The commentary is below the readings.
Reading 1
Acts 8:5-8, 14-17
Philip went down to the city of Samaria
and proclaimed the Christ to them.
With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip
when they heard it and saw the signs he was doing.
For unclean spirits, crying out in a loud voice,
came out of many possessed people,
and many paralyzed or crippled people were cured.
There was great joy in that city.
Now when the apostles in Jerusalem
heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God,
they sent them Peter and John,
who went down and prayed for them,
that they might receive the Holy Spirit,
for it had not yet fallen upon any of them;
they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Then they laid hands on them
and they received the Holy Spirit.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 66:1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16, 20
R. (1) Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Shout joyfully to God, all the earth,
sing praise to the glory of his name;
proclaim his glorious praise.
Say to God, "How tremendous are your deeds!"
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
"Let all on earth worship and sing praise to you,
sing praise to your name!"
Come and see the works of God,
his tremendous deeds among the children of Adam.
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
He has changed the sea into dry land;
through the river they passed on foot;
therefore let us rejoice in him.
He rules by his might forever.
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Hear now, all you who fear God, while I declare
what he has done for me.
Blessed be God who refused me not
my prayer or his kindness!
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading II
1 Pt 3:15-18
Beloved:
Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts.
Always be ready to give an explanation
to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope,
but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear,
so that, when you are maligned,
those who defame your good conduct in Christ
may themselves be put to shame.
For it is better to suffer for doing good,
if that be the will of God, than for doing evil.
For Christ also suffered for sins once,
the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous,
that he might lead you to God.
Put to death in the flesh,
he was brought to life in the Spirit.
Gospel
Jn 14:15-21
Jesus said to his disciples:
"If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
And I will ask the Father,
and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always,
the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept,
because it neither sees nor knows him.
But you know him, because he remains with you,
and will be in you.
I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
In a little while the world will no longer see me,
but you will see me, because I live and you will live.
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father
and you are in me and I in you.
Whoever has my commandments and observes them
is the one who loves me.
And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father,
and I will love him and reveal myself to him."
Gospel
In this gospel, Jesus talks about how we can love him by keeping his commandments. He also says that in keeping his commandments, we will be loved by the Father and Jesus, and that Jesus will reveal himself.
Is Jesus proposing a deal? Is he suggesting that he will only love us if we obey the rules? Absolutely not! The idea that we can earn God's love is completely wrong and is a popular misconception among Christians. God does not hate US when we sin, but in sinning, we often begin to hate ourselves. We then think that the distance growing between us and God is because God is pulling away from us. He isn't. When we sin, WE pull away from God.
Unconditional Love
The point is, God loves us no matter what- even if we don't obey the commandments! After all, Jesus was praying for the people who sinned greatly against him. "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."1 Jesus' love is not in response to how GOOD we are. It is free of charge no matter how bad we are!
When Jesus is mocked by the soldiers, he did not open his mouth. When they made fun of him and tested him while he was on the cross, he didn't tell them to "shut up!" On the contrary, Jesus' heart is broken when we sin.
God's Love Flowing Through Us
So if Jesus is not proposing a deal with us, then what does he mean by "whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I'll love him and reveal myself to him."? "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."2 God literally spoke his Word to Moses. "The gift of the commandments is the gift of God himself and his holy will. In making his will known, God reveals himself to his people."3 God is sharing himself with us through the commandments.
"In keeping the commandments, the Savior himself comes to love, in us, his Father, and our brethren."4 When God gave us the commandments, he gave us a piece of himself. When we keep the commandments, Jesus' love flows through us to our brothers, sisters, friends, family, to God the Father. In other words, the commandments allow us to participate in God's love. In following the commandments, we get to be Jesus. Is Jesus happy? I think so. If we follow the commandments, we'll be happy even if we are made to suffer. (2nd Reading).
The Invitation
The commandments are not rules here to spoil our fun. The commandments are INVITATIONS to enjoy the love of God. We need to hear that again- the commandments are INVITATIONS to enjoy the love of God. In faithfulness to the commandments, we can see who God is (God reveals himself as promised). Who is God? He is love.
Here is an example: Jesus commands us not to get divorced.4 Why? It's because Jesus is saying this: Even if you cheat on me (worship other Gods), even if you beat me up, and even if you are ashamed to say you know me5, I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU!
Jesus will never divorce us, so he doesn't want us to divorce each other. If we listen to this, we get to love like Jesus does (unconditionally). Can you see that Jesus' commandments are invitations to LOVE LIKE HE DOES? If so, you and I need to act like we believe it and live the commandments every day!
2nd Reading
The author says that we should "always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope." As Christians, our hope is God. The author of this reading goes on to say that we should "keep our consciences clear." In this week's gospel, Jesus tells us HOW to keep our consciences clear. All we need to do is follow his commandments and our consciences will be quite clear.
When we follow his commandments, God reveals himself to us. So, how can we give an explanation of our reason for hope? We must first obey the commandments. After all, how can we tell someone about God if we don't even know him? The less we obey, the less we know him. How can we share God's loving commandments with someone if we don't obey the commandments ourselves? We can't. You can't give someone something that you don't have. We can't explain our reason for hope, if we don't follow the commandments.
Empty-Handed
Let's look at what happens when we try to tell someone about God while disobeying the commandments. I know lots of people who were once Christians and have since left. But why did these brothers and sisters of ours leave the church? My ex-Christian friends have told me:
- One friend left (or stopped going to church) because a priest was very mean to her.
- One left Christianity because some so-called "Christians" told her that she should forget about her non-Christian parents because they are going to hell.6
- One left partly because his dad claimed to believe in Christ and yet he was convicted of a felony and went to prison (leaving the family with little hope)
This reading says that if we want to tell someone about our "reason for hope" we must "keep our consciences clear." In other words, it is impossible to bring others closer to Christ if we ourselves are far from him.
Missionaries
Someone recently told me that my job as a missionary,7 "was not the path for her". Well guess what? Everybody is a full-time missionary whether they know it or not! Either our faithfulness to God is drawing others to God, or our lack of faithfulness, is driving others AWAY from God. That means we are either missionaries for God, or missionaries for the Devil! When we obey God, we are missionaries for him. When we disobey God, we are missionaries for the devil. Just look at the above examples of how sinfulness drives others away from God.
Have our actions (whether good or bad) ever influenced our friends? I think it would be better if we keep our consciences clear.
What God Wants
Many people tell me that they feel like they wanna do something else for God besides going to work and Church, and occasionally doing charitable work or donating. It is good to have this desire. More important than this desire to do extra stuff, is that we understand that God wants us to first OBEY HIS COMMANDMENTS.
If we obey his commandments, we shall participate in his incredible, unconditional love. We shall get to know God better. If we truly try to obey his commandments, we will be so happy, fulfilled, and excited about God that nothing will be able to stop us from figuring out what else God wants us to do with our time. God will shows us very clearly what he wants us to do besides work, church, and occasional charity.
First things, first. We must accept the invitation to love and obey his commandments.
The Point
- God wants us to obey the commandments. Even if we sin and disobey the commandments, he still loves us.
- The commandments are commandments to love one another. So, a look at the commandments is a glance at how God loves us.
- When we obey the commandments, God and his love flows through us.
- Each commandment is an invitation and an opportunity to love the way God loves- unconditionally
- God wants us to share him and his love with everyone. We can ONLY do this if we first OBEY his commandments
- If we try to evangelize while disobeying the commandments, we will drive others from God and the Devil will use us to evangelize for THE DEVIL.
- We are missionaries. EVERYTHING that we do, is either bringing others to God or driving them away from God.
- If we want to do something for God, we must obey his commandments.
Real Life
One of my friend's friends killed himself during high school. In his suicide letter, he said that if just one person would have smiled at him or spoken to him on the day of his impending suicide, he wouldn't have done it. Never underestimate the power of a loving smile and the power of empathizing.
There was a boy who was going home from school one day when some fellow classmates knocked the books out of his hands. As he was picking up his books, another classmate came to help him. Soon thereafter, they became good friends. At graduation, the boy who had his books knocked out of his hands gave a speech. In his speech, he talked about what a great friend he had. This friend came to help him one day when some bullies knocked his books out of his hands. He went on to say that the reason he was carrying so many books that day was because he had planned to kill himself that day. He had cleaned out his locker because he didn't want to burden his family with the cleanup after his death. His loving friend unknowingly saved the boy's life.8
Jesus said, "I give you another command, love one another."
------------------------------
1 Luke 23:34
2 John 1:1
3 Catechism of the Catholic Church 2059 & related to Ephesians 1:9-11
4 Mark 10:11-12
5 Peter was ashamed of being associated with Jesus in Matthew 26:69-75
6 This is my opinion of why she left the church. My friend might not agree with me
7 She said that "what you are doing is not the path for me"
8 This is how I remember the story, though I probably screwed up some parts
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