1. -- Lanie LeBlanc OP -
2. -- Dennis Keller OP -
3. -- Fr. John Boll OP -
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5. --(Your reflection can be here!)

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Acts 14:21-27; Responsorial Psalm 145; Revelation 21:1-5;
Gospel Acclamation John 13:34; John 13:31-35

On this fifth Sunday of Easter, the Scriptures continue to describe the growth of discipleship and the conditions for the Kingdom of God. Membership in the Kingdom comes about by becoming members of the Church. The term church comes from the Hebrew word Qahal. It comes from a verb meaning calling together. So, the Church is an entity of people called together.

In the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Paul and Barnabas continue their travels around the northern coast lands of the Mediterranean. They preached the gospel in synagogues. Their preaching attracted many gentiles. The conflicts these preachers encountered came from disbelieving Jews first in Antioch of Pisidia and then Iconium. A group of disbelieving Jews excited and gathered crowds of other disbelieving Jews and nervous gentiles. In Lystra, Paul was dragged out of the city and stoned. The crowd believed him dead. But newly made disciples nursed him back to health. Paul and Barnabas traveled further to the south east to Derbe. There they baptized and gathered a considerable number of disciples. After this the apostles retraced their journey to Lystra, to Iconium, and back to Antioch of Pisidia. They had success even in Lystra where Paul had been stoned. In each city they appointed “elders” to serve the church. They laid hands on them in what sounds like ordination to priesthood. They returned to Perga and then to Attalia. From that seaport they returned to their home base of Antioch of Syria. There they reported on their journeys and the churches founded. A history professor in seminary once quipped, “If only Paul had an army Jeep. He had been a military chaplain in WW II.

This may sound like a political campaign. What makes it different from politics is that recruitment was not for votes for the preachers to gain an office. These journeys and the following two by Paul, were a sharing with Jews and Gentiles alike the good news that death had been conquered. A new way of living had been initiated by the Son of God/Son of Man. Instead of a campaign to get, theirs was a campaign to give. The gift was entrance into the Kingdom of God and incorporation into the Community that is the Body of Christ.

The reading from Revelation continues describing what the Kingdom of God is like. John of Patmos describes it as a new creation – a new heaven and a new earth. Jerusalem, that city of Peace, had seen and still sees cruel and murderous conflicts, is described in the Kingdom as a metropolis of peace. This is the metaphoric city where God lives with his people. God is always with them. Tears of pain, of separation, of poverty, of death are wiped away. They are no more. In God’s Kingdom there is no death or mourning, wailing, or pain. This Kingdom supersedes the old order of death, self-centeredness, and violence against persons and abuse of creation.

The Gospel Acclamation identifies who is a member of the new creation, the new heaven, and the new earth. Members love one another as Jesus loves us. That is a challenging requirement. That is why we have a life time to learn, to apply, and to practice. To be members in good standing, we learn to love everyone. There is no ordering of love, as some presume. We are to love even those who harm us or ours. To doubt this is to doubt the Cross. And doubting the Cross and not embracing it will threaten our personal resurrection.

Loving everyone is a result of being called together. Being together we have the possibility of hating, of harming others. To demean others by calling them evil, unclean, violent, ignorant, worthless is from Satan. We have each experienced sin. But we know if we ask, we can be forgiven. If we ask someone we hurt to forgive us, is that not what loving others means? If we are followers of Jesus, then how difficult is it to forgive someone who has harmed us? Recall Jesus on the Cross; “Father, forgive them. They do not know what they are doing.” Loving does not come easy. Paul was stoned, was disrespected, accused of heresy. Even so, during his life of evangelizing he continued to learn to love those who hated him. That is why we have the gift of time. Because of time, we have opportunity to grow and fan into flame that spark of God, that image and likeness of God with which we endowed at conception. We have time to correct our errors, to ask forgiveness from whomever we hurt. Worshiping together each week is a great gift. Our associations grow and blossom when we meet and greet those who attend with us. That is how we discover the ways to grow. As we experience life with others our horizons grow and our love tends to deepen, eradicating self-serving intentions. If our love fails, dies, atrophies, our spirits tend to decay. Our life becomes a burden, our associations, small acts of war. No one wins war, except in the card game by that name.

Dennis Keller Dennis@PreacherExchange.com
 

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Volume 2 is for you. Your thoughts, reflections, and insights on the next Sundays readings can influence the preaching you hear. Send them to preacherexchange@att.net. Deadline is Wednesday Noon. Include your Name, and Email Address.
-- Fr. John