Wednesday in the Fifth Week of Easter, May 21, 2025

John 15, 1-8

Jesus said to his disciples: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”

Jesus states here that he does not want mere followers, as other leaders have followers; he wants “adherents”, that is, people who adhere to him and draw their life from his, for whom separation from him means something worse than physical death.  A “follower” is one who listens to a person and agrees with what that person says.  A follower may drift away and come back again, or even decide on the limits of following.  A follower may be a close follower or a distant one; he may imitate the leader’s behavior, or not.  But a human leader cannot give life to anyone, and if he asserts, as Jesus does, that “without me you can do nothing”, we would, if we were sane, consider him to be insane.  There were certainly those among the Lord’s hearers who considered him insane or possessed by the devil.  But those who listened to him and saw the works he performed believed or came to believe that he is God, and that therefore he can and must be able to say, “I am the true vine.”

When God created the heavens and the earth, he looked upon what he had made and he “saw that it was good” (cf. Genesis 1, 12).  All the good and beautiful things that God made, from the humblest to the grandest, is a sign of him and of his power.  The grapevine is such a sign.  Now, it is necessary to keep in mind that it is a sign of God, and that God is not a sign of it. Jesus says that he is the “true vine”.  Any other “vine”, therefore, resembles the true vine to some degree.  To call something else a vine is a mere equivocation, and a convenience for us.  So, as an earthly plant which we call a “vine” gives life to its branches, much more so does Christ give life to his members, his “branches”.  Now, we are not physically joined to Christ as the branches of an earthly vine are joined to it.  Our joining is much more substantial.  It is a spiritual reality.  How then can we tell that we are members of Christ?  The Lord says that because we belong to him we bear “much fruit”.  Our very fruitfulness shows that we belong to him.  And the fruitfulness of which he speaks is particularly evident in the form of those to whom we transmit the Faith.  That is to say, through our good example, our good works, and our words of preaching, prudently delivered, the life of Christ is extended to new members.  We cannot be fruitful on our own but it comes from Jesus and the grace he provides.  This fruitfulness is not just a sign of our belonging to him, as though it were a medal of commendation, but is necessary for our own continued life in him.  If we receive his life but do not let it flow from us into others — if we bottle it up, as it were, out of fear or sloth — we will die.  The Father, the Owner of the Vine, “takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit,” Jesus warns us.

We are not left alone with the work of fruitfulness, however.  The Father “prunes” the branches that belong to his Son’s Body.  We see what this means when he hear Jesus tell his Apostles, “You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.”  That is, Jesus has spoken to them, taught them, instructed them away from the crowds, answered their questions, shown them miracles close up, and they, for their part, have given up everything for the sake of his word, and suffered on account of it.  Their privations, the penitential lives they lead, free them to think deeply on what they have seen and heard, and to live the Lord’s word.  Fruitfulness is not labor for them; it is natural.  And at the end of time, we who are fruitful branches will be raised into heaven where our Vine already dwells.

Tuesday in the Fifth Week of Easter, May 20, 2025

John 14, 27-31

Jesus said to his disciples: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. You heard me tell you, ‘I am going away and I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe. I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me, but the world must know that I love the Father and that I do just as the Father has commanded me.

Today’s Gospel Reading is taken from the Lord’s sermon to his Apostles during the Last Supper.

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.”  Jesus declares with these words that he possesses peace, for he can bestow it on whomever he wills.  The idea of “giving peace” was not entirely foreign to humanity at the time, for one person could console another, easing the burden of their sorrow and giving them a certain peace.  But this “peace” must be defined as a lack of turmoil, a lack of harsh emotion, rather than a positive good.  And this is what the peace of Jesus is — a positive good.  It does not merely take a bad thing from someone, it gives them a good thing.  It is life-giving and nourishing.  That is why Jesus adds, by way of clarification: “Not as the world gives do I give it to you.”  His peace is a supernatural gift affecting one’s very soul.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.”  Literally, according to the Greek: “or shrunken”, as though the life were squeezed out of them.  Jesus here refers to the time from his Death until his Resurrection and appearance to them.  It also refers to the time after his Ascension when they will see him no more on earth.

“If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father.”  Jesus has been preparing the Apostles for his Death and he teaches them not to look at death as a catastrophic end but as a means of going to the Father.  Those whose faith is great rejoice when the faithful die for they are attaining their heart’s most fervent desire, eternal bliss in heaven, even while mourning the temporary separation.  “For the Father is greater than I.”  The Father and Son are equal in power and majesty but the Father is the origin of the Son from all eternity and in that sense he is “greater” than the Son.  Jesus is impressing upon them how much he longs to be with his Father and how joyous he was with him before he “emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as a man” (Philippians 2, 7).  

“I have told you this before it happens.” This is to reassure them that when he ascends into heaven he will return to the Father.  They will remember his words and their faith will be strengthened, preparing them to receive the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

“I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world is coming.”  That is, the devil, who will attack him in a few hours through evil men.  He is called “the ruler of the world” because the people of the world have chosen to serve him by pursuing worldly goods rather than serving God.

“He has no power over me.”  Nor does the devil have power over the faithful — unless they give it to him.  “But the world must know that I love the Father and that I do just as the Father has commanded me.”  The world learns how much the Son loves the Father through his obedience to him “unto death, even to the death of the cross” (Philippians 2, 8).

Let us pray for the peace which Christ alone can give us and which will be ours in our obedience to God’s holy will.

Monday in the Fifth Week of Easter, May 19, 2025

John 14, 21-26

Jesus said to his disciples: “Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.” Judas, not the Iscariot, said to him, “Master, then what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me. I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name he will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.”

It happens more than once in the Gospel of St. John that someone asks a question and the answer Jesus gives does not seem to address it at all.  This is the case here.  St. Jude asks a perfectly good and straightforward question: “Master, then what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?”  To this, Jesus responds, “Whoever loves me will keep my word.”  How does this answer the question?

Jesus answers Jude’s question while continuing the theme upon which he has embarked, speaking of his relation to the Father.  The answer is an indirect one and Jude will only understand the answer when the Holy Spirit comes upon him at Pentecost.  Jesus is telling him that “my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.”  That is, Jesus will reveal himself to the world, and he will do so through his Apostles and their successors.  Jesus does not intend to fly about through the wide world making stops in the various cultural centers in order to preach, and he will not be born again elsewhere as he was in Bethlehem.  The Apostles themselves are to carry him.  That they will be able to do this effectively Jesus makes clear in speaking of the coming of the Holy Spirit: “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name he will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.”

We see here how someone can ask Jesus for one thing and then be given something quite unexpected instead.  As St. Paul tells us, “we do not know how to pray as we ought” (Romans 8, 26), but God answers the need we do not know how to express and does not overwhelm us with what we expect but which will not help.  Jude phrases his question almost as a reproach: Master, what happened that you . . . will not reveal yourself to the world?  He seems to have his own ideas for how the Lord is to do this.   The Lord’s reply must have bothered him like a pebble in a shoe until he finally understood.

You and I are also called to this work of revealing Jesus to the world.  By obeying his commandments, the Father and the Son will make us their dwelling as surely as when the Son was made flesh and swelled among us on earth.  And with the impetus and power of the Holy Spirit we will bear witness to the Son in all that we say and do.  This is the work and the privilege of the believer.

The Fifth Sunday of Easter, May 19, 2025

Revelation 21, 1–5

Then I, John, saw a new heaven and a new earth. The former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will always be with them as their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, for the old order has passed away.”  The One who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.”

The final two chapters of the Book of Revelation draw back the curtain on the destiny of the saints at the end of time.  The second reading for today’s Mass is taken from the first five verses of this final section.  The previous chapter shows the damnation of the wicked after their final assault on the Holy Church.   Now, the curtains of eternity are parted to reveal “a new heaven and a new earth”.  Through the Prophet Isaiah, the Lord had spoken of this: “For as the new heavens, and the new earth, which I will make to stand before me, says the Lord: so shall your seed stand, and your name” (Isaiah 66, 22).  John does not give us much in terms of description, or tell us exactly what makes what he sees a “new” heaven and a “new” earth.  He is overwhelmed with the vision and gropes for words.  But it will be a world of infinite love where God will reign.  “The former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.”  This may mean the transformation of the former heaven and former earth or their replacement altogether.  The world damaged by original sin in all its disharmonies is now gone.

“I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”  This is the Church Victorious, the Church full of the saints who persevered in their faith despite temptations and threats.  The Church is here described as a Bride, prepared for marriage with her Groom, Jesus Christ.  She has dreamt of this day throughout her life and now the moment has come at last.  She is gorgeously adorned with the good and heroic deeds of the saints.  “I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race.’ ”  The throne is where the God sits, and so it is God who speaks, telling us that he will always be with us.  The Greek word translated here as “dwelling” is, in fact, “tent”.  The verse translated literally is: “God’s tent is with men, and he will be encamped with them, and these peoples will be his, and God will be with them.”  The use of “tent” here brings to mind a line early in John’ Gospel: “And the Word became Flesh and was encamped with us” (John 1, 14), which is a literal translation as well.  It is the same verb.  The Holy Spirit thus shows quite concretely the reality of God with us.  The Son does not become man symbolically or only appear as man, but he dwelt as in a tent with us.  He came down from heaven to be like us and with us.  In a similarly concrete way he will be with us in heaven.  He will be truly among us there, not far off or invisible. And “we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3, 2).  This brings to mind a lovely verse from Proverbs in which Wisdom, understood by the Fathers as the Son of God, speaks: “My delights are to be with the children of men” (Proverbs 8, 31).  

“He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, for the old order has passed away.”  The “old order”: Because you have hearkened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree whereof I commanded you that you should not eat, cursed is the earth in your work: with labor and toil shall you eat thereof all the days of thy life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you, and you shall eat the herbs of the earth. In the sweat of your face shall you eat bread till you return to the earth out of which you were taken: for dust you are, and into dust you shall return” (Genesis 3, 17-19). 

“The One who sat on the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new.’ ”  The old order — the world wrecked by sin — has passed away, and God makes all things “new”.  This verse helps us to understand the meaning of the Lord Jesus’s words in today’s Gospel reading: “I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.” In the new order of grace, we who are baptized on Christ are able to love in a new way: as Christ has loved us.  Previous to his coming on earth, we could love each other with only a human love.  Now we can love each other with a divine love.  God makes all things — even love — new for us.  And by employing this new love, following this new commandment, the servants of God prepare themselves for life within the New Jerusalem, where “night shall be no more, and they shall not need the light of the lamp, nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God shall enlighten then. And they shall reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 22, 5). 

Saturday in the Fourth Week of Easter, May 17, 2025

John 14, 7-14

Jesus said to his disciples: “If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” Philip said to Jesus, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father. And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.”

Philip’s request, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us”, startles us in its presumption.  No human — not even Moses —  had ever seen the Father (cf. John 6, 46).  It was said of Moses that the Lord knew him “face to face” (Deuteronomy 37, 10), but when the Lord showed himself to Moses, he only allowed him to see his “back parts”, for, as God said to Moses, “You  cannot see my face: for man shall not see me, and live” (Exodus 33, 20). Moses, the man closest to God in the Old Testament, only saw the least part of God’s glory.  However, Philip’s saying  does shows a certain level of faith in that he believed that  Jesus had the power to reveal the Father to them.  

What he fails at, the presumption aside, is to recognize his (and every mortal human person’s) incapacity to “see” the Father: a blind man can tilt his head towards the sun but he will not see it.  He lacks the capacity to do so.  Jesus rebukes Philip: “How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?”  Back when he had healed the man born blind, Jesus had proclaimed, “The Father and I are one” (John 10, 20), and more than once he had used the sacred name of God to refer to himself (cf. John 8, 58).  Still, this was not “enough” for Philip, and so the Lord Jesus points him to the unprecedented miracles that only God could do: “Believe because of the works themselves.” Jesus is asking Philip, Would the Father permit me to raise the dead if I were claiming to be his Son and I were not?  The works that I do are the Father’s confirmation and seal on all that I have declared to you.

Every day we encounter people who want to see the Father, most of whom cannot put their longing into clear words.  Often their lives are lonely, twisted, and torn, and their bodies and expressions bear witness to that.  They are helpless but for us.  As members of the Body of Christ we can also be visible images of the invisible God, to the degree that we live holy lives.  It is the saint who can say, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” Thus, the words and deeds which are done through the saint by the Father, are the meat and drink the people of the world hunger and thirst for.

Friday in the Fourth Week of Easter, May 16, 2025

John 14, 1-6

Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. Where I am going you know the way.” Thomas said to him, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Nearly half of St. John’s Gospel (chapters 13-21) is of events that take place from the time of the Last Supper through the days after the Resurrection.  This makes it very different from the other three Gospels.  By way of comparison, in St. Matthew’s Gospel, the account of the Last Supper until the Death of the Lord occupies only the last two thirds of chapter 26 through chapter 27, with chapter 28 recounting the Resurrection and the Lord’s appearances.  The first three Gospel writers seem to point their Gospels directly to the Lord’s Passion, whereas John seems to point his towards the teachings Jesus presents the night before his Death.  This gives these teachings greater emphasis and greater importance.  Here, Jesus gives his last will and testament, as it were.  

Perhaps the words for today’s reading are the best known of these final teachings.  Jesus is consoling his Apostles.  Just before these words, Jesus had foretold his betrayal and dismissed Judas Iscariot.  Then Jesus began to speak of his going to a place where his Apostles could not go.  Peter, greatly alarmed, declared that he would follow him wherever he should go.  The Lord then foretells Peter’s denials.  The Apostles are shaken and confused.  Jesus reassures them, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.  You have faith in God; have faith also in me.”  What he is asking of them is as great as what God asked of Abraham almost two thousand years before.  God had told Abraham, then known as Abram, to move his family away from his clan and into a new land, which he would give to him and his heirs.  Throughout Abraham’s lifetime, God promised him that he would have a son by his wife Sarah, until this came true in their old age.  And not long afterwards, God had demanded the child back as a sacrifice, and Abraham prepared to carry out God’s will when, at the last moment, God prevented him from slaying him.  God had put Abraham in numerous impossible positions and delivered him.  Even at the time of his death, far from possessing the land in which he lived, he owned only the cave in which his wife Sarah was buried.  In spite of everything, when there seemed no rational reason to do so, Abraham persisted in his faith.  Jesus tells the Apostles that he will be betrayed by one of their number, that he will suffer Death and be buried, but that they are to persist in their faith in him nonetheless.  And this is what faith really is, to believe in God and his Providence even when there seems no reason to do so.  Otherwise, what we have is what Jesus describes in the Parable of the Sower: “And he that received the seed upon stony ground, is he that hears the word, and immediately receives it with joy. Yet it has no root in him, but is only for a time: and when there arises tribulation and persecution because of the word, he is presently scandalized” (Matthew 13, 20-21).  

In the case of the Apostles, there faith will be shaken at his arrest when they flee, but it is not broken.  They still believe in Jesus, but their faith has not matured — it has not been confirmed by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost — and they hide.  

We who truly believe that Jesus is the only Way and Truth and Life must pray constantly for the increase of our Faith so that it not be as much as shaken by the trials and persecutions of the present world, but may instead grow because of them.  

Thursday in the Fourth Week of Easter, May 15, 2025

John 13, 16-20

When Jesus had washed the disciples’ feet, he said to them: “Amen, amen, I say to you, no slave is greater than his master nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it. I am not speaking of all of you. I know those whom I have chosen. But so that the Scripture might be fulfilled, The one who ate my food has raised his heel against me. From now on I am telling you before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe that I AM. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”

“When Jesus had washed the disciples’ feet.”  The Lord Jesus, who came to fulfill the prophecies about him, here acts as a prophet himself by engaging in what scholars call a “prophetic action”.  His act of washing of the feet of the Apostles consisted of a humiliation, since only slaves performed such services, and this is in line with similar actions which God commanded the Prophets to do: Jeremiah, who was told not to marry; Hosea, who was told to marry a prostitute; and Ezekiel, who was told not to mourn when his wife died.  These frightening, humiliating actions taught some truth to the Israelites in a visceral way.  The Lord Jesus shows his Apostles more forcefully than with speech, that they must serve not just one another but all people, no matter what the cost.

“Amen, amen, I say to you, no slave is greater than his master nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him.”  Jesus compares the Apostles to slaves and messengers in order to teach the enormous distance between himself, the Son of God, and them, his creatures.  If God stoops to humble service of those whom he created and who owe their existence to him, then how much more the creatures ought to serve one another.  “If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it.”  This is not so easy to understand in our daily lives.  It means meditating regularly on our lowliness so that we come to instinctively know it, and this means not shying away from the truth, which insults our pride.  The fact is that there is more distance between God and ourselves than between the most powerful person on earth and an insect.  The Son of God dying for us can be compared to a human dying for the sake of a single bacterium.  Yet he did this out of his overwhelming love for us.  “I am not speaking of all of you.”  The Lord Jesus died even for Judas, who rejected his grace and preferred to hang himself.  We see the Lord’s love for Judas in the number of opportunities he gives him to change his mind about betraying him and even repenting after he has followed through with the betrayal.  And he shows his love for his Apostles by warning them that he is to be betrayed.  His telling them that he knows this will happen confirms his divinity for them and will console them when it happens: “I am telling you before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe that I AM.”  

“Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”  It is a continual teaching of the Lord Jesus that “whoever has seen me has seen the Father” and that “the Father and I are one”.  Here he teaches that the person who “receives” his messenger “receives” him, the Son, and thus also the Father.  The Greek word translated here as “receive” has many other meanings, including: “to take” or “to grasp” (in the physical sense), “to understand”, and “to keep”.  Substituting these for “receive” in the quotation helps us to gain the full sense of what the Lord meant.  But having explained to the Apostles their position as servants — indeed, their need to render service — the Lord Jesus reminds them of the magnitude of the service they form in spreading the Gospel.  

Sometimes the service we provide as believers in Christ and members of his Body may seem slight: a kind word or gesture delivered in a moment.  But Christ is in our words and gestures when they offer them for his sake and so they can produce an effect out of proportion to the effort we put into them, even that of the conversion of souls.