DEDICATED TO THE GOSPEL  

 

May 22, Saturday

 

 

SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTER

 

The books that have been our main companions throughout the Easter Season end with the committed, enthusiastic witness to the Good News of Jesus: Paul in his captivity, and Peter, whose martyrdom is predicted, and John, the beloved apostle, who has given a true testimony of Jesus in his Gospel.

What is the witness we can give to Jesus? Does our way of life show that we believe in him and love him?

 

 

First Reading:  Acts 28:16-20,30-31

When we actually entered Rome, they let Paul live in his own private quarters with a soldier who had been assigned to guard him.

Three days later, Paul called the Jewish leaders together for a meeting at his house. He said, “The Jews in Jerusalem arrested me on trumped-up charges, and I was taken into custody by the Romans. I assure you that I did absolutely nothing against Jewish laws or Jewish customs. After the Romans investigated the charges and found there was nothing to them, they wanted to set me free, but the Jews objected so fiercely that I was forced to appeal to Caesar. I did this not to accuse them of any wrongdoing or to get our people in trouble with Rome. We’ve had enough trouble through the years that way. I did it for Israel. I asked you to come and listen to me today to make it clear that I’m on Israel’s side, not against her. I’m a hostage here for hope, not doom.”

Paul lived for two years in his rented house. He welcomed everyone who came to visit. He urgently presented all matters of the kingdom of God. He explained everything about Jesus Christ. His door was always open.

 

 

Gospel: John 21:20-25

Turning his head, Peter noticed the disciple Jesus loved following right behind. When Peter noticed him, he asked Jesus, “Master, what’s going to happen to him?”

Jesus said, “If I want him to live until I come again, what’s that to you? You—follow me.” That is how the rumor got out among the brothers that this disciple wouldn’t die. But that is not what Jesus said. He simply said, “If I want him to live until I come again, what’s that to you?”

This is the same disciple who was eyewitness to all these things and wrote them down. And we all know that his eyewitness account is reliable and accurate.

There are so many other things Jesus did. If they were all written down, each of them, one by one, I can’t imagine a world big enough to hold such a library of books.

 

Prayer

Lord, our God,
like Mary, the women and the apostles
on the day before the first Pentecost,
we are gathered in prayer.
Let the Holy Spirit come down also upon us,
that we may become enthusiastic believers
and faithful witnesses to the person
and the Good News of Jesus.
May our way of living bear witness
that Jesus is our light and life,
now and forever. Amen.

 

Reflection:

Follow Me

Today’s passage is the closing scene of John’s gospel, and Peter is invited once again by Jesus to “Follow him!” At an earlier time Peter sounded very courageous, even heroic. “I will lay down my life for you” (Jn 13:37). As events unfolded, he failed to live up to his brave talk, preferring instead to save his own skin. That was a profound lesson in humility, and that experience and later the dramatic turns in the life of the Community has made Peter a transformed man. Peter is now in a better position to understand what does following Jesus mean. The demand of Jesus is nothing but “love Jesus – love God” and loving Jesus means to care for one’s brothers and sisters. And Peter has just professed his love for Jesus three times.

Jesus’ final words recorded in the Gospel are his invitation to Peter: Follow me. If Peter had asked, “Where,

Lord?”, the response of Jesus may well have been: Come and see. The Gospel ended as it had begun –“Jesus said to them: Come and you will see” [1:39]. From the point of view of the evangelist, Christian life is always the disciple’s response to Jesus’ invitation: Come and see!
The invitation that Jesus makes to every disciple calls for a deliberate and determined response. The disciple’s task is to refuse to be distracted by the experience of others and to remain ever faithful to the personal call of Jesus. The Gospel shows us that the decisive thing is to follow Jesus. Tomorrow we celebrate the solemnity of Pentecost. Let us renew our yes to the Lord to follow him. In prayer with Mary, our Mother, we ask the Holy Spirit to fill our lives: Following is a prayer composed by late Bishop Pedro Casaldaliga, Spanish Claretian missionary, who was known as bishop of the poor and the forgotten in Brazil, and died on 8 August 2020, at the age of 92.
Come Holy Spirit Creator Now.,
Stay with us today, give us your intelligence
and fill our hearts with goodness.
Your name is: comfort, inspiration, life, grace.
You are novelty: creative force.
Come Holy Spirit, so that your Light
illuminates our course
and strengthens our decisions.
You are the one who has done all the good things,
–the one who presides over our discernment
and points the way of our options–
Your name is unity, hope and love.
Keep us from evil, from selfishness, from injustice,
from intolerance and from divisions.
Give us your peace, your blessing, your comfort,
your serenity and your wisdom;
so that we transform our present
into the will of the Father who is in heaven.

 

Video available on Youtube : Follow Me