Paul’s second mission

• 36 After some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return and visit the believers in every town where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, to see how they are getting on.” 37 Barnabas wanted to take with them John also called Mark, 38 but Paul did not think it right to take him since he had not stayed with them to the end of their mission, but had turned back and left them in Pamphylia. 39 Such a sharp disagreement resulted that the two finally separated. Barnabas took Mark along with him and sailed for Cyprus. 40 Paul, for his part, chose Silas and left, commended by the brothers and sisters to the grace of the Lord.

41 He traveled throughout Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches there.

Acts 14

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:34:51 +0000

Iconium is evangelized

14 • 1 In Iconium Paul and Barnabas likewise went into the Jewish synagogue and preached in such a manner that a great number of Jews and Greeks believed. 2 But the Jews who would not believe stirred up the pagan people and poisoned their minds against the brothers. 3 In spite of this Paul and Barnabas spent a considerable time there. They spoke fearlessly of the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace with the miraculous signs and wonders he gave them power to do.

4 There, too, to the entire town was stirred by the Teaching. They were divided, some siding with the Jews and some with the apostles. 5 A move was made by pagans and Jews, together with their leaders, to harm the apostles and to stone them. 6 But Paul and Barnabas learned of this and fled to the Lycaonian towns of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding countryside, 7 where they continued preaching the Good News.

Lystra and Derbe

• Paul and Barnabas spent a fairly long time at Lystra. 8 There was a crippled man in Lystra who had never been able to stand or walk. 9 One day, as he was listening to the preaching, Paul looked intently at him and saw that he had the faith to be saved. 10 So he spoke to him in a loud voice, “In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I command you to stand up on your feet!” And the man stood up and began to walk around.

11 When the people saw what Paul had done, they cried out in the language of Lycaonia, “The gods have come to us in human likeness!” 12 They named Barnabas Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes, since he was the chief speaker. 13 Even the priest of the Temple of Zeus, which stood outside the town, brought oxen and garlands to the gate; together with the people, he wanted to offer sacrifice to them.

14 When Barnabas and Paul heard this, they tore their garments to show their indignation and rushed into the crowd, shouting, 15 “Friends, why are you doing this? We are human beings with the same weakness you have and we are now telling you to turn away from these useless things to the living God who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and all that is in them. 16 In past generations he allowed each nation to go its own way, 17 though he never stopped making himself known; for he is continually doing good, giving you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, providing you with food and filling your hearts with gladness.”

18 Even these words could hardly keep the crowd from offering sacrifice to them.

19 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. 20 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.

Return to Antioch

• 21 After proclaiming the gospel in that town and making many disciples, they returned to Lystra and Iconium and on to Antioch. 22 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.” 23 In each church they appointed elders and, after praying and fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had placed their faith.

24 Then they traveled through Pisidia, and came to Pamphylia. 25 They preached the Word in Perga and went down to Attalia. 26 From there they sailed back to Antioch, where they had first been commended to God’s grace for the task they had now completed.

27 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. 28 They spent a fairly long time there with the disciples.

Acts 13

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:33:59 +0000

Paul sent by the Church

13 • 1 There were at Antioch – in the Church which was there – prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Symeon known as Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod, and Saul. 2 On one occasion while they were celebrating the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said to them, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul to do the work for which I have called them.” 3 So, after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

Paul’s first mission

• 4 These then, sent by the Holy Spirit, went down to the port of Seleucia and from there sailed to Cyprus. 5 Upon their arrival in Salamis they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogue; John was with them as an assistant.

6 They traveled over the whole island as far as Paphos where they met a certain magician named Bar-Jesus, a Jewish false prophet 7 who lived with the governor Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man. He had summoned Barnabas and Saul and wanted to hear the word of God. 8 But they were opposed by the Elymas (that is, the magician) who tried to turn the governor from the faith.

9 Then Saul, also known as Paul, full of Holy Spirit, looked intently at him 10 and said, “You son of the devil, full of all kinds of deceit and enemy of all that is right! Will you never stop perverting the straight paths of the Lord? 11 Now the Lord’s hand is upon you; you will become blind and for a time you will not see the light of day.” At once a misty darkness came upon him, and he groped about for someone to lead him by the hand.

12 The governor saw what had happened; he believed, and was deeply impressed by the teaching about the Lord.

Paul in the capital of Pisidia

13 From Paphos, Paul and his companions set sail and came to Perga in Pamphylia. There John left them and returned to Jerusalem 14 while they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. On the Sabbath day they entered the synagogue and sat down. 15 After the reading of the Law and the Prophets, the officials of the synagogue sent this message to them, “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the assembly, please speak up.”

16 So Paul arose, motioned to them for silence and began, “Fellow Israelites and also all you who fear God, listen. 17 The God of our people Israel chose our ancestors, and after he had made them increase during their stay in Egypt, he led them out by powerful deeds. 18 For forty years he fed them in the desert, 19 and after he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance. 20 All this took four hundred and fifty years. 21 After that, he gave them Judges until Samuel the prophet. Then they asked for a king and God gave them Saul, son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, and he was king for forty years. 22 After that time, God removed him and raised up David as king, to whom he bore witness saying: I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will do all I want him to do.

23 It is from the descendants of David that God has now raised up the promised savior of Israel, Jesus. 24 Before he appeared, John proclaimed a baptism of repentance for all the people of Israel. 25 As John was ending his life’s work, he said: ‘I am not what you think I am, for after me another one is coming whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.’

26 Brothers, children and descendants of Abraham, and you also who fear God, it is to you that this message of salvation has been sent. 27 It is a fact that the inhabitants of Jerusalem and their leaders did not recognize Jesus. Yet in condemning him, they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath but not understood. 28 Even though they found no charge against him that deserved death, they asked Pilate to have him executed. 29 And after they had carried out all that had been written concerning him, they took him down from the cross and laid him in a tomb.

30 But God raised him from the dead, 31 and for many days thereafter he showed himself to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They have now become his witnesses before the people. 32 We ourselves announce to you this Good News: All that God promised our ancestors, 33 he has fulfilled for us, their descendants, by raising Jesus, according to what is written in the second psalm: You are my Son, today I have begotten you. 34 On raising him from the dead so that he would never know the decay of death, God fulfilled his promise: I will give you the holy blessings, the sure ones, that I kept for David.

35 Moreover, in another place it is said: You will not allow your holy one to suffer corruption. 36 Now David was subjected to corruption, for he died and was laid beside his ancestors after having served God’s purpose in his own time. 37 But the one God raised up – Jesus – did not know corruption. 38-39 Through him, fellow Israelites, you have forgiveness of sins, and this is our good news. Whoever believes in him is freed of everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.

40 Now watch out lest what was said by the prophet happen to you: 41 Take care, you cynics; be amazed and disappear! For I am about to do something in your days which you would never believe even if you had been told.”

42 As Paul and Barnabas withdrew, they were invited to speak again on the same subject the following Sabbath. 43 After that, when the assembly broke up, many Jews and devout God-fearing people followed them and to these they spoke, urging them to hold fast to the grace of God.

44 The following Sabbath almost the entire city gathered to listen to Paul, who spoke a fairly long time about the Lord. 45 But the presence of such a crowd made the Jews jealous. So they began to oppose with insults whatever Paul said.

46 Then Paul and Barnabas spoke out firmly, saying, “It was necessary that God’s word be first proclaimed to you, but since you now reject it and judge yourselves to be unworthy of eternal life, we turn to non-Jewish people. 47 For thus we were commanded by the Lord: I have set you as a light to the pagan nations, so that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”

48 Those who were not Jews rejoiced when they heard this and praised the message of the Lord, and all those destined for everlasting life believed in it. 49 Thus the Word spread throughout the whole region.

50 Some of the Jews, however, incited God-fearing women of the upper class and the leading men of the city, as well, and stirred up an intense persecution against Paul and Barnabas. Finally they had them expelled from their region. 51 The apostles shook the dust from their feet in protest against this people and went to Iconium, 52 leaving the disciples filled with joy and Holy Spirit.

Acts 12

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:33:00 +0000

James is put to death; Peter’s miraculous escape

12 • 1 About that time King Herod decided to persecute some members of the Church. 2 He had James, the brother of John, killed with the sword, 3 and when he saw how it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also.

This happened during the festival of the Unleavened Bread. 4 Herod had him seized and thrown into prison with four squads, each of four soldiers, to guard him. He wanted to bring him to trial before the people after the Passover feast, 5 but while Peter was kept in prison, the whole Church prayed earnestly for him.

6 On the very night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound by a double chain, while guards kept watch at the gate of the prison.

7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord stood there and a light shone in the prison cell. The angel tapped Peter on the side and woke him saying, “Get up quickly!” At once the chains fell from Peter’s wrists. The angel said, “Put on your belt and your sandals.” Peter did so, 8 and the angel added, “Now, put on your cloak and follow me.”

9 Peter followed him out; yet he did not realize that what was happening with the angel was real; he thought he was seeing a vision. 10 They passed the first guard and then the second and they came to the iron door leading out to the city, which opened of itself for them. They went out and made their way down a narrow alley, when suddenly the angel left him.

11 Then Peter recovered his senses and said, “Now I know that the Lord has sent his angel and has rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from all that the Jews had in store for me.”

12 Peter then found his bearings and came to the house of Mary, the mother of John also known as Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. 13 When he knocked at the outside door, a maid named Rhoda came to answer it. 14 On recognizing the voice of Peter she was so overcome with joy that, instead of opening the door, she ran in to announce that Peter was at the door. 15 They said to her, “You are crazy!” And as she insisted, they said, “It must be his angel.”

16 Meanwhile, Peter continued knocking and, when they finally opened the door, they were amazed to see him. 17 He motioned to them with his hand to be quiet and told them how the Lord had brought him out of prison. And he said to them, “Report this to James and to the brothers.” Then he left and went to another place.

18 At daybreak there was a great commotion among the soldiers over what had become of Peter. 19 Herod began a search for him and, not finding him, had the guards questioned and executed. After that, he came down from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there.

Herod’s death

20 At that time Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon. By general agreement they appeared before him and, after having won over Blastus, the king’s treasurer, they asked for peace, for their country was supplied with food from the territory of Herod. 21 On the appointed day Herod, clothed in royal robes, sat on his throne and addressed them. 22 So the assembled crowd shouted back, “A god is speaking, not a man!”

23 The angel of the Lord immediately struck Herod for he did not return the honor to God, and he died eaten by worms.

24 Meanwhile the word of God was increasing and spreading. 25 Barnabas and Saul carried out their mission and then came back from Jerusalem, taking with them John also called Mark.

Acts 11

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:32:02 +0000

Peter justifies his conduct

11 • 1 News came to the apostles and the brothers and sisters in Judea that even foreigners had received the Word of God. 2 So, when Peter went up to Jerusalem, these Jewish believers began to argue with him, 3 “You went to the home of uncircumcised people and ate with them!”

4 So Peter began to give them the facts as they had happened, 5 “I was at prayer in the city of Joppa when, in a trance, I saw a vision. Something like a large sheet came down from the sky and drew near to me, landing on the ground by its four corners. 6 As I stared at it, I saw four-legged creatures of the earth, wild beasts and reptiles, and birds of the sky. 7 Then I heard a voice saying to me: ‘Get up, Peter, kill and eat!’ 8 I replied, ‘Certainly not, Lord! No common or unclean creature has ever entered my mouth.’ 9 A second time the voice from the heavens spoke, “What God has made clean, you must not call unclean.” 10 This happened three times, and then it was all drawn up into the sky. 11 At that moment three men, who had been sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the house where we were staying. 12 The Spirit instructed me to go with them without hesitation; so these six brothers came along with me and we entered into the man’s house. 13 He told us how he had seen an angel standing in his house and telling him: Send someone to Joppa and fetch Simon, also known as Peter. 14 He will bring you a message by which you and all your household will be saved.”

15 I had begun to address them when suddenly the Holy Spirit came upon them, just as it had come upon us at the beginning. 16 Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 If, then, God had given them the same gift that he had given us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to resist God?”

18 When they heard this they set their minds at rest and praised God saying, “Then God has granted life-giving repentance to the pagan nations as well.”

The foundation of the Church at Antioch

• 19 Those who had been scattered because of the persecution over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message, but only to the Jews. 20 But there were some natives of Cyprus and Cyrene among them who, on coming into Antioch, spoke also to the Greeks, giving them the good news of the Lord Jesus. 21 The hand of the Lord was with them so that a great number believed and turned to the Lord.

22 News of this reached the ears of the Church in Jerusalem, so they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23 When he arrived and saw the manifest signs of God’s favor, he rejoiced and urged them all to remain firmly faithful to the Lord; 24 for he himself was a good man filled with Holy Spirit and faith. Thus large crowds came to know the Lord.

25 Then Barnabas went off to Tarsus to look for Saul 26 and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they had meetings with the Church and instructed many people. It was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians.

• 27 At that time some prophets went down from Jerusalem to Antioch 28 and one of them, named Agabus, inspired by the Holy Spirit, foretold that a great famine would spread over the whole world. This actually happened in the days of the Emperor Claudius. 29 So the disciples decided, within their means, to set something aside and to send relief to the brothers and sisters who were living in Judea. 30 They did this and sent their donations to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.

Acts 10

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:24:50 +0000

The baptism of Cornelius

10 • 1 There was in Caesarea a man named Cornelius, captain of what was called the Italian Battalion. 2 He was a religious and God-fearing man together with his whole household. He gave generously to the people and constantly prayed to God.

3 One afternoon at about three he had a vision in which he clearly saw an angel of God coming towards him and calling him, “Cornelius!” 4 He stared at the vision with awe and said, “What is it, sir?” And the angel answered, “Your prayers and your alms have just been recalled before God. 5 Now send some men to Joppa and summon a certain Simon also known as Peter; 6 he is the guest of Simon, a tanner, who lives beside the sea.”

7 As soon as the angel who spoke to him departed, Cornelius called two of his servants and a devout soldier from among those attached to his service, 8 and after having explained everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.

9 The next day, while they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up to the roof at about noon to pray. 10 He became hungry and wished to eat, but while they were preparing food, he fell into a trance. 11 The heavens were opened to him and he saw an object that looked like a large sheet coming down, until it rested on the ground by its four corners. 12 In it were all kinds of four-legged animals of the earth, reptiles and birds.

13 Then a voice said to him, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!” 14 But Peter replied, “Certainly not, Lord! I have never eaten any defiled or unclean creature.” 15 And again a second time the voice spoke, “What God has made clean, you must not call unclean.” 16 This happened three times and then the sheet was taken up again into the sky.

17 While Peter was still puzzling over the meaning of the vision he had seen, the messengers of Cornelius arrived at the gate asking for the house of Simon. 18 They called out to inquire whether Simon, also known as Peter, was staying there. 19 At that moment, as Peter continued pondering on the vision, the Spirit spoke to him, “There are men looking for you; 20 get up and go downstairs and follow them without hesitation, for I have sent them.”

21 So Peter went and said to the men, “I am the one you are looking for. What brings you here?” They answered, 22 “He who sent us is Captain Cornelius. He is an upright and God-fearing man, well respected by all the Jewish people. He has been instructed by a holy angel to summon you to his house, so that he may listen to what you have to say.” 23 So Peter invited them in and put them up for the night.

The next day he went off with them and some of the believers from Joppa accompanied him. 24 The following day, he arrived in Caesarea where Cornelius was expecting them; he had called together his relatives and close friends. 25 As Peter was about to enter, Cornelius went to him, fell on his knees and bowed low. 26 But Peter lifted him up saying, “Stand up, for I too am a human being.”

27 After talking with him, Peter entered and found many people assembled there. 28 Then he said to them, “You know that it is forbidden for Jews to associate with anyone of another nation or to enter their houses. But God has made it clear to me that no one should call any person common or unclean; 29 because of this I came at once when I was sent for. Now I should like to know why you sent for me.”

30 Cornelius then answered, “Just three days ago at this time, about three in the afternoon, I was praying in my house when a man in shining clothes stood before me 31 and said to me: ‘Cornelius, God has heard your prayer, and your alms have been remembered before him. 32 Send someone, therefore, to Joppa and ask for Simon, also known as Peter, who is guest at the house of Simon the tanner by the sea.’ 33 So I sent for you at once and you have been kind enough to come. Now we are all here in God’s presence, waiting to hear all that the Lord has commanded you to say.”

34 Peter then spoke to them, “Truly, I realize that God does not show partiality, 35 but in all nations he listens to everyone who fears God and does good. 36 And this is the message he has sent to the children of Israel, the good news of peace he has proclaimed through Jesus Christ, who is the Lord of all. 37 No doubt you have heard of the event that occurred throughout the whole country of the Jews, beginning from Galilee, after the baptism John preached. 38 You know how God anointed Jesus the Nazarean with Holy Spirit and power. He went about doing good and healing all who were under the devil’s power, because God was with him; 39 we are witnesses of all that he did throughout the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem itself. Yet they put him to death by hanging him on a wooden cross.

40 But God raised him to life on the third day and let him manifest himself, 41 not to all the people, but to the witnesses that were chosen beforehand by God – to us who ate and drank with him after his resurrection from death. 42 And he commanded us to preach to the people and to bear witness that he is the one appointed by God to judge the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets say of him, that everyone who believes in him has forgiveness of sins through his Name.”

44 Peter was still speaking when the Holy Spirit came upon all who listened to the Word. 45 And the believers of Jewish origin who had come with Peter were amazed, “Why! God gives and pours the Holy Spirit on foreigners also!” 46 For indeed this happened: they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.

47 Then Peter declared, “Can we refuse to baptize with water these people who have received the Holy Spirit, just as we have?” 48 So he had them baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. After that they asked him to remain with them for some days.

Acts 9

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:23:55 +0000

Saul meets Jesus

9 • 1 Meanwhile Saul considered nothing but violence and death for the disciples of the Lord. 2 He went to the High Priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues of Damascus that would authorize him to arrest and bring to Jerusalem anyone he might find, man or woman, belonging to the Way.

3 As he traveled along and was approaching Damascus, a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul! Why do you persecute me?” 5 And he asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The voice replied, “I am Jesus whom you persecute. 6 Now get up and go into the city; there you will be told what you are to do.”

7 The men who were traveling with him stood there speechless: they had heard the sound, but could see no one. 8 Saul got up from the ground and, opening his eyes, he could not see. They took him by the hand and brought him to Damascus. 9 He was blind and he did not eat or drink for three days.

10 There was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias, to whom the Lord called in a vision, “Ananias!” He answered, “Here I am, Lord!” 11 Then the Lord said to him, “Go at once to Straight Street and ask, at the house of Judas, for a man of Tarsus named Saul. You will find him praying, 12 for he has just seen in a vision that a man named Ananias has come in and placed his hands upon him, to restore his sight.”

13 Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many sources about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem, 14 and now he is here with authority from the High Priest to arrest all who call upon your name.” 15 But the Lord said to him, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to bring my name to the pagan nations and their kings, and the people of Israel as well. 16 I myself will show him how much he will have to suffer for my name.”

17 So Ananias left and went to the house. He laid his hands upon Saul and said, “Saul, my brother, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me to you so that you may receive your sight and be filled with Holy Spirit.” 18 Immediately something like scales fell from his eyes and he could see; he got up and was baptized. 19 Then he took food and was strengthened.

• For several days Saul stayed with the disciples at Damascus, 20 and he soon began to proclaim in the synagogues that Jesus was the Son of God. 21 All who heard were astonished and said, “Is this not the one who cast out in Jerusalem all those calling upon this Name? Did he not come here to bring them bound before the chief priests?”

22 But Saul grew more and more powerful, and he confounded the Jews living in Damascus when he proved that Jesus was the Messiah.

23 After a fairly long time, the Jews conspired together to kill him. 24 But Saul became aware of their plan: Day and night they kept watch at the city gate in order to kill him. 25 So his disciples took him one night and let him down from the top of the wall, lowering him in a basket.

26 When Saul came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples there, but they were afraid of him because they could not believe that he was a disciple. 27 But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He recounted to them how Saul had seen the Lord on his way and the words the Lord had spoken to him. He told them also how Saul had preached boldly in the name of Jesus.

28 Then Saul began to live with them. He moved about freely in Jerusalem and preached openly in the name of the Lord. 29 He also spoke to the Hellenists and argued with them, but they wanted to kill him. 30 When the believers learned of this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

31 Meanwhile, the Church had peace. It was building up throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria with eyes turned to the Lord and filled with comfort from the Holy Spirit.

Peter visits the churches

• 32 As Peter traveled around, he went to visit the saints who lived in Lydda. 33 There he found a man named Aeneas who was paralyzed, and had been bedridden for eight years. 34 Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; get up and make your bed!” And the man got up at once. 35 All the people living in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.

36 There was a disciple in Joppa named Tabitha, which means Dorcas or Gazelle. She was always doing good works and helping the poor. 37 At that time she fell sick and died. After having washed her body, they laid her in the upstairs room.

38 As Lydda is near Joppa, the disciples, on hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him with the request, “Please come to us without delay.”

39 So Peter went with them. On his arrival they took him upstairs to the room. All the widows crowded around him in tears, showing him the clothes that Dorcas had made while she was with them. 40 Peter made them all leave the room and then he knelt down and prayed. Turning to the dead body he said, “Tabitha, stand up.” She opened her eyes, looked at Peter and sat up. 41 Peter gave her his hand and helped her up. Then he called in the saints and widows and presented her to them alive. 42 This became known throughout all of Joppa and many people believed in the Lord because of it. 43 As for Peter, he remained for some time in Joppa at the house of Simon, a tanner of leather.

Acts 8

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:23:03 +0000

8 • 1 Saul was there, approving his murder. This was the beginning of a great persecution against the Church in Jerusalem. All, except the apostles, were scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria. 2 Devout men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. 3 Saul meanwhile was trying to destroy the Church; he entered house after house and dragged off men and women and had them put in jail.

Philip proclaims the word in Samaria

• 4 At the same time those who were scattered went about preaching the word. 5 Philip went down to a town of Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there. 6 All the people paid close attention to what Philip said as they listened to him and saw the miraculous signs that he did. 7 For in cases of possession, the unclean spirits came out shrieking loudly. Many people who were paralyzed or crippled were healed. 8 So there was great joy in that town.

Simon the magician

• 9 A certain man named Simon had come to this town, practicing magic. He held the Samaritans spellbound and passed himself off as a very important person. 10 All the people, from the last to the greatest, put their trust in him, saying, “This is the Power of God, the Great One.” 11 And they followed him because he had held them under the spell of his magic for a long time. 12 But when they came to believe Philip who announced to them the Kingdom of God and Jesus Christ as Savior, both men and women were baptized.

13 Simon himself believed and was baptized, and would not depart from Philip. He was astonished when he saw the miraculous signs and wonders that happened.

14 Now, when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that the Samaritans had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. 15 They went down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 for he had not as yet come down upon any of them since they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 So Peter and John laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.

18 When Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money 19 saying, “Give me also this power, so that anyone upon whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”

20 Peter replied, “May you and your money perish for thinking that the Gift of God could be bought with money! 21 You cannot share in this since you do not understand the things of God. 22 Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours and pray to the Lord that you may be forgiven such a wrong way of thinking; 23 I see you are poisoned with bitterness and in the grip of sin.” 24 Simon answered, “Pray to the Lord for me yourselves, so that none of these things you spoke of will happen to me.”

25 Peter and John gave their testimony and spoke the word of the Lord. And they went back to Jerusalem, bringing the Good News to many Samaritan villages along the way.

Philip baptizes the Ethiopian

• 26 An angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south towards the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza, the desert road.” 27 So he set out and it happened that an Ethiopian was passing along that way. He was an official in charge of the treasury of the queen of the Ethiopians; he had come on pilgrimage to Jerusalem 28 and was on his way home. He was sitting in his carriage and reading the prophet Isaiah.

29 The Spirit said to Philip, “Go and catch up with that carriage.” 30 So Philip ran up and heard the man reading the prophet Isaiah; and he asked, “Do you really understand what you are reading?” The Ethiopian replied, 31 “How can I, unless someone explains it to me?” He then invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. 32 This was the passage of Scripture he was reading:

He was led like a sheep to be slaughtered; like a lamb that is dumb before the shearer, he did not open his mouth. 33 He was humbled and deprived of his rights. Who can speak of his descendants? For he was uprooted from the earth.

34 The official asked Philip, “Tell me, please, does the prophet speak of himself or of someone else?”

35 Then Philip began to tell him the Good News of Jesus, using this text of Scripture as his starting point. 36 As they traveled down the road they came to a place where there was some water. Then the Ethiopian official said, “Look, here is water; what is to keep me from being baptized?” (37)

38 Then he ordered the carriage to stop; both Philip and the Ethiopian went down into the water and Philip baptized him. 39 When they came out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord took Philip away. The Ethiopian saw him no more, but he continued on his way full of joy.

40 Philip found himself at Azotus, and he went about announcing the Good News in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.

Acts 7

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:21:48 +0000

7 1 So the High Priest asked him: “Is it true?” He answered, “Brothers and fathers, listen to me.

2 The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he went to live in Haran. And he said to him: 3 ‘Leave your land and your relatives and go to the land which I will show you.’ 4 So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After the death of his father, God made him move to this land in which you now dwell. 5 And there he did not give him anything that was his own, not even the smallest portion of land to put his foot on, but promised to give it to him in possession and to his descendants, though he had no child. 6 So God spoke: ‘Your descendants shall live in a strange land, they shall be enslaved and maltreated for four hundred years. 7 So I shall call the nation which they serve as slaves to render an account for it. They will come out and worship me in this place.’

8 He made with him the covenant of circumcision. And so, at the birth of his son Isaac, Abraham circumcised him on the eighth day. Isaac did the same to Jacob, and Jacob to the twelve patriarchs.

9 The patriarchs envied Joseph so they sold him into Egypt. But God was with him. 10 He rescued him from all his afflictions, granted him wisdom and made him please Pharaoh king of Egypt, who appointed him governor of Egypt and of the whole of his household. 11 Then there was famine in all the land of Egypt and Canaan; it was a great misery and our ancestors did not have anything to eat. 12 Upon learning that there was wheat in Egypt, Jacob sent our ancestors there on their first visit. 13 On the second visit, Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Pharaoh came to know the family of Joseph. 14 Joseph commanded that his father Jacob be brought to him with the whole of his family of seventy-five persons. 15 Jacob then went down to Egypt where he and our ancestors died. 16They were transferred to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor at Shechem.

17 As the time of promise drew near, which God had made to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt 18 until came another king who did not know Joseph. 19 Dealing cunningly with our race, he forced our ancestors to abandon their newborn infants and let them die. 20 At that time Moses was born, and God looked kindly on him. For three months he was nursed in the home of his father; 21 and when they abandoned him, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and raised him as her own son. 22 So Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He was mighty in word and deed. 23 And when he was forty years old, he wanted to visit his own people, the Israelites. 24 When he saw one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and killed the Egyptian. 25 He thought his kinsfolk would understand that God was sending him to them as a liberator, but they did not understand. 26 On the following day, he came to them as they were fighting and tried to reconcile them, saying: ‘You are brothers, why do you hurt each other?’ 27 At that moment, the one who was injuring his companion rebuffed him saying: ‘Who appointed you as our leader and judge? 28 Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ 29 When Moses heard this, he fled and went to live as a stranger in the land of Midian where he had two sons.

30 After forty years an angel appeared to him in the desert of Mount Sinai in the flame of a burning bush. 31 Moses was astonished at the vision. And as he approached to look at it, he heard the voice of the Lord: 32 ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’ Moses was filled with fear and did not dare look at it. 33 But the Lord said to him: ‘Take off your sandals for the place where you stand is holy ground. 34 I have seen the affliction of my people in Egypt and heard them weeping, and I have come down to free them. And now, get up! I am sending you to Egypt.’

35 This Moses whom they rejected saying: ‘Who appointed you leader and judge?’ God sent as leader and liberator with the assistance of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 He led them out, performing signs and wonders in Egypt, at the Red Sea and in the desert for forty years. 37 This Moses is the one who said to the Israelites: ‘God will give you a prophet like me from among your own people.’ 38 This is the one who in the Assembly in the desert became the mediator between the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai and our ancestors; and he received the words of life that he might communicate them to us.

39 But him our ancestors refused to obey, they rejected him and turned their hearts to Egypt, saying to Aaron: 40 ‘Give us gods to lead us since we do not know what has happened to that Moses who brought us out of Egypt.’ 41 So in those days, they fashioned a calf, offered sacrifices to their idol and rejoiced in the work of their hands. 42 So God departed from them and let them worship the stars of heaven, as it is written in the Book of the Prophets: ‘People of Israel, did you offer me burnt offerings and sacrifices for forty years in the desert? 43 No, you carried instead the tent of Moloch and the star of the god Rehan, images you made to worship, for this I will banish you farther than Babylon.’

44 Our ancestors had the Tent of Meeting in the desert, for God had directed Moses to build it according to the pattern he had seen. 45 Our ancestors received it and brought it under the command of Joshua into the lands of the pagans that they conquered and whom God expelled before them. They kept it until the days of David 46 who found favor with God and asked him to let him build a house for the God of Jacob. 47 However, it was Solomon who built that temple.

48 In reality, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands as the Prophet says: 49 ‘Heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool. What house will you build for me, says the Lord, how could you give me a dwelling place? 50 Was it not I who made all these things?’

51 But you are a stubborn people, you hardened your hearts and closed your ears. You have always resisted the Holy Spirit just as your fathers did. 52 Was there a prophet whom your ancestors did not persecute? They killed those who announced the coming of the Just One whom you have now betrayed and murdered, 53 you who received the Law through the angels but did not fulfill it.”

54 When they heard this reproach, they were enraged and they gnashed their teeth against Stephen. 55 But he, full of the Holy Spirit, fixed his eyes on heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus at God’s right hand, 56 so he declared: “I see the heavens open and the Son of Man at the right hand of God.”

57 But they shouted and covered their ears with their hands and rushed together upon him. 58 They brought him out of the city and stoned him, and the witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 As they were stoning him, Stephen prayed saying: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 Then he knelt down and said in a loud voice: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he died.

Acts 6

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:20:47 +0000

The choosing of the seven

6 • 1 In those days, as the number of disciples grew, the so-called Hellenists complained against the so-called Hebrews, because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. 2 So the Twelve summoned the whole body of disciples together and said, “It is not right that we should neglect the word of God to serve at tables. 3 So, friends, choose from among yourselves seven respected men full of Spirit and wisdom, that we may appoint them to this task. 4 As for us, we shall give ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.”

5 The whole community agreed and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and Holy Spirit; Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenus and Nicolaus of Antioch who was a proselyte. 6 They presented these men to the apostles who first prayed over them and then laid hands upon them.

7 The Word of God continued to spread, and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly and even many priests accepted the faith.

The story of Stephen

• 8 Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people. 9 Some persons then came forward, who belonged to the so-called Synagogue of Freedmen from Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia and Asia. 10 They argued with Stephen but they could not match the wisdom and the spirit with which he spoke. 11 As they were unable to face the truth, they bribed some men to say, “We heard him speak against Moses and against God.”

12 So they stirred up the people, the elders and the teachers of the Law; they took him by surprise, seized him and brought him before the Council. 13 Then they produced false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking against our Holy Place and the Law. 14 We even heard him say that Jesus the Nazarean will destroy our Holy Place and change the customs which Moses handed down to us.” 15 And all who sat in the Council fixed their eyes on him, and his face appeared to them like the face of an angel.

Acts 5

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:19:55 +0000

The fraud of Ananias and Sapphira

5 • 1Another man named Ananias, in agreement with his wife Sapphira, likewise sold a piece of land; 2 with his wife’s knowledge he put aside some of the proceeds, and the rest he turned over to the apostles.

3 Then Peter said to him, “Ananias, how is it that you let Satan fill your heart and why do you intend to deceive the Holy Spirit by keeping some of the proceeds of your land for yourself? 4 Who obliged you to sell it? And after it was sold, could you not have kept all the money? How could you think of such a thing? You have not deceived us but God.”

5 Upon hearing these words, Ananias fell down and died. Great fear came upon all who heard of it; 6 the young men stood up, wrapped his body and carried it out for burial.

7 About three hours later Ananias’s wife came but she was not aware of what had happened. 8 Peter challenged her, “Tell me whether you sold that piece of land for this price?” She said, “Yes, that was the price.” 9 Peter replied, “How could you two agree to put the Holy Spirit to the test? Those who buried your husband are at the door and they will carry you out as well.”

10 With that, she fell dead at his feet. The young men came in, found her dead and carried her out for burial beside her husband. 11 And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of it.

• 12 Many miraculous signs and wonders were done among the people through the hands of the apostles. The believers, of one accord, used to meet in Solomon’s Porch. 13 None of the others dared to join them, but the people held them in high esteem. 14 So an ever increasing number of men and women, believed in the Lord. 15 The people carried the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and on mats, so that when Peter passed by, at least his shadow might fall on some of them. 16 The people gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those who were troubled by unclean spirits, and all of them were healed.

The apostles arrested again

• 17 The High Priest and all his supporters, that is the party of the Sadducees, became very jealous of the apostles; 18 so they arrested them and had them thrown into the public jail. 19 But an angel of the Lord opened the door of the prison during the night, brought them out, and said to them, 20 “Go and stand in the Temple court and tell the people the whole of this living message.” 21 Accordingly they entered the Temple at dawn and resumed their teaching.

When the High Priest and his supporters arrived, they called together the Sanhedrin, that is the full Council of the elders of Israel. They sent word to the jail to have the prisoners brought in. 22 But when the Temple guards arrived at the jail, they did not find them inside, so they returned with the news, 23 “We found the prison securely locked and the prison guards at their post outside the gate, but when we opened the gate, we found no one inside.”

24 Upon hearing these words, the captain of the Temple guard and the high priests were baffled, wondering where all of this would end. 25 Just then someone arrived with the report, “Look, those men whom you put in prison are standing in the Temple, teaching the people.” 26 Then the captain went off with the guards and brought them back, but without any show of force, for fear of being stoned by the people.

27 So they brought them in and made them stand before the Council and the High Priest questioned them, 28 “We gave you strict orders not to preach such a Savior; but you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you intend charging us with the killing of this man.” 29 To this Peter and the apostles replied, “Better for us to obey God rather than any human authority!

30 The God of our ancestors raised Jesus whom you killed by hanging him on a wooden post. 31 God set him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to grant repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. 32 We are witnesses to all these things, as well as the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.”

• 33 When the Council heard this, they became very angry and wanted to kill them. 34 But one of them, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the Law highly respected by the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin. He ordered the men to be taken outside for a few minutes 35 and then he spoke to the assembly.

“Fellow Israelites, consider well what you intend to do to these men. 36 For some time ago Theudas came forward, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men joined him. But he was killed and all his followers were dispersed or disappeared. 37 After him, Judas the Galilean appeared at the time of the census and persuaded many people to follow him. But he too perished and his whole following was scattered. 38 So, in this present case, I advise you to have nothing to do with these men. Leave them alone. If their project or activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself. 39 If, on the other hand, it is from God, you will not be able to destroy it and you may indeed find yourselves fighting against God.”

The Council let themselves be persuaded. 40 They called in the apostles and had them whipped, and ordered them not to speak again of Jesus Savior. Then they set them free.

41 The apostles went out from the Council rejoicing that they were considered worthy to suffer disgrace for the sake of the Name. 42 Day after day, both in the Temple and in people’s homes, they continued to teach and to proclaim that Jesus was the Messiah.

Acts 4

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:19:05 +0000

Peter and John are arrested

4 • 1 While Peter and John were still speaking to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them. 2 They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming that resurrection from the dead had been proved in the case of Jesus. 3 Since it was already evening, they arrested them and put them in custody until the following day. 4 But despite this, many of those who heard the Message believed and their number increased to about five thousand.

5 The next day, the Jewish leaders, elders and teachers of the Law assembled in Jerusalem. 6 Annas, the High Priest, Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and all who were of the high priestly class were there. 7 They brought Peter and John before them and began to question them, “How did you do this? Whose name did you use?”

8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, spoke up, “Leaders of the people! Elders! 9 It is a fact that we are being examined today for a good deed done to a cripple. How was he healed? 10 You and all the people of Israel must know that this man stands before you cured through the Name of Jesus Christ the Nazarean. You had him crucified, but God raised him from the dead. 11 Jesus is the stone rejected by you the builders which has become the cornerstone. 12 There is no salvation in anyone else, for there is no other Name given to humankind all over the world by which we may be saved.”

13 They were astonished at the boldness of Peter and John, considering that they were uneducated and untrained men. They recognized, also, that they had been with Jesus, 14 but, as the man who had been cured stood beside them, they could make no reply.

15 So they ordered them to leave the council room while they consulted with one another. 16 They asked, “What shall we do with these men? Everyone who lives in Jerusalem knows that a remarkable sign has been given through them, and we cannot deny it. 17 But to stop this from spreading any further among the people, let us warn them never again to speak to anyone in the name of Jesus.” 18 So they called them back and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.

19 But Peter and John answered them, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s eyes for us to obey you rather than God. 20 We cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.” 21 Then the council threatened them once more and let them go. They could find no way of punishing them because of the people who glorified God for what had happened, 22 for the man who had been miraculously healed was over forty years old.

The prayer of the community

• 23 As soon as Peter and John were set free, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and elders had said to them.

24 When they heard it, they raised their voices as one and called upon God, “Sovereign Lord, maker of heaven and earth, of the sea and everything in them, 25 you have put these words in the mouth of David, our father and your servant, through the Holy Spirit: Why did the pagan nations rage and the people conspire in folly? 26 The kings of the earth were aligned and the princes gathered together against the Lord and against his Messiah.

27 For indeed in this very city Herod with Pontius Pilate, and the pagans together with the people of Israel conspired against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28 Thus, indeed, they brought about whatever your powerful will had decided from all time would happen. 29 But now, Lord, see their threats against us and enable your servants to speak your word with all boldness. 30 Stretch out your hand to heal and to work signs and wonders through the Name of Jesus your holy servant.”

31 When they had prayed, the place where they were gathered together shook, and they were all filled with Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God boldly.

An attempt to share everything

• 32 The whole community of believers was one in heart and mind. No one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but rather they shared all things in common. 33 With great power the apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, for all of them were living in an exceptional time of grace.

34 There was no needy person among them, for those who owned land or houses, sold them and brought the proceeds of the sale. 35 And they laid it at the feet of the apostles who distributed it according to each one’s need. 36 This is what a certain Joseph did. He was a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas, meaning: “The encouraging one.” 37 He sold a field which he owned and handed the money to the apostles.

Acts 3

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:18:06 +0000

Peter and John cure a lame man

3 • 1 Once when Peter and John were going up to the Temple at three in the afternoon, the hour for prayer, 2 a man crippled from birth was being carried in. Every day they would bring him and put him at the temple gate called “Beautiful”; there he begged from those who entered the Temple.

3 When he saw Peter and John on their way into the Temple, he asked for alms. 4 Then Peter with John at his side looked straight at him and said, “Look at us.” 5 So he looked at them, expecting to receive something from them. 6 But Peter said, “I have neither silver nor gold, but what I have I give you: In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, walk!”

7 Then he took the beggar by his right hand and helped him up. At once his feet and ankles became firm, 8 and jumping up he stood on his feet and began to walk. And he went with them into the Temple walking and leaping and praising God.

9 All the people saw him walking and praising God; 10 they recognized him as the one who used to sit begging at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, and they were all astonished and amazed at what had happened to him.

11 While he clung to Peter and John, all the people, struck with astonishment, came running to them in Solomon’s Porch, as it was called. 12 When Peter saw the people, he said to them,

“Fellow Israelites, why are you amazed at this? Why do you stare at us as if it was by some power or holiness of our own that we made this man walk? 13 The God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our ancestors has glorified his servant Jesus whom you handed over to death and denied before Pilate, when even Pilate had decided to release him. 14 You rejected the Holy and Just One, and you insisted that a murderer be released to you. 15 You killed the Master of life, but God raised him from the dead and we are witnesses to this. 16 It is his Name, and faith in his Name, that has healed this man whom you see and recognize. The faith that comes through Jesus has given him wholeness in the presence of all of you.

17 Yet I know that you acted out of ignorance, as did your leaders. 18 God has fulfilled in this way what he had foretold through all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer.

19 Repent, then, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out 20 and the time of refreshment may come by the mercy of God, when he sends the Messiah appointed for you, Jesus. 21 For he must remain in heaven until the time of the universal restoration which God spoke of long ago through his holy prophets.

22 Moses foretold this when he said: The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall listen to him in all that he says to you. 23 Whoever does not listen to that prophet is to be cut off from among his people.

24 In fact, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel onward, have announced the events of these days. 25 You are the children of the prophets and heirs of the covenant that God gave to your ancestors when he said to Abraham: All the families of the earth will be blessed through your descendant. 26 It is to you first that God sends his Servant; he raised him to life to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.”

Acts 2

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:17:22 +0000

The coming of the Holy Spirit

2 • 1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly out of the sky came a sound like a strong rushing wind and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. There appeared 3 tongues as if of fire which parted and came to rest upon each one of them. 4 All were filled with Holy Spirit and began to speak other languages, as the Spirit enabled them to speak.

5 Staying in Jerusalem were religious Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd gathered, all excited because each heard them speaking in his own language. 7 Full of amazement and wonder, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 How is it that we hear them in our own native language? 9 Here are Parthians, Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, 11 both Jews and foreigners who accept Jewish beliefs, Cretians and Arabians; and all of us hear them proclaiming in our own language what God, the Savior, does.

12 They were amazed and greatly confused, and they kept asking one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But others laughed and said, “These people are drunk.”

Peter addresses the crowd

• 14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven and, with a loud voice, addressed them, “Fellow Jews and all foreigners now staying in Jerusalem, listen to what I have to say. 15 These people are not drunk as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16 Indeed what the prophet Joel spoke about has happened:

17In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on every mortal. Your sons and daughters will speak through the Holy Spirit; your young men will see visions and your old men will have dreams.

18 In those days I will pour out my Spirit even on my servants, both men and women, and they will be prophets.

19 I will perform miracles in the sky above and wonders on the earth below. 20 The sun will be darkened and the moon will turn red as blood, before the great and glorious Day of the Lord comes.

21 And then, whoever calls upon the Name of the Lord will be saved.

22 Fellow Israelites, listen to what I am going to tell you about Jesus of Nazareth. God accredited him and through him did powerful deeds and wonders and signs in your midst, as you well know. 23 You delivered him to sinners to be crucified and killed, and in this way the purpose of God from all times was fulfilled. 24 But God raised him to life and released him from the pain of death, because it was impossible for him to be held in the power of death. 25 David spoke of him when he said: I saw the Lord before me at all times; he is by my side, that I may not be shaken. 26 Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced; my body too will live in hope. 27 Because you will not forsake me in the abode of the dead, nor allow your Holy One to experience corruption. 28 You have made known to me the paths of life, and your presence will fill me with joy.

29 Friends, I don’t need to prove that the patriarch David died and was buried; his tomb is with us to this day. 30 But he knew that God had sworn to him that one of his descendants would sit upon his throne and, 31 as he was a prophet, he foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah. So he said that he would not be left in the region of the dead, nor would his body experience corruption.

32 This Messiah is Jesus and we are all witnesses that God raised him to life. 33 He has been exalted at God’s right side and the Father has entrusted the Holy Spirit to him; this Spirit he has just poured upon us as you now see and hear.

34 And look: David did not ascend into heaven, but he himself said: The Lord said to my Lord: sit at my right side 35 until I make your enemies a stool for your feet. 36 Let Israel then know for sure that God has made Lord and Christ this Jesus whom you crucified.”

37 When they heard this, they were deeply troubled. And they asked Peter and the other apostles, “What shall we do, brothers?”

38 Peter answered: “Each of you must repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, so that your sins may be forgiven. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise of God was made to you and your children, and to all those from afar whom our God may call.”

40 With many other words Peter gave the message and appealed to them saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” 41 So those who accepted his word were baptized; some three thousand persons were added to their number that day.

The first community

• 42 They were faithful to the teaching of the apostles, the common life of sharing, the breaking of bread and the prayers.

43A holy fear came upon all the people, for many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44 Now all the believers lived together and shared all their belongings. 45 They would sell their property and all they had and distribute the proceeds to others according to their need. 46 Each day they met together in the Temple area; they broke bread in their homes; they shared their food with great joy and simplicity of heart; 47 they praised God and won the people’s favor. And every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

Acts 1

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:16:31 +0000

Acts

Jesus taken up to heaven

1 • 1 In the first part of my work, Theophilus, I wrote of all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning 2 until the day when he ascended to heaven.

But first he had instructed through the Holy Spirit the apostles he had chosen. 3 After his passion, he presented himself to them, giving many signs that he was alive; over a period of forty days he appeared to them and taught them concerning the kingdom of God. 4 Once when he had been eating with them, he told them, “Do not leave Jerusalem but wait for the fulfillment of the Father’s promise about which I have spoken to you: 5 John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit within a few days.”

6 When they had come together, they asked him, “Is it now that you will restore the Kingdom of Israel?” 7 And he answered, “It is not for you to know the time and the steps that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, even to the ends of the earth.”

9 After Jesus said this, he was taken up before their eyes and a cloud hid him from their sight. 10 While they were still looking up to heaven where he went, suddenly, two men dressed in white stood beside them 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking up at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven, will return in the same way as you have seen him go there.”

The disciples await the Holy Spirit

• 12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the Mount called Olives, which is a fifteen-minute walk away. 13 On entering the city they went to the room upstairs where they were staying. Present there were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James, son of Alpheus; Simon the Zealot and Judas son of James. 14 All of these together gave themselves to constant prayer. With them were some women and also Mary, the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

Matthias elected

• 15 It was during this time that Peter stood up in the midst of the community – about one hundred and twenty in all – 16 and he said,

“Brothers, it was necessary that the Scriptures referring to Judas be fulfilled. The Holy Spirit had spoken through David about the one who would lead the crowd coming to arrest Jesus. 17 He was one of our number and had been called to share our common ministry.

18 (We know that he bought a field with the reward of his sin; yet he threw himself headlong to his death, his body burst open and all his bowels spilled out. 19 This event became known to all the people living in Jerusalem and they named that field Akeldama in their own language, which means Field of Blood).

20 In the book of Psalms it is written: Let his house become deserted and may no one live in it. But it is also written: May another take his office. 21 Therefore we must choose someone from among those who were with us during all the time that the Lord Jesus moved about with us, 22 beginning with John’s baptism until the day when Jesus was taken away from us. One of these has to become, with us, a witness to his resurrection.”

23 Then they proposed two: Joseph, called Barsabbas, also known as Justus, and Matthias. 24 They prayed: “You know, Lord, what is in the hearts of all. Show us, therefore, which of the two you have chosen 25 to replace Judas in this apostolic ministry which he deserted to go to the place he deserved.”

26 Then they drew lots between the two and the choice fell on Matthias who was added to the eleven apostles.

John 21

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:08:34 +0000

Appendix: the appearance of Jesus by the lake

21 • 1 After this Jesus revealed himself to the disciples by the Lake of Tiberias. He appeared to them in this way. 2 Simon Peter, Thomas who was called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee and two other disciples were together; 3 and Simon Peter said to them, “I’m going fishing.” They replied, “We will come with you” and they went out and got into the boat. But they caught nothing that night.

4 When day had already broken, Jesus was standing on the shore, but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5 Jesus called them, “Children, have you anything to eat?” They answered, “Nothing.” 6 Then he said to them, “Throw the net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they had lowered the net, they were not able to pull it in because of the great number of fish.

7 Then the disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, “It’s the Lord!” At these words, “It’s the Lord,” Simon Peter put on his clothes, for he was stripped for work, and jumped into the water. 8 The other disciples came in the boat dragging the net full of fish; they were not far from land, about a hundred meters.

9 When they landed, they saw a charcoal fire with fish on it, and some bread. 10 Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you’ve just caught.” 11 So Simon Peter climbed into the boat and pulled the net to shore. It was full of big fish – one hundred and fifty-three – but, in spite of this, the net was not torn.

12 Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast,” and not one of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” for they knew it was the Lord. 13 Jesus then came and took the bread and gave it to them, and he did the same with the fish.

14 This was the third time that Jesus revealed himself to his disciples after rising from the dead.

15 After they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” And Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”

16 A second time Jesus said to him, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” And Peter answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Look after my sheep.” 17 And a third time he said to him, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”

Peter was saddened because Jesus asked him a third time, “Do you love me?” and he said, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.”

Jesus then said, “Feed my sheep. 18 Truly, I say to you, when you were young you put on your belt and walked where you liked. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and another will put a belt around you and lead you where you do not wish to go.”

19 Jesus said this to make known the kind of death by which Peter was to glorify God. And he added, “Follow me.”

20 Peter looked back and saw that the disciple Jesus loved was following as well, the one who had reclined close to Jesus at the supper and had asked him, “Lord, who is to betray you?” 21 On seeing him Peter asked Jesus, “Lord, what about him?” 22 Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain until I come, does that concern you? Follow me.”

23 Because of this the rumor spread in the community that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus had not said to Peter, “He will not die,” but “suppose I want him to remain until I come.”

24 It is this disciple who testifies about the things he has recorded here and we know that his testimony is true. 25 But Jesus did many other things; if all were written down, the world itself would not hold the books recording them.

John 20

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:07:27 +0000

The Lord is risen

20 • 1 Now, on the first day after the Sabbath, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark and she saw that the stone blocking the tomb had been moved away. 2 She ran to Peter and the other disciple whom Jesus loved. And she said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don’t know where they have laid him.”

3 Peter then set out with the other disciple to go to the tomb. 4 They ran together but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent down and saw the linen cloths lying flat, but he did not enter.

6 Then Simon Peter came following him and entered the tomb; he, too, saw the linen cloths lying flat. 7 The napkin, which had been around his head was not lying flat like the other linen cloths but lay rolled up in its place. 8 Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in; he saw and believed. 9 Scripture clearly said that he must rise from the dead, but they had not yet understood that.

10 The disciples then went home again.

• 11 Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she bent down to look inside; 12 she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been, one at the head, and the other at the feet. 13 They said, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She answered, “Because they have taken my Lord and I don’t know where they have put him.”

14 As she said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not recognize him. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?” She thought it was the gardener and answered him, “Lord, if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and remove him.”

16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him, “Rabboni” – which means, Master. 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me; you see I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them: I am ascending to my Father, who is your Father, to my God, who is your God.”

18 So Mary of Magdala went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord, and this is what he said to me.”

• 19 On the evening of that day, the first day after the Sabbath, the doors were locked where the disciples were, because of their fear of the Jews, but Jesus came and stood in their midst. He said to them, “Peace be with you”; 20 then he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples kept looking at the Lord and were full of joy.

21 Again Jesus said to them, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22 After saying this he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit; 23 for those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained.”

24 Thomas, the Twin, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 The other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he replied, “Until I have seen in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

26 Eight days later, the disciples were inside again and Thomas was with them. Despite the locked doors Jesus came and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands; stretch out your hand and put it into my side. Resist no longer and be a believer.”

28 Thomas then said, “You are my Lord and my God.” 29 Jesus replied, “You believe because you see me, don’t you? Happy are those who have not seen and believe.”

Conclusion

30 There were many other signs that Jesus gave in the presence of his disciples, but they are not recorded in this book. 31 These are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; believe and you will have life through his Name.

John 19

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:06:20 +0000

19 1 Then Pilate had Jesus taken away and scourged. 2 The soldiers also twisted thorns into a crown and put it on his head. They threw a cloak of royal purple around his shoulders 3 and began coming up to him and saluting him, “Hail, king of the Jews,” and they struck him on the face.

4 Pilate went outside yet another time and said to the Jews, “Look, I am bringing him out and I want you to know that I find no crime in him.” 5 Jesus then came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple cloak and Pilate pointed to him saying, “Here is the man!”

6 On seeing him the chief priests and the guards cried out, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Pilate replied, “Take him yourselves and have him crucified, for I find no case against him.” 7 The Jews then said, “We have a Law, and according to the Law this man must die because he made himself Son of God.”

8 When Pilate heard this he was more afraid. 9 And coming back into the court he asked Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. 10 Then Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you just as I have power to crucify you?” 11 Jesus replied, “You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above; therefore the one who handed me over to you is more guilty.”

12 From that moment Pilate tried to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who makes himself king is defying Caesar.”

13 When Pilate heard this, he had Jesus brought outside to the place called the Stone Floor – in Hebrew Gabbatha – and there he had him seated in the tribune. 14 It was the Preparation Day for the Passover, about noon. So Pilate said to the Jews, “Here is your king.” 15 But they cried out, “Away! Take him away! Crucify him!” Pilate replied, “Shall I crucify your king?” And the chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.”

16 Then Pilate handed Jesus over to them to be crucified.

Jesus is crucified

They took charge of him. 17 Bearing his own cross, Jesus went out of the city to what is called the Place of the Skull, in Hebrew: Golgotha. 18 There he was crucified and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus was in the middle.

19 Pilate had a notice written and fastened to the cross that read: Jesus the Nazorean, King of the Jews. 20 Many Jewish people saw this title, because the place where Jesus was crucified was very close to the city. It was, moreover, written in Hebrew, Latin and Greek. 21 The chief priests said to Pi-late, “Do not write: ‘The king of the Jews’; but: “This man claimed to be king of the Jews.’ ” 22 Pilate answered them, “What I have written, I have written.”

23 When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one part for each of them. But as the tunic was woven in one piece from top to bottom, 24 they said, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots to decide who will get it.” This fulfilled the words of Scripture: They divided my clothing among them; they cast lots for my garment. This was what the soldiers did.

Jesus’ last words

• 25 Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister Mary, who was the wife of Cleophas, and Mary of Magdala. 26 When Jesus saw the Mother, and the disciple whom he loved, he said to the Mother, “Woman, this is your son.” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “There is your mother.” And from that moment the disciple took her to his own home.

• 28 With that Jesus knew all was now finished and he said, I am thirsty, to fulfil what was written in Scripture. 29 A jar full of bitter wine stood there; so, putting a sponge soaked in the wine on a twig of hyssop, they raised it to his lips. 30 Jesus took the wine and said, “It is accomplished.” Then he bowed his head and gave up the spirit.

The pierced Christ

• 31 As it was Preparation Day, the Jews did not want the bodies to remain on the cross during the Sabbath, for this Sabbath was a very solemn day. They asked Pilate to have the legs of the condemned men broken, so they might take away the bodies.

32 The soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who had been crucified with Jesus. 33 When they came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead; so they did not break his legs. 34 One of the soldiers, however, pierced his side with a lance and immediately there came out blood and water.

35 The one who has seen here gives his witness so that you may believe: his witness is true and He knows that he speaks the truth. 36 All this happened to fulfill the words of Scripture, Not one of his bones shall be broken. 37 Another text says: They shall look on him whom they have pierced.

• 38 After this, Joseph of Arimathea approached Pilate, for he was a disciple of Jesus, though secretly, for fear of the Jews. And he asked Pilate to let him remove the body of Jesus. Pilate agreed, so he came and took away the body.

39 Nicodemus, the man who earlier had come to Jesus by night, also came and brought a jar of myrrh mixed with aloes, about a hundred pounds. 40 They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it in linen cloths with the spices, following the burial custom of the Jews.

41 There was a garden in the place where Jesus had been crucified, and, in the garden, a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. 42 As the tomb was very near, they buried Jesus there because they had no time left before the Jewish Preparation Day.

John 18

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:05:21 +0000

The arrest of Jesus

18 1 When Jesus had finished speaking, he went with his disciples to the other side of the Kidron Valley. There was a garden there where Jesus entered with his disciples.

2 Now Judas, who betrayed him, knew the place since Jesus had often met there with his disciples. 3 He led soldiers of the Roman battalion and guards from the chief priests and Pharisees, who went there with lanterns, torches and weapons.

4 Jesus knew all that was going to happen to him; he stepped forward and asked, “Who are you looking for?” 5 They answered, “Jesus the Nazarene.” Jesus said, “I am he.” Judas, who betrayed him, stood there with them.

6 When Jesus said, “I am he,” they moved back and fell to the ground. 7 He then asked a second time, “Who are you looking for?” and they answered, “Jesus the Nazarene.” 8 Jesus replied, “I told you that I am he. If you are looking for me, let these others go.” 9 So what Jesus had said came true: “I have not lost one of those you gave me.”

10 Simon Peter had a sword; he drew it and struck Malchus, the High Priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. 11 But Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup which the Father has given me?”

12 The guards and the soldiers, with their commander, seized Jesus and bound him; 13 and they took him first to Annas. Annas was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was the High Priest that year; 14 and it was Caiaphas who had told the Jews: “It is better that one man should die for the people.”

15 Simon Peter with another disciple followed Jesus. Because this disciple was known to the High Priest, they let him enter the courtyard of the High Priest along with Jesus, 16 but Peter had to stay outside at the door. The other disciple, who was known to the High Priest went out and spoke to the maidservant at the gate and brought Peter in. 17 Then, this servant on duty at the door said to Peter, “So you also are one of his disciples?” But he answered, “I am not.”

18 Now the servants and the guards had made a charcoal fire and were standing and warming themselves, because it was cold. Peter was also with them warming himself.

19 The High Priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. 20 Jesus answered him, “I have spoken openly to the world; I have always taught in places where the Jews meet together, either at the assemblies in synagogues or in the Temple. I did not teach secretly. 21 Why then do you ask me? Ask those who heard me, they know what I said.”

22 At this reply one of the guards standing by gave Jesus a blow on the face, saying, “Is that the way to answer the High Priest?” 23 Jesus said to him, “If I have spoken wrongly, point it out; but if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?”

24 Then Annas sent him, bound, to Caiaphas, the High Priest.

25 Now Simon Peter stood there warming himself. They said to him, “Surely you also are one of his disciples.” He denied it and answered, “I am not.” 26 One of the High Priest’s servants, a kinsman of the one whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, “Did I not see you with him in the garden?” 27 Again Peter denied it, and at once the cock crowed.

Jesus before Pilate

• 28 Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the court of the Roman governor. It was now morning. The Jews didn’t enter lest they be made unclean (by coming into the house of a pagan) and be unable to eat the Passover meal. 29 So Pilate went out and asked, “What charge do you bring against this man?”

They answered, 30 “If he were not a criminal, we would not be handing him over to you.” 31 Pilate said, “Take him yourselves and judge him according to your own law.” But they replied, “We ourselves are not allowed to put anyone to death.”

32 It was clear from this what kind of death Jesus was to die, according to what Jesus himself had foretold.

33 Pilate then entered the court again, called Jesus and asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” 34 Jesus replied, “Does this word come from you, or did you hear it from others?”

35 Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?” 36 Jesus answered, “My kingship does not come from this world. If I were king like those of this world, my guards would have fought to save me from being handed over to the Jews. But my kingship is not from here.”

37 Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” And Jesus answered, “Just as you say, I am a king. For this I was born and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is on the side of truth hears my voice.” 38 Pilate said, “What is truth?”

Pilate then went out to the Jews again and said, “I find no crime in this man. 39 Now, according to a custom, I must release a prisoner of yours at the Passover. With your agreement I will release for you the King of the Jews.” 40 But they insisted and cried out, “Not this man, but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a robber.

John 17

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:04:26 +0000

Prayer of Jesus for the new holy people

17 • 1 After saying this, Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; give glory to your Son, that the Son may give glory to you. 2 You have given him power over all mortals, and you want him to bring eternal life to all you have entrusted to him. 3 For this is eternal life: to know you, the only true God, and the One you sent, Jesus Christ.

4 I have glorified you on earth and finished the work that you gave me to do. 5 Now, Father, give me in your presence the same Glory I had with you before the world began.

6 I have made your name known to those you gave me from the world. They were yours and you gave them to me, and they kept your word. 7 And now they know that all you have given me comes indeed from you. 8 I have given them the teaching I received from you, and they received it and know in truth that I came from you; and they believe that you have sent me.

9 I pray for them; I do not pray for the world but for those who belong to you and whom you have given to me – 10 indeed all I have is yours and all you have is mine – and now they are my glory. 11 I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world whereas I am going to you. Holy Father, keep them in your Name (that you have given me,) so that they may be one, just as we are.

12 When I was with them, I kept them safe in your Name, and not one was lost except the one who was already lost, and in this the Scripture was fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you and I leave these my words in the world that my joy may be complete in them.

14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world; just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask you to remove them from the world but to keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world; 17 consecrate them in the truth – your word is truth.

18 I have sent them into the world as you sent me into the world, 19 and for their sake, I go to the sacrifice by which filled. 13 But now I am coming to you and I leave these my words in the world that my joy may be complete in them.

14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world; just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask you to remove them from the world but to keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world; 17 consecrate them in the truth – your word is truth.

18 I have sent them into the world as you sent me into the world, 19 and for their sake, I go to the sacrifice by which I am consecrated, so that they too may be consecrated in truth.

20 I pray not only for these but also for those who through their word will believe in me. 21 May they all be one as you Father are in me and I am in you. May they be one in us; so the world may believe that you have sent me.

22 I have given them the Glory you have given me, that they may be one as we are one: 23 I in them and you in me. Thus they shall reach perfection in unity and the world shall know that you have sent me and that I have loved them just as you loved me.

24 Father, since you have given them to me, I want them to be with me where I am and see the Glory you gave me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world.

25 Righteous Father, the world has not known you but I have known you, and these have known that you have sent me. 26 As I revealed your Name to them, so will I continue to reveal it, so that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I also may be in them.”

John 16

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 09:58:08 +0000

16 1 I tell you all this to keep you from stumbling and falling away. 2 They will put you out of the Jewish communities. Still more, the hour is coming when anyone who kills you will claim to be serving God; 3 they will do this because they have not known the Father or me. 4 I tell you all these things now so that when the time comes you may remember that I told you.

I did not tell you about this in the beginning because I was with you. 5 But now I am going to the One who sent me and none of you asks me where I am going; 6 instead you are overcome with grief because of what I have said.

7 Indeed believe me: It is better for you that I go away, because as long as I do not leave, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go away, it is to send him to you, 8 and when he comes, he will vindicate the truth in face of the world with regard to sin, to the way of righteousness, and to the Judgment.

9 What has been the sin? They did not believe in me. 10 What is the way of righteousness? I am on the way to the Father, meanwhile you will not see me. 11 What Judgment? The prince of this world has himself been condemned.

12 I still have many things to tell you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When he, the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into the whole truth.

He has nothing to say of himself but he will speak of what he hears, and he will tell you of the things to come. 14 He will take what is mine and make it known to you; in doing this, he will glorify me. 15 All that the Father has is mine; because of this I have just told you, that the Spirit will take what is mine and make it known to you.”

The promise of a new presence

• 16 A little while and you will see me no more; and then a little while, and you will see me.”

17 Some of the disciples wondered, “What does he mean by: ‘A little while and you will not see me, and then a little while and you will see me’? And why did he say: ‘I go to the Father’?” 18And they said to one another, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand.”

19 Jesus knew that they wanted to question him; so he said to them, “You are puzzled because I told you that in a little while you will see me no more, and then a little while later you will see me.

20 Truly, I say to you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy. 21 A woman in childbirth is in distress because her time is at hand. But after the child is born, she no longer remembers her suffering because of such great joy: a human being is born into the world.

22 You feel sorrowful now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice. And no one will take your joy from you. 23 When that day comes you will not ask me anything. Truly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my Name, he will give you. 24 So far you have not asked in my Name; ask and receive that your joy may be full.

25 I taught you all this in veiled language, but the time is coming when I shall no longer speak in veiled language, but will tell you plainly of the Father.

26 When that day comes, you will ask in my Name and it will not be for me to ask the Father for you, 27 for the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and you believe that I came from the Father. 28 As I came from the Father and have come into the world, so I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”

29 The disciples said to him, “Now you are speaking plainly and not in veiled language! 30 Now we see that you know all things, even before we question you. Because of this we believe that you came from God.”

31 Jesus answered them, “You say that you believe! 32 The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each one to his home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.

33 I have told you all this, so that in me you may have peace. You will have trouble in the world; but, courage! I have overcome the world.”

John 15

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 09:57:20 +0000

The vine and the branches

15 • 1 I am the true vine and my Father is the vinegrower. 2 If any of my branches doesn’t bear fruit, he breaks it off; and he prunes every branch that does bear fruit, that it may bear even more fruit.

3 You are already made clean by the word I have spoken to you; 4 live in me as I live in you. The branch cannot bear fruit by itself but has to remain part of the vine; so neither can you if you don’t remain in me.

5 I am the vine and you are the branches. As long as you remain in me and I in you, you bear much fruit; but apart from me you can do nothing. 6 Whoever does not remain in me is thrown away as they do with branches and they wither. Then they are gathered and thrown into the fire and burned.

7 If you remain in me and my words in you, you may ask whatever you want and it will be given to you. 8 My Father is glorified when you bear much fruit: it is then that you become my disciples.

9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; remain in my love. 10 You will remain in my love if you keep my commandments, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.

11 I have told you all this, that my own joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. 12 This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you. 13 There is no greater love than this, to give one’s life for one’s friends; 14 and you are my friends if you do what I command you.

15 I shall not call you servants any more, because servants do not know what their master is about. Instead I have called you friends, since I have made known to you everything I learned from my Father.

16 You did not choose me; it was I who chose you and sent you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last. And everything you ask the Father in my name, he will give you.

17 This is my command, that you love one another.

The hostile world

• 18 If the world hates you, remember that the world hated me before you. 19 This would not be so if you belonged to the world, because the world loves its own. But you are not of the world since I have chosen you from the world; because of this the world hates you.

20 Remember what I told you: the servant is not greater than his master; if they persecuted me, they will persecute you, too. If they kept my word, they keep yours as well. 21 All this they will do to you for the sake of my name because they do not know the One who sent me.

22 If I had not come to tell them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Those who hate me hate my Father.

24 If I had not done among them what no one else has ever done, they would have no sin. But after they have seen all this, they hate me and my Father, 25 and the words written in their law become true: They hated me without cause.

The Spirit will come

• 26 From the Father, I will send you the Spirit of truth. When this Helper has come from the Father, he will be my witness, 27 and you, too, will be my witnesses for you have been with me from the beginning.

John 14

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 09:56:21 +0000

I’m going to the Father

14 • 1 “Do not be troubled; trust in God and trust in me. 2 In my Father’s house there are many rooms. Otherwise I would not have told you that I go to prepare a place for you. 3 After I have gone and prepared a place for you, I shall come again and take you to me, so that where I am, you also may be. 4 Yet you know the way where I am going.”

5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going; how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me. 7 If you know me, you will know the Father also; indeed you know him and you have seen him.”

8 Philip asked him,“Lord, show us the Father and that is enough.” 9 Jesus said to him, “What! I have been with you so long and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever sees me sees the Father; how can you say: ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?

All that I say to you, I do not say of myself. The Father who dwells in me is doing his own work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; at least believe it on the evidence of these works that I do.

12 Truly, I say to you, the one who believes in me will do the same works that I do; and he will even do greater than these, for I am going to the Father. 13 Everything you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 And everything you ask in calling upon my Name, I will do.

15 If you love me, you will keep my commandments; 16 and I will ask the Father and he will give you another Helper to be with you forever, 17 that Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him for he is with you and will be in you.

18 I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you. 19 A little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me because I live and you will also live. 20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father and you in me, and I in you.

21 Whoever keeps my commandments is the one who loves me. If he loves me, he will also be loved by my Father; I too shall love him and show myself clearly to him.”

22 Judas – not the Iscariot – asked Jesus, “Lord, how can it be that you will show yourself clearly to us and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my Father will love him; and we will come to him and make a room in his home. 24 But if anyone does not love me, he will not keep my words, and these words that you hear are not mine but the Father’s who sent me.

25 I told you all this while I was still with you. 26 From now on the Helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of all that I have told you.

27 Peace be with you; I give you my peace. Not as the world gives peace do I give it to you. Do not be troubled; do not be afraid. 28 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.

29 I have told you this now before it takes place, so that when it does happen you may believe. 30 It is very little what I may still tell you, for the prince of this world is at hand, although there is nothing in me that he can claim. 31 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.

John 13

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 09:55:32 +0000

SECOND PART: JESUS COMPLETES HIS WORK

13 • 1 It was before the feast of the Passover. Jesus realized that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father, and as he had loved those who were his own in the world, he would love them with perfect love.

Jesus washes his disciples’ feet

• 2 They were at supper and the devil had already put into the mind of Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had entrusted all things to him, and as he had come from God, he was going to God. 4 So he got up from table, removed his garment and taking a towel, wrapped it around his waist. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel he was wearing.

6 When he came to Simon Peter, Simon said to him, “Why, Lord, you want to wash my feet!” 7 Jesus said, “What I am doing you cannot understand now, but afterwards you will understand it.” 8 Peter replied, “You shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you can have no part with me.” 9 Then Simon Peter said, “Lord, wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head!”

10 Jesus replied, “Whoever has taken a bath does not need to wash (except the feet), for he is clean all over. You are clean, though not all of you.” 11 Jesus knew who was to betray him; because of this he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

12 When Jesus had finished washing their feet, he put on his garment again, went back to the table and said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? 13 You call me Master and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 14 If I, then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you also must wash one another’s feet. 15 I have just given you an example that as I have done, you also may do.

16 Truly, I say to you, the servant is not greater than his master, nor is the messenger greater than he who sent him. 17 Understand this, and blessed are you if you put it into practice.

18 I am not speaking of you all, because I know the ones I have chosen and the Scripture has to be fulfilled that says, The one who shared my table has risen against me. 19 I tell you this now before it happens, so that when it does happen, you may know that I am He.

20 Truly, I say to you, whoever welcomes the one I send, welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me, welcomes the One who sent me.”

21 After saying this, Jesus was distressed in spirit and said plainly, “Truly, one of you will betray me.” 22 The disciples then looked at one another, wondering who he meant. 23 One of the disciples, the one Jesus loved, was reclining near Jesus; 24 so Simon Peter signaled him to ask Jesus whom he meant.

25 And the disciple who was reclining near Jesus asked him, “Lord, who is it?” 26 Jesus answered, “I shall dip a piece of bread in the dish, and he to whom I give it, is the one.”

So Jesus dipped the bread and gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. 27 And as Judas took the piece of bread, Satan entered into him. Jesus then said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.”

28 None of the others reclining at table understood why Jesus said this to Judas. 29 As he had the common purse, they may have thought that Jesus was telling him, “Buy what we need for the feast,” or, “Give something to the poor.” 30 Judas left as soon as he had eaten the bread. It was night.

31 When Judas had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. 32 God will glorify him, and he will glorify him very soon.

• 33 My children, I am with you for only a little while; you will look for me, but, as I already told the Jews, so now I tell you: where I am going you cannot come. 34 Now I give you a new commandment: love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

36 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered, “Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but afterwards you will.” 37 Peter said, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I am ready to give my life for you.” 38 Jesus answered, “To give your life for me! Truly, I tell you, the cock will not crow before you have denied me three times.”

John 12

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 09:54:10 +0000

The supper at Bethany

(Mt 26:6; Mk 14:3)

12 • 1 Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany where he had raised Lazarus, the dead man, to life. 2 Now they gave a dinner for him, and while Martha waited on them, Lazarus sat at the table with Jesus.

3 Then Mary took a pound of costly perfume made from genuine nard and anointed the feet of Jesus, wiping them with her hair. And the whole house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

4 Judas, son of Simon Iscariot – the disciple who was to betray Jesus – remarked, 5 “This perfume could have been sold for three hundred dinarii and turned over to the poor.” 6 Judas, indeed, had no concern for the poor; he was a thief and as he held the common purse, he used to help himself to the funds.

7 But Jesus spoke up, “Leave her alone. Was she not keeping it for the day of my burial? 8 (The poor you always have with you, but you will not always have me.)”

9 Many Jews heard that Jesus was there and they came, not only because of Jesus, but also to see Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead. 10 So the chief priests thought about killing Lazarus as well, 11 for many of the Jews were drifting away because of him and believing in Jesus.

The Messiah enters Jerusalem

(Mt 21:5; Mk 11:1)

12 The next day many people who had come for the festival heard that Jesus was to enter Jerusalem. 13 So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him. And they cried out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the King of Israel!”

14 Jesus found a donkey and sat upon it, as Scripture says: 15 Do not fear, city of Zion, see your king is coming sitting on the colt of a donkey.

16 The disciples were not aware of this at first, but after Jesus was glorified, they realized that this had been written about him and that this was what had happened to him.

17 The people who came with him bore witness and told how he had called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead. 18 It was because of this miraculous sign which Jesus had given that so many people welcomed him. 19 In the meantime the Pharisees said to one another, “We are getting nowhere; the whole world has gone after him.”

Unless the grain dies

• 20 There were some Greeks who had come up to Jerusalem to worship during the feast. 21 They approached Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went to Andrew and the two of them told Jesus.

23 Then Jesus said, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Truly, I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.

25 Those who love their life destroy it, and those who despise their life in this world keep it for everlasting life.

26 Whoever wants to serve me, let him follow me and wherever I am, there shall my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

• 27 Now my soul is in distress. Shall I say: ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But, I have come to this hour to face all this. 28 Father, glorify your Name!” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it and I will glorify it again.”

29 People standing there heard something and said it was thunder; but others said, “An angel was speaking to him.” 30 Then Jesus declared, “This voice did not come for my sake but for yours; 31 now sentence is being passed on this world; now the prince of this world is to be cast down. 32 And when I am lifted up from the earth, I shall draw all to myself.” 33 With these words Jesus referred to the kind of death he was to die.

34 The crowd answered him, “We have been told by the Law that the Messiah stands forever. How can you say that the Son of Man shall be lifted up? What kind of Son of Man is this?”

35 Jesus said to them, “The light will be with you a little longer. Walk while you have the light, lest the darkness overtake you. If you walk in the darkness you do not know where you are going. 36 While you have the light, believe in the light and become children of light.”

After Jesus had said this, he withdrew and kept himself hidden.

The unbelief of the Jews

• 37 Even though Jesus had done so many miraculous signs among them, they didn’t believe in him. 38 Indeed the words spoken by the prophet Isaiah had to be fulfilled: Lord, who has believed what we proclaimed? To whom have the ways of God the Savior been made known?

39 They could not believe. Isaiah had said elsewhere: 40 He let their eyes become blind and their hearts hard, so that they could neither see nor understand, nor be converted – otherwise I would have healed them. 41 Isaiah said this when he saw His Glory, and his words refer to Him.

42 Many of them, however, believed in Jesus, even among the rulers, but they did not acknowledge him because of the Pharisees, lest they be put out of the Jewish community. 43 They preferred to be approved by people rather than by God.

44 Yet Jesus had said, and even cried out, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. 45 And whoever sees me, sees him who sent me. 46 I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.

47 If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I am not the one to condemn him; for I have come, not to condemn the world, but to save the world. 48 The one who rejects me, and does not receive my word, already has a judge: the very word I have spoken will condemn him on the last day.

49 For I have not spoken on my own authority; the Father who sent me has instructed me in what to say and how to speak. 50 I know that his commandment is eternal life, and that is why the message I give, I give as the Father instructed me.”

John 11

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 09:53:07 +0000

The raising of Lazarus

11 • 1 There was a sick man named Lazarus who was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 It was the same Mary who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair. Her brother Lazarus was sick.

3 So the sisters sent this message to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” 4 On hearing this Jesus said, “This illness will not end in death; rather it is for God’s glory and the Son of God will be glorified through it.”

5 It is a fact that Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus; 6 yet, after he heard of the illness of Lazarus, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. 7 Only then did he say to his disciples, “Let us go into Judea again.” 8 They replied, “Master, recently the Jews wanted to stone you. Are you going there again?”

9 Jesus said to them, “Are not twelve working hours needed to complete a day? Those who walk in the daytime shall not stumble, for they see the light of this world. 10 But those who walk at night stumble, for there is no light in them.”

11 After that Jesus said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going to wake him.” 12 The disciples replied, “Lord, a sick person who sleeps will recover.” 13 But Jesus had referred to Lazarus’ death, while they thought that he had meant the repose of sleep. 14 So Jesus said plainly, “Lazarus is dead 15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there, for now you may believe. But let us go there, where he is.” 16 Then Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go that we may die with him.”

17 When Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days. 18 As Bethany is near Jerusalem, about two miles away, 19 many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to offer consolation at their brother’s death.

20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him while Mary remained sitting in the house. 21 And she said to Jesus, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said, “Your brother will rise again.”

24 Martha replied, “I know that he will rise in the resurrection, at the last day.” 25 But Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection; whoever believes in me, though he die, shall live. 26 Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

27 Martha then answered, “Yes, Lord, I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who is coming into the world.”

28 After that Martha went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying, “The Master is here and is calling for you.” 29 As soon as Mary heard this, she rose and went to him. 30 Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him.

31 The Jews who were with her in the house consoling her, also came. When they saw her get up and go out, they followed her, thinking that she was going to the tomb to weep.

32 As for Mary, when she came to the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews also who had come with her, he was moved in the depths of his spirit and troubled. 34 Then he asked, “Where have you laid him?” They answered, “Lord, come and see.” 35 And Jesus wept.

36 The Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “If he could open the eyes of the blind man, could he not have kept this man from dying?”

38 Jesus was deeply moved again and drew near to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across it. 39 Jesus ordered, “Take the stone away.” Martha said to him, “Lord, by now he will smell, for this is the fourth day.” 40 Jesus replied, “Have I not told you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” 41 So they removed the stone.

Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you for you have heard me. 42 I knew that you hear me always; but my prayer was for the sake of these people, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When Jesus had said this, he cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips and his face wrapped in a cloth. So Jesus said to them, “Untie him and let him go.”

The plot to kill Jesus

• 45 Many of the Jews who had come with Mary believed in Jesus when they saw what he did; 46 but some went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees called the Sanhedrin Council.

They said, “What are we to do? For this man keeps on giving miraculous signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, all the people will believe in him and, as a result of this, the Romans will come and sweep away our Holy Place and our nation.”

49 Then one of them, Caiaphas, who was High Priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all nor do you see clearly what you need. 50 It is better to have one man die for the people than to let the whole nation be destroyed.”

51 In saying this Caiaphas did not speak for himself, but being High Priest that year, he foretold as a prophet that Jesus would die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the scattered children of God. 53 So, from that day on, they were determined to kill him.

54 Because of this, Jesus no longer moved about freely among the Jews. He withdrew instead to the country near the wilderness and stayed with his disciples in a town called Ephraim.

55 The Passover of the Jews was at hand and people from everywhere were coming to Jerusalem to purify themselves before the Passover. 56 They looked for Jesus and as they stood in the Temple, they talked with one another, “What do you think? Will he come to the festival?” 57 Meanwhile the chief priests and the elders had given orders that anyone who knew where he was should let them know so that they could arrest him.

John 10

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 09:51:58 +0000

The good shepherd

10 • 1 Truly, I say to you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate, but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 But the shepherd of the sheep enters by the gate. 3 The keeper opens the gate to him and the sheep hear his voice; he calls each of his sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them and the sheep follow him for they know his voice. 5 A stranger they will not follow, rather they will run away from him because they don’t recognize a stranger’s voice.”

6 Jesus used this comparison, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

7 So Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, I am the gate of the sheep. 8 All who came were thieves and robbers, and the sheep did not hear them. 9 I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved; he will go in and out freely and find food.

10 The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy, but I have come that they may have life, life in all its fullness.

11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. 12 Not so the hired hand or any other person who is not the shepherd and to whom the sheep do not belong. They abandon the sheep as soon as they see the wolf coming; then the wolf snatches and scatters the sheep. 13 This is because the hired hand works for pay and cares nothing for the sheep.

14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 as the Father knows me and I know the Father. Because of this I give my life for my sheep.

16 I have other sheep that are not of this fold. These I have to lead as well, and they shall listen to my voice. Then there will be one flock since there is one Shepherd.

17 The Father loves me because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down freely. It is mine to lay down and to take up again: this mission I received from my Father.”

19 Because of these words, the Jews were divided again. 20 Many of them said, “He has a demon and is out of his mind. Why listen to him?” 21But others said, “One possessed doesn’t speak in this way. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

Jesus claims to be the Son of God

22 The time came for the feast of the Dedication. It was winter 23 and Jesus walked back and forth in the portico of Solomon. 24 The Jews then gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in doubt? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered, “I have already told you but you do not believe. 26 The works I do in my Father’s name proclaim who I am, but you don’t believe because, as I said, you are not my sheep.

27 My sheep hear my voice and I know them; they follow me 28 and I give them eternal life. They shall never perish and no one will ever steal them from me. 29 What the Father has given me is above everything else and no one can snatch it from the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”

31 The Jews then picked up stones to throw at him; 32 so Jesus said, “I have openly done many good works among you which the Father gave me to do. For which of these do you stone me?”

33 The Jews answered, “We are not stoning you for doing a good work but for insulting God; you are only a man and you make yourself God.”

34 Then Jesus replied, “Is this not written in your Law: I said: you are gods? 35 So those who received this word of God were called gods and the Scripture is always true. 36 Then what should be said of the one anointed and sent into the world by the Father? Am I insulting God when I say: ‘I am the Son of God’?

37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, do not believe me. 38 But if I do them, even if you have no faith in me, believe because of the works I do, and know that the Father is in me and I in the Father.”

39 Again they tried to arrest him, but Jesus escaped from their hands. 40 He went away again to the other side of the Jordan, to the place where John had baptized, and there he stayed.

41 Many people came to him and said, “John showed no miraculous signs, but he spoke of this man and everything he said was true.” 42 And many became believers in that place.

John 9

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 09:49:22 +0000

Jesus heals the man born blind

9 • 1 As Jesus walked along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Master, was he born blind because of a sin of his, or of his parents?”

3 Jesus answered, “Neither was it for his own sin nor for his parents’. He was born blind so that God’s power might be shown in him. 4 While it is day we must do the work of the One who sent me; for the night will come when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

6 As Jesus said this, he made paste with spittle and clay and rubbed it on the eyes of the blind man. 7 Then he said, “Go and wash in the Pool of Siloam.” (This name means sent.) So he went and washed and came back able to see.

8 His neighbors and all the people who used to see him begging, wondered. They said, “Isn’t this the beggar who used to sit here?” 9 Some said, “It’s the one.” Others said, “No, but he looks like him.” But the man himself said, “I am the one.” 10 Then they asked, “How is it that your eyes were opened?” 11 And he answered, “The man called Jesus made a mud paste, put it on my eyes and said to me: ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went, and washed, and I could see.” 12 They asked, “Where is he?” and the man answered, “I don’t know.”

13 The people brought the man who had been blind to the Pharisees. 14 Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made mud paste and opened his eyes. 15 The Pharisees asked him again, “How did you recover your sight?” And he said, “He put paste on my eyes, and I washed, and now I see.” 16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he works on the Sabbath”; but others wondered, “How can a sinner perform such miraculous signs?” They were divided 17 and they questioned the blind man again, “What do you think of this man who opened your eyes?” And he answered, “He is a prophet.”

18 After all this, the Jews refused to believe that the man had been blind and had recovered his sight; so they called his parents 19 and asked them, “Is this your son? You say that he was born blind, how is it that he now sees?” 20 The parents answered, “He really is our son and he was born blind; 21 but how it is that he now sees, we don’t know, neither do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him, he is old enough. Let him speak for himself.”

22 The parents said this because they feared the Jews who had already agreed that whoever confessed Jesus to be the Christ was to be expelled. 23 Because of this his parents said, “He is old enough, ask him.”

24 So a second time the Pharisees called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, “Tell us the truth; we know that this man is a sinner.” 25 He replied, “I don’t know whether he is a sinner or not; I only know that I was blind and now I see.” 26 They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” 27 He replied, “I have told you already and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?”

28 Then they started to insult him. “Become his disciple yourself! We are disciples of Moses. 29 We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man we don’t know where he comes from.”

30 The man replied, “It is amazing that you don’t know where the man comes from, and yet he opened my eyes! 31 We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but if anyone honors God and does his will, God listens to him. 32 Never, since the world began, has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person who was born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

34 They answered him, “You were born a sinner and now you teach us!” And they expelled him.

35 Jesus heard that they had expelled him. He found him and said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 He answered, “Who is he, that I may believe in him?” 37 Jesus said, “You have seen him and he is speaking to you. 38 He said, “Lord, I believe”; and he worshiped him.

39 Jesus said, “I came into this world to carry out a judgment: Those who do not see shall see, and those who see shall become blind.” 40 Some Pharisees stood by and asked him, “So we are blind?” 41 And Jesus answered, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty. Now you say: ‘We see’; this is the proof of your sin.”

John 8

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 09:47:39 +0000

The adulteress

8 • 1As for Jesus, he went to the Mount of Olives.

2 At daybreak Jesus appeared in the Temple again. All the people came to him, and he sat down and began to teach them.

3 Then the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees brought in a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They made her stand in front of everyone. 4 “Master,” they said, “this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. 5 Now the Law of Moses orders that such women be stoned to death; but you, what do you say?” 6 They said this to test Jesus, in order to have some charge against him.

Jesus bent down and started writing on the ground with his finger. 7 And as they continued to ask him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who has no sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 And he bent down again, writing on the ground.

9 As a result of these words, they went away, one by one, starting with the elders, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 10 Then Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She replied, “No one.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go away and don’t sin again.”

I Am the light of the world

• 12 Jesus spoke to them again, “I am the Light of the world; the one who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have light and life.” 13 The Pharisees replied, “Now you are speaking on your own behalf, your testimony is worthless.”

14 Then Jesus said, “Even though I bear witness to myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I have come from and where I am going. But you do not know where I came from or where I am going.

15 You judge by human standards; as for me, I don’t judge anyone. 16 But if I had to judge, my judgment would be valid for I am not alone: the Father who sent me is with me. 17 In your Law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is valid; 18 so I am bearing witness to myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness to me.”

19 They asked him, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You don’t know me or my Father; if you knew me, you would know my Father as well.”

20 Jesus said these things when he was teaching in the Temple area, in the place where they received the offerings. No one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.

21 Again Jesus said to them, “I am going away, and though you look for me, you will die in your sin. Where I am going you cannot come.” 22 The Jews wondered, “Why does he say that we can’t come where he is going? Will he kill himself?”

23 But Jesus said, “You are from below and I am from above; you are of this world and I am not of this world. 24 That is why I told you that you will die in your sins. And you shall die in your sins unless you believe that I am He.”

25 They asked him, “Who are you?”; and Jesus said, “Just what I have told you from the beginning. 26 I have much to say about you and much to condemn; but the One who sent me is truthful and everything I learned from him, I proclaim to the world.”

27 They didn’t understand that Jesus was speaking to them about the Father. 28 So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He and that I do nothing of myself, but I say just what the Father taught me. 29 He who sent me is with me and has not left me alone; because I always do what pleases him.”

The children of truth

• 30 As Jesus spoke like this, many believed in him. 31 Jesus went on to say to the Jews who believed in him: “You will be my true disciples if you keep my word. 32 Then you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are the descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves of anyone. What do you mean by saying: You will be free?”

34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave. 35 But the slave doesn’t stay in the house forever; the son stays forever. 36 So, if the Son makes you free, you will be really free.

37 I know that you are the descendants of Abraham; yet you want to kill me because my word finds no place in you. 38 For my part I speak of what I have seen in the Father’s presence, but you do what you have learned from your father.”

39 They answered him, “Our father is Abraham.” Then Jesus said, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do as Abraham did. 40 But now you want to kill me, the one who tells you the truth – the truth that I have learned from God. That is not what Abraham did; 41 what you are doing are the works of your father.”

The Jews said to him, “We are not illegitimate children; we have one Father, God.” 42 Jesus replied, “If God were your Father you would love me, for I came forth from God, and I am here. And I didn’t come by my own decision, but it was he himself who sent me. 43 Why do you not understand my teaching? It is because you cannot bear my message.

44 The father you spring from is the devil and you will carry out the evil wishes of your father, who has been a murderer from the beginning. He didn’t uphold the truth for, in him, there is no truth; and now, when he speaks for himself, he lies. He is a liar and the father of lies.

45 Now I speak the truth and you don’t believe me. 46 Which of you could find anything false in me? Then, if I speak the truth, why do you not believe me? 47 He who is of God hears the words of God; you don’t hear because you are not of God.”

48 The Jews retorted, “So we are right in saying that you are a Samaritan and are possessed by a demon.” 49 Jesus said, “I am not possessed, and you try to shame me when I give honor to my Father. 50 I don’t care about my own glory; there is One who cares for me and he will be the judge.

51 Truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never experience death.” 52 The Jews replied, “Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died and the prophets as well, but you say: ‘Whoever keeps my word will never experience death.’ Who do you claim to be? 53 Do you claim to be greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets also died.”

54 Then Jesus said, “If I were to praise myself, it would count for nothing. But he who gives glory to me is the Father, the very one you claim as your God, 55 although you don’t know him. I know him and if I were to say that I don’t know him, I would be a liar like you. But I know him and I keep his word.

56 As for Abraham, your ancestor, he looked forward to the day when I would come; and he rejoiced when he saw it.”

57 The Jews then said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham?” 58 And Jesus said “Truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” 59 They then picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and left the Temple.

John 7

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 09:43:31 +0000

Jesus goes up to Jerusalem

7 • 1 After this Jesus went around Galilee; he would not go about in Judea because the Jews wanted to kill him. 2 Now the Jewish feast of the Tents was at hand. 3 So the brothers of Jesus said to him, “Don’t stay here; go instead to Judea and let your disciples see the works you are doing. 4 Anyone who wants to be known doesn’t work secretly. Since you are able to do these things, show yourself to the world.”

5 His brothers spoke like this because they didn’t believe in him. 6 Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here.

7 The world cannot hate you; but it hates me because I bear witness and I show that its deeds are evil. 8 Go up to the feast! I am not going to this feast, because my time has not yet come.”

9 Jesus spoke like this and remained in Galilee. 10 But after his brothers had gone to the festival, he also went up, not publicly but in secret. 11 The Jews were looking for him at the festival and asked, “Where is he?” 12 There was a lot of talk about him among the people. Some said, “He is a good man,” but others replied, “No, he is misleading the people.” 13 For fear of the Jews no one spoke openly about him.

14 When the festival was half over, Jesus went to the Temple and began to teach. 15 The Jews marveled and said, “How is it that he knows Scriptures when he has had no teacher?”

16 And Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but it comes from the One who sent me. 17 Anyone who does the will of God shall know whether my teaching is from God or whether I speak on my own authority.

18 Those who speak on their own authority wish to gain honor for themselves. But the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is truthful and there is no reason to doubt him.”

vv. 19-24 have been placed after chapter 5. See footnote there.

• 25 Some of the people of Jerusalem said, “Is this not the man they want to kill? 26 And here he is speaking freely, and they don’t say a word to him? Can it be that the rulers know that this is really the Christ? 27 Yet we know where this man comes from; but when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.”

28 So Jesus announced in a loud voice in the Temple court where he was teaching, “You say that you know me and know where I come from! I have not come of myself; I was sent by the One who is true, and you don’t know him. 29 I know him for I come from him and he sent me.”

30 They would have arrested him, but no one laid hands on him because his time had not yet come. 31 Many people in the crowd, however, believed in him and said, “When the Christ comes, will he give more signs than this man?”

32 The Pharisees heard all these rumors among the people; they and the chief priests sent officers of the temple to arrest him. 33 Jesus then said, “I shall be with you a little longer; after that I shall go to him who sent me. 34 You will look for me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.”

35 The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go where we shall not find him? Will he go abroad to the Jews dispersed among the Greek nations and teach the Greeks also? 36 What does he mean when he says: ‘You will look for me and not find me,’ and: ‘Where I am going you cannot come’?”

The promise of living water

• 37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, “Let anyone who is thirsty, come to me; 38 and let the one who believes in me drink, for the Scripture says: Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.”

39 Jesus was referring to the Spirit which those who believe in him were to receive; the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet entered into his Glory.

Dispute on the origin of Christ

40 Many who had been listening to these words began to say, “This is the Prophet.” 41 Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some wondered, “Would the Christ come from Galilee? 42 Doesn’t Scripture say that the Christ is a descendant of David and from Bethlehem, the city of David?” 43 The crowd was divided over him. 44 Some wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

45 The officers of the Temple went back to the chief priests who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him?” 46 The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man.” 47 The Pharisees then said, “So you, too, have been led astray! 48 Have any of the rulers or any of the Pharisees believed in him? 49 Only these cursed people, who have no knowledge of the Law!”

50 Yet one of them, Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier, spoke out, 51 “Does our law condemn people without first hearing them and knowing the facts?” 52 They replied, “Do you, too, come from Galilee? Look it up and see for yourself that no prophet is to come from Galilee.”

53 And they all went home.

John 6

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 13:00:22 +0000

The multiplication of the loaves

(Mk 6:34 ; Mt 14:13 ; Lk 9:10)

• 1 After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, near Tiberias, 2 and large crowds followed him because of the miraculous signs they saw when he healed the sick. 3 So he went up into the hills and sat down there with his disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand.

5 Then lifting up his eyes, Jesus saw the crowds that were coming to him and said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread so that these people may eat?” 6 He said this to test Philip, for he himself knew what he was going to do. 7 Philip answered him, “Two hundred silver coins would not buy enough bread for each of them to have a piece.”

8 Then one of Jesus’ disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said, 9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?”

10 Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass there so the people, about five thousand men, sat down to rest. 11 Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks and distributed them to those who were seated. He did the same with the fish and gave them as much as they wanted. 12 And when they had eaten enough, he told his disciples, “Gather up the pieces left over, that nothing may be lost.”

13 So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with bread, that is with pieces of the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.

14 When the people saw this sign that Jesus had just given, they said, “This is really the Prophet, he who is to come into the world.” 15 Jesus realized that they would come and take him by force to make him king; so he fled to the hills by himself.

16 When evening came, the disciples went down to the shore. 17 After a while they got into a boat to make for Capernaum on the other side of the sea, for it was now dark and Jesus had not yet come to them. 18 But the sea was getting rough because a strong wind was blowing.

19 They had rowed about three or four miles, when they saw Jesus walking on the sea, and he was drawing near to the boat. They were frightened, 20 but he said to them, “It is Me; don’t be afraid.”

21 They wanted to take him into the boat, but immediately the boat was at the shore to which they were going.

• 22 Next day the people who had stayed on the other side realized that only one boat had been there and that Jesus had not entered it with his disciples; rather, the disciples had gone away alone. 23 Bigger boats from Tiberias came near the place where all these people had eaten the bread. 24 When they saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.

25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Master, when did you come here?”

26 Jesus answered, “Truly, I say to you, you look for me, not because you have seen through the signs, but because you ate bread and were satisfied. 27 Work then, not for perishable food, but for the lasting food which gives eternal life. The Son of Man will give it to you, for he is the one the Father has marked.”

The bread of life; to believe in the Son of God

• 28 Then the Jews asked him, “What shall we do? What are the works that God wants us to do?” 29 And Jesus answered them, “The work God wants is this: that you believe in the One whom God has sent.”

30 They then said, “Show us miraculous signs, that we may see and believe you. What sign do you perform? 31 Our ancestors ate manna in the desert; as Scripture says: They were given bread from heaven to eat.”

32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven. My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 The bread God gives is the One who comes from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 And they said to him, “Give us this bread always.”

35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall never be hungry, and whoever believes in me shall never be thirsty. 36 Nevertheless, as I said, you refuse to believe, even when you have seen. 37 Yet, all that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I shall not turn away. 38 For I have come from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of the One who sent me.

39 And the will of him who sent me is that I lose nothing of what he has given me, but instead that I raise it up on the last day. 40 This is the will of the Father, that whoever sees the Son and believes in him shall live with eternal life; and I will raise him up on the last day.”

41 The Jews murmured because Jesus had said, “I am the bread which comes from heaven.” 42 And they said, “This man is the son of Joseph, isn’t he? We know his father and mother. How can he say that he has come from heaven?”

43 Jesus answered them, “Do not murmur among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless he is drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise him up on the last day. 45 It has been written in the Prophets: They shall all be taught by God. So whoever listens and learns from the Father comes to me.

46 For no one has seen the Father except the One who comes from God; he has seen the Father. 47 Truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.

The body of Christ, bread of life

• 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Though your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, they died. 50 But here you have the bread which comes from heaven so that you may eat of it and not die.

51 I am the living bread which has come from heaven; whoever eats of this bread will live forever. The bread I shall give is my flesh and I will give it for the life of the world.”

52 The Jews were arguing among themselves, “How can this man give us flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus replied, “Truly, I say to you, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood live with eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day.

55 My flesh is really food and my blood is drink. 56 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood, live in me and I in them. 57 Just as the Father, who is life, sent me and I have life from the Father, so whoever eats me will have life from me. 58 This is the bread which came from heaven; unlike that of your ancestors, who ate and later died. Those who eat this bread will live forever.”

59 Jesus spoke in this way in Capernaum when he taught them in the synagogue.

Will you also go away?

• 60 After hearing this, many of Jesus’ followers said, “This language is very hard! Who can accept it?”

61 Jesus was aware that his disciples were murmuring about this and so he said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 Then how will you react when you see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh cannot help. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. 64 But among you there are some who do not believe.”

From the beginning, Jesus knew who would betray him. 65 So he added, “As I have told you, no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.”

66 After this many disciples withdrew and no longer followed him. 67 Jesus asked the Twelve, “Will you also go away?” 68 Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We now believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

70 Jesus said to them, “I chose you, the Twelve, did I not? Yet one of you is a devil.” 71Jesus spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. He, one of the Twelve, was to betray him.

John 5

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 12:59:14 +0000

The paralytic at the pool of Bethzatha

• 1 After this there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now, by the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem, there is a pool (called Bethzatha in Hebrew) surrounded by five galleries. 3 In these galleries lay a multitude of sick people – blind, lame and paralyzed.

(4 All were waiting for the water to move, for at times an angel of the Lord would descend into the pool and stir up the water; and the first person to enter after this movement of the water would be healed of whatever disease that person had.)

5 There was a man who had been sick for thirty-eight years. 6 Jesus saw him, and since he knew how long this man had been lying there, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 7 And the sick man answered, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is disturbed; so while I am still on my way, another steps down before me.”

8 Jesus then said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” 9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his mat and walked.

Now that day happened to be the Sabbath. 10 So the Jews said to the man who had just been healed, “It is the Sabbath and the Law doesn’t allow you to carry your mat.” 11 He answered them, “The one who healed me said to me: Take up your mat and walk.” 12 They asked him, “Who is the one who said to you: Take up your mat and walk?” 13 But the sick man had no idea who it was who had cured him, for Jesus had slipped away among the crowd that filled the place.

14 Afterwards Jesus met him in the Temple court and told him, ”Now you are well; don’t sin again, lest something worse happen to you.” 15 And the man went back and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. 16 So the Jews persecuted Jesus because he performed healings like that on the Sabbath.

17 Jesus replied, “My Father goes on working and so do I.” 18 And the Jews tried all the harder to kill him, for Jesus not only broke the Sabbath observance, but also made himself equal with God, calling him his own Father.

The work of the Son is to give life

• 19 Jesus said to them, “Truly, I assure you, the Son cannot do anything by himself, but only what he sees the Father do. And whatever he does, the Son also does. 20 The Father loves the Son and shows him everything he does; and he will show him even greater things than these, so that you will be amazed.

21 As the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son gives life to whom he wills. 22 In the same way the Father judges no one, for he has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 23 and he wants all to honor the Son as they honor the Father. Whoever ignores the Son, ignores as well the Father who sent him.

24 Truly, I say to you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; and there is no judgment for him because he has passed from death to life.

25 Truly, the hour is coming and has indeed come, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and, on hearing it, will live. 26 For the Father has life in himself and he has given to the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has empowered him as well to carry out Judgment, for he is a son of man.

28 Do not be surprised at this: the hour is coming when all those lying in tombs will hear my voice 29 and come out; those who have done good shall rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.

• 30 I can do nothing of myself, and I need to hear Another One to judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

31 If I bore witness to myself, my testimony would be worthless. 32 But Another One is bearing witness to me and I know that his testimony is true when he bears witness to me. 33 John also bore witness to the truth when you sent messengers to him, 34 but I do not seek such human testimony; I recall this for you, so that you may be saved.

35 John was a burning and shining lamp, and for a while you were willing to enjoy his light. 36 But I have greater evidence than that of John – the works which the Father entrusted to me to carry out. The very works I do bear witness: the Father has sent me. 37 Thus he who bears witness to me is the Father who sent me. You have never heard his voice and have never seen his likeness; 38 then, as long as you do not believe his messenger, his word is not in you.

39 You search in the Scriptures thinking that in them you will find life; yet Scripture bears witness to me. 40 But you refuse to come to me, that you may live. 41 I am not seeking human praise; 42 but I have known that love of God is not within you, 43 for I have come in my Father’s name and you do not accept me. If another comes in his own name, you will accept him. 44 As long as you seek praise from one another instead of seeking the glory coming from the only God, how can you believe?

45 Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father. Moses himself in whom you placed your hope, accuses you. 46 If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. 47 But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?

• 19 Moses gave you the Law, didn’t he? But none of you keep the Law. Why, then, do you want to kill me?”

20 The people replied, “You have a demon; who wants to kill you?” 21 Jesus said to them, “I performed just one deed, and you are all astounded by it. 22 But remember the circumcision ordered by Moses – actually it was not Moses but the ancestors who began this practice. You circumcise a man even on the Sabbath, 23 and you would break the Law if you refused to do so because of the Sabbath. How is it, then, that you are indignant with me because I healed the whole person on the Sabbath? 24 Do not judge by appearances, but according to what is right.”

John 4

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 12:58:03 +0000

Jesus and the Samaritan woman

• 1 The Lord knew that the Pharisees were informed about him; people said that Jesus was attracting and baptizing more disciples than John; 2 in fact it was not Jesus himself who was baptizing but his disciples. 3 So Jesus left Judea and returned to Galilee. 4 He had to cross Samaria.

5 He came to a Samaritan town called Sychar, near the land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well is there. Tired from his journey, Jesus sat down by the well; it was about noon. 7 Now a Samaritan woman came to draw water and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 His disciples had just gone into town to buy some food.

9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan and a woman, for a drink?” (For Jews, in fact, have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus replied, “If you only knew the Gift of God! If you knew who it is that asks you for a drink, you yourself would have asked me and I would have given you living water.”

11 The woman answered, “Sir, you have no bucket and this well is deep; where is your living water? 12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well after he drank from it himself, together with his sons and his cattle?”

13 Jesus said to her, “Those who drink of this water will be thirsty again; 14 but those who drink of the water that I shall give will never be thirsty; for the water that I shall give will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

15 The woman said to him, “Give me this water, that I may never be thirsty and never have to come here to draw water.” 16 Jesus said, “Go, call your husband and come back here.” 17 The woman answered, “I have no husband.” And Jesus replied, “You are right to say: ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands and the one you have now is not your husband. What you said is true.”

19 The woman then said to him, “I see you are a prophet; tell me this: 20 Our fathers used to come to this mountain to worship God; but you Jews, do you not claim that Jerusalem is the only place to worship God?”

21 Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you shall worship the Father, but that will not be on this mountain or in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship without knowledge, while we Jews worship with knowledge, for salvation comes from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming and is even now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for that is the kind of worshippers the Father wants. 24 God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

25 The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah, that is the Christ, is coming; when he comes, he will tell us everything.” 26 And Jesus said, “I who am talking to you, I am he.”

27 At this point the disciples returned and were surprised that Jesus was speaking with a woman; however, no one said, “What do you want?” or: “Why are you talking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water jar and ran to the town. There she said to the people, 29 “Come and see a man who told me everything I did! Could he not be the Christ?” 30 So they left the town and went to meet him.

31 In the meantime the disciples urged Jesus, “Master, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.” 33 And the disciples wondered, “Has anyone brought him food?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the One who sent me and to carry out his work.

35 You say that in four more months it will be the harvest; now, I say to you, look up and see the fields white and ready for harvesting. 36 People who reap the harvest are paid for their work, and the fruit is gathered for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.

37 Indeed the saying holds true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap where you didn’t work or suffer; others have worked and you are now sharing in their labors.”

39 In that town many Samaritans believed in him when they heard the woman who declared, “He told me everything I did.” 40 So, when they came to him, they asked him to stay with them and Jesus stayed there two days. 41 After that many more believed because of his own words 42 and they said to the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you told us; for we have heard for ourselves and we know that this is the Savior of the world.”

43 When the two days were over, Jesus left for Galilee. 44 Jesus himself said that no prophet is recognized in his own country. 45 Yet the Galileans welcomed him when he arrived, because of all the things he had done in Jerusalem during the Festival and which they had seen. For they, too, had gone to the feast.

Jesus cures the son of an official

• 46 Jesus went back to Cana of Galilee where he had changed the water into wine. At Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill, 47 and when he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and asked him to come and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.

48 Jesus said, “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe!” 49 The official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 50 And Jesus replied, “Go, your son is living.”

The man had faith in the word that Jesus spoke to him and went his way. 51 He was already going down the hilly road when his servants met him with this news, “Your son has recovered!” 52 So he asked them at what hour the child had begun to recover and they said to him, “The fever left him yesterday in the afternoon about one o’clock.” 53 And the father realized that it was the time when Jesus told him, “Your son is living.” And he became a believer, he and all his family.

54 Jesus performed this second miraculous sign when he returned from Judea to Galilee.

John 3

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 12:56:55 +0000

Jesus and Nicodemus

• 1 Among the Pharisees there was a ruler of the Jews named Nicodemus. 2 He came to Jesus by night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you have come from God to teach us, for no one can perform miraculous signs like yours unless God is with him.”

3 Jesus replied, “Truly, I say to you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again from above.”

4 Nicodemus said, “How can there be rebirth for a grown man? Who could go back to his mother’s womb and be born again?” 5 Jesus replied, “Truly, I say to you: No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Because of this, don’t be surprised when I say: ‘You must be born again from above.’

8 The wind blows where it pleases and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. It is like that with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

9 Nicodemus asked again, “How can this be?” 10 And Jesus answered, “You are a teacher in Israel, and you don’t know these things!

• 11 Truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and we witness to the things we have seen, but you don’t accept our testimony. 12 If you don’t believe when I speak of earthly things, what then, when I speak to you of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone up to heaven except the one who came from heaven, the Son of Man.

14 As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 so that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

16 Yes, God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him may not be lost, but may have eternal life. 17 God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world; instead, through him the world is to be saved. 18 Whoever believes in him will not be condemned. He who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the Name of the only Son of God.

19 This is how the Judgment is made: Light has come into the world and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. 20 For whoever does wrong hates the light and doesn’t come to the light for fear that his deeds will be shown as evil. 21 But whoever lives according to the truth comes into the light so that it can be clearly seen that his works have been done in God.”

John the Baptist’s last testimony

• 22 After this, Jesus went into the territory of Judea with his disciples. He stayed there with them and baptized. 23 John was also baptizing in Aenon near Salim where water was plentiful; people came to him and were baptized. 24 This happened before John was put in prison.

25 Now John’s disciples had been questioned by a Jew about spiritual cleansing, 26 so they came to him and said, “Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, and about whom you spoke favorably, is now baptizing and all are going to him.”

27 John answered, “No one can take on anything except what has been given him from heaven. 28 You yourselves are my witnesses that I said: ‘I am not the Christ but I have been sent before him.’ 29 Only the bridegroom has the bride; but the friend of the bridegroom stands by and listens, and rejoices to hear the bridegroom’s voice. My joy is now full. 30 It is necessary that he increase but that I decrease.

31 He who comes from above is above all; he who comes from the earth belongs to the earth and his words, too, are earthly. The One who comes from heaven 32 speaks of the things he has seen and heard; he bears witness to this but no one accepts his testimony. 33 Whoever does receive his testimony acknowledges the truthfulness of God.

34 The one sent by God speaks God’s words and gives the Spirit without measure. 35 For the Father loves the Son and has entrusted everything into his hands. 36 Whoever believes in the Son lives with eternal life, but he who will not believe in the Son will never know life and always faces the justice of God.”

John 2

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 12:55:52 +0000

The wedding at Cana

• 1 Three days later there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus was also invited to the wedding with his disciples. 3 When all the wine provided for the celebration had been served and they had run out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 Jesus replied, “Woman, what concern is that to you and me? My hour has not yet come.”

5 However his mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

6 Nearby were six stone water jars meant for the ritual washing as practiced by the Jews; each jar could hold twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them to the brim. 8 Then Jesus said, “Now draw some out and take it to the steward.” So they did.

9 The steward tasted the water that had become wine, without knowing from where it had come; for only the servants who had drawn the water knew. So, he called the bridegroom 10 to tell him, “Everyone serves the best wine first and when people have drunk enough, he serves that which is ordinary. Instead you have kept the best wine until the end.”

11 This miraculous sign was the first, and Jesus performed it at Cana in Galilee. In this way he let his Glory appear and his disciples believed in him.

• 12 After this, Jesus went down to Capernaum with his mother, his brothers and his disciples; and they stayed there for a few days.

Jesus clears the temple

• 13 As the Passover of the Jews was at hand, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the Temple court he found merchants selling oxen, sheep and doves, and money-changers seated at their tables. 15 Making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the Temple court, together with the oxen and sheep. He knocked over the tables of the money-changers, scattering the coins, 16 and ordered the people selling doves, “Take all this away and stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!”

17 His disciples recalled the words of Scripture: Zeal for your House devours me as a fire.

18 The Jews then questioned Jesus, “Where are the miraculous signs which give you the right to do this?” 19 And Jesus said, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 The Jews then replied, “The building of this temple has already taken forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days?”

21 Actually, Jesus was referring to the temple of his body. 22 Only when he had risen from the dead did his disciples remember these words; then they believed both the Scripture and the words Jesus had spoken.

23 Jesus stayed in Jerusalem during the Passover Festival and many believed in his Name when they saw the miraculous signs he performed. 24 But Jesus did not trust himself to them, because he knew all of them. 25 He had no need of evidence about anyone for he himself knew what there was in each one.

John 1

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 12:54:40 +0000

The Word became a human

1 • 1 In the beginning was the Word.

And the Word was with God

and the Word was God;

2 he was in the beginning with God.

3 All things were made through him

and without him nothing came to be.

Whatever has come to be, 4 found life in him,

life which for humans was also light.

5 Light that shines in the dark:

light that darkness could not overcome.

6 A man came, sent by God;

his name was John.

7 He came to bear witness,

as a witness to introduce the Light

so that all might believe through him.

8 He was not the Light

but a witness to introduce the Light.

9 For the Light was coming into the world,

the true Light that enlightens everyone.

10 He was already in the world

and through him the world was made,

the very world that did not know him.

11 He came to his own,

yet his own people did not receive him;

12 but all who have received him

he empowers to become children of God

for they believe in his Name.

13 These are born, but without seed

or carnal desire or will of man:

they are born of God.

14 And the Word was made flesh;

he had his tent pitched among us,

and we have seen his Glory,

the Glory of the only Son

coming from the Father:

fullness of truth and loving-kindness.

15 John bore witness to him openly, saying:

This is the one who comes after me,

but he is already ahead of me

for he was before me.

16 From his fullness we have all received,

favor upon favor.

17 For God had given us the Law through Moses,

but Truth and Loving-kindness

came through Jesus Christ.

18 No one has ever seen God,

but God-the-Only-Son made him known:

the one who is in and with the Father.

FIRST PART: JESUS REVEALS HIMSELF THROUGH SIGNS

John the Baptist presents Jesus, the Lamb of God

• 19 This was the testimony of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites to ask him, “Who are you?” 20 John recognized the truth and did not deny it. He said, “I am not the Messiah.”

21 And they asked him, “Then who are you? Elijah?” He answered, “I am not.” They said, “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” 22 Then they said to him, “Tell us who you are, so that we can give some answer to those who sent us. How do you see yourself?” 23 And John said, quoting the prophet Isaiah, “I am the voice crying out in the wilderness: Make straight the way of the Lord.”

24 Those who had been sent were Pharisees; 25 so they put a further question to John: “Then why are you baptizing if you are not the Messiah, or Elijah, or the Prophet?” 26 John answered, “I baptize you with water, but among you stands one whom you do not know; 27 although he comes after me, I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandal.”

28 This happened in Bethabara beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

29 The next day John saw Jesus coming towards him and said, “There is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. 30 It is he of whom I said: A man comes after me who is already ahead of me, for he was before me. 31 I myself did not know him, but I came baptizing to prepare for him, so that he might be revealed in Israel.”

32 And John also gave this testimony, “I saw the Spirit coming down on him like a dove from heaven and resting on him. 33 I myself did not know him but God who sent me to baptize told me: ‘You will see the Spirit coming down and resting on the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 Yes, I have seen! and I declare that this is the Chosen One of God.”

Jesus meets the first disciples

• 35 On the following day John was standing there again with two of his disciples. 36 As Jesus walked by, John looked at him and said, “There is the Lamb of God.” 37 On hearing this, the two disciples followed Jesus. 38 He turned and saw them following, and he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They answered, “Rabbi (which means Master), where are you staying?” 39 Jesus said, “Come and see.” So they went and saw where he stayed and spent the rest of that day with him. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon.

40 Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who heard what John had said and followed Jesus. 41 Early the next morning he found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means the Christ), 42 and he brought Simon to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon, son of John, but you shall be called Cephas” (which means Rock).

43 The next day, Jesus decided to set off for Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” 44 Philip was from Bethsaida, the town of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found the one that Moses wrote about in the Law, and the prophets as well: he is Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth.”

46 Nathanael replied, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” 47 When Jesus saw Nathanael coming, he said of him, “Here comes an Israelite, a true one; there is nothing false in him.” 48 Nathanael asked him, “How do you know me?” And Jesus said to him, “Before Philip called you, you were under the fig tree and I saw you.”

49 Nathanael answered, “Master, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” 50 But Jesus replied, “You believe because I said: ‘I saw you under the fig tree.’ But you will see greater things than that.

51 Truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

John

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 12:50:00 +0000

INTRODUCTION

At the outset, the first three gospels may have us overlook the work and skills of its writers. Whatever vision they wanted to transmit about their Savior, they dealt so plainly with the witnesses that oftentimes we seem to have seen and heard Jesus himself.

Comparatively, John’s gospel is very different. This book has matured along with him in his life. His experience as an apostle moved him to constantly re-interpret the presence of the resurrected Jesus in the Church.

John does not let us ignore his purpose: “This has been recorded that you may believe that Jesus is the Son of God” (Jn 20:31). The

faith of the Church proclaimed Jesus as the Son of God. But how should we understand this term? Though Jesus’ resurrection had manifested the divine character of his person, one could wonder how and from what moment was Jesus Son of God and to what extent was he identified with God. John’s Gospel clearly asserts that Jesus’ existence was forever in God. This assertion on Jesus’ origin helps us understand the range of his work. The eternal Son-of-God-become-human did not only come to teach us the way of amending ourselves, but also to transform the whole creation.

John did not create his gospel from nothing. Here we find quite a number of precise witnesses including more confirmed details than the other gospels. However, he did not confine himself to his own remembrances. As time passed, he expressed and developed Jesus’ words by crafting discourses in which Jesus, “with the help of John”, actually talks to us.

John’s Gospel is controversial because the purer and harder a truth is, the lesser are those who are able to receive it. This is why this gospel raised controversies within the very Church but was later acknowledged as word of God and as apostolic witness.

So it is that John’s Gospel was written and re-written and was most probably published only after the death of his author, about the year 95, as a small paragraph added at the end let it understand. In this last composition it seems that John organized it around the three Passovers which mark out Jesus’ public ministry.

Here we find an important element to understand John’s mind. He finished writing twenty years after the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Roman armies. John knows as well as Paul that Jesus’ resurrection originated a new age. The revelation to the Jewish people and the great liturgies in the Temple belong to a certain extent to the past, but in this first covenant that has become the old covenant are found the keys to the understanding of Jesus’ achievements. This is why John will call to mind the Jewish feasts and religious symbols such as the water, the palms, the lamb… and he will show how these are transfigured in the Christian life and liturgy.

This is why three sections can be gleaned after an opening that we call the week of discovery (till 2:16). These are:

– In 2:17 Jesus goes up to the Temple for the Passover: chapters 2–5 develop the sign of the Temple.

– In 6:4 the Passover is mentioned again and John develops the sign of bread.

– In 13:1 we find the third Passover, when Jesus is put to death at the moment in which the lambs are sacrificed in the Temple. The lamb will be the third sign.

Is John the author of the gospel called by his name?

This question is very difficult to answer. There are many reasons to doubt authorship of the apostle John, but there can be found as many reasons to vindicate the traditional attribution to John.

As we said in the Introduction to the gospels, an unavowed reason leads some persons to look for other authors than the very apostles. John’s message is clear and it hurts. Must we accept that the One who marked him forever and probably loved him more than the other apostles was the eternal Word of God, God born from God? What a stunning assertion! Perhaps we would prefer that this kind of things were not said by a direct witness but added later by some theologian. This would have easier idealized the person of Jesus because, by looking from afar he would not have borne the full weight of his human presence: his way of looking, of eating, of washing, and the scent of his sweat…

We must however recognize that strong arguments move us to doubt John indeed as the author, and for many scholars the primary point is this: dozens of years went by between the first and so fresh accounts about the doings of Jesus, and the discourses which were built later from them and which seem to sometimes forget the original tradition. Is it possible that one of the first witnesses of Jesus have ran such a long tread?

The one who shaped John’s Gospel discourses in the 70ths, most probably near Ephesus where according to a very ancient tradition John withdrew and died, was a theologian. His interest for the liturgy and the Temple lets us think that he was a priest. Can this fit with the person of John, Zebedee’s son, a fisherman of Tiberiadis? Is it possible that such a vision of Jesus, the Messiah, and then the Son of God, Savior of the world, had been borne in him and that he has expressed it in his gospel?

The answer to such questions depend mostly from each one’s experience. We may have met believers who are deeply and truly theologians though they have not passed through university. They encountered some outstanding personality and this was enough to awaken their gifts. Later they became one of these few apostles who continually go over the events and the discoveries of this ministry, always eager to understand the ways of God. Do they need some books, some friends to help them to mature in their thinking? The same God who pours in them wisdom will direct to them this kind of help.

Can’t this be the case of John, so close to Jesus and then apostle for some sixty years? He did not go, as Paul did through rabbinical schools, and this is why he does not use sophisticated arguments, but ever so, couldn’t he be a Theologian, this someone who knows God?

• 1.1 In the beginning was the Word. The real beginning is not the creation of the universe. For this beginning of time, space, matter, existence explains nothing yet demands an explanation. The real beginning is beyond time. John does not say that at this beginning “God was” because we know it. He speaks of the Word. We keep this traditional term word, although the term word that John uses says more than “word.” It is both “thought” and “word”, which is the word expressing what one carries in oneself. We ought perhaps translate with: The “Expression” of God. To speak of this Word, or Expression of the Father, or to speak of his Son, is the same thing. In other pages he will be called Splendor (Heb 1:1) and Image (Col 1:15) of the Father. The Son is not part of the Father, or another God since he has nothing that is of himself but all which is the Father’s is also his (Jn 16:15).

John will remind us that no one has ever seen God (v. 18). The Father from whom existence comes and all that exists is without beginning and his springing forth is known only to himself. John tells us here that for him, “being,” is communicating himself, expressing himself, giving himself. God expresses himself in him who is at the same time his Word and his Son and through this uncreated, unique Word, which fully expresses him; he creates a universe that is yet another way of saying what is in God.

This is still not enough to satisfy the need of God to communicate himself. As several texts of the Old Testament have already said (Pro 8:22 and 31, 2 S 7:2-30), God has entered through his Word into the history of humankind. It was he who was “spoken” of in their own way by all who carried the Word, all the prophets of the Bible and those of other religions as well. The Word enlightened all human beings, including those who did not know God; he was the conscience of the upright in every race, in every age. This Word, Son and Expression of the Father came one day to give us the definitive word by means of his own existence in becoming human among us.

Whatever has come to be, found life in him (v. 4). It is a property of life to develop from within until maturity is reached. This growth is to be seen throughout history in all the work of the Word; it is the language of God that develops among humankind. Whether we study the history of our race from its origins, or whether we read the Old Testament, we see how the language of God has been developed among humans. It always was a human language, but this language was inhabited by the Spirit of God, and in a special way within the history of Israel, it was also the word of God. We shall find this living word in him who is the Son-made-human, Jesus, but in a way that disconcerts us. For there is the mystery about the Son: it is true that he is God like the Father, but having received all, he is in a posture of offering: he empties himself so that the Father may exalt and glorify him anew.

A man came, sent by God. Twice in verses 6-8 and 15, John, the author of the Gospel, speaks to us of John the Baptist, precursor of Jesus. The Word has truly identified himself: he has not come with glory; he was introduced by a word which came from himself, but remained human in John’s preaching. It was easy to reject this witness and in fact when he came to his own, to the people of Israel, his own did not receive him.

The Word was made flesh. John uses the word flesh to underline the utter humility of God who, despite being spirit, became a creature with a mortal body. John says: was made, and not: “took the appearance” of a human person, because the Son of God was truly human.

God become human dwelt among us. The root sense of this verb “dwell” in the Bible is: to have one’s tent pitched. So John is pleased to allude to the sacred tent that served as the Hebrews’ sanctuary in the desert: in that tent, God was present beside them (Ex 33:7-11). In reality Jesus, the Son of God become human, is the true Temple of God among people (Jn 2:21), a temple as humble and apparently fragile as the tent in the desert was: nevertheless, in him is the fullness of God. The apostles saw his glory at certain moments of his mortal life (Jn 2:11 and Lk 9:32). They saw his glory in his Passion and Resurrection.

How does the Word save us? John does not speak only of Jesus rescuing us from the abyss of sin; he prefers to speak of Jesus allowing us to attain a status totally unexpected and beyond our reach: he made them children of God. We are made children of God by the very Son of the Father, provided that we believe in his Name, which is in his divine personality.

In him was the fullness of Love and Truth (v. 14). Love (or Grace) and Truth (or Faithfulness) are God’s two main qualities (Ex 34:6-7). These words are repeated as a refrain throughout Psalm 89. John means then that he has recognized the fullness of Jesus’ divinity (Col 2:9).

God has given us the Law. While recounting the sins of Israel, the biblical story foretold the time when there would be no need for a Law engraved in stones or written in books (Jer 31:31). Some day God would change the sinners’ hearts (Ezk 36:26) so that relationships of mutual Love and Faithfulness between God and humankind would begin (Hos 2:21-22). John affirms that the promised time of Love and Truth (of perfect religion) arrived through Jesus Christ.

• 19. THE LAMB

The authorities wondered: “Who is this who on his own initiative has begun to preach?” At that time, various Jewish groups “baptized,” or bathed, as a means of purification and to hasten the coming of the Messiah.

Regarding John the Baptist’s preaching and baptism, see Luke 3:10.

The Messiah is the name the Jews gave to the expected Savior. They also expected the Prophet, but it was not clear whether or not the Prophet would be someone other than the Messiah. It was believed that the prophet Elijah would reappear before the Messiah’s arrival (Mk 9:11).

There is the Lamb (v. 29). In the language of the Jews, the word “Lamb” can mean both servant and lamb. Jesus is the Servant of God spoken of by the prophets, who was to sacrifice himself for his brothers and sisters. He is also the true Lamb that replaces the Paschal Lamb (Mk 14:12).

A man comes after me (v. 30). In history, Jesus appears after John, but being the Word of God, he existed before all creatures. He also precedes, that is to say, all – including John the Baptist – are guided by his light.

• 35. DISCOVERING JESUS

This Gospel is the work of John the Evangelist who should not be confused with John the Baptist. John the Evangelist was one of the first two disciples to follow Jesus (v. 39).

John, concerned about helping us understand the profound meaning of Jesus’ actions, dwells on details to which we would not immediately pay attention. For example, the Bible begins with the poem describing Creation as happening in seven days, and because John sees Jesus’ work as a new creation, he describes the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry as happening within a week (seven being a symbolic number) (vv. 29, 35, 43 and 2:1).

On the first day John the Baptist affirmed: there is one among you whom you do not know. We see how, during the week, John the Baptist was the first to discover Jesus. Then later, John, Andrew and Simon also discovered him. The last day of the first week will be at the wedding in Cana, where Jesus will let them discover his glory.

What are you looking for? (v. 38). John did not forget these first words Jesus spoke to them. We want to know who Jesus is, but he asks us what our inner dispositions are: because we will gain nothing through finding him unless we are disposed to submit ourselves to him.

These two disciples began to live with Jesus. With time, they would discover that he is the Teacher, the Messiah, the Son of God. So, too, with us. We progress in this knowledge of Jesus Christ as we go on our journey through life.

John the Baptist was without jealousy; he had encouraged his disciples to follow Jesus, and later the first two brought others. Likewise, we come to Jesus because of another person who spoke to us of him, or involved us in an apostolic task.

These two disciples recognized Jesus. It would be more exact to say that Jesus recognized those whom the Father had entrusted to him. Thus he recognized Nathanael when he was under the fig tree (v. 48). Among the Jews, this expression referred to a teacher of the Law engaged in teaching religion, since ordinarily they taught under the shade of a tree. In the same way, Jesus recognized Simon whom the Father chose to be the first Rock of the Church (Mt 16:13).

You will see the heavens opened. See Genesis 28:12.

• 2.1 THE SIGNS OF JESUS

The Week of Discovery ends with the wedding at Cana. Indeed Jesus was at the wedding and brought his disciples to join in the singing, dancing and drinking wine. His presence and participation sanctified not only marriage but also festive celebrations and togetherness.

The disciples began to know Jesus, but someone else already understood and believed in him: Mary his mother. How did it ever occur to her to ask him for a miracle? Did she know that Jesus could perform miracles? Mary did not ask for the conversion of sinners, or for bread for the hungry; rather, what she wanted was a miracle or something like it to free the groom from embarrassment.

Jesus answered her with a phrase which, directed to a stranger, could be interpreted as a reproach, but said in a different tone to his mother demonstrated a familiarity and a mutual understanding that went beyond words. Apparently Jesus had no thought of beginning his mission in that manner or at that moment, but his spirit recognized the Spirit speaking through his mother, and he granted this first miraculous sign.

It is worth noting that John relates only seven miracles of Jesus, and sometimes he calls them works, sometimes signs. They are works of the Son of God in which he manifests his power. They are signs, that is to say, visible things adapted for us by which he enables us to understand his true work – that of bringing life and renewal to the world.

This is why John mentions some details of this event that were symbolic of spiritual realities. Jesus participated in a wedding, and what was he trying to do, but to prepare for other weddings – of God with humanity? Jesus speaks of his hour that had not yet come, for, in reality, his true hour will be that of his Passion and Resurrection.

John adds that Jesus made use of the water that the Jews set aside to purify themselves. The Jews were obsessed with avoiding “defilement,” so their religion multiplied the rites of purification (v. 6). Jesus, by changing the blessed water into wine, signified that true religion should not be confused with the fear of sin: what is important is to receive from Jesus the Spirit which, like heady wine, makes us break from established norms and the narrowness of our own knowledge and learning.

The water changed into wine: Jesus comes into our house to sanctify our daily life – its routine and its chores.

It was thus Jesus manifested his glory to those who were beginning to discover him. Mary brought grace to John the Baptist (Lk 1:39); again she intervenes to hasten the beginnings of the Gospel. She will not speak again in the Gospel, and her last words are: Do whatever he tells you (v. 5).

In those first days after John’s baptism, Jesus was still living among his relatives and townmates whom the Gospel calls “his brothers”: see commentary on Mark 3:31.

• 12. With the wedding at Cana, the first section of the Gospel we have called the Week of Discovery ends. Another section begins in which Jesus defines himself in relation to the Jewish world and their hopes. John presents four scenes:

– Jesus in the Temple: The priests are materialistic, and Jesus judges them severely.

– Jesus and Nicodemus: Nicodemus expresses the concerns of the learned and believing Jews.

– the Samaritan Woman: This is the dialogue of Jesus with the townspeople who are believers in their own way.

– Jesus heals the son of an official: Jesus points out that the majority of those who come to him, seek him because of his miracles.

• 13. Jesus had not yet begun his preaching. He went to the Temple of Jerusalem that was the heart of the Jewish nation and the symbol of their religion (Mk 11:12). The Temple, however, was not immune from corruption and lust for power. In the Temple the people had to make use of the priests’ services to offer their sacrifices. The priests’ authority and power derived from the Temple. The Temple was the place where the community’s offerings and gifts were brought; and there the chief priests disposed of this treasure. Besides this, they also received the taxes that the sellers and money changers paid.

Zeal for your house devours me as a fire, and the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me. This is taken from Psalm 69. Actually the hatred of the chief priests for Jesus would bring him to his death.

The apostles could not understand these words: for at that time nothing was more sacred to them than the Temple and the Scripture. Later, they would know that the most ordinary word of Jesus had as much weight as the whole of Scripture. They would also understand that Jesus is the true Temple. Until then, people constructed temples and looked for places where they could meet God and obtain his favors. Now God has made himself present in Jesus: it is he who delivers God’s riches to us.

• 3.1 A NEW BIRTH

Nicodemus was a religious person, concerned about knowing God and his ways, and he went to Jesus as to a teacher of religion. What he needed was not so much to receive instruction, however, as to undergo a change within himself. That, too, is what we need. We must recognize our powerlessness – by ourselves, unaided – to pass through the barriers which block us from an authentic life. Like Nicodemus, despite all our accumulated experience and knowledge (or because of them), we are old people.

Jesus says we must be born again and born from above: John’s gospel uses a word that can be interpreted in both senses (v. 3). Nobody gives birth to himself, and just as we received our life in the flesh from others so, too, we receive the life of the Son of God from the Spirit.

All claim that they live: something moves in them, thoughts come to them, and they make decisions … Yet this could possibly be nothing more than the life of the flesh, or the life of an unawakened person.

The other life, that of the Spirit, is more mysterious because it takes place in the innermost depths of our being. We see the external appearance; we notice a person’s face and behavior, but we do not see God’s working in her. The awakened believer, however, who is habitually led by the Spirit gradually discovers changes in what motivates her actions and her ambitions. She feels at ease with God and without fear, experiencing that it is not so much she who orients her life, as another who lives in her. Yet she could not, in fact, be able to say exactly what happens within her.

Hence Jesus compares the action of the Spirit with the passing of the wind that we feel, although we do not see or hold it. Let us also take note that in Jesus’ language the same word means spirit as much as “wind.”

We have to be reborn of water and of the Spirit: this points to baptism. Let us not think that merely by receiving the waters of baptism, one is fully established in the life of the Spirit; rather, let us realize that normally one is baptized in order to begin the life of the Spirit: the words of the Gospel refer to adults converted to the Christian faith. The case of infant baptism is different. Baptism works within them. Yet they should receive instruction in the faith to lead them to personal conversion.

Like many in Israel, Nicodemus was a religious person and a believer. Why did he come by night? Possibly he did not want to risk his position and reputation, or mix with the common people around Jesus. This would not be the attitude of those who have been born again: these have been liberated from many things that paralyze others.

JESUS REVEALS THE PLAN OF GOD

• 11. John’s Gospel is different from the other three. Often, after relating some words of Jesus, John adds an explanation of the faith, which he supports with declarations that Jesus made on other occasions. That is what happens in this case.

How can this be? Nicodemus asked. To enter into the life of the Spirit, we need to know God’s plan for us. Yet no one can speak properly of such things except the Son of God. He has seen heavenly things, that is, the intimate life of God; he also speaks of earthly things, that is, of the Kingdom that God brings to us. Many of Jesus’ listeners will not accept what he says about the Reign of God; much less will they pay attention to what he reveals about the mystery of God. Jesus reveals to us that which, by ourselves, we are unable to know. Thus a Christian is not one who merely “believes in God”; we are Christians because we believe the testimony of Jesus (v. 11) regarding God and his plan of salvation.

In this plan, there was something very difficult to accept: that the Son of Man would have to die on the cross and to rise from the dead (be lifted on high means the same). Jesus reminds them of the serpent in the desert. This episode in the Bible (Num 21) prefigured what would happen to Jesus. Of course, the Jews did not grasp the meaning of this message; in fact, they passed over all the predictions of the sufferings of their savior without understanding them.

They had to revise their ideas about other matters, also. The Jews had been praying for God to come and expected him to condemn the world and to punish the bad. He, on the other hand, sent his own Son to the cross so that the world will be saved (v. 17).

Other verses of the New Testament say that we should not love the world; which seems to contradict what we have just read: God so loved the world. The reason for this contradiction is that the word world has several meanings.

First, the world means all of creation, which is good since it is God’s work. The center of this divine work is humankind, which has come under the influence of Satan (8:34 & 44). Everything that sinful humanity creates – riches, culture, social life – is influenced, disfigured and used for evil. Hence, God sent His Son so that the world will be saved.

Yet, even though Christ’s resurrection initiated his invincible power over history, a strong current of evil continues, dragging along all who refuse to acknowledge the truth. This evil current is sometimes called the world. It would be more appropriate to say: the people who surrender themselves to the Master of the world. The Scripture points to them in saying: Do not love the world, or You are not of the world (1 Jn 2:15; 4:6).

• 22. The Gospel admits that many disciples of John the Baptist did not recognize Jesus. They had been drawn by their teacher’s example: he was intense and outspoken, hard on himself in food, drink and clothing. Somehow they had the hope, maybe because of John the Baptist’s manner, that God’s true justice would come and bring about direct punishment of the wicked. Like militant followers of whatever good cause, John’s disciples had this weakness: they were too focused on their own leaders and ways to consider other possibilities. To become Christ’s disciples, they would have to give up their own prophets.

It is necessary that he increase but that I decrease, says the greatest of the prophets (v. 30). Only Jesus comes from On High, and can fully satisfy the human heart. In him nothing of the good is lost, since he embodies all.

Always faces the justice of God (v. 36). Those who do not recognize the Son of God remain in the situation humanity was in when expelled from Paradise. If they are not able to receive the witness of “God the Son who is one with the Father,” they will never solve the contradictions in their lives or in the world in which they live; and they cannot but mistrust God.

• 4.1 LIVING WATER

The Jews hated the Samaritans. In addition, talking with any woman in a public place was looked upon with disapproval in Jewish culture at that time. Jesus, overcoming racial and social prejudices, began to talk with a Samaritan woman. In the person of this woman he met the common people of Palestine. The woman was from a different province and belonged to a rival cult, but both shared the same promises of God and both were waiting for a Savior.

The first concern of the woman was to quench her thirst. The ancestors of the Jewish people walked with their flocks from one water source to another. The most famous Jews (like Jacob) dug wells, and around these wells the desert began to live. This fact was like a parable; people look everywhere for something to quench their thirst; but they are condemned to find nothing but stagnant waters. Those who make tanks to preserve water find that the tanks crack (see commentary on Gen 26). Jesus brings the living water, which is God’s gift to us, his children: the gift of the Holy Spirit (7:37).

When there is water in the desert, although it does not surface, it is noticeable because of the verdant vegetation. The same happens with us when we truly live: our actions become better, our decisions more free, our thoughts more directed towards the essential. The living water from which all these fruits flow is not seen: this is eternal life, against which death can do nothing.

The second concern of the woman is to know: Where is truth to be found? Jesus tells her: You have had five husbands… This symbolizes the common destiny of the townspeople who have served many masters or “husbands” and, in the end, do not have anyone whom they recognize as their Lord. To begin with, what is the true religion?

The Samaritans had their Bible, somewhat different from that of the Jews, and in the town itself, a few kilometers from the Well of Sychar, was their Temple, which rivaled that of Jerusalem. Jesus maintains that the Jewish religion is the true one: Salvation comes from the Jews. In this he does not share the position of those who say: “It matters little what Church we belong to, since they are all the same.” Nevertheless, although one has the good fortune of following the true religion, he has to arrive at the spiritual knowledge of God (v. 23). The Spirit, whom we receive, helps us worship God according to the truth. The Father seeks such worshipers who enter into intimate personal contact with him.

Spirit and truth (v. 24). God does not need the words of our prayers, but looks for simplicity, beauty and nobility in our spirit. The Spirit of God cannot be communicated except to those who seek the truth and live according to truth in a world of deception.

In the final analysis, the Samaritan woman’s account is a parable of our own lives. Each one of us is in some way the Samaritan woman. What happened at the well of Jacob describes our own encounter with Jesus; the ways by which Jesus led the woman to recognize and love him are the ways by which Jesus, step-by-step, accomplishes our own conversion. In the end, the woman became Jesus’ disciple, and through this very experience she also became Jesus’ apostle: Many in that town believed in Jesus because of the woman (v. 39). This Jesus experience is the source of the apostolate. To evangelize is to share this experience with others.

Four more months … (v. 35). Like the harvest, the people who follow Jesus are also maturing.

People who reap the harvest are paid for their work: this Jesus’ maxim has many applications. Verse 36 possibly refers to the shared joy of the Father who sowed and of the Son who will harvest. In a different way, in verse 37, Jesus and his own are aware that they do not work in vain. Others have worked: Jesus refers to those who came before him, and especially to John the Baptist.

• 46. See Luke 7:1.

Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. Jesus’ reproach is directed, not to the official who will later show great faith, but to the Jews and to us. While Jesus works miracles which confirm his mission, he also stresses that we should recognize him by seeing and hearing him. Do lovers demand miracles in order to trust one another? Do those who follow leaders demand absolute proof? Those who really seek the truth recognize it when it is presented to them.

Jesus’ second miracle in Cana concludes this second part of the Gospel in which Jesus defines himself in relation to Jewish society and its hopes.

Now begins a new section: Jesus proclaims the work for which he has come into this world; his Father has sent him to judge and to give life. We must first believe in the Messenger of God. This is treated in chapters 5 and 6.

• 5.1 Why did Jesus go to the Pool of Bethzatha? It is known that the said pool was a pagan place dedicated to Aesculapius, the god of health. Rumors abounded that, from time to time, the sick were healed there. The pious Jews, scandalized that healings should occur in a pagan place, maintained that people were healed not by Aesculapius but by an angel of the Lord. Unscrupulous Jews went there to seek a cure even from pagan idols. Jesus, too, went there, but in search of the sinner he wished to save.

Note the sick man’s first response. In this miraculous place many hoped for a cure but few were healed. By ourselves alone – I have no one – we cannot be saved. We need a Savior.

Jesus disappears after the miracle. Some people might have said that he was at ease in a pagan temple, or think he healed the sick in the name of their gods. Jesus will make himself known in the Temple of the true God, his Father.

The Jews attacked Jesus because he “worked” on the Sabbath day. Let us examine Jesus’ reply more closely: My Father goes on working. It is well that people observe a day of rest to pay homage to God; yet God himself does not rest, nor is he absent from the world: he gives life to people. Being God-the-Son, Jesus should imitate God the Father instead of resting like people do. His enemies, on hearing him, were not mistaken about his claims: they wanted to kill him because he made himself equal with God (v. 18).

Don’t sin again… (v. 14). Jesus reminds the sick man of his lack of faith that led him to the pagan sanctuary where he waited in vain for 38 years, just as in former times the Israelites remained secluded 38 years in the oasis of Kadesh in the desert, without being able to enter the Promised Land. John noted this coincidence. He also understood that the cure in the pool represented baptism. Jesus’ remark to the healed person is addressed to those who have been converted and baptized: Do not sin again.

After this account the Christian faith is presented again. See commentary on John 3:11.

It should be mentioned that in these “discourses” John the Evangelist is fond of repeating key words of the discourses seven times. Here, for example, we find the words Sabbath, Jesus, and Moses seven times each; and the Father 14 times. John intends to contrast the Jewish religion instituted by Moses, whose major precept was the Sabbath rest, with that of the new times which Jesus came to inaugurate, wherein he enables us to know the Father.

• 19. THE SON AND THE FATHER, THE RESURRECTION

Jesus’ opponents were surprised to see how he violated the law of the sacred rest; this, however, was only the first intervention of Jesus (7:21). Jesus intends to do much more than just reform religion: he has come to renew the whole of creation.

The books of the Old Testament spoke of God as only one. Now Jesus shows us a new face of God: he is Father and has sent his Son to complete his work. In all that he does, God endeavors to give us life, and the greatest of his works is the Resurrection.

This rising from the dead does not mean “to return to life” but to begin a new and transformed life. The dead will rise again, of course (v. 28), but we can also speak of the resurrection in the lives of those who become believers. A word of Jesus accepted in faith gives us life and later takes root in us and transforms us. Together, the Father and the Son raise us to new life. God’s love, which engenders life, reaches us through the voice of Christ (v. 25). Compare v. 25 with v. 28.

Jesus then is not only human like us. Though human, he is also divine and reveals to us another face of God. Jesus wants to replace in our minds any image of God as a jealous or paternalistic God. The Gospel shows the Father giving all his authority to a human, to Christ. This resonates with modern psychology that teaches that a person is not fully adult until he liberates himself from parental authority. Our contemporary world rightly rejects a paternalistic God.

On numerous occasions, Jesus called himself the Son of Man (See the explanation in Mark 8:27). Here John says a son of man (v. 27); that is, a Jewish idiom which means a human being. By being human, Jesus saves humanity from within.

When Jesus claims to be the Son, he repeats these two affirmations in various ways:

– Everything that my Father does, I do; all that the Father has, I have.

– and: I cannot do anything by myself.

In this way, Jesus is a model for the sons and daughters of God. We also should commune with the Father, so that he may teach us his works: there is no Christian life without prayer, that is, without a personal relationship with God.

• 30. THE TESTIMONY

To gain a direction in life, we need some understanding of the world and humankind. This understanding may come through reason and science, but more often we are influenced and guided by the testimony of others – by their words, attitudes and personal qualities.

It is thus that those in love discover one another, friends accept each other, a career is decided upon, a religious or political commitment is made. It is also thus that the Word of God is discovered. Therefore, Jesus speaks of the testimonies that accredit him:

– his works, that is, his miracles.

– John the Baptist’s testimony in pointing him out as the Savior.

– the words of the Bible that refer to him.

Some people say that since the Bible is the word of God they do not need anything more than that to guide them. Let them know that just as God spoke through events and through prophets, he continues speaking to us through actual events and through spokespersons of the Spirit in the Church. Jesus rebuked those who believed they possessed the truth just by having the Bible, but did not believe in him whom God was sending them (v. 38).

God instructs us in his way when we listen to what others teach us; in daily life and within the Church we meet people living according to the Spirit, whereas others only pretend to be religious and upright persons.

How then do we distinguish between what is true and what is false? How do we recognize those who speak of God’s ways from personal experience? Jesus says that those who love the truth recognize those who speak the truth. Everyone values the testimony of an equal. To recognize the messengers of God, we must be the people who do not look for praise from one another, and thus are not enslaved by false values. Whoever seeks the truth and mercy will recognize a communication of the Glory of God in the words and actions of God’s more humble servants.

It pleases God when we recognize his witnesses. He desires everyone to honor the Son just as his Father does. By believing in his Son, we show ourselves worthy of his trust and thus become God’s children, open to his life.

• 7.19 At the end of chapter 5 we have placed the passage 7:19-24, which concludes the discourses but which, for some unknown reason, was placed after chapter 6.

• 6.1 See Mark 6:35.

• 22. In the following pages John expands Jesus’ pronouncements in the synagogue of Capernaum. Surely Jesus himself at that time did not develop so fully the doctrine on the Eucharist (vv. 48-58). There is no doubt, however, that Jesus expressed himself in a manner that scandalized his hearers. What did he say but to affirm clearly that we must go to him, for he is the true bread from whom we receive eternal life?

People struggle for adequate food, and their first preoccupation is to survive, because if they do not eat they will cease to live. We do not have life in ourselves and have to constantly depend on others for what is necessary to maintain life. In spite of everything, some day life escapes us because we have not encountered the lasting food (v. 27).

In fact, we need much more than bread: beyond eating and drinking, we seek something that permits us to no longer experience hunger or thirst. We will find this on the day of the Resurrection, in the assembly of all the Saints in Heaven, where there will be total and perfect peace and unity. That is precisely what the Work of the Son of Man (the Human One) is.

The discourse begins with a question from the Jews: Which are the works that God wants us to do? Jesus replies: The Work that God wants is that you believe. The Father does not demand “works,” that is, the practices of a religious law, but rather, faith. In the previous chapter, Jesus declared that his work is to raise people up. Here he indicates our work: to believe in the Messenger of the Father.

The key word of the discourse is bread (or loaves). That is why John repeats it seven times in each section of this chapter. The expression who has come down from heaven appears seven times in the chapter.

• 28. Here begins the first part of the discourse: Jesus becomes our bread when we believe in him.

In the past, when the Israelites wandered in the desert and lacked everything, God gave them a provisional meal, the manna. They had to give thanks to him for his gifts. But if God is only our benefactor and we go to him seeking favors, we end up concerned only for what God gives us; we will hardly thank him, and later will continue to ask and complain.

This was what happened with the Israelites who, after receiving the manna, rebelled against God and died in the desert. Material things, although they may come from heaven, do not make us better nor do they give us true life.

For this reason, God now proposes something new. The bread that comes down from heaven is not something, but someone, and that is Christ. That true bread communicates eternal life to us, but to receive it, it is necessary to take a step, that is, to believe in Christ and to make a personal commitment to him.

All that the Father gives me will come to me (v. 37). Not all those who take pride in belonging to the true religion come to Christ, but only those whom the Father knows. Though the church embraces many people of all descriptions, only those to whom the Father has given this grace will find their way to the controversial and humble Christ. While acknowledging the value of the sacraments and good works, we should not forget what Jesus taught: none of our own efforts can substitute for the grace of being chosen by the Father who calls us to know his Son in truth.

They shall all be taught by God (v. 45). Several texts from the prophets showed in what way Jewish religion should transcend itself. God’s covenant celebrated in Mount Sinai had given the laws through which the conscience of God’s people would be educated. Then should come new times when God would teach each of his believers as he did the great prophets (Is 54:13; Jer 31:34; Jl 3:1). Jesus recalls these promises and interprets them. It is not a matter of revelations given to everyone but of a mysterious call that directs us to Jesus. In Jesus, the perfect mirror of God, we discover the will of the Father for us. Jesus is the Word of God and from now on the most authentic revelations can only send us back to him.

This man is the son of Joseph (v. 42). Jesus’ listeners were Jews who believed in God and in the Scriptures. To believe in the prophets who were honored after their death was easy; but to recognize God’s contemporary and controversial messengers, especially when the messenger of God was a simple carpenter was another matter. This is equally true today, for we must overcome doubts and listen to God’s messengers who point out the mission of the Church in today’s world. There are many who believe in the Bible or in Christ but refuse to listen to the Church, especially when it speaks through Christians and religious belonging to the world of the poor and of workers.

Do not murmur (v. 43). The Bible uses the verb “to murmur” in Exodus and Numbers: the Israelites distrusted God and constantly criticized Moses’ decisions (Ex 15:24; 16:2; 17:3).

• 48. COMMUNION – THE SACRAMENTS

The second part of the discourse: Jesus becomes our bread when we eat his body in the sacrament of the Eucharist.

How can this man give us flesh to eat? (v. 52). Thus spoke the Israelites who distrusted God in the desert (Num 11:4 & 18). John plays on the same words and gives them a different meaning here: why would a messenger from heaven give flesh to the world, when what we need is something spiritual? Jesus answers in verse 63: this flesh to eat may sound like food for bodily sustenance, but it is really a sharing in the life of the risen Christ transformed by the Spirit. For that reason it gives life (6:63).

Through material means the believer participates in a heavenly reality and enters into communion with the risen Christ. The Church defines sacrament as something material that symbolizes and brings about a spiritual reality. When we faithfully participate in a sacrament, we encounter the living Christ in person renewing our lives. In the Supper of the Lord, that is, in the Mass, we really receive the body and blood of Christ, in what appears to be only bread and wine. The risen Christ becomes for us the food of eternal life.

Jesus acts as living bread in us. When we eat ordinary bread our body digests and assimilates it, but when we eat living bread (the body of Christ), this bread actively changes us. Christ transforms us; gives his life to us and unites us with himself: Whoever eats me will have life in me.

Flesh and blood. In Hebrew culture flesh and blood denotes the human being in his mortal condition. Jesus wants us to make our own his entire human being in its humble and mortal condition, and communicates to us his divinity. It is evident that communion only shows its full meaning if taken in the two species of bread and wine; even in the Latin Church there is no Eucharist if the celebrant at least does not communicate under the two species.

Regarding this means of Jesus’ life being transmitted to us, we are not easily convinced. We often wonder at Jesus’ words: he who eats my flesh has life, he who does not… We need to study the parables on the Kingdom of God more closely. The gift of God, whether it be his word or the Body of Christ, is a seed so small that it may be lost or may not bear fruit. It is fruitful only in those who believe and persevere.

The sacraments we receive help us mature in the life of God; they affect the very core of our being. Sometimes we feel discouraged about the many defects and prejudices we still have despite our reception of the sacraments. We do not understand that transformation is something deep and often not immediately evident.

• 60. This language is very hard. How could Jesus’ listeners believe that he, the “son of Joseph,” had come from God? And today how can we believe that we need the Eucharist? Jesus tells us why he came: The Son of God came down to us, so that later he would ascend to where he was before. He came from God to communicate to us the very life of God and then to bring us to the bosom of God (Jn 14:12).

The truth is that by Christ’s resurrection, our world has already started its renewal. For when the Son of Man entered the Glory of his Father, he carried on his shoulders the whole of creation that he wanted to renew and consecrate. Clothed in our humanity, the Son of God has ascended to where he was before: the first of our race has achieved full union with God.

Although, to all appearances, life goes on as before, we believe that the renewed world has been activated. The Spirit is at work within gigantic disturbances that continually agitate and shake the whole of humanity. Christ is invincibly consecrating this world. He enables humanity to arrive at maturity by means of innumerable crises and deaths that prepare for a resurrection.

Jesus’ listeners could not understand (6:61) the mystery of the Son of God and his humiliations. Jesus wanted to dispossess himself of his divine glory by becoming human and dying like a slave (see Jn 1:14 and Phil 2:6), so that later the Father would enable him to ascend to where he came from. It is likewise a test of our faith to believe that God continually works among us in our world. In spite of our unresponsiveness, God still loves us; the Church is so unworthy, yet God uses it to fulfill his plan; history is so destructive, yet it is preparing us for the fullness of the Kingdom.

The flesh cannot help (v. 63). Jesus spoke of giving us his flesh, but this should not be understood as a continuation of the Jewish religion, in which the meat of sacrificed animals was eaten. In Hebrew culture, flesh and blood denote “the world below,” where humankind moves and where one has no access to communication with God. The Eucharist is different. This is the body, or flesh, of the risen Christ transformed by the Spirit, which acts in us spiritually and brings us into communion with God.

Lord, to whom shall we go? (v. 68). Many of Jesus’ followers left but, in the name of those who remained, Peter pledged his fidelity (see also Mt 16:13).

• 7.1 Jesus moves people to question his identity. It is better to question than to belong to a group that does not question because they think they already know. The brothers of Jesus were like that.

Show yourself to the world (v. 4). These brothers of Jesus were the families and townspeople of Nazareth (see Mk 3:31). These people were to enter the Church after Jesus’ resurrection, and thought themselves important merely because of their former association with Jesus; but at that time they were still very far from understanding his mission. They wanted Jesus to be known for his miracles; but Jesus chose, rather, to reveal himself to those who could enter into the mystery of death that leads to glory.

My time has not yet come… Let us note here two types of persons: one type lives according to their plans, and the other type allow themselves to be guided by the Spirit. For the former, one time is as good as another; because they have no experience of the calling of God, they act impetuously and when they feel like it. Those who are guided by the Spirit wait for signs indicating that this is God’s time. Whatever is undertaken in God’s time will bring glory to God.

Like Jesus, John was a Jew. He was surrounded by Jews converted to the Christian faith. He consistently calls his unbelieving compatriots Jews. We would be mistaken if we thought he is designating here all the Jews. With this name of Jews he points out the religious, political and social ambiance that did not acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah.

Those Jews adhered to an established social order and to a certain manner of understanding life and religion that was common in their time. It was social and religious formalities that were important to them; they were interested in God only in the measure to which they had made him the defender of these things (Mt 23: 29).

• 25. SALVATION – SEEKING THE TRUTH

Who is Jesus? It is very important for us to know who Jesus is and from where he comes because, unlike the founders of other religions, he offers us the unheard of gift of sharing in God’s very life. If Jesus does not come from God, of what value is this promise?

We need to discover for ourselves who Jesus is, because it is only in this way that we will be saved.

As a person he attracts us, but his words shock us. When Jesus proclaims that the Kingdom is at hand, that we are sons and daughters of God, we think he uses figures of speech since the reality appears to be quite different. In time, with more experience and suffering, we modify our viewpoint and discover that the world and people are just as he describes them. We then acknowledge him as Savior. In another way, we are saved because we have acquired the capacity to see things as God does. Hence, when we wish to help others arrive at faith, it is better at times to refrain from discussions about religion. They must first enter into themselves to discover the wellspring of life. One cannot advance in the knowledge of Christ without advancing in knowledge of oneself.

We know where this man comes from (v. 27). So these Jews thought they knew who God was and what his plans were; but, in reality, they interpreted everything according to their own views and remained closed to the Truth. Standing before them, Jesus claimed to be the Envoy of God. In speaking like this he was not looking for a title to become credible, but wanted to emphasize his total dependence on the Father and his intimate knowledge of him.

You will look for me and you will not find me (v. 34). This is the same warning God gave through earlier prophets (Jer 13:16). Once again, Jesus applies to himself scriptural words and prerogatives reserved for God.

• 37. THE COMMUNICATION OF THE SPIRIT

Spirit had not yet been given. In Wisdom 1:7, however, we read, “the Spirit of God fills the universe.” Actually God never ceased communicating himself. His Spirit enters into a person’s spirit whom he awakens, animates and impels. At all times he has been active in the artists, thinkers and heroes, and is also present in the spirit of people of upright heart.

The Spirit is not poured out like water. The Spirit of God becomes one with the spirit of the one who receives him. As long as we do not know God in truth, the Spirit comes “over” us, as occurred with the liberators of Israel, who did not necessarily become better for having been an instrument of God (Jdg 11:29). Only after Jesus had entered into his Glory could he give his Spirit to those who would be united with him.

Spirit had not been given. Many manuscripts read: There was no Spirit. In fact the meaning is the same. In this second way of speaking spirit refers to the manifold communications of God’s Spirit.

This ambiguity sounds strange to believers, who consider the Spirit to be a divine Person. Of course, the Spirit is as much person and as much God as the Father and the Son are, but the Spirit’s manner of being God and person and One is not the same. The Spirit is “communication of God dispensed” to all creatures through all times. He is somehow able to distribute himself, dwelling in each creature with different gifts; then he brings them back to unity in God. Because of this, Scripture sometimes says: “the Spirit,” at other times: “spirit” (Lk 1:15; Acts 6:3), or even: “the spirits” (Rev 1:4; 3:1).

Out of him shall flow rivers of living water. Compare 4:10. Bread and water: the Body of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit. In 7:38 we read: Out of him shall flow rivers of living water.

• 8.1 The selection 8:1-11 is not found in most ancient manuscripts of John’s Gospel. Many think that this selection is from other sources. Perhaps it did belong to the gospel of Luke (compare 8:2 and Lk 21:38) and was later inserted in John’s text.

If Jesus showed such respect to the sinner and refused to condemn her, as humans would, was it because he did not consider her fault grave? No, it was because God uses different ways than people do to bring sinners to repentance and to purify them through suffering.

There is a big difference between telling a person his ideas or deeds are wrong or sinful, and condemning him. We usually condemn the person; we do not make room for change and mercy. In this Gospel episode Jesus is both demanding and merciful towards the woman.

It seems that certain pages in John’s Gospel have shifted. We already remarked that the selection 7:19-24 is really a continuation of chapter 5.

Also, the discourse 8:12-29 seems to be a continuation of the miracle story related in chapter 9. After healing the blind man and proving the spiritual blindness of the Pharisees, Jesus declares: I am the light. Jesus’ pronouncement: hence I have just told you that you will die in your sins (8:24), reminds us of the saying in 9:41.

• 12. THE LIGHT

Jesus is the light for all people of all times. God guided the Hebrews in the desert by means of a luminous cloud. He guides us through his Son; whoever follows Jesus will not walk in darkness.

Light means many good things: the welcome light of dawn after a night of darkness; the electric lights which illumine our homes while darkness reigns outside; the street lights which shine for everyone, poor and rich alike; the light that triumphs over the dark forces of evil and ignorance. Christ is all that and more for whoever follows him. He is the light by which we live with wholeness and integrity, and through whom we learn to attribute to material things and human activities their proper value.

By the light of Christ a person triumphs over all inner darkness. We are conscious of only a small part of our inner self; we often obey impulses not under our control that come from our nature. Good intentions animate us, and we have a clean heart (so we think), but we do not realize that actually we often obey the call “of flesh and blood,” as the Bible puts it. If we live in the light, the light will gradually illumine our innermost being.

Part of the human condition aggravated by sin is the absence of light for seeking and discerning what is good. Therefore, in serious matters, it is not wise to simply follow our first impulse. We need to be continuously enlightened through prayer, listening to the word of God, studying the teaching of the Church, and accepting the good advice of our brothers and sisters. By these means Jesus enlightens our conscience.

I AM

In this discourse Jesus gives witness to his own divinity. He makes us understand that in him there is a mysterious secret regarding his origin. On this page we read the expression I am seven times. John wishes us to understand that this is the key word of the discourse. I AM. It was thus God designated himself, speaking to Moses. We know that the Jews called God, Yahweh, that is, He who is. Jesus declares: “I am,” thus claiming for himself the Name that should not be given to any creature, no matter how prominent the person might be. There are Christians (e.g. the Witnesses of Jehovah) who would make Christ less than he is. They argue that since God is only one, how can the fullness of divine life be shared among three persons. While they call Christ the Son of God, they deny that he is God born of God. Yet Jesus IS as much as the Father, and must not be confused with the Father, hence he says: The Father sent me, and also: The testimony of two persons is worthy (in the Jewish Law code).

You will die in your sin (vv. 21 & 24). Sin is not just doing something bad. Sin is, also, to enclose ourselves in our own petty problems and rely only on human wisdom, without opening ourselves to the horizons of God. This eventually leads to death, for a life closed to God is no real life. The Bible divides people into two groups: those from above, who seek God’s ways, and those from below, who seek limited human goals. Sin is to refuse to allow oneself to be born again from above, as Jesus told Nicodemus (3:3). These Jews did not believe in Jesus, because his way of life and his message reflected a world of transcendent values – beyond this world – that did not attract them. Jesus would have wasted his time with them; the wisdom of God would be better revealed in his death on the cross (v. 28).

• 30. THE TRUTH – FREEDOM – SIN

Jesus spoke to the Jews who believed in him. Those Jews believed in Jesus according to their own view of him, very much like the Jews whom Paul would oppose in Galatians 3-4 did. From Jesus’ discussions with those who claimed to have the true religion, we can surmise how Jesus would confront us were he to pass among us today.

Jesus would not reproach us so much for our sins, as for our continuing to live in sin. Sins are evil deeds that at times may be excusable; often we repent of them as soon as we have committed them. To be in sin, on the other hand, is to live in falsehood; it is to persist stubbornly in a certain pride, an attachment to our own judgments. This attitude prevents us from entering into the ways of God, even though to all appearances we live an upright life and proclaim our faith.

Jesus is not a banner for every social group, whether known as Catholic or by some other name, with which we go to fight other groups. He has come as a king of the kingdom of truth. Those who seek the truth are his, whatever their ideas may be. Rather, those who live in truth are his.

For those Jews the world was divided into two groups: the sons of Abraham, that is themselves, and the rest. They boasted of their ancestry and forgot that in God’s eyes, each one is what he is.

Jesus comes to them as a witness to the truth; and his presence alone obliges all to examine themselves. The truth Jesus speaks of is not a doctrine that his followers should impose by force. Propagandists with arguments and biblical quotations are not needed, but witnesses who speak from their experience. Jesus says: The truth will make you free, and: the Son will make you free (vv. 32 & 36). Our truth consists in living in accordance with our vocation as children of God.

The believer who knows he is loved by God and consequently endeavors to be authentic is already in the truth, even if he retains some prejudices common to his milieu, or is unconsciously guided by some lies or illusions in his way of living.

Jesus also speaks of freedom. Truth and freedom go together. Many individuals and peoples have not spared themselves in an effort to break their chains. Once liberated they quickly fall into other forms of subjugation, because the root of all slavery lies within everyone.

By doing evil one becomes an accomplice of the Devil and, even without wanting to do so, falls into a trap. He will then be unable to resist the illusions and harmful influences by which the Father of Lies brings the world under his power (v. 44).

As long as we continue to be unconcerned about our true condition and are either agitated or idle, we are no more than slaves, even though we may excel in wealth, knowledge or status. We thus add to the population of the world of below (v. 23), which is unstable. Generations of slaves will follow like the waves of the sea: slaves are people who are for a time in the house (v. 35). Christ enables us to enter yet another world, the world above in which the sons and daughters stay forever (v. 35). From the time we become children of God, everything we do bears fruit for eternity.

• 9.1 TO BELIEVE IS TO SEE

Jesus is the light: the blind man sees the light of day. Jesus is the light, but people are divided about him. Some are open to the light, that is, to faith; others remain blind, that is to say, they keep their own ideas and “their own” belief and refuse to believe in the messenger of God.

One way of deepening our understanding of this chapter would be to observe the Jewish people’s reactions to the miracle. Some open themselves to the light, that is, to faith; while others prefer to follow their own lights. This Gospel story shows us the blind man who immediately understands the significance of the cure, the fearful and pragmatic parents, and the Pharisees who do nothing but judge and are unaware that they condemn themselves as they judge.

The Gospel opens up to us another way of interpreting the miracle: the one who begins to see is the believer (see vv. 4, 39-41).

Master, was it a sin of his or his parents? (v. 2). Jesus refuses to consider every misfortune as God’s punishment. The healing of the blind man was performed on the Sabbath. So people wonder if God will side with the law forbidding work on that day, or with the man who performed such a good work. The Pharisees defend the Law, as is to be expected from people who are closer to the written word and more distant from human needs.

You don’t know where the man comes from? Who live in such a way that they are able to receive the truth? It is quite understandable that the Pharisees cast out the blind man, because faith in Christ necessarily separates the believer from those who do not recognize the way God is working.

Many people think that faith is an illusion. They think faith is a cover-up of reality and that what is real is limited to material things, only that which is seen, touched, counted or measured.

Truth is different. The believer sees the same things that others see and know; but besides that, she captures something that escapes those who lack faith. A special sense is needed to see beyond the material world.

Christian faith is more than belief in a God higher than us. Faith is an ability to know by the light of Christ everything that is true, either in the goals or the means people use. The faithful one sees whatever other people see, but also perceives something that is out of their reach. We should not think that to believe or not to believe is a matter of minor importance in the struggles of life. Even when fighting together with non-Christians for concrete goals, we will hardly agree on what is more important.

With the coming of Christ a sentence, or judgment, is carried out (9:39). This means that humanity begins to be divided, because all must take a position in respect to him. Jesus judges people, or rather, we are those who judge ourselves when we accept or reject him.

• 10.1 COUNTRY WITHOUT FRONTIERS

Thanks to the parable of Jesus, we can imagine one of those sheepfolds in which the flocks of various shepherds are gathered together for the night under the vigilance of one caretaker. At dawn, each calls his sheep and leads them out.

The Bible foretold the day in which God would come to gather together the dispersed sheep of his people, so that they would live in their land. Jesus is the Shepherd and he has come to accomplish what was announced, but he will not do it in the expected way. The Jews thought that the Shepherd would revive their former prosperity: they would again be a privileged nation among other nations.

Jesus says clearly that his people are not to be thought of as identical to the Jewish nation. Those who believe, and only they, are his. He will take from among the Jews those who are his; likewise, he will take sheep from other folds as well (v. 16), that is, from among nations other than the Jewish nation. Therefore, he will lead them all and will guide this flock – which is not a nation with land boundaries – to where he knows. The only flock (not the only “fold”, as people say), that is, the only Church, moves freely through history, not confined to any one nation or era of civilization.

The shepherds of the Jewish people thought they could achieve unity by promoting national pride, by maintaining the privileges of the “higher” castes, and by discriminating against non-Jews. Jesus unites his people solely by attracting them to himself, by letting people experience who he is. All who are attracted to him, recognize his voice and believe his word are his.

People willingly gather around great figures, whether they be leaders or saints. When a people have neither frontiers, arms, language, nor laws to defend themselves against external and internal dissension, the presence of a Shepherd or leader is even more essential. Faith in Christ unites us far better than does fidelity to traditions of the past or solidarity with co-religionists. Christ’s people are not a mass; it is nor Humanity with a capital H. They are composed of persons who have begun an adventure with Jesus of mutual trust and love. I know them and they will hear my voice (vv. 14 & 16).

When the Bible speaks of the Shepherd, it usually refers to God himself, the only king of Israel, but sometimes means the King-Messiah sent by God. Jesus spoke of only one shepherd. Though distinct from the Father, he is one with him (v. 30).

In the Bible angels are sometimes called sons of God, and Jesus remarks that the rulers are called gods. Because of this, Jesus did not like to be proclaimed Son of God. He speaks forcefully in saying: the Father is in me and I in the Father: equal to equal (v. 38). At the same time that he stresses his divine power (vv. 15, 18, 29, 38), he also affirms his total dependence on the Father. In this we recognize God the Son.

• 11.1 This is the seventh and last miracle of Jesus recorded in John’s Gospel. Intentionally, the first words are designed to present the sick man: Lazarus personifies the person wounded by sin, who is in process of dying unless Christ calls him to life.

Lazarus came back to life! Let us not be astounded that Lazarus had the good fortune to live for a few more years and the misfortune of having to die again. This noticeable miracle only foretells the true resurrection that does not just prolong life but transforms our entire being. The resurrection is spiritual. It begins when faith moves a person to give up wrong ways of living and become open to receiving God’s life.

The Jews believed in the resurrection of the dead on the last day, as Martha mentioned (v. 24). They thought a divine force would come to shake the universe and open the tombs so the dead could come out. In reality, the resurrection of the dead comes about through someone, the Son of God, who has in himself all the power needed to raise people to life and to transform creation. One who lives in submission to Christ has already passed from death to life (5:24) and, because of this, will never die (v. 26).

All the persons mentioned here called Jesus “Master,” but John has them say Lord. In this way he teaches us that this miracle of Lazarus recalled to life is an image of the glorious resurrection of Jesus, the Lord. (Regarding this term “the Lord” which is one of the strongest proofs of the faith of the early Church in the divinity of Jesus, see the commentary in Acts 2:36.)

The Jews wanted to kill Jesus (v. 8), but it was legally difficult for them to take Jesus prisoner. They could do this only in the province of Jerusalem, where their religious communities and political organization were strong. As long as Jesus remained on the other side of the Jordan, he was secure. The resurrection of Lazarus hastened the time of Jesus’ death and glorification.

The twelve hours (v. 9). Jesus will complete the twelve hours of his journey, that is, of his mission, without fear of the risks involved. Those who, like him, walk by day, that is, in accordance with the divine plan, will not stumble; Christ will be for them the light of the world.

I have come to believe that you are the Christ (v. 27). What more extraordinary profession of faith is there than Martha’s! It is like Peter’s (Mt 16:16), and in a short while it will be Mary who will tell about the resurrection to the same apostles. Truly the Gospel is not male chauvinist, nor does it enthrone ecclesiastical hierarchy.

Father, I thank you … (v. 41). This act of thanksgiving is the only one we read in John, aside from the long prayer in chapter 17 that is full of praise for the Father. We read another such prayer in Luke 10:21. These recorded acts of thanksgiving may seem very few, considering that thanksgiving is an essential attitude of a Christian, but Jesus expressed his act of thanksgiving in all he did. In his mortal existence, he dispossessed himself of his own will and power so that the Father could use him for his greater glory (Jn 12:27-28).

Untie him (v. 44). For burial the Jews bound their dead with linen. This word “to untie” means something more, it was the expression used by the primitive Church in referring to forgiveness of sins. Like Lazarus, one who receives pardon returns to life.

• 45. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Caiaphas’ words were fulfilled but not in the sense he intended. Jesus was going to die to gather into one the scattered children of God (v. 52).

The worldwide effect of Christ’s resurrection is to unite all of humanity in renewed creation – as Jesus himself put it, “when I’m lifted up from earth I shall draw all to myself” (Jn 12:32). That is to say, the cross and resurrection are the source of communion and fraternity.

The Church reunites believers of all races and cultures: we call it “Catholic,” that is, universal. This Church, however, is but a beginning and a sign of that which will be attained at the end of time, when the whole of humanity will be reunited in Christ (Rev 7).

In our world, preventing people from grouping together to discuss and understand their situation perpetuates the oppression of rural and urban masses. This hidden violence opposes unity. Some current ideologies promote a struggle for liberation that attempts to unite people by targeting adversaries and continually deciding on whom to expel. There, too, the seed of violence (for both murder and exclusion are violence) gives birth to more oppressive societies.

Christians should be the first to notice we are living in an exceptional century in which, for the first time, all peoples share the same history and must accept a common destiny, either willingly or by force. This awareness enables them to see and to indicate the goals of human effort. They must ponder all of human reality, and even international relationships, in the light of the Gospel and not waste all their energy in projects of aid for the poor.

• 12.1 Matthew and Mark also relate the incident at a supper when Mary showed her passionate love for Jesus. She loved him with all her strength, and her love, far from blinding her, made her sense and respect the mysterious personality of Jesus.

Not all the apostles understood her gesture, because they still had much to learn about loving Christ.

Like Judas we often speak of giving to the poor. Yet the Lord’s command is not to give but to love. To love the poor is to reveal to them their call from God, and to help them grow as persons by overcoming their weaknesses and divisions and by fulfilling the mission God entrusted to them. The poor will live the Gospel and witness to it in the world. If we are not among them, we need conversion and true poverty to discover with them the Kingdom. How can we really love the poor unless we have passionate love for Jesus? When we do not, we prefer to speak only of giving to the poor.

Six days before the Passover. Mark and Matthew give the impression that this supper happened two days before the Passover, not six (Mt 26:2; Mk 14:1). The evangelists also disagree regarding the date of the Passover. While John declares that Jesus died on the eve of the Passover (Jn 19:14), the other three say that the Last Supper took place on the same day that the Jews celebrated the Passover. According to a very ancient tradition that various Oriental churches still maintain, Jesus could have celebrated the Last Supper, not on Thursday, but on Tuesday. His trial would then have lasted two days: Wednesday and Thursday. (That seems much more probable than having all the sessions of the double trial of Jesus in the one morning of Friday). He would die on Friday, as all the texts affirm.

A possible explanation for these disagreements might be the following: The Passover is celebrated in accordance with the new moon which is not a fixed date, nor is it determined according to the same criteria by everyone. Hence, in certain years some religious groups celebrated it three days before others. Jesus could have celebrated the Passover on the eve of Wednesday, while the majority of the people celebrated on the eve of Saturday.

Three hundred dinarii would be nearly a year’s salary for a laborer.

• 20. Several foreigners (called Greeks because of their language) were converted to the faith of the Jews. Though they did not observe the Jewish laws, they were accepted in the Temple of Jerusalem where a courtyard, (separate from that of the Jews) was reserved for them. The question from those Greeks offers Jesus the opportunity to announce that his kingdom will be extended through the whole earth, when he will have been raised on the cross.

Unless the grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies (v. 24). Jesus will die and the universal Church will be born. Jesus allows his lifeless body to be laid in the earth; on rising from the tomb, his same body, now glorified, will also embrace the believers united to him. The life that is now his will be communicated to all the children of God.

Unless the grain dies. This is the law for all life that will be fruitful (Mk 8:34). The first believers were already saying: “The blood of the martyrs is a seed.”

• 27. This page of John’s Gospel records both Jesus’ transfiguration (Mk 9:2) and agony in Gethsemane (Mk 14:32).

Then a voice came (v. 28). While Jesus was in the midst of the noisy crowd a noise erupted: a message from heaven or simply a noise? This event, insignificant perhaps for the historian, was like the fleeting presence of reality breaking through the illusory scene in which most people are caught up. The fact that the people misunderstood his message, and that later they would deliver him up to their rulers, has become of minor importance to Jesus. He looks beyond all that. Jesus knows that he cannot save the nation from historical failure, but he understands that his death will change the course of world events: he will conquer where the destiny of humankind is to be played out.

From the beginnings of our history, the ruler of this world, the Spirit of Evil, has obscured in humankind the capacity to recognize God. God has directed the whole of creation towards a progressive growth in maturity until the birth of the New Creature. Because of sin this birth comes about in a world characterized by suffering, indifference and slavery.

The only way to salvation is to return to obedience, not “to God,” but to the Father. And Christ had to open the way through his sacrifice: I have come to this hour to face all this (v. 27).

We easily forget that the purpose of our life is to glorify God. We do not glorify God principally by constructing temples or by singing: “Glory to God!” but by making ourselves pleasing and living sacrifices to God. A bishop and martyr of the primitive Church, St. Irenaeus, wrote: “God is glorified when people are fully alive: but for a person to be fully alive is to see God.”

A sacrifice is a surrender of something for the sake of something or someone else. Our sacrifice is to allow God to be our life, to make us like him and to prepare us to reflect his own Glory. This indeed requires sacrifice because God makes us pass through a death to attain this life. Through obedience to God’s will, we are freed of our selfishness and the limits of our present condition, and we are prepared for another and everlasting state. God is glorified when his children attain glory, that is to say, attain his own perfection and are transformed through fire and the Holy Spirit.

• 37. AN IRREPARABLE CHOICE

Jesus’ life of preaching is coming to an end. John later finds it difficult to understand how God’s chosen people could remain so blind regarding their Messiah. John tries to search out the meaning of this refusal by using two texts from the prophets:

The first is a long poem dedicated to the Servant of Yahweh, a voluntary victim for the sake of his people (Is 53:1). It shows us that people do not willingly accept a humiliated Savior.

The second text shows how the rejection of Christ could have been foreseen. Indeed, the ancient prophets were also ignored while they were living, thus fulfilling a mysterious plan of God.

John stresses the sin of the majority who were not committed to Christ, although within themselves they secretly respected him. Somehow the Jewish people suspected that Jesus came from God, but to believe in what he claimed and asked was another matter.

For us, too, to believe in the Gospel is to take a stand; we cannot pass by the Church Jesus founded even though it may not be totally transparent. His word comes to us amidst numerous preoccupations, and most often we feel inclined to respond: “I’ll see later!” When we neglect his word, we often think it not grave. Actually it is God and his truth that we reject and we may not have another occasion to receive it. All eternity is decided today.

There is absolutely nothing in the Bible to support the belief that we will have other lives in order to repair our errors of today. If so many people of our time have grasped this belief in a succession of lives, it is above all because it encourages them to delay making real decisions; the devil takes charge of spreading this belief.

• 13.1 Here begins the second half of John’s Gospel.

In the first half, through signs and discourses Jesus foretold the work he was going to accomplish in the world and the glory that would be given him after he would be “raised on high.” Now Jesus’ hour has come, in which he will realize all that was announced.

The second half begins with the farewell discourses of Jesus at the Last Supper.

Just as in the previous chapters each of Jesus’ discourses begins with a miracle, the farewell discourses narrated in chapters 14-17 have, as a point of departure, the extraordinary act of the “washing of the feet.” This gesture contains two lessons:

– the need to purify ourselves before participating in the Supper of the Lord.

– how the commitment of love is to be put into practice.

• 2. THE PENITENTIAL RITE

John does not narrate the institution of the Eucharist, but the Washing of the Feet and what follows (vv. 26-30) may be seen as an obscure allusion to the Eucharist.

He began to wash their feet. The poor among the Jews walked barefoot while the rest wore sandals. A traditional gesture of welcome was to order a servant to wash the feet of the traveler (see Gen 18:4). The apostles did not have servants, but that night Jesus chose to be their servant.

Jesus did not intend merely to make the apostles clean and comfortable. His washing of their feet was a sacred act that symbolized purifying them just as baptism does. The apostles were already in the grace of God: the word of Jesus that they received with faith had purified them (15:3). They needed more preparation, however, before sharing the bread of life at the table of their Lord. All religions observe some preparatory or purification rites before offering sacred things to their members. Jews, for example, observed purification rites before participating in the Passover meal.

Jesus was no less demanding: he himself washed the feet of his apostles. He did not ask them to confess their sins; all he wanted was that they would humbly allow him, their Lord, to wash their feet.

This act reminds us at once of the sacraments of Baptism and Penance. There, bonds of humility and mercy are forged both for the one who purifies and for those purified. Henceforth the apostles will do what their Lord did before them, since he will send them in his name to forgive sins. They are not to act as hierarchical officials or judges granting pardon to sinners but to take the first step in humility and mercy, in order to likewise purify those who approach the Supper of the Lord.

The word Lord appears seven times in this chapter. With this in mind we understand that by washing the feet of his apostles Jesus performed a significant act which shows us, in a most surprising way, who our Lord and God is, and how he acts.

• 33. CHRISTIAN LOVE

I give you a new commandment. That is to say, a commandment appropriate for the advent of a new era. The Old Testament spoke of interior fidelity to God and love of neighbor, but this message often remained hidden among the complexities of the Law. Besides, there are many ways of loving: even a fanatically religious person can claim to be loving God. In the New Testament Jesus says that love of God is the highest law. The example given by the Lord during his earthly life reminds us of the way to love.

Love that is like God’s aims at liberating our neighbor and enabling her to fully develop her God-given gifts. Love like the Lord’s helps the neighbor become what God wishes her to be, by passing through death to resurrection.

Moreover, when we go deeper into the mystery of divine love revealed to us through Jesus, our love becomes merged with the eternal love of God that alone, in the end, shall permeate all we do. True love comes from God and makes us return to unity within God.

Time and again, Jesus points out the unique importance of Christian love. Later, his Apostles (e.g., 1 Jn 4:7 ff.) and the Church would sum up his teaching on love: Love of God is shown through love of our neighbor, love of our neighbor depends on love of God. What is it really to love God? The great saints and mystics of the Church tell us that love of God is not “to feel God,” to feel devotion or affection for God. Christian love lies not in sentiment or feelings (though on some occasions we might feel affection or devotion, which is helpful); to love God is to be determined to do what God wishes at each moment of our lives. What God wishes of us regarding our neighbor is that we render loving service and forgiveness.

• 14.1 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE

After the washing of the feet, John continues with Jesus’ three farewell discourses to his apostles. Those who had lived intimately with him for several months, would soon need to discover another way of living with the risen and present, though invisible, Christ. “I was with you,” says Jesus (vv. 9 and 25); henceforth, “I will be in you.” The first of these discourses is found in chapter 14.

Jesus’ ascension to the Father was not just an individual achievement, but opened for all of us a way to our House, not situated high above us, but in God. There are many mansions (v. 2), that means that there is also a place for us: not just one mansion for everybody, but a place for each one, because Heaven is not like a performance which is the same for everyone in the audience. God’s radiance will draw from each one the resonance only he can bring forth. Each one will be in his own mansion, being in communion with all.

Now, knowing what is the goal, we should walk towards this definitive communion. “I am the way,” says Jesus. He became human precisely so that we might see the Father in him. He followed his way, so disconcerting for us, so that, meditating on his actions, we would progress towards the truth. Although in the beginning we may not understand him well, with time, we will discover the Lord and understand that his way is ours. Passing through the cross and death, we will achieve our own truth and arrive at life.

I am in the Father, and the Father is in me, and you in me (vv. 11 and 20). Christ makes us enter into the divine family. Thus, we no longer speak of approaching God as if he were far from us. We no longer feel as if God were a single person in front of us. We enter “into” the mysterious life of the divine Persons who share everything and who are the one and only God. Material things cannot penetrate each other; but in the world of the spirit such is possible. Christ is in the Father and the Father in him. They make their home within us (v. 23).

In the introduction to the Gospel, John explained that all of God’s actions in the world should be understood in the light of the intimate relationship between the Father and the Son. Now he adds that the presence of God in us is due to another person, the Holy Spirit. Neither the Father alone, whom no one has seen, nor the Son, who made himself known, can enter into communion with people. They can, however, do so by means of the Spirit, whom we should call: God who is communicated. Hence we call spiritual life everything that refers to our relationship with God.

The spiritual life includes three elements:

– keeping the words of Jesus: meditating on them, putting them into practice and letting them take root in our soul.

– then, instructed by the Spirit regarding what we should ask in Jesus’ name, let us ask, with all confidence, for those things that he himself desires.

– finally, let us do the same things he did. He did not multiply good works, but completed that which his Father asked him to do, even when his obedience would seem to us a vain sacrifice.

I will ask the Father and He will give you another Helper (v. 16). Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit whom he calls the Paraclete. This Greek word has several meanings. Here we use Helper. The Spirit helps the believers and inspires their prayer so that it may be heard (Rom 8:26).

The Helper (or Interpreter) will teach you (v. 26). The Spirit enables us to understand and interpret Jesus’ words throughout all time.

Lord, how can it be that you will show yourself clearly to us and not to the world? (v. 22). Judas thought that Jesus meant he would summon them for secret meetings, but Jesus really meant he would make himself known to them through interior teaching and by letting them experience peace.

For the Father is greater than I (v. 28). This does not contradict what John teaches throughout the whole Gospel about Jesus’ divinity. This is to be read together with 5:18; 10:30; 16:15, if we want to know something of the mystery of Christ, “true God,” as spoken of in Romans 9:5; Titus 2:13; and 1 John 5:20.

As early as the fourth century Saint Hilary, the great bishop and defender of the faith, wrote: “The Father is greater because of being the one who gives. As he gives the Son all that he himself is, yet the Son is not inferior to the Father.”

Moreover, it is characteristic of the Son to deny himself so that he may give glory to the Father, until the Father gives him back “the Glory he had before” as said in 17:5 and 6:62. Because of this the apostles, who have seen him as a man among humans in the time of his humiliation, should now rejoice.

The Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name (v. 26). Compare with 15:26. The Holy Spirit proceeds as much from the Father as from the Son being, with them, only one God.

• 15.1 In this second farewell discourse, Jesus invites us to remain steadfast in the midst of the world. The discourse is divided into four parts:

– the parable of the vine: I have sent you to produce fruits.

– the world will hate you.

– the work of the Holy Spirit.

– in a little while you will see me again.

First, the parable of the vine. Jesus uses an image from the Bible, but he changes the original meaning, as he did before when speaking of the Good Shepherd (Jn 10:1). The vine represents the people of Israel. Planted from selected stock, cared for by the Lord, it should have produced fruits of justice (Mk 12:1).

Now the true Vine has taken root. Christ is the trunk from which the branches sprout, that is to say, all of us who live by him. He is also the entire plant, trunk and branches together: the Christians are really the body of Christ.

The vine was the people of Israel, and what mattered more to them was the collective conduct of the community as one body. What mattered was not the individuals but Israel. Now Jesus does not say: The Christian community is the vine, but: I am the vine. So each of us has to consider how he is joined with Jesus through faith, prayer, and keeping his word. Each one has to bear fruit. Jesus does not specify what these fruits should be: whether service, understanding, action for social justice, or a life silently offered to God. Rather he insists that these fruits should come from the Spirit and bear his proper seal. The success of the Church is not measured by its achievements, but by the progress of those who interiorize Christ’s mystery and share in his cross and resurrection.

After making it clear that we depend totally on him, Jesus repeats his commandment of love. There is a necessary order in building the Christian life.

If from the start we say: We should love our neighbor because this is the only commandment, we will achieve nothing; because each one understands love in his own way, while not having as yet interiorized the thinking of Christ. Moreover, we need to receive from the source of all love the ability to love selflessly. Christ asks us to first share his thinking: that is what the expression, keep my commandments means. Thus we become his friends, knowing him as a person who loves us and acts in us. Later we will produce the authentic fruit of love, whose source is Christ.

• 18. In spite of Jesus’ having returned to his Father to initiate a more effective and universal presence among humankind, Satan continues to act with the power he has usurped. The hatred of those who belong to Satan is directed against the believers and the Church. Such helpers of Satan are called in John’s Gospel: the world.

Believers are destined to be hated by the world. It often happens that when a person begins to live in a more Christian and responsible way, she meets with opposition and hatred from her own family. No one knows what has aroused the hatred, but the devil does, who moves everything to discourage us.

Even in the Church we find those who are of the world and believe that they are serving God (16:2) when they persecute the true disciples of Christ. Some who identify themselves with what they consider “the interests of the Church” can even persecute, and at times with malice, those who are Gospel-minded. In reality they know neither Jesus nor his Father.

When our hope does not come from God, trials discourage us; but when our hope is rooted in God, we are strengthened and remain steadfast. In the parable of the vine, Jesus said: “My father prunes every branch that bears fruit so that it will bear more fruit.”

• 26. THE FATHER, THE SON AND THE HOLY SPIRIT

In making us children of his Father, Jesus enables us to discover the intimate mystery of God. In God there is communion among the three persons: the Father, the Son and their common Spirit.

We speak of their common Spirit, because Jesus said both: The Father will give you another Helper (14:16) and: The Helper which I will send you (15:26). Now he says: He will take what is mine and tell it to you: everything that the Father has is also mine (16:15).

“The Spirit” is not a poetic figure: it is Someone. This has already been commented on (Jn 7:37; 14:1).

Starting from the day of Pentecost, the Spirit began to act in the Church, thus showing that he was the Spirit of Christ. The unbelieving Jews thought that God was with them, but in reality his Spirit did not act among them. So it was clear that they had sinned (v. 16:9) for not believing in Christ.

What is the way of righteousness (v. 8). The righteous One is Christ and the righteous persons are those who believe in him without seeing him (v. 10).

The Acts of the Apostles records how the Spirit worked in the first disciples of Jesus. Before granting miraculous powers, the Spirit gave them joy, peace and mutual love, as well as inner certainty that Jesus had risen and was among them.

The Spirit guides missionaries; he gives them the power to perform miracles; he gives to believers the knowledge of God, new capacities for working, healing, serving and shaking up a sinful world. Throughout history the Spirit would raise up people of faith, martyrs, prophets, and through them transform the world. In this way the Savior, seemingly defeated, would be justified; and it becomes evident that the loser is Satan, who already has been condemned (v. 11). The evil spirit, great director of the worldly show, is displaced and his influence limited. A new force, which is the Spirit, orients history and guides us towards the total truth.

• 16.16 JESUS IN OUR MIDST

Jesus is in our midst, but to be aware of his presence requires faith. He himself said: “You will see me because you live and I also live (14:19).” It is not important that we feel his presence, what matters is to persevere in his ways. In order to attain mature faith, it is necessary that we be deprived of the consolation of his presence for more or less prolonged periods: a little while and you will not see me.

For his disciples this happened for the first time at the moment of his death; later they saw him risen from the dead. This will come true for us at the end of time, when we discover the glorious Christ whom we have awaited in faith. No one should feel overconfident about feeling his presence, for example, after a conversion. When everything seems easy, we should not look down on those who find it hard to believe or who have never felt the presence of God. In a little while, perhaps, the Lord will leave us in darkness.

After Jesus rose from the dead, a real companionship would be established between him and his disciples: he would speak to them clearly of the Father; they would ask in his name.

I will tell you plainly… The naive response of the apostles in verse 29 underlines by contrast what Jesus expressed in verse 25. Jesus did not mean that he would return in visible form to teach, not in parables, but more clearly; Jesus referred rather to the spiritual knowledge of himself and his words that the disciples were to receive from the Spirit.

You will ask in my Name (v. 26). Through a spiritual knowledge of Jesus, the believers will know what they should ask of him and he will give it to them. In the same manner, they will know the things that God does not want to give, and because of that they will neither desire nor ask for them.

• 17.1 ONE AND HOLY

Priestly Prayer is the name many give to that prayer in which Christ, before he died, offered to sacrifice his own life, as both priest and victim (v. 19). The word to consecrate applied to two things: the priest was consecrated, that is, was made worthy to offer the sacrifice, and he also consecrated (made holy) the victim on sacrificing it.

Jesus put an end to the Old Testament form of worship that the Jews rendered to God in the Temple for centuries. The Israelites were holy; that is to say, their mission among all the nations was to serve the Holy God, whom they knew by a special privilege.

Jesus prays for his own so that they may become the new people (Ps 102:19), consecrated to God, this time according to the truth (v. 17). He will pour over them the Spirit of Truth, who has been promised to Israel and will instruct us interiorly.

Keep them in your Name (v. 11). In other words: keep them in the radiance of your own sanctity, with which you embrace your Son. At that moment Jesus prayed for his Church, to whom he entrusted his own mission. The principal duty of the Church is to know God. (The word to know is repeated seven times, clearly showing that it expresses the essence of the discourse). Whatever the situation of the Church might be, its proper and indispensable mission will be to keep and proclaim the true knowledge of God and the commandment of his Son.

Jesus wants each of his own to know God. This knowledge comes to us when we interiorize the word of God, persevere in prayer and join community celebrations. In this we will have the help of the Holy Spirit, from whom come the gifts of knowledge and wisdom (Col 1:9). From knowledge will spring good works and love; this is the beginning of eternal life (v. 3) in which we will see God as he is (1 Jn 2:3).

Jesus prayed that his Church might be one, that is to say, that it might be the sign of unity in a divided world. It is not enough that Christ is preached; it is also necessary for the world to see in its midst the Church, one and united.

Catholic Church, means, universal. In the Church no one is a stranger. One Church, through one same spirit, and through the visible unity of its members.

The history of the Church seems to run counter to the prayer of Christ. Jesus desired unity; the evangelists relate how he named Peter as visible head of the apostolic group and the entire Church. However, to maintain unity among people of different temperaments and various cultures requires much love and understanding.

From the beginning some began to reject the faith as taught by the apostles, and several groups or sects appeared.

For historical reasons, the countries of the Roman world were divided into two main empires: one of the Orient, with the patterns of Greek culture and that of the Occident (Europe), where the medieval culture developed. After the invasions of the barbaric peoples, contact between the Christians of these two parts became very difficult. Because they lived the same faith with different traditions and religious practices, they began to consider themselves as having different religions. That was how the Oriental churches, that is, the Orthodox, separated from the Roman Church.

Much later the negligence of the hierarchy in not ending the abuses and useless human traditions led the Protestants or Evangelicals to found new churches, which they called reformed churches. This separation, however, had deeper political, social and economic roots. It was part of a cultural crisis that obliged Christians to revise their views regarding the Bible, philosophy and politics. According to whatever stand one took concerning these issues, one joined the Protestants or stayed with the Catholic Church.

In our times, we have a better understanding of these past difficulties. Many Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants are attempting to unite as believers. At the same time, however, new problems have arisen within each Church. Today Christians disagree and are split, not only in their political options, but also in their understanding of Christ and their views on how his message is best delivered in our time.

Ecumenism, that is, efforts to reconcile in truth and bring the Churches together, demands that we overcome the new dissensions that threaten the internal unity of the Church. All of us must work so that the unity of all Christians may be realized as Christ desires, and by the means he wants. In any case, nothing can be done without obeying the truth and doing the truth. In no way can we disregard Peter’s charism of unity that is granted to Peter’s successors.

• 18.28 CHRIST THE KING

My Kingship does not come from this world. It is important to remember what was said regarding Luke 8:9. In the Gospel the same word means: The Kingdom, that is, the country that the king governs; the reign, that is the government of the king; the Kingship, that is, the dignity and power of the king.

In Jesus’ response to Pilate the meaning to be given to the word is not kingdom, but rather kingship, which is the power of the king.

In any case, it would be an error to understand Jesus’ words as follows: “My Kingdom is in another world, therefore, the social and political problems of this world do not concern me,” and think that Jesus came to give spiritual salvation, individually, to believing souls.

Likewise, it would be an error to understand the word: You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above as affirming that the authorities receive their power directly from God and that no one should take steps to replace them with others less corrupt, or less unjust, or more capable. See commentary on Romans 13:1.

Jesus with hands bound, behaves like a king before the governor, Pilate, who is captive of his office and his own ambitions. Jesus is not a king like those of this world, because he does not exert the kind of power that people are used to obeying. Jesus, king of the Jews, did not come to revive the independent Jewish kingdom, but to establish the Kingdom of Truth, which God promised them for centuries.

Yet truth does not win with arms, but thanks to the testimony of those who live according to the truth. Witnesses of the truth are often persecuted, but they themselves do not persecute others.

My kingship does not come from this world. Jesus is unlike other authorities that have gained their positions through force or have won in an election. He has been sent and anointed by the Father.

Pilate, on the other hand, had been appointed by the Emperor of Rome and owed his career as much to his own ambition as to several protectors. How could such a man have power over the Son of God and have him crucified for fear of the people, if it were not to fulfill a decree from on High? Indeed, not even a sparrow falls to the ground without the Father allowing it.

God would not permit human creatures to destroy the destiny of his Son. He cares for each one of us in such a way that even the injustice committed against us serves his plans for our good. Because our fate depends at the same time on the Father and on human authorities, we should believe that he takes advantage of their decisions to carry out his own purposes, even when their power is of this world, that is to say, of a very questionable legitimacy.

Pilate condemned Jesus unwillingly. Having oppressed and shamelessly exploited the Jews, he feared the denunciations that they might make to Caesar against him. The condemnation of Jesus, however, meant for him nothing more than the death of one more Jew: he did not bear the whole guilt, since that type of justice was the result of the Roman colonial system.

Caiaphas, instead, the anointed High Priest of God, could not condemn Jesus without knowingly slandering his deeds and his word. So he was more guilty (19:11).

We have no king but Caesar (19:15). Thus shouted the crowd impelled by the leaders, although they hated the Romans and their emperor. In fact, several years later the Jews would have no other king but Caesar, and this king would destroy them. Pilate wanted to save the life of his prisoner when he presented him in his disfigured condition. Instead he wounded the pride of the Jewish people: a Christ the King humiliated – they could not accept this offense.

THE MOTHER OF THE BELIEVERS

• 19.25 At the moment of Man’s fall, Eve was with Adam. Now, at the moment of restoration, that is, the second creation, another woman is with the Son of Man (the Human One), the second Adam. Mary has neither spouse nor son who can receive her and, for the Jews, a woman who remains alone would be considered cursed. Jesus entrusts Mary to John and, also, John to Mary. John testifies having heard both phrases. Notice that he writes: Jesus said to the Mother, and not, to his mother. This is a new symbolic gesture of Jesus. Mary will be the Mother of believers.

Through this last deed of Jesus, the Church discovered something about the mystery of the Christian life. The believer is a member of a spiritual family. As a child needs a father and a mother to grow normally so, too, does the believer need Mary and the heavenly Father. This is an unchanging doctrine of the Church, which in no way attempts to make the creature equal with the Creator.

Not without reason has God given us a mother: if it is a misfortune for a child not to have known a mother, it is also a misfortune for a believer when his religion only expresses itself in masculine terms. The believer who welcomes Mary to his home as did John is neither a fanatic nor a quibbler regarding faith. There exists a form of humility, joy, interior peace and simple piety characteristic of those Catholics who have known how to open their doors to Mary without throwing out their Savior.

• 28. I am thirsty. Jesus is tortured by thirst. He also thirsts that the Kingdom of his Father be realized in the world. He thirsts for selfless love from those who may share his deepest thoughts and be willing to follow him until Calvary.

It is accomplished. Jesus drank the cup of sorrow and humiliation to the last drop. The Father had placed it in his hands as the means for becoming the Savior we need. The Work of the Son of God made flesh, which should be nothing less than a new creation of the world, is accomplished. The earthly existence of the Son of God comes to an end, and from the seed planted in the earth will come forth the New Creature.

The preparatory times of the Jewish religion, in which the Law occupied first place and the fear due to unforgiven sins was never lost, are finished. A stage of history has ended, in which the rest of humanity had been dragged by its fears and acceptance of its deadly fate, which was a form of its slavery to the Evil Spirit.

Now begins a new era in history, the era of the New Covenant of God with humanity. The Spirit will be communicated to the Church. John said: Jesus gave up the spirit; a word that also indicated that he was giving his Spirit to us.

• 31. THE SACRED HEART

In Jesus’ death as in his life, there are many details that enable us to understand his sacrifice better, if we see them in the light of the Old Testament.

In the piercing of Jesus’ heart the words of the prophet Zechariah: They shall look on him whom they pierced (Zec 12:10) were literally fulfilled. The wounds of Jesus are seen by people of any religion as the distinctive mark of Christian faith. Without needing words, they tell a way of self-sacrifice in which God made himself a model. God said through Zechariah that this is the moment in which sinners are converted.

John also records a prescription of the Law regarding the Passover Lamb: Not one of his bones shall be broken (Ex 12:46). This occurred at the death of Jesus, the true victim who took the place of the Passover Lamb.

Blood and water came out. The Jews believed that only through the blood of their victims could they obtain God’s pardon. Speaking poetically, first John, then later the Church, said that from the open breast of Christ came forth the sacrament of Baptism and the Eucharist, water and blood. From the cross, forgiveness and new life have sprung forth for us.

The open heart of Jesus invites us to discover the powerful, hidden and mysterious love that inspired his life. The disciples of Jesus, who had lived with him, would find that their memories and emotions would be diluted and disappear with time; they would discover, on the other hand, that there had been no word, or deed or even silence of Jesus that had not been an expression of his love for God. From his open heart on the cross originates our devotion to the Heart of Jesus. Let us not get distracted by intellectual ideas in an attempt to explain or interpret faith; rather, let us contemplate God’s love and allow it to transform us, making us like unto him.

• 38. Jesus has just died and it is two Pharisees who took care of giving him a decent burial. Joseph of Arimathea approached Pilate: because the disciples had no means of approaching the Roman governor. Joseph and Nicodemus were disciples in “secret.” Because Jesus identified himself with the common people, it was difficult for those in better social positions to integrate themselves into his group. Here we have an example of the inevitable consequences of a preferential option for the poor.

Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, Lazarus and the women mentioned in Luke 8:2 were people of upper or middle class. This fact was enough for some scholars to hastily conclude that Jesus did not live among the poor: seemingly forgetting all the rest of the Gospel’s evidence. Let us remark that, even now, wherever an apostolic person lives as a poor person among the poor, there are always people, who are better off financially, who recognize him and give him support. By being truly committed to the poor, Jesus saved the rich and won the admiration and friendship of some of them.

There was a garden. The place for the executions was an abandoned quarry near the walls of Jerusalem. Tombs were dug along the sides while the bottom was filled and passed as gardens. A rock projected, about four meters high, from the middle of the area. This rock was called Calvary and on it were raised the crosses.

• 20.1 On the second day after the burial it appeared that Jesus was alive and had gone from the tomb. The resurrection took place on the first day of the week, which henceforth would be called the Day of the Lord, that is, Sunday.

In Luke’s Gospel, after Jesus’ resurrection he helps his disciples revive their faith and hope. Here instead we see the believers silently contemplating the risen Lord. Christ appears to Mary, who does not recognize him. When he stands in the midst of his disciples, he has to show his wounds to prove that it is he himself, he who had died. Jesus is among them, but his appearance is that of a stranger, and his spiritually transformed body radiates the victory over sin and death.

Then Peter arrived. Several texts record that Peter was both a witness to the empty tomb and of Jesus risen from the dead (Lk 24:12 and 24:24; 1 Cor 15:5). Our faith is supported primarily by the testimony of the apostles, and especially by the testimony of the head of the apostles.

He saw the linen cloths lying flat. The linens designate the sheet, about 4 meters long, spread under the body from the feet to the head and then, above the body, from the head to the feet; they also refer to the bands that tied the two ends of the sheet. The dead person’s face was wrapped with a separate cloth, the napkin that was tied under the chin and over the head.

The sheet and the bands were lying where the body had been but were flat, for the body inside them had dematerialized. The napkin, which was rolled in the other direction, stayed as it was.

Jesus had not returned to life with his earthly body. This had dematerialized, so when we speak of the risen body of Jesus, we refer to something we have never experienced on earth. Those who have had dreams and visions of Jesus have only seen images of him, but have not actually seen him, except for a few of the most eminent saints.

• 11. Do not cling to me, you see I have not yet ascended to the Father (v. 17). Before his death, Jesus did not disapprove of the passionate feelings and actions of Mary. Now this familiar gesture to take possession of her loved Master is no longer appropriate.

He is now the Risen One, and though he lets himself be seen by his disciples for a few days, he is in the Glory of the Father. His disciples must relinquish the physical presence of Jesus with which they felt so much at ease. From now on the followers or the brothers and lovers of Jesus will embrace him in a secret and marvelous way, when they are given gifts of prayer and faith. It is then that the contemplative spirit, who is represented by Mary, may enjoy the whole of Christ (see Song 3:4)

I have not yet ascended to the Father. Jesus is revealing the great desire that filled his life. He came from God and must return to the Father. This is “the greatest love in the world.” All the love that Jesus has for us is but a manifestation of that other love, because God the Father is the fountain and the goal of all love. See the commentary on Matthew 19:16 in this regard.

It is not by chance that the word Lord is again repeated seven times, the last time by Thomas: “You are my Lord and my God.” This expresses the faith of the Church.

Let us remark that the persons concerned in this event did in fact call Jesus, “the Master.” However, John puts on their lips the word Lord. Why? From the first days of the Church, the believers had to find words to express their faith in Jesus, Son of God. Being the Son, he was not the same person as God, but he was one with him. How to express this divine condition?

In the Bible two names were given to God: God and Yahweh. At that time the Jews no longer pronounced the name of Yahweh and instead said: “the Lord.” Moreover, in the Greek bible used by the apostles and the Church, Yahweh was also translated as “the Lord.” So the apostles decided very soon to retain the term God when speaking of God the Father, and to call Jesus “the Lord,” by this affirming that he was not inferior to the Father.

The risen Jesus’ apparitions to his disciples, besides fostering their hope and making them qualified witnesses of his resurrection, were necessary for their spiritual formation. The disciples had to learn to recognize Jesus no longer through their senses but through faith. Likewise, we have to learn to recognize and follow Jesus in the dim light of faith, in desolation as well as in consolation, thus we too will be among those whom Jesus blesses: Happy are those who believe without seeing me (v. 29).

• 19. Just as in the first creation God infused life into Adam, so, too, Jesus’ breath communicates life to the new spiritual creation. Christ, who died to take away the sin of the world, now leaves to his own the power to forgive.

Thus the hope of the Biblical people has been realized. God led them in such a way that they felt the universal presence of sin, and so they offered animals in the Temple uninterruptedly to appease God. That river of blood failed to destroy sin, and the priests themselves offered sacrifices for their own sins before praying to God for the others. Ceremonies and rites had no power to purify the heart or to give the Holy Spirit.

Now, in the person of Jesus risen from the dead, a new world has begun. Although humanity may continue to sin, already the first of its sons and daughters, the “eldest brother of them all” is sharing fully the holy life of God.

Those who strive for the spiritual life, suffer above all from a keen awareness of the universal presence of sin. They grieve deeply at not yet having attained total liberation from sin. Hence they recognize the forgiveness of sin as the greatest gift given to the Church.

The capacity to forgive is the only power able to release the great tensions within humankind. Although it does not easily conquer hearts, it is an invaluable secret and the Church should consider it as its own particular treasure.

One who does not know how to forgive does not know how to love. On making us aware of sin and purifying us from it, the Church helps us demonstrate a more authentic love for the neighbor.

• 21.1 Jesus appears this time near Lake Tiberias. This delightful story is filled with divine presence as Christ stands on the lonely lakeshore in the light of dawn. The apostles see a stranger but John, the prophet, recognizes Christ.

The apostles pulled in a net full of 153 big fish. This number had a symbolic value; it expressed plentitude and universality. Such will be the apostolic work: all nations of the earth will be brought to Christ.

The triple questioning of Peter by Jesus may be thought of as the undoing of the triple denial during Jesus’ passion. Peter, too, being the shepherd of the shepherds, is a forgiven sinner. Jesus entrusts the whole Church to him: the same as in Matthew 16:18. Do you love me? This is the first condition to be fulfilled by a shepherd in the Church.

This dialogue between Jesus and Peter expresses what being a Christian is all about. Jesus asks us every day if we love him in a special and exclusive way: Do you love me more than these? We answer, “Yes,” despite our miseries, as Peter did; Jesus then invites us to follow him anew, out of love (v. 22), and to share with him the responsibility of caring for the people of God. There is no better way of following Jesus than by giving up our lives for his mission.

Jesus orders Peter to care for the Church and, with this, orders us to obey. We obey freely and conscientiously, not because the shepherds are always capable and infallible, but rather because they perform a necessary function of authority. We believe that historically they are the successors of the apostles, and for that reason have received their mission from God.

The Gospel ends with a prediction of the different fates that will be Peter’s and John’s. Peter died a martyr’s death in Rome in the year 66 or 67; John was still living in the year 90. He was the last of the witnesses of Christ and many thought he would not die until the Lord would come again: hence, the Gospel insists that Jesus had not made such a promise.

The last paragraph was placed there by those associated with John at the time of his death.

Luke 24

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 12:37:14 +0000

The Lord has risen

(Mk 16:1; Mt 28:1; Jn 20:1)

• 1 On the sabbath the women rested according to the commandment, but the first day of the week, at dawn, they went to the tomb with the perfumes and ointments they had prepared. 2 Seeing the stone rolled away from the opening of the tomb, 3 they entered and were puzzled to find that the body of the Lord Jesus was not there.

4 Two men in dazzling garments appeared beside them. 5 In fright the women bowed to the ground. But the men said, “Why look for the living among the dead? 6 (You won’t find him here. He is risen.) 7 Remember what he told you in Galilee, that the Son of Man had to be given into the hands of sinners, be crucified, and rise on the third day.” 8 And they recalled Jesus’ words.

9 Returning from the tomb, they informed the Eleven and their companions. 10 Among the women who brought the news were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James. 11 But however much they insisted, those who heard did not believe the seemingly nonsensical story. 12 Then Peter got up and ran to the tomb. All he saw there on bending down were the linen cloths. He went home wondering.

The road to Emmaus

(Mk 16:12)

• 13 That same day, two of them were going to Emmaus, a village seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and they talked about what had happened. 15 While they were talking and wondering, Jesus came up and walked with them, 16 but their eyes were held and they did not recognize him.

17 He asked, “What is this you are talking about?” The two stood still, looking sad. 18 Then one named Cleophas answered, “Why, it seems you are the only traveller in Jerusalem who doesn’t know what has happened there these past few days.” 19 And he asked, “What is it?”

They replied, “It is about Jesus of Nazareth. He was a prophet, you know, mighty in word and deed before God and the people. 20 But the chief priests and our rulers sentenced him to death. They handed him over to be crucified. 21 We had hoped that he would redeem Israel.

It is now the third day since all this took place. 22 It is true that some women of our group have disturbed us. When they went to the tomb at dawn, 23 they did not find his body; they came to tell us that they had seen a vision of angels who told them that Jesus was alive. 24 Some friends of our group went to the tomb and found everything just as the women had said, but they did not see him.”

25 He said to them, “How dull you are, how slow of understanding! You fail to believe the message of the prophets. 26 Is it not written that the Christ should suffer all this and then enter his glory?” 27 Then starting with Moses and going through the prophets, he explained to them everything in the Scriptures concerning himself.

28 As they drew near the village they were heading for, Jesus made as if to go farther. 29 But they prevailed upon him, “Stay with us, for night comes quickly. The day is now almost over.” So he went in to stay with them. 30 When they were at table, he took the bread, said a blessing, broke it and gave each a piece.

31 Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; but he vanished out of their sight. 32 And they said to each other, “Were not our hearts filled with ardent yearning when he was talking to us on the road and explaining the Scriptures?”

33 They immediately set out and returned to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and their companions gathered together. 34 They were greeted by these words: “Yes, it is true, the Lord is risen! He has appeared to Simon!” 35 Then the two told what had happened on the road and how Jesus made himself known when he broke bread with them.

Jesus appears to the apostles

(Jn 20:19)

• 36 As they went on talking about this, Jesus himself stood in their midst. (And he said to them, “Peace to you.”) 37 In their panic and fright they thought they were seeing a ghost, 38 but he said to them, “Why are you upset and why do such ideas cross your mind? 39 Look at my hands and feet and see that it is I myself. Touch me and see for yourselves that a ghost has no flesh and bones as I have.” 40 (As he said this, he showed his hands and feet.)

41 In their joy they didn’t dare believe and were still astonished. So he said to them, “Have you anything to eat?” 42 and they gave him a piece of broiled fish. 43 He took it and ate it before them.

Last instructions

• 44 Then Jesus said to them, “Remember the words I spoke to you when I was still with you: Everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms had to be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.

And he went on, 46 “You see what was written: the Messiah had to suffer and on the third day rise from the dead. 47 Then repentance and forgiveness in his name would be proclaimed to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 Now you shall be witnesses to this. 49 And this is why I will send you what my Father promised. So remain in the city until you are invested with power from above.”

50 Jesus led them almost as far as Bethany; then he lifted up his hands and blessed them. 51 And as he blessed them, he withdrew (and was taken to heaven. They worshiped him). 52 They returned to Jerusalem full of joy and 53 were continually in the Temple praising God.

Luke 23

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 12:36:19 +0000

Jesus before Pilate

(Mt 27:11; Mk 15:1; Jn 18:28)

• 1 The whole council rose and brought Jesus to Pilate. 2 They gave their accusation: “We found this man subverting our nation, opposing payment of taxes to Caesar, and claiming to be Christ the king.”

3 Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus replied, “You said so.” 4 Turning to the chief priests and the crowd, Pilate said, “I find no basis for a case against this man.” 5 But they insisted, “All the country of the Jews is being stirred up with his teaching. He began in Galilee and now he has come all the way here.”

6 When Pilate heard this, he asked if the man was a Galilean. 7 Finding the accused to come under Herod’s jurisdiction, Pilate sent Jesus over to Herod who happened to be in Jerusalem at that time.

8 Herod was delighted to have Jesus before him now; for a long time he had wanted to see him because of the reports about him, and he was hoping to see Jesus work some miracle. 9 He piled up question upon question, but got no reply from Jesus.

10 All the while the chief priests and the scribes remained standing there, vehemently pressing their accusations. 11 Finally, Herod ridiculed him and with his guards mocked him. And when he had put a rich cloak on him, he sent him back to Pilate. 12 Pilate and Herod who were enemies before, became friends from that day.

13 Pilate then called together the chief priests and the elders before all the people, 14 and said to them, “You have brought this man before me and accused him of subversion. In your presence I have examined him and found no basis for your charges. 15 And neither has Herod, for he sent him back to me. It is quite clear that this man has done nothing that deserves a death sentence. 16 I will therefore have him scourged and then release him.” (17 On the Passover Pilate had to release a prisoner.)

• 18 Howling as one man, they protested: “No! Away with this man! Release Barabbas instead.” 19 This man had been thrown into prison for an uprising in the city and for murder.

20 Since Pilate wanted to release Jesus, he appealed to the crowd once more, 21 but they shouted back, “To the cross with him! To the cross!” 22 A third time Pilate said to them, “Why, what evil has he done? Since no crime deserving death has been proved, I shall have him scourged and let him go.”

23 But they went on shouting and demanding that Jesus be crucified, and their shouts grew louder. 24 So Pilate decided to pass the sentence they demanded. 25 He released the man they asked for, the one who was in prison for rebellion and murder, and he delivered Jesus in accordance with their wishes.

The way of Calvary

(Mt 27:32; Mk 15:16)

26 When they led Jesus away, they seized Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the fields, and laid the cross on him, to carry it behind Jesus.

• 27 A large crowd of people followed him; among them were women beating their breast and wailing for him, 28 but Jesus turned to them and said, “Women of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, weep rather for yourselves and for your children. 29 For the days are coming when people will say: ‘Happy are the women without child! Happy are those who have not given birth or nursed a child! 30 And they will say to the mountains: Fall on us! And to the hills: Cover us!” 31 For if this is the lot of the green wood, what will happen to the dry?”

32 Along with Jesus, two criminals also were led out to be executed. 33 There at the place called The Skull he was crucified together with the criminals – one on his right and another on his left. (34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do.”) And the guards cast lots to divide his clothes among themselves.

35 The people stood by watching. As for the rulers, they jeered at him, saying to one another, “Let the man who saved others now save himself, for he is the Messiah, the chosen one of God!”

36 The soldiers also mocked him and when they drew near to offer him bitter wine, 37 they said, “So you are the king of the Jews? Free yourself!” 38 For above him was an inscription which read, “This is the King of the Jews.”

• 39 One of the criminals hanging with Jesus insulted him, “So you are the Messiah? Save yourself and us as well!” 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, “Have you no fear of God, you who received the same sentence as he did? 41 For us it is just: this is payment for what we have done. But this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 Jesus replied, “Truly, you will be with me today in paradise.”

44 It was now about noon. 45 The sun was hidden and darkness came over the whole land until mid-afternoon; and at that time the curtain of the Sanctuary was torn in two. 46 Then Jesus gave a loud cry, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” And saying that, he gave up his spirit.

47 The captain on seeing what had happened, acknowledged the hand of God. He said, “Surely this was an upright man.” 48 And all the people who had gathered to watch the spectacle, as soon as they saw what had happened went home beating their breasts. 49 Only those who knew Jesus stood at a distance, especially the women who had followed him from Galilee; they witnessed all this.

50 Then intervened a member of the Jewish supreme council, a good and righteous man named Joseph 51 from the Judean town of Arimathea. He had not agreed with the decision and action of his fellow members, for he lived uprightly in the hope of seeing the kingdom of God. 52 He went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. 53 He then took it down, wrapped it in a linen cloth and laid it in a yet unused tomb cut out of a rock.

54 It was Preparation Day and the star which marks the beginning of the Sabbath was shining. 55 So the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph to see the tomb and how his body was being placed. 56 And returning home, they prepared perfumes and ointments.

Luke 22

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 12:35:20 +0000

The conspiracy against Jesus

(Mk 14:1; Mt 26:1)

1 The feast of Unleavened Bread which is called the Passover, was now drawing near, 2 and the chief priests and the teachers of the Law wanted to kill Jesus. They were looking for a way to do this because they were afraid of the people. 3 Then Satan entered into Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve, 4 and he went off to discuss with the chief priests and the officers of the guard how to deliver Jesus to them. 5 They were delighted and agreed to give him money; 6so he accepted, and from that time he waited for an opportunity to betray him without the people knowing.

• 7 Then came the feast of the Unleavened Bread in which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. 8 So Jesus sent Peter and John saying, “Go and get everything ready for us to eat the Passover meal.” 9 They asked him, “Where do you want us to prepare it?” 10 And he said, “When you enter the city, a man will come to you carrying a jar of water. Follow him to the house he enters 11 and say to the owner: ‘The master asks: where is the room where I may take the Passover meal with my disciples?’ 12 He will show you a large, furnished room upstairs, and there you will prepare for us.”

13 Peter and John went off and having found everything just as Jesus had told them, they prepared the Passover meal.

The supper of the Lord

(Mk 14:12; Mt 26:17)

• 14 When the hour came, Jesus took his place at table and the apostles with him. 15 And he said to them, “I was eager to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; 16 for, I tell you, I shall not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”

17 Then they passed him a cup and when he had given thanks he said, “Take this and share it among yourselves: 18 for I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” 19 Jesus also took bread, and after giving thanks, he broke it and gave it to them saying, “This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 And he did the same with the cup after eating, “This cup is the new covenant, sealed in my blood which is poured out for you.

21 Yet the hand of the traitor is with me on the table. 22 Know that the Son of Man is going the way marked out for him. But alas for that one who betrays him!” 23 They began to ask one another which of them could do such a thing.

Last conversation with Jesus

(Mk 10:42; Jn 13:1)

• 24 They also began to argue among themselves which of them should be considered the most important. 25 And Jesus said, “The kings of the pagan nations rule over them as lords, and the most hard-hearted rulers claim the title, ‘Gracious Lord.’ 26 But not so with you; let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as the servant. 27 For who is the greatest, he who sits at the table or he who serves? He who is seated, isn’t it? Yet I am among you as the one who serves.

28 You are the ones who have been with me and stood by me through my troubles; 29 because of this, just as the kingship has been given to me by my Father, so I give it to you. 30 You will eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones and govern the twelve tribes of Israel.

31 Simon, Simon, Satan has demanded to sift you like grain, 32 but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have recovered you shall strengthen your brothers.” 33 Then Peter said, “Lord, with you I am ready to go even to prison and death.” 34 But Jesus replied, “I tell you, Peter, the cock will not crow this day before you have denied three times that you know me.”

35 Jesus also said to them, “When I sent you without purse or bag or sandals, were you short of anything?” They answered, “No.” 36 And Jesus said to them, “But now, the one who has a purse must take it, and a bag as well. And if anyone is without a sword, let him sell his cloak to buy one. 37 For Scriptures says: He was numbered among criminals. These words had to be fulfilled in me, and now everything written about me is taking place.

38 Then they said, “See, Lord, here are two swords,” but he answered, “That is enough.”

Gethsemane

(Mk 14:32)

• 39 After this Jesus left to go as usual to Mount Olives and the disciples followed him. 40 When he came to the place, he told them, “Pray that you may not be put to the test.”

41 Then he went a little further, about a stone’s throw, and kneeling down he prayed, 42 “Father, if it is your will, remove this cup from me; still not my will but yours be done.” 43 And an angel from heaven appeared to give him strength.

44 As he was in agony, he prayed even more earnestly and great drops of blood formed like sweat and fell to the ground. 45 When he rose from prayer, he went to his disciples but found them worn out with grief, and asleep. 46 And he said to them, “Why do you sleep? Get up and pray, so that you may not be put to the test.”

47 Jesus was still speaking when a group appeared and the man named Judas, one of the Twelve, was leading them. He drew near to Jesus to kiss him, 48 and Jesus said to him, “Did you need this kiss to betray the Son of Man?”

49 Those with Jesus seeing what would happen, said to him, “Master, shall we use the sword?” 50 And one of them struck the High Priest’s servant and cut off his right ear. 51 But Jesus stopped him, “No more of this.” He touched the man’s ear and healed him.

52 Then Jesus spoke to those coming against him, the chief priests, officers of the Temple and elders and he said to them, “Did you really set out against a robber? Do you need swords and clubs to arrest me? 53 Day after day I was among you teaching in the Temple and you did not arrest me. But this is the hour of the power of darkness; this is your hour.”

The trial of Jesus, Peter’s denial

(Mk 14:53; Mt 26:57)

• 54 Then they seized him and took him away, bringing him to the High Priest’s house. Peter followed at a distance.

55 A fire was kindled in the middle of the courtyard where people gathered, and Peter sat among them. 56 A maidservant noticed him. Looking at him intently in the light of the fire, she exclaimed, “This man also was with him!” 57 But he denied it, saying, “Woman, I do not know him.”

58 A little later someone who saw him said, “You are also one of them!” Peter replied, “My friend, I am not!” 59 After about an hour another asserted, “Surely this man was with him, for he is a Galilean.”

60 Again Peter denied, “My friend, I don’t know what you are talking about.” He had not finished saying this when a cock crowed. 61 The Lord turned around and looked at Peter and he remembered the word that the Lord had spoken, “Before the cock crows today you will have denied me three times.” 62 Peter went outside, weeping bitterly.

63 Meanwhile the guards were mocking and beating Jesus. 64 They blindfolded him, struck him and then asked, “Who hit you? Tell us, prophet.” 65 And they hurled many other insulting words at him.

66 At daybreak, the council of the elders of the people, among whom were the chief priests and the scribes, assembled again. Then they had Jesus brought before them, and they began questioning him: 67 “Tell us, are you the Christ?” Jesus replied, “You will not believe if I tell you, 68 and neither will you answer if I ask you. 69 Yet from now on the Son of Man will have his seat at the right hand of the Mighty God.”

70 In chorus they asked, “So you are the Son of God?” And Jesus said to them, “You are right, I am.”

71 Then they said, “What need have we of witnesses? We have heard it from his own lips.”

Luke 21

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 12:34:27 +0000

The widow’s mite

(Mk 12:41)

1 Jesus looked up and saw rich people putting their gifts into the treasure box; 2 he also saw a poor widow dropping in two small coins. 3 And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow put in more than all of them. 4 For all gave an offering from their plenty, but she, out of her poverty, gave all she had to live on.”

Signs before the destruction of

Jerusalem

(Mk 13:1; Mt 24:1)

• 5 While some people were talking about the Temple, remarking that it was adorned with fine stonework and rich gifts, Jesus said to them, 6 “The days will come when there shall not be left one stone upon another of all that you now admire; all will be torn down.” 7 And they asked him, “Master, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?”

8 Jesus then said, “Take care not to be deceived, for many will come claiming my title and saying: ‘I am he, the Messiah; the time is at hand.’ Do not follow them. 9 When you hear of wars and troubled times, don’t be frightened; for all this must happen first, even though the end is not so soon.”

10 And Jesus said, “Nations will fight each other and kingdom will oppose kingdom. 11 There will be great earthquakes, famines and plagues; in many places strange and terrifying signs from heaven will be seen. 12 Before all this happens, people will lay their hands on you and persecute you; you will be delivered to the Jewish courts and put in prison, and for my sake you will be brought before kings and governors. 13 This will be your opportunity to bear witness.

14 So keep this in mind: do not worry in advance about what to answer, 15 for I will give you words and wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.

16 You will be betrayed even by parents, and brothers, by relatives and friends, and some of you will be put to death. 17 But even though you are hated by all for my name’s sake, 18 not a hair of your head will perish. 19 Through perseverance you will possess your own selves.

20 When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then you must know that the time has come when it will be reduced to a wasteland. 21 Then, if you are in Judea, flee to the mountains; if you are in the city, leave it; and let those who are in the fields not return to the city.

22 For these will be the days of its punishment and all that was announced in the Scripture will be fulfilled. 23 How hard will it be for pregnant women and for mothers with babies at the breast! For a great calamity will come upon the land, and divine justice upon this people. 24 They will be put to death by the sword or taken as slaves to other nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled upon by the pagans until the time of the pagans is fulfilled.

The coming of the Son of Man

25 Then there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth anguish of perplexed nations when they hear the roaring of the sea and its waves. 26 People will faint with fear at the mere thought of what is to come upon the world, for the forces of the universe will be shaken. 27 And at this time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

The signs of the times

28 Now, when you see the first events, stand erect and lift up your heads, for your deliverance is drawing near.” 29 And Jesus added this comparison, “Look at the fig tree and all the trees. 30 As soon as their buds sprout, you know that summer is already near. 31 In the same way, as soon as you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near. 32 Truly, I tell you, this generation will not pass away, until all this has happened: 33 heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

• 34 Be on your guard; let not your hearts be weighed down with a life of pleasure, drunkenness and worldly cares, lest that day catch you suddenly as a trap. 35 For it will come upon all the inhabitants of the whole earth. 36 But watch at all times and pray, that you may be able to escape all that is bound to happen and to stand before the Son of Man.”

37 In the daytime Jesus used to teach in the Temple; then he would leave the city and pass the night on the mount of Olives. 38 And early in the morning the people would come to the Temple to hear him.

Luke 20

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 12:28:13 +0000

1 One day when Jesus was teaching the people in the Temple and proclaiming the good news, the chief priests and the teachers of the Law came with the elders of the Jews, 2 and said to him, “Tell us, what right have you to act like this? Who gives you authority to do all this?”

3 Jesus said to them, “I also will ask you a question; tell me: 4 Was John’s preaching and baptism a work of God, or was it merely something human?” 5 And they argued among themselves, “If we answer that it was a work of God, he will say: ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 6 But if we answer that it was merely something human, all the people will stone us, for they all regard John as a prophet.” 7 So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know,” 8and Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you what right I have to act like this.”

The murderous tenants

(Mk 12:1; Mt 21:33)

• 9 Jesus went on to tell the people this parable, “A man planted a vineyard and let it out to tenants before going abroad for a long time.

10 In due time he sent a servant to the tenants to get some fruit from the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him back empty-handed. 11Again the man sent another servant; they beat him as well and treated him shamefully and finally sent him away empty-handed. 12 The owner then sent a third, but this one was wounded and thrown out.

13 The owner then thought: ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; surely they will respect him.’ 14 The tenants, however, as soon as they had seen him, said to one another: ‘This is the one who will inherit the vineyard; let us kill him and the property will be ours.’ 15 So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 16 Now, what will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.”

On hearing this, some of the rulers said, “May it not be so!” 17 Then Jesus looked directly at them and said, “What does this text of the Scriptures mean: The stone which the builders rejected has become the keystone. 18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces and anyone the stone falls on will be crushed?”

19 The teachers of the Law and the chief priests would have liked to arrest him right there, for they realized that Jesus meant this parable for them, but they were afraid of the crowd. 20 So they left, looking for another opportunity.

Paying taxes to Caesar

(Mk 12:13; Mt 22:15)

They sent spies who pretended to be honest, in order to trap him in his words and deliver him to the authority and power of the Roman governor. 21 They asked him, “Master, we know that you are true in your words and your teaching, and your answers do not vary according to who is listening to you, for you truly teach the way of God. Tell us: 22 are we allowed to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

23 But Jesus saw through their cunning and said, 24 “Show me a silver coin. Whose head is this and whose title does it bear?” They answered, “Caesar’s.” 25 And Jesus said to them “Return to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”

26 So they were unable to trap him in what he said in public: they were surprised at his answer and kept silent.

Resurrection of the dead

(Mk12:18)

• 27 Then some Sadducees arrived. These people claim that there is no resurrection 28 and they asked Jesus this question, “Master, in the Scripture Moses told us: ‘If anyone dies leaving a wife but no children, his brother must take the wife, and the child to be born will be regarded as the child of the deceased man.’ 29 Now, there were seven brothers; the first married a wife, but he died without children; 30 and the second 31 and the third took the wife; in fact all seven died leaving no children. 32 Last of all the woman died. 33 On the day of the resurrection, to which of them will the woman be wife? For the seven had her as wife.”

34 And Jesus replied, “Taking husband or wife is proper to people of this world, 35 but for those who are considered worthy of the world to come and of resurrection from the dead, there is no more marriage. 36 Besides, they cannot die for they are like the angels. They too are sons and daughters of God because they are born of the resurrection.

37 Yes, the dead will be raised, and even Moses implied it in the passage about the burning bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. 38 For he is God of the living and not of the dead, and for him all are alive.”

39 Some teachers of the Law then agreed with Jesus, “Master, you have spoken well.” 40 They didn’t dare to ask him anything else. 41 Then Jesus said to them, “How can people say that the Messiah is the son of David? 42 For David says in the book of Psalms: The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right 43 until I put your enemies under your feet. 44 David here calls him Lord; how then can he be his son?”

• 45 Jesus also said to his disciples before all the people, 46 “Beware of these teachers of the Law who like to be seen in long robes and love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to take the reserved seats in the synagogues and places of honor at feasts. 47 They even devour the property of widows while making a show of long prayers. They will receive a very severe sentence!”

Luke 19

Rev. Fr. Jessie Somosierra, Jr. — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 12:27:12 +0000

Jesus and Zaccheus

• 1 When Jesus entered Jericho and was going through the city, 2 a man named Zaccheus was there. He was a tax collector and a wealthy man. 3 He wanted to see what Jesus was like, but he was a short man and could not see because of the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed up a sycamore tree. From there he would be able to see Jesus who had to pass that way. 5 When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zaccheus, come down quickly for I must stay at your house today.” 6 So Zaccheus hurried down and received him joyfully.

7 All the people who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to the house of a sinner as a guest.” 8 But Zaccheus spoke to Jesus, “The half of my goods, Lord, I give to the poor, and if I have cheated anyone, I will pay him back four times as much.” 9 Looking at him Jesus said, “Salvation has come to this house today, for he is also a true son of Abraham. 10 The Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”

The ten pounds

(Mt 25:14)

• 11 Jesus was now near Jerusalem and the people with him thought that God’s reign was about to appear. So as they were listening to him, Jesus went on to tell them a parable. 12 He said, “A man of noble birth went to a distant place to have himself appointed king of his own people, after which he would return. 13 Before he left, he summoned ten of his servants and gave them ten pounds. He said: ‘Put this money to work until I get back.’ 14 But his compatriots who disliked him sent a delegation after him with this message: ‘We do not want this man to be our king.’

15 He returned, however, appointed as king. At once he sent for the servants to whom he had given the money, to find out what profit each had made. 16 The first came in and reported: ‘Sir, your pound has earned ten more.’

17 The master replied: ‘Well done, my good servant. Since you have proved yourself capable in a small matter, I can trust you to take charge of ten cities.’ 18 The second reported: ‘Sir, your pound earned five more pounds.’ 19 The master replied: ‘Right, take charge of five cities.’

20 The third came in and said: ‘Sir, here is your money which I hid for safekeeping. 21 I was afraid of you for you are an exacting person; you take up what you did not lay down and reap what you did not sow.’

22 The master replied: ‘You worthless servant, I will judge you by your own words. So you knew I was an exacting person, taking up what I did not lay down and reaping what I did not sow! 23 Why, then, did you not put my money on loan so that when I got back I could have collected it with interest?’

24 Then the master said to those standing by: ‘Take from him that pound, and give it to the one with ten pounds.’ 25 They objected: ‘But, sir, he already has ten!’

26 ‘I tell you: everyone who has will be given more; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. 27 As for my enemies who did not want me to be king, bring them in and execute them right here in my presence.’”

Jesus enters Jerusalem

(Mk 11:1; Mt 21:1; Jn 12:12; Mt 24:2)

28 So Jesus spoke, and he went on ahead of them, on his way to Jerusalem. 29 When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, close to Mount Olivet, he sent two of the disciples with these instructions, 30 “Go to the village opposite and as you enter it you will find a colt tied up that no one has yet ridden: untie it and bring it here. 31 And if anyone says to you: ‘Why are you untying this colt?’ You shall give this answer: ‘The Master needs it.’”

32 So the two disciples went and found things just as Jesus had said. 33 As they were untying the colt, the owner said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” 34 And they answered, “The Master needs it.” 35 So they brought it to Jesus and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they mounted Jesus on it. 36 And as he went down, people spread their cloaks on the road.

37 When Jesus came near Jerusalem, at the place where the road slopes down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the miracles they had seen, 38 and they cried out, “Blessed is he who comes as king in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and Glory in the highest heavens.”

39 Some Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Master, rebuke your disciples.” 40 But Jesus answered, “I tell you, if they were to remain silent, the stones would cry out.”

41 When Jesus had come in sight of the city, he wept over it 42 and said, “If only today you knew the ways of peace! But now your eyes are held from seeing. 43 Yet days will come upon you when your enemies will surround you with barricades and shut you in and press on you from every side. 44 And they will dash you to the ground and your children with you, and leave not a stone within you, for you did not recognize the time and the visitation of your God.”

45 Then Jesus entered the Temple area and began to drive out the merchants. 46 And he said to them, “God says in the Scriptures: My house shall be a house of prayer: but you have turned it into a den of robbers.”

47 Jesus was teaching every day in the Temple. The chief priests and teachers of the Law wanted to kill him and the elders of the Jews as well, 48 but they were unable to do anything, for all the people were listening to him and hanging on his words.