Saturday in the Second Week of Easter, April 13, 2024

John 6, 16-21

When it was evening, the disciples of Jesus went down to the sea, embarked in a boat, and went across the sea to Capernaum. It had already grown dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea was stirred up because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they began to be afraid. But he said to them, “It is I. Do not be afraid.” They wanted to take him into the boat, but the boat immediately arrived at the shore to which they were heading.

Following his feeding of the crowd, the Lord Jesus had gone up onto the mountain to avoid members of the crowd who wanted to acclaim him as their secular king.  This shows us the extent of his mercy.  He fed the crowd despite his knowing that they would persist in misunderstanding his motive for doing so and despite many of them rejecting him when he explained to them the significance of what he had done for them, telling them that he was the Bread of Life and that eating his Body and drinking his Blood would give them eternal life.  They would not have him on his own terms, only on theirs.  They would not surrender themselves to him, they wanted him to surrender himself to them, so that they might make him king of an earthly kingdom which would benefit them not at all.

“The disciples of Jesus went down to the sea, embarked in a boat, and went across the sea to Capernaum.”  Probably Jesus had told the Apostles beforehand to go on without them and that he would catch up with them later.  The acclamations of the crowd to make Jesus king would have stirred their hearts since at this time they expected the Lord to fulfill the role of Messiah as the Pharisees had laid out for them, not suspecting that the Lord’s kingdom was not of this world.  But Jesus had not welcomed these acclamations and went higher onto the mountain, perhaps into a cave or a copse of trees or bushes.

“It had already grown dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.”  That is, the Apostles waited for him until it was dark and Jesus had not joined them, so they put off into the sea.  This indicates that he instructed them to leave without him if he had not come to them by then.  That they did so is to their credit and proves their devotion to him, for others would have go on waiting anxiously, thinking that they were missing out on some great turn of events.  Embarking for Capernaum, as he told them to do, they would have expected him to rejoin them the next morning.  “The sea was stirred up because a strong wind was blowing.”  St. Matthew and St. Mark also report that the sea was rough following the feeding of the five thousand In their accounts of the miracle.

“When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they began to be afraid.”  John gives an exact distance, that of twenty-five stadia, a Roman stadia being equivalent to 600 feet.  His precise measurements and descriptions, often verified by archaeology, bolster his claim as an eyewitness of what he relates.  The distance John gives here tells us not only how far the boat went but how far Jesus walked on the choppy water to get to them.  It should be recalled that this was happening near Passover, so the moon was full, but covered by the gathering clouds.  Almost unremitting darkness would have made this a difficult time for twelve men in a fishing boat.  The text here says that when the Apostles saw Jesus walking on the water they “began” to be afraid, but that is not in the Greek, which simply says, “they were afraid” or “terrified”.  “It is I. Do not be afraid.”  We might wonder if they were terrified because they saw who it was or because they did not.  Matthew 14, 26 says that they thought what they saw was a ghost.  They would react similarly when Jesus appeared to them on Easter Sunday.  “They wanted to take him into the boat, but the boat immediately arrived at the shore to which they were heading.”  The Apostles urgently sought to bring him aboard the boat with the wind howling and the sea convulsing, but his very proximity brought them quickly to safe shores.  He comes here, to his adopted home to reveal himself as the Living Bread that came down from heaven.

The sixth article in our continuing series on the Holy Mass: The Readings

The synagogue services attended by the Jews centered around readings from the Law and the Prophets followed by discussion.  This custom moved seamlessly into the celebration of the Holy Mass in its earliest days.  Early Bibles were marked to indicate what readings were to be read on what days, and this gave way to books called lectionaries which organized these readings for easier use.  At this time, the 300’s, the number of readings was in flux, with anywhere from two to nine readings being given, including the Gospel.  Scholars believe that the arrangement of readings used today for Holy Saturday is a survivor of this earlier time.  Pope St. Gregory the Great is credited with ordering two readings, the Epistle and the Gospel.  This allowed for a complementing of readings on a specific theme.  The readings followed a one year cycle so that the same readings recur on the same days year after year, for instance, on Christmas.  This system continued until the 1960’s when the Mass was reformed.  The Vatican Council desired a wider range of readings so that the faithful would have greater exposure to more of the Scriptures and increased the number on Sundays and Solemnities to three, with a reading from the Old Testament, one from the New Testament exclusive of the Gospels, and then the Gospel reading.  The Sunday readings are now arranged in a three year cycle, with the weekday readings arranged in a two year cycle.  The readings in the current lectionary are no longer designed to complement each other, except on certain feasts, where they do not change.  From the days of the early Church an antiphon called a Gradual marked the transition from the Epistle to the Gospel. This usually incorporated a verse or two of a psalm.  With the Council, this was expanded into a full psalm or a large part of a psalm and is called the Responsorial Psalm, marking the transition from the Old Testament reading to that of the New Testament.  The purpose of the readings is to prepare the congregation for the Sacrificial part of the Mass through instruction in the Law of God and inspiration through the life of Jesus Christ.  On Sundays and often on weekdays the priest preaches a homily drawing lessons from the readings in order to assist in the instruction and inspiration.

Next: The Nicene Creed