Love triumphant

Cycle C - Easter 5

FIRST READING: Acts 14: 21-27. Paul and Barnabas returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they believed. Then they passed through Pisidia, and came to Pamphylia. And when they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia; and from there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work which they had fulfilled. And when they arrived, they gathered the church together and declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.

SECOND READING: Revelation: 21: 1-5. I, John, saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; and I heard a great voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them, he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.’ And he who sat upon the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new.’

GOSPEL: John 13:31-35. When Judas had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now is the Son of Man glorified, and in him God is glorified; if God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’

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Paul is more than happy to be able to preach and make Christians from amongst the so-called gentiles. He seems to have felt exhilarated, especially during his first missionary voyage, by the experience of breaking the news of Jesus’ community to them. He seems to have been excited as much as invigorated by the universal nature of the Word and of God’s plan for humankind.

John also rejoices in the worldwide dimension of the Christian message and God’s grace. However, unlike that of Paul, his audience had by then unfortunately gone through very difficult and trying times of persecution. His language, thus, typical of the type of literature he was writing, communicates delight and celebration as much as consolation. The community of love, though going through tough times, will ultimately be triumphant. Indeed, injustice will not bring an end to God’s plan of universal justice and happiness.

During the last supper, Jesus conveys this same belief. God is given glory by love, and in no other way. And the glory of God will always be present in the world no matter how arduous and gruelling the ways of human wickedness may become.

The victorious community

Cycle C – Easter 4

FIRST READING: Acts 13:14; 43-52. Paul and Barnabas passed on from Perga and came to Antioch of Pisidia. And on the sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. And many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who spoke to them and urged them to continue in the grace of God. The next sabbath almost the whole city gathered together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with jealousy, and contradicted what was spoken by Paul, and reviled him. And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, ‘I have set you to be a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the uttermost parts of the earth.’” And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of God; and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord spread throughout all the region. But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, and stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district. But they shook off the dust from their feet against them, and went to Iconium. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

SECOND READING: Revelation 7:9; 14-17. I, John, looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. And one of the elders said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation, they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. “Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night within his temple; and he who sits upon the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water; and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

GOSPEL: John 10: 27-30. Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

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During his first missionary journey, accompanied by Barnabas, Paul clashed with the Jews at Antioch (today’s Yalvaç) in the region of Pisidia in Asia Minor (today’s Antalya in Turkey). They were jealous of his success amongst the Gentiles because they saw in it a waning of their own power. They thus stirred up the established class to persecute him and force him to stop destabilising the status quo. (Though Paul moved eastward to Iconium, today’s Konya, in the region of Lycaonia, a large Christian community was nevertheless established at Antioch.) Paul’s destabilising message basically consisted in disrupting the oppressive hierarchical structures which the Jews upheld in the name of the Mosaic law. Seeing the deployment of the common people into a community of equals agonized the Jews profoundly, as it still does today anyone who wields power over the masses.

John, conveying his message in visionary terms, strikes the same note. He beholds all people as equal before God. Not only, his multitude—those persecution under Nero (54-68) and also all who suffered and continue to suffer persecutions and injustices for the sake of justice and peace—is victorious (indicated by palm branches). Ultimately, the oppressors never hold out.

Power in the hands of oppressors is illusionary and transitory. Jesus says as much while using a current political term—‘shepherd’—which was a title commonly used for the King or ruler of the people in ancient Mesopotamia and also in Israel (see Jer. 2:8; 3:15; Ez. 34: 2-21) and also for God himself (Gen. 48:15; Ps. 28:9 etc.). It is Jesus and his community who wield real and permanent power. It is they who guarantee life and safety. They are the victorious over all the false models of power.