First Reading: Acts 22:30; 23:6-11
Psalm: Ps 16:1-2a & 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11
Keep me safe, O God, you are my hope.
Gospel: Jn 17:20-26
Thu: Easter Weekday/ Marcellinus and Peter, mts
Acts 22: 30; 23: 6-11/ Ps 16: 1-2a and 5. 7-8. 9-10. 11/ Jn 17: 20-26
1st Reading: Acts 22:30; 23:6-11
The next day, the commander wanted to know for certain, the charges the Jews were making against Paul. So, he released him from prison and called together the High Priest and the whole Council; and they brought Paul down and made him stand before them.
Paul knew, that part of the Council were Sadducees and others Pharisees; so he spoke out in the Council, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, son of a Pharisee. It is for the hope in the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial here.”
At these words, an argument broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the whole assembly was divided. For the Sadducees claim that, there is neither resurrection, nor angels nor spirits; while the Pharisees acknowledge all these things.
Then, the shouting grew louder; and some teachers of the law of the Pharisee party protested, “We find nothing wrong with this man. Maybe a spirit or an angel has spoken to him.”
With this, the argument became so violent that the commander feared that Paul would be torn to pieces by them. He, therefore, ordered the soldiers to go down and rescue him from their midst, and take him back to the fortress.
That night, the Lord stood by Paul and said, “Courage! As you have borne witness to me here, in Jerusalem, so must you do in Rome.”
Responsorial Psalm; Ps 16:1-2a & 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11
Keep me safe, O God, you are my hope.
Gospel: Jn 17:20-26
I pray not only for these, but also for those who through their word will believe in me. May they all be one, as you Father are in me and I am in you. May they be one in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
I have given them the glory you have given me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. Thusthey shall reach perfection in unity; and the world shall know that you have sent me, and that I have loved them, just as you loved me.
Father, since you have given them to me, I want them to be with me where I am, and see the glory you gave me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world.
Righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you, and these have known that you have sent me. As I revealed your name to them, so will I continue to reveal it, so that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I also may be in them.”
Reflection:
Failing Christ’s Prayer
“May they all be one as we are one.” Jesus prayed for the unity of all believers. Not just a simple unity, but a unity patterned after that of the Father and Jesus themselves! Further, he hoped that it would be by this unity that the world would believe in him. Even after 2,000 years, unity of all believers is still a dream. Have we miserably failed Christ’s desire? It is high time we brought ecumenical unity out of a nominal weeklong concern in the month of January and made it a daily central project. As Cardinal Walter Kasper reminds us, ecumenism is the new Pentecost that is waiting to happen, if only we work towards it! Not a unity as we prefer, but a “unity as God wills, when he wills, and by whatever means he wills,” as famously prayed Fr. Paul Couturier, one of the initial protagonists of the ecumenical movement. Let us not fail Christ’s prayer.