Wednesday of the Sixth Week of Easter

Saint Bernardine of Siena, Priest

Memorial Bench for St. Bernardine

Readings for Wednesday of the Sixth Week of Easter[1][2]
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible

Readings and Commentary:[3]

Reading 1: Acts 17:15, 22—18:1

After Paul's escorts had taken him to Athens,
they came away with instructions for Silas and Timothy
to join him as soon as possible.

Then Paul stood up at the Areopagus and said:
"You Athenians, I see that in every respect
you are very religious.
For as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines,
I even discovered an altar inscribed, 'To an Unknown God.'
What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you.
The God who made the world and all that is in it,
the Lord of heaven and earth,
does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands,
nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything.
Rather it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and everything.
He made from one the whole human race
to dwell on the entire surface of the earth,
and he fixed the ordered seasons and the boundaries of their regions,
so that people might seek God,
even perhaps grope for him and find him,
though indeed he is not far from any one of us.
For 'In him we live and move and have our being,'
as even some of your poets have said,
'For we too are his offspring.'
Since therefore we are the offspring of God,
we ought not to think that the divinity is like an image
fashioned from gold, silver, or stone by human art and imagination.
God has overlooked the times of ignorance,
but now he demands that all people everywhere repent
because he has established a day on which he will 'judge the world
with justice' through a man he has appointed,
and he has provided confirmation for all
by raising him from the dead."

When they heard about resurrection of the dead,
some began to scoff, but others said,
"We should like to hear you on this some other time."
And so Paul left them.
But some did join him, and became believers.
Among them were Dionysius,
a member of the Court of the Areopagus,
a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
After this he left Athens and went to Corinth.
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Commentary on Acts 17:15, 22—18:1

This selection sets St. Paul in Athens speaking to the pagans in one of their principle venues. In his rhetoric he uses their own beliefs to bring them to an understanding of first God the Father using their “Unknown God” as a starting point, telling them that God is not bound in gold, silver or stone (as their idols are) but existing all around them, creator of all that is and will be.

When he gets to a point at which he begins talking about Jesus and the Lord’s resurrection he looses most of them but some remain and the beginning of Christianity in that city has begun. From Athens they move to Corinth.

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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 148:1-2, 11-12, 13, 14

R. Heaven and earth are full of your glory.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Praise the LORD from the heavens;
praise him in the heights.
Praise him, all you his angels;
praise him, all you his hosts.
R. Heaven and earth are full of your glory.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Let the kings of the earth and all peoples,
the princes and all the judges of the earth,
Young men too, and maidens,
old men and boys.
R. Heaven and earth are full of your glory.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Praise the name of the LORD,
for his name alone is exalted;
His majesty is above earth and heaven.
R. Heaven and earth are full of your glory.
or:
R. Alleluia.
He has lifted up the horn of his people;
Be this his praise from all his faithful ones,
from the children of Israel, the people close to him.
Alleluia.
R. Heaven and earth are full of your glory.
or:
R. Alleluia.
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Commentary on Ps 148:1-2, 11-12, 13, 14

Psalm 148 is a hymn of praise. In this selection we find it singing of the omnipotence of God, His power and majesty, and His promise of salvation.

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Gospel: John 16:12-15

Jesus said to his disciples:
"I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.
But when he comes, the Spirit of truth,
he will guide you to all truth.
He will not speak on his own,
but he will speak what he hears,
and will declare to you the things that are coming.
He will glorify me,
because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.
Everything that the Father has is mine;
for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine
and declare it to you."
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Commentary on Jn 16:12-15

Jesus’ farewell speech continues. His reference to the coming of the Holy Spirit is explained further and the unity of the trinity comes into focus as the Lord tells his friends that this Advocate will give them what is also his (the Lord’s).

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Reflection:

As important as Jesus’ farewell speech is, we need to look at what Paul is doing on his missionary trip in Acts today. What we see is St. Paul, a well educated and zealous evangelist delivering an apology or defense of Christianity to people who were not Jewish and were, in fact, unacquainted with the concept of a non-corporeal God.

He took them where they were, that is, he took the faith they had in their idols and attempted to move them past it. It was clear from his discourse that he had success. He was able to focus them on the fact that there was one God, unknown to them that was above all others. This was a pretty important step given the ingrained belief in the Greek’s mythology he was facing.

Where he ran into trouble was when he tried to get into the Jesus story. They could accept that there was a God they could not see, that was the creator of all that was. What they could not accept was that such a God could send his own son as a “man” into the world to die and rise from the dead. Even assuming, as we must, that this discourse was a summary of talks St. Paul gave over a period of months, this moved most of the people he was speaking with past were they were willing to go.

This whole tableau is important for us because we see in this story a problem we all face. We have come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, Son of the Living God, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit give us our life and our being. For others who have not been exposed to this understanding since their earliest years, this sounds so far fetched that they too scoff at the idea. We cannot forget how difficult it is to wrap one’s mind around our Triune God, first to just understand it and then to come to faith in Him. So often we assume that what has taken us a lifetime to understand should be instantly clear to others and become frustrated at their apparent lack of understanding.

When dealing with the world outside of the faith community we must, on and individual basis use St. Paul’s model. We must take people were they are and help them to the next steps. I hate to quote popular media, but to borrow a phrase from the movie “What About Bob”, we must use “baby steps”.

Pax

[1] ALTRE
[2] The picture used today is “The Holy Family with God the Father and the Holy Spirit”, by Carlo Dolci, 1630
[3] Text of Readings is taken from the New American Bible, Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Excerpts from the English translation of The Roman Missal © 1973, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved.