Reflection on the Readings at Mass for the 6th Sunday of Easter – Year A. The Liturgical Sense of the Scriptures Podcast, by Catholic Author and Theologian David L. Gray. (Sixth Sunday of Easter) Year A. READINGS: Acts 8:5-8, 14-17, 1 Peter 3:15-18, and John 14:15-21.
The Liturgy of the Catholic Prepares us for the Coming Persecution
Since our readings from the Fifth Sunday in Easter, some dramatic events have taken place in Jerusalem. According to chapters seven and eight of Acts, a severe persecution; a type of purge of at least the Hellenist Christians of the Church in Jerusalem was well underway. Stephen, one of the seven servants selected to minister charity to the widows was stoned the death for preaching the truth of Christ Jesus. Saul was on a rampage, “trying to destroy the church; entering house after house and dragging out men and women,” whom he handed over for imprisonment. Perhaps the Hebrew Christians were safe from the persecution and that is why the Apostles stayed, but for all other Christians, there was an exodus out of Jerusalem and into the countryside of Judea and Samaria.
We do not know why Philip also traveled to Samaria. It could have been to continue the work of his ordination to minister charity to the Hellenist Christian widows, or he may have been fleeing the persecution himself. Today’s First Reading from Acts 8:5-8, 14-17 inform us that while Philip was in the city of Samaria, he “proclaimed the Christ to them,” which makes this event the first time in Acts that the Good News was preached to people who were not Jews. Samaria was not short of miracles done in the name of Jesus. Not long ago, Luke accounts for ten lepers being healed there.1 It is interesting that a people who the Jews considered to be heretics and are now having to deal with the exodus of the Jewish Christians fleeing into their city, were so open to Philip’s preaching, teaching, and healings, which included exorcisms, and paralytics and cripples being cured. Verses 14-17 then inform us, “Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who went down and prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for it had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.” This is the first evidence we have of the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation being conferred on two different occasions – a Baptism celebrated by Philip, a type of deacon, and the Sacrament of Confirmation being celebrated by the Apostles.
Todays’ Second Reading from 1 Peter 3:15-18 is an exhortation of encouragement to a Church being persecuted for doing good. It begins before today’s reading in verses 13 and 14, saying, “Now who is going to harm you if you are enthusiastic for what is good? But even if you should suffer because of righteousness, blessed are you. Do not be afraid or terrified with fear of them.” Here, the Apostle Peter is puts a new dressing on Isaiah’s 8:12-13 ode to the suffering, writing, “Do not call conspiracy what this people calls conspiracy, nor fear what they fear, nor feel dread. But conspire with the LORD of hosts; he shall be your fear, he shall be your dread.” Peter is also drawing from Jesus Sermon on the Mount, concerning His message to the persecuted: “Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you [falsely] because of me,” to which Peter rephrases in writing, “. . . those who defame your good conduct in Christ may themselves be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that be the will of God, than for doing evil.” Our Catholic Church has experienced different types of persecution at different times, but the constant is that we are a persecuted people, because they persecuted our Lord first. Yet, the Christian paradox is that while we are a persecuted people, we are not victims. For, the victim of our sins was given the death penalty in the flesh, but then rose from it in the Spirit, and now through Him we too have victory over any persecution that His enemies wishes to take out on us.
If we consider today’s Gospel Reading from John 14:15-21 in context of the First and Second Readings, we must strongly surmise that when Jesus said to His disciples, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments,” that keeping the commandments would lead to us being persecuted; that loving Jesus means that we will be persecuted for loving Jesus. I think that is true. I think the harder you love on God, the more you give testimony to your love of Him, and the more you testify of your love of God in word and deed, the more the world will reject you. But the good news is that while loving God leads to us being persecuted for His sake, that He does not allow us to be alone in that suffering. Inasmuch as He cannot physical be here with us, the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, whom He has a co-mission with will remain with us. This is what our Lord promised us, saying, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows him. But you know him, because he remains with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” Indeed, He does come to us as every Catholic Mass as the Holy Eucharist.
Again, beautiful sounding words, but in context of today’s readings, what does that adoption into the Holy Trinity look, smell, taste, sound, and feel like? It sounds like Stephen the martyr, saying, “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always oppose the holy Spirit; you are just like your ancestors.” If that is what the Holy Spirit gave Stephen to say, then we have to reimagine what the 1 Peter 3:16 exhortation means when it tells us to be ready to give an explanation of our faith, “but do it in gentleness and reverence,” because Stephen’s words were not gentle. What does it taste like? Stones hitting your face and mouth. It feels like blood dripping from your skull. It looks and smells like the fear of people fleeing their homes to find safety in places we were told never to go, like Samaria. To be sure, there is a pedagogical and works of charity side of life in the Holy Spirit where He uses us edify and proclaim with our words in times and places of peace, but not only did the world kill Christ Jesus because it did not understand Him, but because we love Him, Christ has given us the gift of the Holy Spirit, who He says that the world cannot accept either. Therefore, our trajectory as Temples of the Holy Spirit is persecution. There is no way around it.
In this life, our only help from God, who just happens to come to us at every Divine Symphony. Certainly, it would have been enough to share with us the same Spirit that dwells with Him, but just as good and natural human love reaches to the far limits of its natural capacity to make its love known, so much more does the author of love reach into a divine and fathomless capacity to share with us the fullness of Himself, to make to make it known to us – always – that in our life He has a deep and abiding interest and love. More than that, the reception of the Holy Eucharist by the Baptized in whom the Holy Spirit dwells, is a sign and a grace that we are called and empowered to partake and participate in their joint mission to bring all of God’s children to the fullness of knowledge and truth. This is why He says, “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you.” On that day, is every Catholic Mass.
This is just one way how the readings at Mass this Sunday connect to the liturgy and how the liturgy is forming us how to live our lives in the world. Be in the world what you have received through the liturgy.
