4th SUNDAY OF EASTER
ACTS 13:14 and 43-52
As they (Paul and Barnabas) departed from Perga, they came to Pisidian Antioch. On the Sabbath day, they entered the synagogue and sat down.
When the synagogue broke up, 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 to hear the word of God. When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what Paul was saying, reviling him.
Then Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you reject it and judge yourselves to be unworthy of eternal life, we are now turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”
When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord; and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
And the word of the Lord spread throughout the region. But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from 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.
We continue reading “the gospel of the Church” according to Luke. The Church is beginning to be missionary. Paul and Barnabas go to Antioch (of Pisidia) as envoys (apostles) of the church of Antioch (of the Orontes).
Their preaching is directed first to the Jews, in the synagogue. In a long discourse, they proclaim that in Jesus the promise has been fulfilled, that Jesus is the culmination of the entire Old Testament, and they exhort the Jewish community to accept him. Well received at first, they are rejected and expelled by the leaders, who drag everyone along. Consequently, the preaching is directed to the Gentiles, who receive the word of God better than the Jews.
The eucharistic reading has omitted Paul’s speech in the synagogue. It is interesting because it undoubtedly shows the content of the first preaching to the synagogues of Asia and shows the primitive faith: Jesus is the Messiah, the culmination of all that was promised and expected by the Old Testament.
The selection of Acts texts we read on these Sundays cannot give us an idea of the message of the book. The liturgical system means that we only know decontextualized fragments.
However, it would be very useful for us to know this book of Luke well, because in it is preserved the first TRADITION, the faith and the way of life of the witnesses, those who knew Jesus.
REVELATION 7:9 and 14b-17
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.
Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?”
I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; 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.”
It is a vision of the final triumph, the success of God in his children, the entire humanity. In the context of the symbolic description of the Celestial Jerusalem, those who have suffered for the name of Christ, “those coming out of the great tribulation” and have shed their blood for Christ, are especially pointed out. They are presented as fortunate, described as favorites of Jesus, happy forever.
The Church is already suffering severe persecutions. That is why the Apocalypse aims to lift the faith of Christians by making them see the value and meaning of suffering and showing them, symbolically, the final success.
José Enrique Galarreta, S.J.