Catholic lectionary for 7 May 2008

King James Version (en)

Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 20, verses 28-38

²⁸ committeth God's flock to them, ²⁹ warneth them of false teachers, ³² commendeth them to God, ³⁶ prayeth with them, and goeth his way

²⁸Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

²⁹For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.

³⁰Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.

³¹Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.

³²And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.

³³I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel.

³⁴Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me.

³⁵I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

³⁶And when he had thus spoken, he kneeled down, and prayed with them all.

³⁷And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck, and kissed him,

³⁸Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him unto the ship.

John, Chapter 17, verses 11-19

¹¹ in unity, ¹⁷ and truth

¹¹And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.

¹²While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.

¹³And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

¹⁴I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

¹⁵I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

¹⁶They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

¹⁷Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

¹⁸As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

¹⁹And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.

NOTES

The prayer Jesus offers for His disciples sums up everything said during the Last Supper. It is usually called the prayer for unity, and one can undoubtedly agree with this. Yet it concerns not only outward unity. Jesus again asks the Father to preserve between Him and His disciples the same union that He has with the Father (vv. 21-23). Apparently no testimony is possible without such unity; without it the world will not believe that the apostles truly were sent into the world by the Savior Himself.

Yet bearing witness to the Kingdom and revealing the Kingdom to the world are precisely the chief task of those who are sent. Addressing the Father, Jesus in a sense hands over to the apostles the mission the Father entrusted to Him, while entrusting the apostles themselves to the Father. He says: I have given the life of the Kingdom that You gave Me to everyone who wished to receive it; I have accomplished everything You entrusted to Me (vv. 1-5). I revealed Myself, You, and Your Kingdom to those whom You sent Me, and they accepted everything (vv. 6-8). And now, Jesus says, I am leaving while they remain, and I pray for them, for those who belong to You (vv. 9-11).

Such a request was entirely natural, for the apostles were now becoming witnesses to the Kingdom about which Jesus had previously spoken to the world, and the apostolic community was to become the nucleus of the Church. Previously Jesus Himself had kept His disciples safe in a world hostile to them. Now, as He goes to the Father, He asks the Father to help the apostles preserve the joy of the Kingdom that they knew during the Savior's earthly ministry (vv. 12-13). This does not mean removing the apostles from the world to some other, special reality. The Kingdom had to be revealed here, not somewhere on another planet or in another dimension (vv. 14-16). But to reveal it, the apostolic community had to be sanctified by receiving the fullness of God's living revelation, which the Savior Himself embodied (v. 17). Only then could the apostles become witnesses to the Kingdom and their community the nucleus of the Church, whose very purpose would be to preserve the Kingdom in our still not fully transformed world and bear witness to it. This nucleus would grow, and the Church would expand, including everyone who sought the Kingdom and eternal life (vv. 18-21).

Today we read a passage from the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ, which He offered during His final conversation with the disciples. It was largely on the words of this prayer that the fathers of the First Ecumenical Council based their faith and ours in the consubstantiality of the Father and the Son. The Lord speaks of His glory, which He had before the world existed, that is, from eternity. Therefore, the fathers of the Council argued, the Arians are wrong to think that the Son is lower than the Father, that He is a creature. Addressing the Father with the words "all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine," the Lord speaks of the fullness of His authority, and this too serves as an argument for our faith in the equality and equal honor of the Father and the Son.

It would seem that after seventeen centuries the dispute that then shook the Church has become the property of history. But in the true doctrine formulated at the Council, in the victory of Nicene theology, we see the fulfillment of Christ's promise that the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church. In addition, in our time various near-Christian sects include people with Arian tendencies, so the acts of the fathers of the First Council have by no means lost their relevance.

In the Gospel passage itself, the most important words for us are perhaps Christ's words about what eternal life is. Because of historical circumstances, we have become accustomed to an idea of eternal life that comes from Hellenic mythology. In European culture we imagine paradise as a place where the souls of the dead enjoy bliss among flowers and innocent pleasures. And little cupids fly about... This sanatorium of the Olympian gods is a pleasant picture for a vacation, but to be stuck there forever would be endlessly boring.

This picture is completely foreign to the Bible, including the New Testament. The Lord Jesus Christ formulates the essence of eternal life this way: "And this is eternal life, that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." To know God: this is the chief condition of life. To know Christ: this is what transfigures any existence, even the most miserable, building paradise out of it. That is why half-starved hermits freezing in the forests of Northern Rus' or languishing from heat in the deserts of Egypt are already in paradise, living eternal life. That is why eternal life is available to everyone who knows God and does His will. It is fundamentally important that the eternal life of which Christ speaks is open to us right now, not sometime later, after death.

We all know that Jesus came into this world and became human. And that means the Lord came to know all the weaknesses of our bodily existence; He experienced for Himself what it is to thirst and hunger, to freeze and languish from heat, to suffer and to take pleasure in tasty food. And all this was so that...

FAQ

Most Christians consider it appropriate to maintain political neutrality, refrain from serving in the army (substituting service with various forms of alternative labor provided by law in such cases), etc., based on Jesus' statement, «I am not of the world» (John 17:16). However, they also consider it necessary to pay taxes, etc., remaining law-abiding citizens, although, in my opinion, this contradicts the meaning of «I am not of the world,» which, it seems to me, should be absolute in nature. How would you comment on this?

The issue of the relationship between Christians and secular authorities or secular institutions is highly complex, and has been resolved differently at different times and in different churches. The Gospel does not provide explicit directives on this matter, but in all cases the key to making a decision for Christians lies in the words of Jesus...

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