Thursday in the Fourth Week of Easter
DAILY GOSPEL COMMENTARY: NO SLAVE IS GREATER THAN HIS MASTER (Jn 13:16).”
READING I
Acts 13:13–25
From Paphos, Paul and his companions set sail and arrived at Perga in Pamphylia. But John left them and returned to Jerusalem. They continued on from Perga and reached Antioch in Pisidia. On the sabbath they entered into the synagogue and took their seats. After the reading of the law and the prophets, the synagogue officials sent word to them, “My brothers, if one of you has a word of exhortation for the people, please speak.”
So Paul got up, motioned with his hand, and said, “Fellow children of Israel and you others who are God-fearing, listen. The God of this people Israel chose our ancestors and exalted the people during their sojourn in the land of Egypt. With uplifted arm he led them out, and for about forty years he put up with them in the desert. When he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance at the end of about four hundred and fifty years. After these things he provided judges up to Samuel the prophet. Then they asked for a king. God gave them Saul, son of Kish, a man from the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. Then he removed him and raised up David as their king; of him he testified, I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will carry out my every wish. From this man’s descendants God, according to his promise, has brought to Israel a savior, Jesus. John heralded his coming by proclaiming a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel; and as John was completing his course, he would say, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. Behold, one is coming after me; I am not worthy to unfasten the sandals of his feet.’”
RESPONSORIAL PSALM
R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
Or: Alleluia.
The favors of the Lord I will sing forever;
through all generations my mouth shall proclaim your faithfulness.
For you have said, “My kindness is established forever”;
in heaven you have confirmed your faithfulness.
R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
Or: Alleluia.
“I have found David, my servant;
with my holy oil I have anointed him,
That my hand may be always with him,
and that my arm may make him strong.”
R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
Or: Alleluia.
“My faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him,
and through my name shall his horn be exalted.
He shall say of me, ‘You are my father,
my God, the Rock, my savior.’”
R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
Or: Alleluia.
ALLELUIA
Jesus Christ, you are the faithful witness, firstborn from the dead; you have loved us and washed away our sins in your blood.
GOSPEL
Jn 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.”
GOSPEL COMMENTARY
from the Navarre Bible, Gospel of St. John (with permission)
- 15-17 Jesus’ whole life was an example of service towards men, fulfilling his Father’s will to the point of dying on the Cross.
- Here our Lord promises us that if we imitate him, our Teacher, in disinterested service (which always implies sacrifice), we will find true happiness which no one can wrest from us (cf. 16:22; 17:13).
- “‘I have given you an example’, he tells his disciples after washing their feet, on the night of the Last Supper. Let us reject from our hearts any pride, any ambition, any desire to dominate; and peace and joy will reign around us and within us, as a consequence of our personal sacrifice” (St. Josemaria, Christ is passing by, 94).
- 18 Lifting one’s heel against someone means hitting him brutally; metaphorically, therefore, it means violent enmity. Judas’ treachery fulfils the words of Ps 4 1:10 where the psalmist complains bitterly of a friend’s treachery. Once again the Old Testament prefigures events which find their full expression in the New.
- Through Baptism, the Christian has become a son of God and is called to share in God’s good things, not only in heaven but also on earth: he has received grace, he shares in the eucharistic Banquet…, he shares with his brethren, other Christians, the friendship of Jesus. Therefore, if a person sins who has been born again through Baptism, in some sense his is a sort of treachery similar to Judas’. However, we have the recourse of repentance: if we trust in God’s mercy we can set about recovering our friendship with God.
- “React. Listen to what the Holy Spirit tells you: ‘Si inimicus meus maledixisset mihi, sustinuissem utique’. If it were an enemy who insulted me, I could put up with that. But you … ‘tu, vero homo unanimis, dux meus, et notus meus, qui simul mecum dulces capiebas cibos: you, my friend, my apostle, who sit at my table and take sweet food with me!” (St. Josemaria, The Way, 244).
- 19 Jesus tells the Apostles in advance about Judas’ treachery, so that when they see Christ’s predictions come true, they will realize he has divine knowledge and that in him are fulfilled the Scriptures of the Old Testament (cf. Jn 2:22).
VIDEO REFLECTION TOPIC: DO YOU BECOME HOLY AS YOU SERVE GOD?
Today’s gospel reading speaks to us about two things: humility and the right way to serve God.
The gospel brings us back to Jesus’ washing of the feet of the apostles before He is led to His His great sacrifice on the cross. He models the kind of sacrificial service that He wants His apostles to give.
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