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Our Scriptures describe the miracle and mystery of our Lord's dying and rising in many and varied ways. As Peter's sermon about Jesus on that first Pentecost was addressed in Jerusalem to an international gathering of Jews, all highly conscious of their Jewish identity, he sets him within the larger framework of Jewish history. Just as the living God had guided their history, so he directed the life, death and resurrection of his chosen Messiah. The act of divine power that raised Jesus from the dead was already predicted in an inspired psalm of king David, a thousand years earlier. In Peter's view, David's vision of a life victorious over death applied directly to Jesus, to whose resurrection "all of us are witnesses."

Where does St. Matthew get his story about the guards at the tomb, who were bribed to claim that Jesus' followers had come to steal his body? Probably from the fact that such a claim was being made, in his vicinity, by enemies of the christian movement. Matthew may well have invented a suitable rejoinder to that slanderous claim. At any rate his unusual account draws attention to the very varied ways whereby the Evangelists give expression to the almost inexpressible - the mystery of One who had passed beyond death, and was still a vital presence among his faithful followers.

But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, "Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say.

"You that are Israelites, listen to what I have to say: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know - this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law. But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power.

For David says concerning him, 'I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand so that I will not be shaken; therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; moreover my flesh will live in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One experience corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life;you will make me full of gladness with your presence.'

"Fellow Israelites, I may say to you confidently of our ancestor David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Since he was a prophet, he knew that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would put one of his descendants on his throne. Foreseeing this, David spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, saying, 'He was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh experience corruption.'

This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you both see and hear.

So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, "Greetings!" And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshipped him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me."

While they were going, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests everything that had happened. After the priests had assembled with the elders, they devised a plan to give a large sum of money to the soldiers, telling them, "You must say, 'His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.' If this comes to the governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble." So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story is still told among the Jews to this day.

The fascination of the Easter story is largely due to the sense of gradual recognition of the risen Jesus, by those who were his closest friends and followers. John's vivid account of Magdalene challenging the gardener to hand back the body of Jesus conveys some sense of their  stupor and confusion. At first, all they hoped for was to be able to show honour to Christ's mortal remains. But then, when he calls Mary by her name (probably Miriam, its Hebrew form), she makes the joyful leap of recognition. He is truly there, alive!

What is also very interesting is their eagerness to tell each other about him, to share their religious experience. "Go and tell" is a recurring theme in these Easter episodes. Magdalene will tell the rest of the group, not just that he is alive, but that he is going back to the Father, his Father - with whom he enjoys a more intimate union than can any other human being. The uniquely special relationship conveyed by the phrase "my Father and your Father" is part of what Mary Magdalene recognises and passes on.

Then we have Peter, the church's first official public witness, trying to help his people as a whole to recognise Jesus as their Messiah and saviour - even those who had called for his death and supported his crucifixion. The kind of Messiah that they had come to know was one intent on calling everyone to be saved, having first had their sins forgiven. All they need do, in order to draw close to God, is turn to Jesus with faith, express this conversion through being baptised, and receive an outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified."

Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, "Brothers, what should we do?" Peter said to them, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him." And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added.

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni!" (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, "Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord;" and she told them that he had said these things to her.

The Emmaus story offers a paradigm for disciples of every age: if we travel the journey with each other, sharing our faith in Christ, he will be with us, to open our minds to the truth. Just as he brought them to deeper understanding, so he does for all who listen to him. His promise remains, "I am with you, always!"

In those early years they also had many proofs of his powerful presence, as the Acts of the Apostles illustrates by various miracle stories. Today's is told with great satisfaction, emphasising Peter's dramatic healing powers when he called on Jesus' name. Not only is the crippled man cured, he jumps up, begins to walk about, and then enters the temple with them, "leaping and praising God." The people's awe and amazement allows Peter to explain the source of his healing gift: he has it from the risen Christ, now more powerfully effective than even during his mortal life.

One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, at three o'clock in the afternoon. And a man lame from birth was being carried in. People would lay him daily at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate so that he could ask for alms from those entering the temple. When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked them for alms. Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, "Look at us." And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, "I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk." And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. Jumping up, he stood and began to walk, and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. All the people saw him walking and praising God, and they recognized him as the one who used to sit and ask for alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, "What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?" They stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, "Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?" He asked them, "What things?" They replied, "The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him." Then he said to them, "Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?" Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.

As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. But they urged him strongly, saying, "Stay with us, becase it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over." So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?" That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying, "The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!" Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

Peter calls out his convictions that Jesus was the fulfilment of all that the Jews had hoped for centuries past: "All the prophets have announced the events of these days." He was just echoing what Jesus himself had said on the evening of Easter day, "Everything written about me in Moses and the prophets had to be fulfilled."

The underlying belief is that God's plans and predictions are thoroughly enmeshed in human existence, and are being carried out in the long sweep of history. Generations of people have found their hopes sustained, their trials overcome, their laws and habits purified, under the influence of God's prompting Spirit. We in turn ought to become witnesses to this, to our generation.

Peter went on to say that the people acted "out of ignorance." It is perhaps easier for us to admit that our lives are guided by divine providence than to accept that this providence can include such unliekly features as ignorance and malice. But in actual fact, ignorance has to be dealt with, not ignored. God will not condemn us for what we never intended to do. He asks us to be peaceful in the face of many events that are outside of our control. The Scriptures tell us that the redemption of the world by Jesus was achieved in spite of the ignorant and impulsive actions of those who rejected him. God can indeed write straight, even with crooked lines!

While he clung to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the portico called Solomon's Portico, utterly astonished. When Peter saw it, he addressed the people, "You Israelites, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our ancestors has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know; and the faith that is through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you.

"And now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. In this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer. Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah appointed for you, that is, Jesus, who must remain in heaven until the time of universal restoration that God announced long ago through his holy prophets. Moses said, 'The Lord your God will raise up for you from your own people a prophet like me. You must listen to whatever he tells you. And it will be that everyone who does not listen to that prophet will be utterly rooted out of the people.' And all the prophets, as many as have spoken, from Samuel and those after him, also predicted these days. You are the descendants of the prophets and of the covenant that God gave to your ancestors, saying to Abraham, 'And in your descendants all the families of the earth shall be blessed.' When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you, to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways."

The disciples told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, "Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?" They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence.

Then he said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you - that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."

The apostles went back to where they started, to Galilee, where they continued their work as fishermen. But their lives had been transformed by their contact with Jesus, and when they met him by the lakeshore, they recognised him, hauled in the net at his advice, and heard his guidance for their future, building on the past.

Many traits of a person's earlier life contribute now to his or her apostolate. These apostles must now go out as fishers of men. Peter's special trait as an impulsive, generous leader, is now taken up by Jesus, to make him shepherd of the whole church. He may have denied our Lord in the panic of the Passion, but his heart is loyal, and his personal experience of weakness makes him all the more suited to lead a church of sinners, on the way towards sainthood. Aspects of our own past, too, which we may tend to dismiss as trivial, can be turned by God into pillars of our future career. "The stone which the builders rejected" is made into the cornerstone.

So too, just as the disciples returned to their native district (Galilee) and to their old trade (fishing), we ourselves should not forget our ancestry or heritage. We need not be ashamed of our past, nor feel crippled by any part of it. If we discover it in our own lives, we can pass on the reassuring message to others: "for those who love God, all things work together unto good!" (Rom 8:28)

While Peter and John were speaking to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came to them, much annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming that in Jesus there is the resurrection of the dead. So they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who heard the word believed; and they numbered about five thousand.

The next day their rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem, with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. When they had made the prisoners stand in their midst, they inquired, "By what power or by what name did you do this?" Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, "Rulers of the people and elders, if we are questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are asked how this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead. This Jesus is 'the stone that was rejected by you, the builders; it has become the cornerstone.' There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved."

After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he showed himself in this way. Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing." They said to him, "We will go with you." They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, "Children, you have no fish, have you?" They answered him, "No." He said to them, "Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some." So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea. But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards off.

When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish that you have just caught." So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast." Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, "Who are you?" because they knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

The Sanhedrin, the supreme ruling body of Judaism, found it impossible to consider that Jesus could be the Messiah, and that he had really risen from the dead. To believe in him would demand a major change in the furniture of their lives; nothing less than a total reinterpretation of their Scripture and cherished traditions. Yet Peter and John stood there, insisting that Jesus was now a living force for healing and renewal.

One might say, his resurrection rolled away more than the stones blocking his tomb; it also flung wide the doors to the future and gives us a glimpse of what lies beyond. The Sanhedrin, the disciples and we ourselves are asked to accept, in God's most mysterious ways, that Jesus really is the Saviour, who throws light on all our lives and lets us reevaluate all that we previously thought we knew. Are we willing to allow the love of Jesus to cast its bright rays on our understanding, so that we shape our whole future in relation to him.  If He has risen at the heart of our existence, then our lives will be as transformed as were those of his disciples at the beginning.

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and ordinary men, they were amazed and recognized them as companions of Jesus. When they saw the man who had been cured standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition. So they ordered them to leave the council while they discussed the matter with one another. They said, "What will we do with them? For it is obvious to all who live in Jerusalem that a notable sign has been done through them; we cannot deny it. But to keep it from spreading further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name." So they called them and ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, "Whether it is right in God's sight to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge; for we cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard." After threatening them again, they let them go, finding no way to punish them because of the people, for all of them praised God for what had happened.

Now after he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. She went out and told those who had been with him, while they were mourning and weeping. But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.

After this he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them. Later he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were sitting at the table; and he upbraided them for their lack of faith and stubbornness, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. And he said to them, "Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation.

When and where the Spirit comes, with what signs and consequences, cannot be determined ahead of time. "The wind blows where it will.... You do not know where it comes from or where it goes." In both Hebrew and Greek one and the same word means wind and spirit. Nor can a previous reception of the Spirit determine how it will be done the next time. In today's gospel, as again in Acts 10:44-48, the Spirit descends unexpectedly. In fact, the sudden gift of the Spirit to the unbaptized household of the Roman cohort, "religious and God-fearing," yet non-Jewish and non-Christian, took even Peter by surprise. Yet immediately Peter exclaimed: "What can stop these people who have received the Holy Spirit, even as we have, from being baptized with water?" Peter is willing to accept all the consequences of immediately baptizing pagan Romans, without first demanding the observance of the Jewish law about circumcision. Peter thus anticipated St. Paul in opening the doors of the Church to gentiles.

The convergence of many circumstances, leading up to the gift of the Holy Spirit, may also take us by surprise. Some of these details will not be holy or spiritual! In their prayer the Christian assembly refers to people who conspired in folly against the Lord and to others who "gathered in this very city against your holy servant, Jesus, 'whom you anointed.' " Jesus speaks with Nicodemus whose mind is clouded and who attempts to neutralize Jesus' highly spiritual statements with very earthly ones. Nicodemus hints to the foolishness of this talk! "How can a man be born again once he is old? Can he return to his mother's womb?" Despite such opposition, whether it be sinful or violent, or bordering on sarcasm, nonetheless, the Holy Spirit suddenly and wondrously manifests God's presence.

The gift of the Spirit shakes a person's life to its roots; it induces new birth. It overcomes all opposition, be it military, political or religious. It states positively and unmistakably: you are an entirely new person. You live a new life. Everything about you will look different. Your responses to friends, your hopes for yourself or for your family and community, your ideals, your scale of values, all these vital aspects of life will look different. Your eyes will look out with the wonder of a newly born infant. You will run in all directions like a child and find that everything brings adventure. You will be accompanied with "cures and signs and wonders to be worked in the name of Jesus."

Yet at the same time, you remain the same person that you were before. What the Spirit achieves is not a new birth but a rebirth. A person does not reenter his mother's womb. Rather an interior transformation takes place which activates hidden potential, which enlightens what was covered over with darkness (Jesus said, "I am the light!"), which sharpens what had become dull and boring (Jesus said, "I am the salt of the earth!").

This same sense of continuity is manifest in the quoting of Scripture. To explain better or to be more at peace with what is happening, the community prays in the words of ancient Scripture. It quotes Psalm 2, originally composed for the coronation of a Davidic king at Jerusalem. The Christians reach as far back as the moment of creation: "Sovereign Lord, who made heaven and earth and sea and all that is in them." God has been preparing for this moment since the dawn of creation. This eternal reach, from beginning to end of the universe, in time and space, begins to characterize the Christian prayer more and more, as we notice in such passages as Acts 14:15; 17:24; Revelation 10:6; 14:7. This outreach to creation is probably addressing the same mystery as Jesus' words to Nicodemus that a person must be reborn or re-created.

Once again, however, continuity does not mean repetition. While we remain the same person, now and into eternity, now and through each serious rebirth or conversion-experience, still we must be open to surprises. "The wind blows where it will.... You do not know where it comes from or where it goes." To be ready for colossal surprises and heroic transitions, the spirit will form within us that special type of "confidence" with which the Acts of the Apostles concludes today's reading. The Greek word, 'upomone, implies an interior strength, a firm assurance, a sense of holding things together, a calm fearlessness.

After they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. When they heard it, they raised their voices together to God and said, "Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and everything in them, it is you who said by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David, your servant: 'Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples imagine vain things? The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers have gathered together against the Lord and against his Messiah.' For in this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus." When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God." Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?"

Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born from above.' The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."

Today's Scriptures present so many ideas that move in different directions that we are baffled how a single unity of life and mind can be achieved. True, the early Christians at Jerusalem pooled all their resources, and there was no one in financial distress, at least for a while. Later, however, their destitution was such that Paul has to take up a collection during his travels in Greece for the sake of the Jerusalem community. Communal sharing of goods remained an ideal but was quickly abandoned as a prescribed way of life.

Other movements in the biblical readings leave us pulled in various ways and produce a strange tension within us. "No one has gone up ... except the One who came down." Yet, Jesus came down to lift us up! Once he was lifted up in glory, he returned to our lowliness. We are left on earth but attracted by Jesus towards heaven. Furthermore, to be lifted up implies glory and triumph. Yet, the image of Moses' lifting up the serpent recalls the sins of the Israelites in the desert (Num 21:4-9). When they grumbled and acted like gluttons, poisonous serpents struck among them with fiery pain and frequent death. When the Israelites looked upon a bronze or copper serpent which Moses had lifted up, and looked with repentance and honest admission of their guilt, they were cured.

The two expressions of tension may come together in an unusual way. The idealism of the early Christians draws admiration and a nostalgic desire to relive such idyllic days. How wonderful if we shared all our goods, cared for one another, were equal in wealth and poverty, and found our greatest contentment and strength in community love and God's protecting providence. Yet, doesn't it often happen that our gifts and talents, our ideals and hopes, get us into trouble and divide us one from another? We become too demanding. We insist that others follow our insights which happen to be different from their insights and talents. The artist tends to be too impractical for the administrator, the talented person becomes personally ambitious, the capable leader turns into a dictator, the scholar demands our consent before we have time to think out the question.

Peace comes, not by suppressing the gifts of the Spirit, but by humbly realizing that no one has a corner on all the gifts. Each gifted person needs all other talented people, in order to be a balanced, normal human being. Tensions then are healthy, because they prevent us from speeding in any single direction and overlooking other turns and possibilities. Tensions also remind us that gifts are given, not so much to be personally and individually activated and fulfilled, but rather to be shared in the joy and love of family. In other words, none of us, no matter how perfectly we may have fulfilled ourselves, can be saved unless our talents have been shared with others and balanced with the gifts possessed by others.

It is very difficult to allow our finest gifts to be transformed into something different than we ourselves anticipated; such a change happens when they are shared with the gifts of others. Perfect manhood and perfect womanhood do not lead to still more perfect manhood and womanhood. Rather they are intended to be blended together and produce something different: marriage and children. Or, they are called to priesthood and religious life where community life and church apostolate can shift values around and make a person's major talents to be subservient to other, seemingly lesser gifts.

A person with extraordinary mental gifts may be paralyzed so that the hidden gift of a quiet serenity may be imparted to others. A married couple may be unable to have their own children, so that they can bestow their love upon children without a home. An unimposing country pastor like John Paul I may be advanced to the papacy, in order to teach simplicity, directness and graciousness. Power then is subservient to humility.

Community then not only balances us, lest our gifts get out of hand, but it also brings extraordinary surprises into our lives. These ways of growth take place within community, because here is where the Spirit dwells.

Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. There was a Levite, a native of Cyprus, Joseph, to whom the apostles gave the name Barnabas (which means "son of encouragement"). He sold a field that belonged to him, then brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet.

Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born from above.' The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."

 Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" Jesus aswered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? "Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

The Scriptures present two aspects of our salvation. On one side we are told about world forces and even super-world powers which war against one another. Peter and John are caught in a struggle that involves the high priest and the entire Sanhedrin besides the temple guards. Peter and John are imprisoned. God sends angels to intervene. This same mighty struggle across the universe breaks upon us in John's gospel about God's sending his only son as the light of this world. Light and darkness clash, leading to a judgment decreed for the universe.

Along with this world struggle we also glimpse the insignificant ways of everyday life and the normal routine of ordinary people. After being freed by an angel, Peter and John are again in the temple courtyard, preaching to an enthusiastic group of people. They are almost ignoring their marvelous deliverance, acting as though nothing had taken place, whether it be their imprisonment by the powerful forces of Judaism or their wondrous deliverance by an angel. And when the police force intervenes, they must do so "without any show of force for fear of being stoned by the crowd." Somehow or other, these ordinary people without any military arms except the stones on the ground by which they can annoy the police, bring the police to peaceful submission. Likewise, in John's gospel,

Jesus seemingly asks for nothing other than sincerity, to act "in truth," and to live in the light of his presence. The deep intuitive faith of people at large then turns out to be the stable ingredient of religion. Their matter-of-fact response, their enthusiasm, their spontaneous rallying around defenseless Peter and John, their ability to call everything and everyone by their right name, their continuing loyalty, their confidence in Jesus' presence in their midst, their spirit of hope in the goodness of God's creation, here is where the difference is made between success or failure in accomplishing God's will for our salvation.

Any number of questions are put to us by these ordinary people. Do we attempt to control everything by human ingenuity? Do we have a false kind of security, that makes us so deadly serious about having everything in its proper place? Does this somber, rational grip upon life eat away at our spontaneous joy and exuberant faith in life? Are we afraid to take any chances, because we really do not have that much trust in God or in one another? Do we make everything and everyone gravitate around ourselves, selfishly for our own benefit, on the pretext that we thus keep everything "very good"? Are we free and unstudied in witnessing to our faith in Jesus? Does our whole way of life manifest the "light" which Jesus' presence radiates in our midst? Or do we tend to be depressed and melancholy? Are we fearful and suspicious?

Our faith in the supernatural keeps us sensitively aware that mighty forces of goodness and evil are clashing roundabout us, whether these be angels and devils or economic and military forces, faith in God or militant atheism, enthusiastic belief in Jesus as Savior or passive indifference. Yet, our response to these titanic clashes does not, or at least should not, turn out to be on the human level of control, fear, suspicion and rational human management. While all these emotions and reactions have a place, they should not be our basic attitude. Beneath all these human forces and earthly realities there ought to lie our strong faith in Jesus as our light, our way, our warmth.

Jesus, therefore, not only begets life by his intimate love, but Jesus also nourishes that life by his family love. His presence is as clear as the light of the sun, surrounding us on every side. And yet like the sunlight, Jesus too evades our understanding and can never be controlled. Gently the warm light of Jesus coaxes us to grow in love and trust. It endorses a warm enthusiasm for life, trust in others, quickness to rally around whatever is good, noble and worthy of faith (Phil 4:8).

Then the high priest took action; he and all who were with him (that is, the sect of the Sadducees), being filled with jealousy, arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison. But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors, brought them out, and said, "Go, stand in the temple and tell the people the whole message about this life." When they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and went on with their teaching.

When the high priest and those with him arrived, they called together the council and the whole body of the elders of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought. But when the temple police went there, they did not find them in the prison; so they returned and reported, "We found the prison securely locked and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside." Now when the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these words, they were perplexed about them, wondering what might be going on. Then someone arrived and announced, "Look, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people!" Then the captain went with the temple police and brought them, but without violence, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. "Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God."

It is always difficult to distinguish internal strength from stubborn manipulation of others. How do we know that our convictions are from God and must be obeyed at all costs, so that we set our face against the highest authorities and clearly enunciate that it is better to obey God than human authority? Very few if any of us have had immediate revelations from God. How then do we know that our convictions are from God?

To follow Jesus and thus to receive our strength and decisions from Jesus presumes that like Jesus we walk after him through suffering and death, even through humiliations which might seem worse than death. Jesus was hung from a tree, the most despicable and painful of deaths. All of us, like the apostles, must go through experiences similar to death, where we have risked everything for the sake of Jesus. The experience may have come about because of our love for others, our willingness to forgive and begin life all over again with them, our loss of personal opportunities and individual security for the sake of others whose sickness or weakness makes great demands upon us.

A very difficult aspect of following Jesus looms before us in the call to humility. We all admire this virtue in others. Yet, we do not know when our response will be as honorable as the humble Jesus or as dishonorable as Peter in denying Jesus before some servants and their friends. A false humility fears to do anything, lest it do something to provoke pride! Refusing all responsibility, a "humble" person escapes any judgment from others. As difficult as it may be, not only to practice the virtue but even to know what it is, humble we must be if we are to follow Jesus. Humility may be the realization that all of us have the same temptations and inclinations, repeatedly throughout our life; that we have all fallen short of our ideals and that we have contributed to the sorrow of others.

Another norm for deciding if we are following Jesus in his humility is given to us in the words of Scripture: we testify to this and so does the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit becomes vibrant in our hearts through long periods of prayer, week by week, even day by day. We need those stretches of time during which distractions and preoccupations gradually fade away and God's presence surrounds us forcefully yet quietly like sunlight. We also hear the testimony of the Holy Spirit by checking out our ideas and responses with good advisors. We all need someone from whom we hear the honest, plain truth. This interaction with the Holy Spirit in a spiritual director or advisor will keep our quiet hours of prayer from simply a task of self-introspection. Prayer and spiritual guidance are genuine, if they not only impart peace but if they also make demands upon us to grow and develop beyond our narrowness.

Another test that we can administer to ourselves in order to see if we are guided by the Holy Spirit, is pointed out in Peter's reference to the "God of our ancestors."

Do I continuously read the Bible, so that I form a family of life and response with it? It is necessary to read on, page by page, so as to acquire an integral, whole spirituality. If we pick and choose, we may simply reenforce our own idiosyncrasies and stubborness. But if we take whatever the page offers, we will touch down on all bases of a fully human spiritual life.

This same norm of forming one family with one's ancestors in the faith also asks us to be true to our traditions. We must interact with earlier beliefs and devotions, so that our present position will seem to be a flowering of the seed that was planted in the past. Just as Jesus came forth from the Father, lived obediently to his will even unto death, and returned to the Father, we too must live and think within a similar cycle of life. Then our testimony, like Jesus', will witness to what we have seen and heard.

When they had brought them, they had them stand before the council. The high priest questioned them, saying, "We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you are determined to bring this man's blood on us." But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than any human authority. The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Saviour that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him." When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them.

The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks about earthly things. The one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, yet no one accepts his testimony. Whoever has accepted his testimony has certified this, that God is true. He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God's wrath.

Acts 5:34-42. Jesus is compared with several false messiahs. It was stated in the Sanhedrin: if this work is of human origin, it will destroy itself, but if it is of God, no one can resist it successfully. The apostles counted it a joy to suffer in the name of Jesus.

John 6:1-15. Miracle of loaves and fishes. Jesus fled to the mountain alone when the people proclaimed him the prophet and wanted to make him king.

We are asked to examine our motives for following Jesus and our norms for judging other institutions. Personal advancement and pleasure are ruled out by the scriptural readings. When the people proclaim Jesus to be the prophet, anticipated by Moses in Deuteronomy 18:9- 22, Jesus is uneasy. If he has come to fulfill the hopes and prophecies of his ancestors, why, we ask, does Jesus react this negatively when the people see the accomplishment of Scripture in him?

The false motivation consisted in this, the people wanted to make Jesus their king, in order to secure the continuous presence of Jesus' miraculous powers in their midst. What Jesus decided was good on a single occasion, the people wanted to turn into an everyday possibility. The people's action in itself was good; the reason for Jesus' displeasure must be found in the people's motivation.

In the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we are told that various messiahs had arisen and good people had been confused and misled. One of the Jewish leaders in the Sanhedrin then remarked: if a work is of human origin, it will destroy itself; if it is of God, no one can stop it. To fight it is to fight against God. Even so, the apostles are not fully exonorated. The Sanhedrin decides to flog the apostles before releasing them. At this the apostles rejoiced at the opportunity to suffer for the name of Jesus. They continued to preach in Jesus' name.

We are not to follow Jesus for selfish motives, for our own advancement, for our political ambition, even for our security and protection. These motives are not necessarily evil. We must be concerned about ourselves. Otherwise, we may recklessly throw our life and its opportunities to the wind, wear ourselves out uselessly or too quickly, lose the normal kind of health necessary for peace of mind, and eventually give up! Advancement of a good cause very often results in the advancement of ourselves. Good work usually draws the spotlight to the one who achieves it, and that person is asked to undertake more difficult and more important tasks. And so we touch upon the force of ambition, hope and growth. Somehow or other, even our security depends upon our ability to grow and develop to live with the times and adapt to new situations.

Sooner or later, however, these motives become insufficient for the challenge before us. For the sake of our family and community, in order to honor commitments and promises, in the face of serious threats to our faith in God and in the Church, we are forced to seek strength and guidance from the deepest part of ourselves. It is no longer a question of careers, work, security and good deeds. Now we are faced with the heroic decision of deciding to be true to our conscience before extraordinary demands. We come right up against a case of life or death.

In one way or another, our deepest motivation will be tested. Our trust in God's goodness will be stretched to the breaking point. Our loyalty to our family or community or church will seem almost self-destructive, so much will be expected of us. We too like the apostles will suffer from the scourge and flogging. Yet through the presence of the Holy Spirit in our heart and in our community, we too like the apostles will rejoice that we have been chosen to suffer for the name of Jesus.

Our response to others in the midst of their suffering ought to be guided by convictions of faith. In other words, at times we strengthen others by our convictions that their cause is just, their risk is necessary, their conscience comes before all else. They are able to suffer - and to rejoice in their suffering - for the name of Jesus. Sometimes, therefore, we ought not to alleviate suffering but help a person to face it with faith.

Finally, we have the assurance: if a work is of God, it cannot be destroyed. To fight it is to fight against God. Therefore, no suffering is wasted energy. And as we look about us at people who have survived heroic tests of endurance or at institutions that have continued to exist over the centuries, we ought to be convinced that such expressions are godly. Otherwise, they would have died a long time ago. There are many such institutions which deserve much more respect than we often give them. They must have proven not only that they are from God but also that their motivation is divinely inspired.

Thus we continue to preach the good news of Jesus the Messiah.

 But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, respected by all the people, stood up and ordered the men to be put outside for a short time. Then he said to them, "Fellow Israelites, consider carefully what you propose to do to these men. For some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him; but he was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and disappeared. After him Judas the Galilean rose up at the time of the census and got people to follow him; he also perished, and all who followed him were scattered. So in the present case, I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone; because if this plan or this undertaking is of human origin, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them - in that case you may even be found fighting against God!"

They were convinced by him, and when the had called in the apostles, they had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. As they left the council, they rejoiced that they were considered worthy to suffer dishonour for the sake of the name. And every day in the temple and at home they did not cease to teach and proclaim Jesus as the Messiah.

After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near.

 When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, "Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?" He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, "Six months' wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little." One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, "There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?" Jesus said, "Make the people sit down." Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, "Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost." So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, "This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world."

When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

Acts 6:1-7. The choice of seven deacons for the Greek-speaking Christians; the conversion of many Jewish priests to the Christian community.

John 6:16-21. During a storm at sea Jesus walks on the water toward the boat with the disciples who suddenly find themselves at shore.

The gospel presents two moments in our lives: one in which we move ahead without Jesus and find ourselves engulfed with hostile waves ready to destroy us; another in which Jesus is suddenly with us and we find ourselves at our destination. Putting the two scriptural passages together, we see a sudden, miraculous change in the gospel. In Acts, on the contrary, the apostles heal a major division in the ranks by human compromise and common sense. The Greek-speaking community of believers find that their widows are being neglected by the Church, out of favoritism for those native born in the Holy Land and speaking Hebrew. The Twelve ask the community to seek out seven men, deeply spiritual and prudent, to oversee the care of the Greek-speaking widows.

Normally, we are expected to make good use of our intelligence and common sense. This procedure means, first of all, that we are not overly discouraged and then give up, because of favoritism and jealousy in the church. The right response ought not to be anger or rejection. The apostles, moreoever, did not move in like petty dictators and quickly rectify the situation. While they made a prudent decision, still they left the implementation of it to the community. The Twelve felt that they should not neglect their duty of preaching and teaching. They asked the Greek-speaking community to elect their representatives, seven deacons, known for their piety and prudence. They were then publicly ordained by the laying on of hands.

Yet, we ought not to rule out the possibility even of miraculous intervention on God's part. God can, and at times does step in and immediately change the situation from one of desperation to one of new life. In the gospel the disciples immediately found themselves aground on the shore; their fears of drowning at sea or at least of serious danger were quickly wiped away. They had not even prayed for such a miracle. When the possibility became real and Jesus appeared walking on the water, they were naturally frightened.

Miracles then can quickly remove all fear and danger, yet their very possibility induces a new kind of fear! If God can intervene wondrously in our daily lives, then we have lost control. We do not know exactly what God will do. Miracles are not discussed and voted on; they simply happen! Belief in miracles presumes an attitude which surrenders the ultimate decision of life to God. It is a state of mind that does not demand complete control. It is willing to live that very risky existence, that adventure of faith, whereby God can step in at crucial moments and shift gears for us. Ultimately, it means a readiness to die any time. A step back from death, it means an openness to radical changes.

These changes can seem so fearful that we could become totally distraught at the thought of it. We should note that such changes are not necessarily planned by the disciples. For instance, in the gospel, the winds blew up a storm unexpectedly, in the midst of the night, while the disciples had rowed three or four miles from the shore. We are not speaking of changes we plan. Rather, they are God's secret which suddenly bursts upon us. Therefore, a healthy continuity remains in our lives. Yet, within its step-by-step progress God at times picks us up and launches us like a rocket into the future.

Continuity, therefore, is necessary. And when problems arise, our first recourse ought to be humanly thought out. First, we remain with our community or family. We do not stomp out because of jealousy and favoritism, even if these latter faults are among the surest signs of failure as disciples of Jesus. Nor do we respond so angrily that a shouting match breaks out! In the Acts of the Apostles we are amazed at the quiet style of the Twelve. Along with prudence and common sense, they have recourse to prayer. Once these human means have been put to good service, they publicly, solemnly and religiously endorse the results. They impose hands upon the heads of the seven deacons before the entire community at prayer. Here is the origin of the sacred order of deacons.

It was then this combination of human precaution and supernatural prayer, of earlier sin and restrained patience, of clear decision and delegation of authority, of human politics and divine endorsement, it was all of these moments wrapped into a single process that made the early Church develop and spread. Today's liturgical account ends with a statement that many Jewish priests embraced the faith.

Now during those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food. And the twelve called together the whole community of the disciples and said, "It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables. Therefore, friends, select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task, while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word." What they said pleased the whole community, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. They had these men stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

The word of God continued to spread; the number of the disciples increased greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing.

When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. But he said to them, "It is I; do not be afraid." Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going.

The key word here is "look"! When the members of the Sanhedrin looked on the face of Stephen it "seemed like that of an angel." Jesus tells the crowd: "You are not looking for me because you have seen signs but because you have eaten your fill of the loaves."

Each of us looks outward in many different ways: with wide interest or with narrow bias, with a large heart open to goodness everywhere or with a narrow focus limited to personal concerns, with faith that accepts even miracles or with pessimism that sees only the worst, with wonder that peers beneath the surface to teeming possibilities or with a dull shrug of the shoulders that hardly pays attention to miracles! Somehow or other, our present world and all the more surely our future existence turn into what we see, at least so far as our own personal life is concerned.

A saint like Stephen, ordained to care for the poor and for neglected widows, was endowed by God with such a large heart that he overlooked trivia and did not allow himself to be caught on the sticky paper of petty worries. Instead of such narrow-mindedness, he reached out to the needs of the helpless. Yet he was dragged before the court for acting against the customs of the people. Important, intelligent people were willing to argue about customs when the poor were going hungry. The members of the Sanhedrin looked at a saint and turned him into a sinner. They saw the face of an angel and twisted it into that of a devil.

When Jesus fed the hungry in the wilderness, they were concerned only about stuffing food between their teeth. They did not ask about the goodness and generosity of God who cares for them; they did not inquire about their ways of sharing with others and so of imitating the goodness of Jesus. They did not stop to listen to the words of Jesus, ponder them prayerfully and ask for their implications in their daily lives. They simply wanted more food.

Eventually, John's gospel links this miraculous multiplication of bread and fish with the Eucharist, Jesus' very own body and blood given for the life of the world.

The Eucharist enables us to look with the eyes of Jesus and to see so much more than we ever thought to exist round about us. We look at strangers and see them as our brothers and sisters. We look at people whom we consider hopeless, intransigent and incommunicable, and find a bond of concern and interests about which to speak with them. Devils somehow turn into saints! Those who seemed lost have been found!

Every person and every event become a sign. They are like the tip of an iceberg, which conceals far more than it reveals, which alerts us to a mystery of power beyond our imagination. It asks us to look long and to study with open minds. We accept the invitation to walk into a wonderful way of life with goodness and hope beyond our imagination. We look with our feelings and intuitions, with our hopes and dreams. We see what will take an eternity to explore in all its possibilities. In fact, our eternity will consist at least partially of the joyful amazement of learning ever anew all the goodness which existed in people whose hands we shook during earthly life yet whose heart we never touched.

God has set his seal on Jesus and on all the mysteries which Jesus reveals. To look as Jesus looks, to look at something very earthly and to recognize a divine mystery, means that we are sealing our lives in a bond of love that will last forever. To look in this way, then, does not only mean that we see wonders but also that our own selves are inextricably linked with that wonder for all eternity. The Eucharist then is the food of eternal life.

Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and others of those from Cilicia and Asia, stood up and argued with Stephen. But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke. Then they secretly instigated some men to say, "We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God." They stirred up the people as well as the elders and the scribes; then they suddenly confronted him, seized him, and brought him before the council. They set up false witnesses who said, "This man never stops saying things against this holy place and the law; for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses handed on to us." And all who sat in the council looked intently at him, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

The next day the crowd that had stayed on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there. They also saw that Jesus had not got into the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. Then some boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.

 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, "Rabbi, when did you come here?" Jesus answered them, "Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. or it is on him that God the Father has set his seal." Then they said to him, "What must we do to perform the works of God?" Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent."

In presenting the Acta of the martyrdom of St. Stephen, Luke carefully models the death scene of Stephen upon Jesus' death on the cross. Both, accused of blasphemy, are condemned to death by the Sanhedrin. Each sees a vision of someone at the right hand of God, coming on the clouds, a reference to Daniel's vision in describing the vindication of the martyr saints of Old Testament times (Dan 7:9-14). Each asks God to receive the spirit and each prays for the forgiveness of the executioners (See Luke 22-23).

Another kind of comparison occurs in John's gospel, Chapter 6. Jesus and Moses stand side by side. While each announces bread from heaven, the manna promised by Moses perished by the next day and stopped appearing once the Israelites crossed the Jordan and settled in the promised land (Josh 5:12). The bread which Jesus provides brings eternal life. It slakes all thirst and satisfies every hunger. Jesus alone offers life which will never end.

Yet, the Acts of the Apostles seems at first to contradict this promise of life. Jesus himself died on the cross, and Stephen becomes the proto-martyr of Christianity. Yet, when death is modeled upon that of Jesus, we know that the highest honor has been bestowed upon a person. Such a death turns into a moment of triumph and glory! The last moments of Stephen, however, seemed anything but glorious and joyful. A pall of sorrow must have descended upon the small Christian community. Luke adds at once, at the beginning of the next chapter of Acts:

"That day saw the beginning of a great persecution of the church in Jerusalem. All except the apostles scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria.... After that, Saul began to harass the Church."

Some members of the Church must have experienced a profound sense of pain and frustration; they must have been angry at themselves. It was their complaints about the way their widows were being neglected that led to the appointment of the first seven deacons; Stephen was among them. Given this position of authority and visibility within the small Christian community and almost at once because of his ability to draw upon the ancient Scriptures and to speak eloquently, Stephen became the lightning rod that attracted the electricity in the air. It struck him violently and destructively.

Even someone as well meaning as Saul of Tarsus approved of the action against Stephen. As we read in Acts: "Saul, for his part, concurred in the act of killing." Pain and frustration, anger and confusion, all these emotions surrounded the martyrdom of Stephen.

Stephen himself responded with peace, he was "filled with the Holy Spirit." Even though he was dragged outside the city and a volcano was erupting around him, he prayed that Jesus whom he had seen at God's right hand would now come to receive him into that heavenly peace. At once Stephen shared that peace with everyone about him. He prayed that his executioners be forgiven.

In other words, Stephen did not answer anger with anger, nor did he match frustration with frustration. He rose above the gloom and violence by the strength which he absorbed from Jesus. This calm self-possession enabled Stephen to reason forcefully with those who summoned him to the court of the Sanhedrin. It enabled him to recognize God's providence and design where everyone else was caught in regrets, anger, frustration and violence. Where base or unworthy human emotions cut through the lives of people, Stephen remained in possession of himself because he had surrendered that possession to the Lord Jesus.

We too are called to respond with faith. We are expected to remain at peace, even though violence explodes round about us. We do not let others call the shots nor play the tune to which we must dance.

We have a source of strength to survive any desert. From Jesus we receive the food and drink for our soul so that we do not faint from thirst or hunger. Jesus provides this nourishment, like Moses, to us his people as we tramp through the desert. In such a dry stretch of wasteland, we walk more from willpower and desires than from any natural energy. We live by our hopes. We rise above the environment. Our faith preserves us at our best, because we have already surrendered ourselves to Jesus.

"You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. You are the ones that received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it."

When they heard these things, they became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen. But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. "Look," he said, "I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!" But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he died.

And Saul approved of their killing him. That day a severe persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria.

 So they said to him, "What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" Then Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." They said to him, "Sir, give us this bread always."

 Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

Jerusalem, which had been a special object of Jesus' ministry, violently rejects his disciples; the countryside, particularly Samaria, listens carefully to the word, is willing to accept miracles, and converts to the Lord. Jerusalem, the sophisticated city with its religious schools and centuries old traditions, never gives Jesus or his disciples a fair chance to explain themselves; while Samaria, neglected, oppressed, fearful and closed toward mass movements yet open and spontaneous toward affection and sincerity, listens to the disciples, experiences miracles of body and mind, and responds with joy and ecstatic wonder.

The comparison of Jerusalem with Samaria alerts us to the advantages and disadvantages of strong, continuous intellectual preparation for the gospel. No doubt, Jerusalem became the source of strength and continuity for the religion of Moses. Humanly speaking, the religion of Israel would have disappeared like the religion of the Philistines or Moabites, if Jerusalem had collapsed and disappeared. At Jerusalem the sacred tradition was preserved, and at crucial times adapted and revised in a new written form. Jerusalem was also the center for the great rabbinical schools and for the central governing body of Judaism. Yet, it was Jerusalem which violently rejected Jesus and his first disciples.

Samaria, the step-child of Mosaic religion, partially correct and partially wrong in religious beliefs and practices, hostile toward outsiders yet warm and open once a person manifested sincerity and personal warmth, accepted the faith. Not all the Samaritans, but a good number of them converted. It is possible that part of their enthusiasm or at least their protection of Jesus' disciples stemmed from the Samaritan hostility toward Jerusalem. If Jerusalem rejected the disciples, then the Samaritans would naturally be inclined to accept them!

There was a direct simplicity about the Samaritans. As a result, hidden resources could quickly come to the surface. New possibilities would be acted upon. They were not afraid of sophisticated criticism leveled at the Samaritan naivete.

All of us possess hidden resources and untapped potential. Here is where we are liable to be fearful. Here is where we can easily make mistakes. Here is also where genius is born, wonderful new insights leap forth, extraordinary turns of fortune take place. We know people who are sleepers. We suspected their talents yet were never sure. They seemed hesitant; they remained behind the others; they were silent. Then suddenly, the flower blooms and all the potential goodness of the person comes to the surface.

Jesus may look upon us as people too sophisticated for our own good. Because we know religion so well,  maybe because we are leaders, ministers, priests and bishops, we can make religion a substitute for religious fervor. We are the Jerusalem of the Acts of the Apostles: possessing the great heritage and yet denying its fulfillment.

Yet, the disciples of Jesus go out to the countryside, to Samaria. Jesus' word reaches our hidden talents. All of a sudden, the "devil" which has kept us silent, fearful, unable to speak, or willing to speak only in strange, devious ways, is driven out of us. We are cured! "The rejoicing in that town rose to fever pitch."

Jesus also said: all that the Father gives me shall come to me. I shall lose nothing of what he has given me. I shall raise it up on the last day. We can anticipate the day of resurrection. We can have everlasting life now, if we look to the Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. We allow our hopes and talents to be touched by Jesus' warmth. We are willing to take the full consequences of our new way of life, with its enthusiasm and achievement.

And Saul approved of their killing him. That day a severe persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria. Devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house; dragging off both men and women, he committed them to prison.

Now those who were scattered went from place to place, proclaiming the word. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah to them. The crowds with one accord listened eagerly to what was said by Philip, hearing and seeing the signs that he did, for unclean spirits, crying with loud shrieks, came out of many who were possessed; and many others who were paralyzed or lame were cured. So there was great joy in that city.

Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away; for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day."

The heavenly Father was already drawing the Ethiopian eunuch and royal treasurer to faith. This foreigner was already a "God-fearer," the term given for gentiles who believed in Yahweh, the God of Israel, and followed many of the prescriptions of the Torah, but not all of them, especially those which would alienate the foreigner from his own family and country. Yahweh, moreover, was attracting the Ethiopian ever more deeply into the religion of Israel through his reading of the prophet Isaiah and the Suffering Servant Songs.

God also directed the deacon Philip to head south along the same route taken by the Ethiopian. In many ways then God's plans were converging upon the Ethiopian. Yet, something was still lacking and the Ethiopian felt helpless. "Do you really grasp what you are reading?" "How can I unless someone explains it to me?" Philip then explained the meaning of the Suffering Servant Song:

Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, like a lamb before its shearer he was silent ... Who will ever speak of his posterity?

After Philip re-read the passage in terms of Jesus and contemplated with the Ethiopian the profound sense of the passage through Jesus' death on the cross, the God-fearer asked to be baptized and Philip at once admitted him to the church.

We observe here the steps of conversion, not only from sin to grace, nor simply from an outsider to membership within the church, but also from an opportunity of grace to its full realization.

First, we must have confidence that God is always drawing us closer to Jesus. In each moment of our lives God is summoning us from hate or displeasure to love or joy, from fear to peace, from isolation to companionship, from sin to grace, from being "good" to being "much better." We must have the same faith in others that they too are being attracted by God to a more fervent way of life and to a holier attitude. Like the Ethiopian we must be a "God-fearer," awesome and in wonder at what God is doing with ourselves and our lives. Like this foreigner, we should go regularly to community prayer and church worship, as he did to the Jerusalem temple.

This pilgrimage to the temple or church not only means a physical journey but also a spiritual walk along the pages of the Bible. The Ethiopian was reading from Isaiah Chapter 53. It is important to note that he was reading a passage and even delaying over it, despite the fact that he did not understand what the words were saying to him. He did not simply hurry onward to something within the reach of his understanding and control! He waited for the Lord to speak.

Still another pilgrimage must be made, this time by the church toward those who are being attracted by the heavenly Father. Deacon Philip was told to "head south ... catch up with that carriage ... [and inquire] 'Do you really grasp what you are reading?'" There must be a missionary drive within the church, with gentle initiative, asking "Do you really grasp?" The Church must also be driven by a longing to see Jesus everywhere or to believe that all good desires, even those in Scripture, are leading to "the good news of Jesus." Jesus absorbs and fulfills every good desire and strong hope.

When all of these pilgrimages come together, a person is ready to be received within the Church. The Ethiopian asked for baptism, the door to the Church. This door, however, swings back and forth. It leads the Ethiopian into the Church but it also invites him to go forth as an apostle of the good news. Deacon Philip disappears and the foreigner continues on his journey home to bring the good news to his own country.

Through the Church the Ethiopian not only receives baptism and new life in Jesus but also the bread or nourishment to sustain that life strong and vigorous. The gospel tells us:

I myself am the living bread come down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread that one shall live forever.

Yet, this eucharistic nourishment also leads to death. It brings a participation in the death of Jesus. "This bread that I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world." This flesh or body of Jesus silently suffered death, as announced in Isaiah Chapter 53. Yet, in death there is a door to new life beyond human imagination. For this reason baptism too is compared to death, a sharing in the death of Jesus (Rom 6:3).

Life comes in extraordinary ways. The Ethiopian treasurer is called a "eunuch." The word may not have to be taken literally as someone unable to beget children. At this time it had acquired a more general sense of a court official; in ancient days, these men had to be eunuchs in the physical sense of the term. Yet, in the passage we see several persons, all seemingly without offspring and without a future. The suffering servant gives rise to the question in Isaiah: "Who will ever speak of his posterity, for he is deprived of his life on earth?" Jesus died, a total failure from all appearances. The Ethiopian may have been deprived of descendants. Through Jesus' resurrection life and offspring come in mysterious ways.

Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." (This is a wilderness road.) So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go over to this chariot and join it." So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?" He replied, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him.

Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this: "Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth."

The eunuch asked Philip, "About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?" Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, "Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?" He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."

Paul's conversion is presented for the first of three times in the Acts of the Apostles. Here it highlights the movement of the church beyond Judaism to the gentile world. This account is preceded in Acts by the story of the Ethiopian eunuch who was baptized by deacon Philip and then proceeded to bring the gospel to his own country. It is followed, again in Acts, by the conversion of the Roman centurion Cornelius. Both the Ethiopian and Cornelius were baptized without going through the full procedures of first becoming a Jew by circumcision and by accepting stringent dietary laws. The conversion of these foreigners shared an important feature with Paul's conversion. Each took place because of special, almost miraculous intervention by God.

The Ethiopian was drawn to Christianity through his reading about the Suffering Servant in Isaiah Chapter 53. Philip explains the passage in terms of Jesus' death and resurrection. Now in Paul's case these same passages from Isaiah about the Suffering Servant describe the vocation of this new apostle. Jesus, in appearing to Ananias and instructing him to baptize Paul, draws ideas and phrases from the Servant Songs and applies them to Paul. Conversion, therefore, meant a sharing in the silent death and the glorious resurrection of Jesus, and in that order, first death, then new life.

Up till now Paul had been persecuting the Church, in Jerusalem and now (he had thought) in Damascus. His conversion, however, would bring an entirely new type of suffering to the small group of disciples. In becoming an apostle to the gentiles, Paul insisted that it was not necessary to be circumcised nor to follow Mosaic laws like those for food and drink, in order to be a follower of Jesus. This action on Paul's part split the Church right down the center. The controversy comes to the surface in Paul's Epistle to the Galatians and in a later chapter in Acts. Paul, therefore, was considered a traitor by his own Jewish family and coreligionists, and he was to be isolated and calumniated even by his Christian community. When Jesus announced to Ananias that Paul "will have to suffer for my name," he was referring not just to Paul's eventual martyrdom in Rome but even more to a life of martyrdom within his own Church! In such a situation, the Church itself suffered, once again from Paul, but in a much different ay than when he dragged Christians off to prison in Jerusalem for confessing the name of Jesus.

Family and Church mean the greatest joy but the words also spell the most intense pain. Such was the case for Paul and for Jesus. Against this background of family life and death, of family joy and pain, we can reread Jesus' words. "... eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood     I will raise up on the last day ... who feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in that person ... will have life because of me." The eucharistic bread and wine, the body and blood of Jesus,  is closely associated with Jesus death, with "my body broken for you ... my blood which will be shed for you" (Luke 22:19-20).

Because Jesus was plunged so thoroughly into the Jewish race (born of Abraham and of the family of David, as we learn from his genealogy in Matthew 1:1-17 and Luke 3:23-38), a struggle unto death ensued. Neither he nor his Jewish community could ignore one another. They were in it together like members of a family. Even after Jesus was handed over to the Romans by the high court of the Sanhedrin and executed, his disciples continued to live and worship as Jews. The Eucharist was celebrated privately at home. The love-hate relationship of every family existed here. The ones who brought the greatest joy inflicted the most intense pain! And on one another!

Wherever then we bring the good news of Jesus and the family love of the Eucharist, we are also instruments of suffering. Our lives are intertwined as closely as flesh and blood. Blood brings the strength and vigor for flesh to suffer crucifixion. Flesh keeps the blood circulating within a single body where we are all united.

Once Paul was converted, both he and the Church took the consequences. Each would suffer the effect of the other's gifts, insights and apostolate. And as each one is strengthened further by Jesus' eucharistic bread come down from heaven, each will be clearer in insights, more forceful in demands and expectations, even more impatient at the slow or indifferent reaction of others. This process of life, into death, for a new and greater life is the story of Jesus, Paul and each of us.

Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" He asked, "Who are you, Lord?" The reply came, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do." The men who were traveling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one. Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lordsaid to him in a vision, "Ananias." He answered, "Here I am, Lord." The Lord said to him, "Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. At this moment he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight." But Ananias answered, "Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name." But the Lord said to him, "Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name." So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit." And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored. Then he got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus, and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, "He is the Son of God."

 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" So Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever." He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.

Throughout the Easter season we are being offered an opportunity to rise to new life. Jesus is speaking, to summon what seems dead within us and to make this dead part of ourselves the source of an entirely new existence. At the same time, despite this radical transition within ourselves, we continue to be the same person who existed before the marvelous change happened. The lady whom Peter called back to life was the same Dorcas whose "good deeds and acts of charity" had established a family bond with many of the poor and oppressed, particularly with the widows in the city of Joppa.

Suppose that I am called on an urgent request, without knowing the exact reason. Upon arrival, I am told that a dead person was laid out for a final farewell before burial. I am expected to bring that person back to life! At that moment, I am surrounded with the family and friends, with all the many dependents who have been assisted by the dead person. They all look to me to do something, and that "something" amounts to bringing a dead person back to life! What would I do?

Before I answer, however, I have the peace of mind to meditate with the group on the gospel of St. John. God says to me, as once in the first composition of the gospel: "This sort of talk is hard to endure!" His disciples were murmuring in protest.

"It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless, The words I spoke to you are spirit and life." "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life." These sentences from the gospel of St. John capture the many different feelings as I stand before a dead person with the request to bring this loved one back to life. Some say, myself?, that it is "talk hard to endure." I feel myself murmuring in protest: why ask me? why embarrass me? I am a faithful believer, but I am no idiot, nor vain presumer, nor wild dreamer! Why pick on me?

I decide to follow Peter's example and to kneel in prayer. Whenever I pray, is it with the faith that God can work miracles, if he wills? Do I accept that God can achieve what seems impossible for flesh, for weak human nature? "It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless."

God may never test my faith to the extent of calling me to the bedside of a dead person and of being asked to bring that dear one back to life. Yet, one way or another, God will test my faith. Not every day, but at crucial moments, I will be asked to do what I would consider impossible. At least, I would respond to God that his requests are unreasonable, over-demanding and therefore not binding upon my conscience.

Very few of us are called into the mission of the apostle Peter. On his numerous journeys he was frequently placed in a position of working miracles. God does not ask the ordinary person (that is, you and me) to be ready for miracles each day of our life, or say, once a week or even once a month! God does not make each day an act of heroic virtue, summoning strength which I never knew to exist within myself and being forced to live in the power of the Holy Spirit. "It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless."

All of us, nonetheless, are summoned occasionally,  and these are key moments of our existence, to work miracles. The wonder may not be as public and as startling as bringing a dead person back to life; it may be even more exacting in all its consequences. God may suddenly ask me to forgive another person (with whom I have not been speaking for years), to be silent and no longer make an issue out of an unpleasant situation, to accept a new friend or relative or member within my family, to accept the loss of a friend or relative or family member, to live silently with a physical ailment or even with an emotional disability, without complaint or even a whispering reference. Such heroic moments come occasionally. We think that God is asking the impossible. And we read in John's gospel: "It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless."

Meanwhile the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and was built up. Living in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers. Now as Peter went here and there among all the believers, he came down also to the saints living in Lydda. There he found a man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden for eight years, for he was paralyzed. Peter said to him, "Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; get up and make your bed!" And immediately he got up. And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.

Now in Joppa there was a disciple whose name was Tabitha, which in Greek is Dorcas. She was devoted to good works and acts of charity. At that time she became ill and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in a room upstairs. Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, who heard that Peter was there, sent two men to him with the request, "Please come to us without delay." So Peter got up and went with them; and when he arrived, they took him to the room upstairs. All the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was with them. Peter put all of them outside, and then he knelt down and prayed. He turned to the body and said, "Tabitha, get up." Then she opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up. He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he showed her to be alive. This became known throughout Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. Meanwhile he stayed in Joppa for some time with a certain Simon, a tanner.

When many of his disciples heard it, they said, "This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?" But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, "Does this offend you? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But among you there are some who do not believe." For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. And he said, "For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father." Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him.

So Jesus asked the twelve, "Do you also wish to go away?" Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."

The gift of the Holy Spirit is extremely personal, reaching into the depths of our heart and mind; it is also overwhelmingly powerful, summoning us to heroic acts and new ways of life. Important moments of our personal, individual life, as for the entire Church, can happen with startling abruptness. Peter finds himself, baptizing gentiles, not in order that they may receive the Holy Spirit but because they have already been graced by the Spirit in wonderful ways. Even though Peter was an observant Jew, like Jesus, obeying the dietary laws and other observances of his people, nonetheless, Peter could not refuse baptism for a single moment. Without instructing the gentiles in the Jewish law, he baptized them!

At the same time, there is a bond of family and continuity. Peter was challenged by other members of the Church and he explained his reason. We witness the need to continue who we are as a community of faith. The early Church will expend much energy, discussing still further this conclusion that gentiles can be received into the

Church without first becoming Jews. Paul will devote much of his energy to this theological question. This movement, in the Church where questions are thrashed out theologically with an eye to tradition and earlier practices, and beyond the Church where new and unexpected manifestations of the Holy Spirit will startle us, was anticipated by Jesus in the parable of the Good Shepherd. In this story Jesus knows each of his sheep by name. He calls each one by a sound which reaches into the depths of their memory, all the way back to their birth when each one was given a name and a vocation for life. Each change in life, whether for the group or for the individual, must be kept in continuity not only with each person's past life but even with his ancestry from whom life and name have been received. Each change in life, moreover, must answer a personal call and touch a chord of love.

Because the Good Shepherd calls us by our name and leads us back and forth from our ancestry into our future, Jesus also compares himself to the door of the sheepfold. The means by which we go back and forth turns out to be Jesus himself. Through Jesus we slip backward into our subconscious, into the depths of life, and become absorbed in the mystery of our existence. We hear our name spoken by Jesus; we experience the betrothal of love and a union of ecstasy. Through Jesus, we pass through a door into our very best self, our name as spoken by Jesus.

Through this same door, which is Jesus, we are called to go forth into the activity of daily life, to mingle with other people, to form family, neighborhood and workcrew, schools and clubs, activities and plans. To hear Jesus summon us by name, and to pass through the gate which is Himself, we go beyond the sheepfold into

Fourth Week of Easter      67 the wider world about us. Here we are led to quench our thirst. Yet, at sundown we pass again through the same door, which is Jesus, as the sound of our name is spoken by the same Good Shepherd, and we are led back into the depths of ourselves, in silent prayer, in sleep.

In all this movement, as in all this rest, Jesus is at the center, and yet Jesus loses himself in us. He calls our name in order to summon us forth to nourishment and pasture as well as to call us back to the silent prayer of the sheepfold. Jesus, in many ways so silent that we do not realize his presence, lays down his life for his sheep. He dies, in the same way that parents die within their children. Parents' hopes and dreams are so caught up within the lives of their children that the father and mother no longer seem to have their own existence. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.

In all these extraordinary moments, when the spirit seems to act abruptly and to lead us beyond our expectations, as happened to Peter in Acts of the Apostles,  when the spirit leads us to lay down our life as our best plans and ideals are lost within a family, a community or a church, these are the times when we hear our names best, as spoken by Jesus.

Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, saying, "Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?" Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, "I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven, being lowered by its four corners; and it came close to me. As I looked at it closely I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air. I also heard a voice saying to me, 'Get up, Peter; kill and eat.' But I replied, 'By no means, Lord; for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.' But a second time the voice answered from heaven, 'What God has made clean, you must not call profane.' This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to heaven.

At that very moment three men, sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the house where we were. The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man's house. He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, 'Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter; he will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved.' And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, 'John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?" When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, "Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life."

"Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers." Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

So again Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

The initiative must come from God. Through Jesus God speaks our name and we follow Jesus. From him we receive eternal life, and through him we are caught up into the Holy Trinity. United with Jesus, we are united with Father and Spirit; as Jesus says: "The Father and I are one."

When Jesus speaks our names, he reaches into the depths of our person and proclaims who we are, in our hopes and ideals, in our talents and mystery of life. In the Bible a "name" announces a divine vocation from God, that reaches into the future, in fact all the way into eter nity. Jesus, therefore, puts energy into our hidden re serves of life, he gives direction to these talents, and he thus speaks our name in such a way that it draws us into eternity. 

Little wonder, then, that no one can snatch one of these., Jesus' sheep, out of his hand. When such an intimate and all-inclusive relationship is established by God's initiative, we are caught! Yet, we are absorbed, not in something or someone alien to ourselves; we are not reduced to slavery. Rather, we are caught because Jesus speaks what is most genuine about ourselves and what is most attractive about our future.

Jesus speaks these profound words about the mystery of our life and the wonder of its eternal existence in answer to a question put to him by the crowd in the Temple. They had said rather abruptly to Jesus: "How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are really the Messiah, tell us so in plain words."

Yet, how can Jesus speak something as intimate as a person's name under such circumstances? These words from the crowd are bordering on the sarcastic. They are selfish. They intrude upon the privacy of Jesus. Questions like these prevent Jesus from drawing the people into the mystery of themselves as created and dreamed by God. The people are rejecting mystery; they want a plain answer. Yes or No! Are you the Messiah? If you are, then we can begin the revolt against Rome....

God must take the initiative and speak a word that touches the mystery of our lives and our future. God can do this, only if we allow him the space to be gentle and gracious, probing and enticing, perceptive and contemplative.

These same qualities characterize the great apostle Barnabas. He is canonized a saint even during his lifetime by these words in Acts: "He encouraged them all ... he himself was a good man filled with the Holy Spirit and with faith." Elsewhere, Luke had interpreted his name to mean "son of encouragement" (Acts 4:36). Originally named Joseph, he was called Barnabas most probably because of his eloquent and encouraging style of preaching the gospel.

This openness of Barnabas to God's gifts induced him to search for Paul and to bring him to Antioch. Humanly speaking, if it had not been for Barnabas, Paul may have been lost and buried in the silent sands of some contemplative desert! Taking a cue from the gospel, we can say that through Barnabas, Jesus called his sheep "Paul" by name and led him into a career that was to transform the missionary enterprise of the Church and thereby the very nature of the Church.

This spread of the Church, we notice in Acts, came about, first as a reaction to the violent persecution of the Church at Jerusalem. This danger to life caused many of the disciples to flee to gentile territory. Through them a great impact was made upon the Jewish community at Antioch where many joined the disciples and became known, for the first time, as "Christians." The reaction, then, from violence to peace, and the reenforcement of this peace through the gentle encouragement of Barnabas, enabled Jesus to name his sheep and to draw them into discipleship.

We need to ask ourselves: do we manifest the gentleness which allows others to hear, through us, the pronunciation of their name by Jesus? Are we an instrument by which people, our family and neighbors, our friends at work or in other associations, begin to perceive the wonder of themselves as dreamed by God? Can they begin to look into their future with a sense of joy of the wonder that lies ahead?

Now those who were scattered becaus of the persecution that took place over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, and they spoke the word to no one except Jews. But among them were some men of Cyprus and Cyrene who, on coming to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists also, proclaiming the Lord Jesus. The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number became believers and turned to the Lord. News of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast devotion; for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were brought to the Lord.

Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for an entire year they met with the church and taught a great many people, and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called "Christians."

At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly." Jesus answered, "I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father's hand. The Father and I are one."

We glimpse the intimate community of life, between Jesus and his heavenly Father, between the members of the church at Antioch among themselves and with God. Even though Jesus is the eternal Son of the heavenly Father, equal to the Father in all things, sharing the Father's wisdom and power, still Jesus does nothing on his own.

For I have not spoken on my own; no, the Father who sent me has commanded me what to say and how to speak.

Somehow or other, Jesus' entire existence, even his personality is formed by this obedient regard to the Father, this receptivity to the Father's will and wisdom, this total community of life with the Father.

In the church at Antioch, the community gathers for liturgy while fasting from food and drink. Fasting would leave the deep impression that their strength comes from God, not from themselves nor from earthly substance. Fasting also induces a bond of compassion, a willingness to suffer together, a sense of being one with all the world's poor and oppressed. As such, they are thoroughly open to God for guidance and for strength.

At this time of the liturgy, the Holy Spirit inspires a prophecy: "Set apart Barnabas and Saul." The language reminds us of the great prophets, like Jeremiah, called and set apart from his mother's womb, or the Suffering Servant of Isaiah, called from birth to be a light to the nations (Jer 1:5; Is 49:6).

Through Barnabas and Paul a new and wider community is to be established. The bond of Jesus' disciples is to spread across the Roman empire, during this first missionary journey to the island of Cyprus. The Holy Spirit did not give precise, detailed instructions, only a call to proceed forward on the journey. At first they proclaim the word of God in the Jewish synagogues. Yet, all the while God's main purpose was to attract more and more gentiles so that Christianity can bring the message of Moses, the prophets and Jesus to all the world.

Just as Jesus and the Father formed one intimate life, just as the disciples at Antioch were united among themselves and with the Holy Spirit, likewise the church at Antioch was to reach outward toward the world as one family in Christ.

At the heart of this growing circle and ever increasing family there abides the word of life from the heavenly Father. It is this outreach toward others in love that keeps us from over-controlling the word of God. As we share this word with others, it always seems to become something new, fresh, demanding, upsetting, the result whenever new life is added to any family. Yet, this life is but a continuity of life within the parents, which reaches back to the word which the Father speaks and Jesus hears.

If we remain too close-knit, then we can control and thoroughly understand, or we think that we do. The outreach to the gentile world brought a whole new dimension to the ancient Bible. Almost every sentence had to be rethought within a new context. And when the church at Antioch, as earlier when the church at Jerusalem thought to have everything in good enough order, it was someone who reached outwards toward the nations that broke the order and yet enabled the profound mystery of God to remain just that, a mystery.

This mystery of God's hidden message, spoken wondrously in Jesus and heard through the prophets within our midst, is the most demanding voice that we will ever hear. It comes from the Father, communicated through Jesus, and continuously kept alive in the Church by the Holy Spirit; it reaches into the depth of ourselves as we have been created and endowed with life and with a future beyond our hopes. If our plans and human devices put such firm hands upon this mystery, that the wonder is lost and everything is humanly understandable, then we have lost our way and muffled the voice of the Holy Spirit. This human control is usually broken most forcefully by charity that reaches outward and sends us on a missionary journey of kindness to others.

But the word of God continued to advance and gain adherents. Then after completing their mission Barnabas and Saul returned to Jerusalem and brought with them John, whose other name was Mark.

Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a member of the court of Herod the ruler, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia; and from there they sailed to Cyprus. When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John also to assist them.

Then Jesus cried aloud: "Whoever believes in me believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. I have come as ligh into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness. I do not judge anyone who hears my words and does not keep them, for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my word has a judge; on the last day the word that I have spoken will serve as judge, for I have not spoken on my own, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I speak, therefore, I speak just as the Father has told me."

Putting the two readings together, a line of continuity stretches from eternity to earth and through Israel's history upon planet earth. Jesus is sent by the heavenly Father, with a message not just in words but in his very person. Jesus is that message drawn from the heart and intense life of the Godhead; Jesus, therefore, is the great I AM. This title, I AM, not only identifies Jesus with the eternal Godhead, but it also involves Jesus in the long history of Israel. God had revealed himself to Moses at the burning bush as the mysterious I AM (Ex 3:14).

"I am who I am, always there with you", such is the sacred name for God in an extended, descriptive form. Put into the third person, it reads: "He who is always with you." As such, it was received in the Hebrew form of Yahweh.

Thus God revealed himself to Moses: the one who will always be with his people. In some way God's presence and merciful, strong interaction with the lives of his people determine who is God: He is what they are in their questions and answers, their hopes and struggles and triumphs. This sacred name is accepted by Jesus as his own: "that... you may believe that I AM."

Jesus then was absorbing into himself the entire history of Israel, and when Jesus was born of the virgin Mary, this entire history became incarnate, flesh and blood, in Jesus.

While preaching in the synagogue at Pisidian Antioch (different city from the Antioch in Acts 11:19), Paul reviews many of the great moments of Israel's history, with special attention to Moses, David and John the Baptist. The line of continuity then extended firmly from the Godhead, to earth, from the Patriarchs and Moses to David, from David to John the Baptist, from John the Baptist to "the one who comes after me [whose sandal] I am not worthy to unfasten."

Within this very observable line, from God to Jesus all through Israel's long history, some very evident disruptions leap forward, and new settlements occur. Israel is persecuted and oppressed with hard labor in Egypt. The land of promise was delayed for the forty years while they wandered almost aimlessly in the desert and then it had to be acquired by conquest and by a long period of taking root. Saul was rejected as king; and when Jesus appeared, the Davidic dynasty had disappeared from history. This series of up's and down's, of rejection and rehabilitation, continues front stage with Jesus. One of his own disciples betrayed him. Jesus stated: "He who partook of bread with me has raised his heel against me."

Immediately after announcing his betrayal, Jesus added:

I tell you this now before it takes place, so that when it takes place you may know that I AM.

Disruption, even violent change of plans, cut across the line of continuity from God to earth and from the early moments of Israel's history till Jesus appeared, and even within the life of Jesus such explosions marked the very presence of God: "that... you may believe that I AM." At first, such interruptions would seem to be the work of the devil. Certainly Jesus' betrayal by Judas Iscariot is attributed to his possession by Satan (Luke 22:3). Yet, if we remember that God's plans are mysterious and beyond our total comprehension, that at crucial moments God takes over and brings us to decisions, attitudes and insights, to heights of wisdom and depths of strength, then it is not difficult to realize how we will suddenly move in ways never anticipated ahead of time. Or circumstances will converge in ways that leave us breathless. Maybe like Jesus, we feel betrayed by forces beyond our control.

At such moments God's providence is reaching its fulfillment. There can be no doubt that God is in control. We ourselves have lost control! It is not that we are totally passive. Like Paul at Pisidian Antioch, we need to turn to the Scriptures. And with the example of Paul we turn to the congregation at prayer. Jesus shows us how to turn one's thoughts to God and to share these perceptions with others. And as we live in this community or family setting, the lines of continuity return. We realize that God has sent his servants into our lives; that God has directed all the events. We believe and are at peace.

Then Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. John, however, left them and returned to Jerusalem; but they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. And on the sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. After the reading of the law and the prophets, the officials of the synagogue sent them a message, aying, "Brothers, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, give it." So Paul stood up and with a gesture began to speak:

"You Israelites, and others who fear God, listen. The God of this people Israel chose our ancestors and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it. For about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness. After he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance for about four hundred fifty years. After that he gave them judges until the time of the prophet Samuel. Then they asked for a king; and God gave them Saul son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, who reigned for forty years. When he had removed him, he made David their king. In his testimony about him he said, 'I have found David, son of Jesse, to be a man after my heart, who will carry out all my wishes.' Of this man's posterity God has brought to Israel a Saviour, Jesus, as he promised; before his coming John had already proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. And as John was finishing his work, he said, 'What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but one is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of the sandals on his feet."

Truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But it is to fulfill the scripture, 'The one who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.'

I tell you this now, before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am he. Very truly, I tell you, whoever receives one whom I send receives me; and whoever receives me receives him who sent me."

So long as we live on planet earth, we have not arrived. "Here we have no lasting city" (Heb 13:14). While Scripture accepts the fact that earth and even our entire solar system can wear out and disintegrate, still it emphasizes far more the ephemeral, short-lived, ever changing circumstances of our individual lives and of our society. We are always on the way, seeking and looking beyond where we are, following a hope. No sooner do we master the situation of being a child than we are growing into youth; just as soon as we grow out of the awkwardness of youth, we have passed the border into adulthood. "Here we have no lasting city." We are always on the way.

This situation can be exciting for younger people with few responsibilities and with good physical health and emotional expansiveness, to move from one thing to another, from one person to another. Yet, for an older person, with commitments in marriage, religious life, priesthood and other careers, with a more settled disposition and less elastic spontaneity in new directions, it is more and more frightening to be always on the way, always leaving something and someone behind for someone or something new.

Here we are consoled by the words of Jesus: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life." Somehow or other, to be seeking is to be found, to be on the way is to have arrived. To be straining one's eyes and hopes for Jesus means that we have already been found by Jesus. He is attracting us before we feel inclined to look for him. The flower must be found by sunlight before it will turn toward the sun.

To be on the way means to be seeking Jesus. We are longing to follow his will for peace, forgiveness, justice and compassion ever more totally in our daily life. To be on the way toward more profound peace or toward more extensive forgiveness or toward justice that shares earth's goodness with more and more of God's family, a journey such as this brings more security and delight. Most of all, in each step forward we find Jesus closer to ourselves in his personal love and attraction.

Still other paths stretch out before us, leading us on "the way." One of the most important of these exists in the Holy Scriptures. In today's epistle Paul concludes his journey through the Hebrew Bible, beginning with the patriarchs and Moses and ending with John the Baptist, the herald of Jesus. The earlier part of this journey was traversed in yesterday's reading. Today, in the latter part of the same speech at Pisidian Antioch, Paul hones in upon the congregation immediately before him.

First, we note how Paul swivels from the words of Scripture, inscribed upon a book or scroll, to those same words as spoken by the living God. All of Scripture, according to Paul, is to be read in the light of Jesus who gives the ultimate meaning to each statement. To go from words to a person, is to move from a clear statement to an unclear but forceful personal witness to those words. The process leads us from the intellect to the will, from mental work which divides and subdivides till it knows and controls, to a volitional and emotional response which is always much more difficult to grasp and still harder to control. Scripture then ought to become a springboard for contemplation, when in silent ecstasy we become lost in the wonder of Jesus' love and in an understanding beyond clear ideas.

Paul wrote about this "experience [of Christ's] ... love which surpasses all knowledge" (Eph 3:19).

We are on "the way," then, as we move from the words of Scripture to God or Jesus who speaks those words. We are also on "the way," strangely enough, when human sin or ignorance forces us out of our well-ordered plans into a vast and fearful waste (the words used in Deuteronomy for the way of the exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land! (Deut 1:19; 2:7). At such times, we are not to respond with hate nor with frustration. And when we feel helpless victims of evil, we can again be on "the way" with Jesus. By such a strange turn of circumstances, God hopes to share Israel's covenant with all the world. We too may be led thereby to share our best with many others, for the enrichment of all. That best is Jesus.

"My brothers, you descendants of Abraham's family, and others who fear God, to us the message of this salvation has been sent. Because the residents of Jerusalem and their leaders did not recognize him or understand the words of the prophets that are read every sabbath, they fulfilled those words by condemning him. Even though they found no cause for a sentence of death, they asked Pilate to have him killed. When they had carried out everything that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead; and for many days he appeared to those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, and they are now his witnesses to the people. And we bring you the good news that what God promised to our ancestors he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising Jesus; as also it is written in the second Psalm, 'You are my Son; today I have begotten you.'

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going." Thomas said to him, "Lord, 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."

We find a movement of God's presence, first in the solemn majesty and mysterious wonder of heaven, also in the manifestation of the Godhead on earth in the person of Jesus, then from God's word and presence among the Jewish people to an opening across the world. Once the grandeur of God's gift is realized, at that moment it must be shared with others. In allowing others, even strangers and foreigners, to sit down with us at the banquet table of God's presence, our family is transformed into something new and different. Just as the eternal word of God, incarnate in the womb of Mary, takes on an entirely new way of life, Jewish, Palestinian, Aramaic language, black hair, dark complexion, more emotional and less philosophical than the Greeks, more prophetical and less legal than the Romans, a similar evolution took place when the gospel migrated from an entirely Jewish setting to that of the Greek-Roman world.

Changes such as this can be extremely difficult, threatening and even divisive, as the Roman Catholic Church is experiencing in the wake of Vatican II, yet such a movement can also be a way of fulfilling Jesus' words to the apostle Philip: "The one who believes in me will do the works I do, and greater far than these." How can our human works be greater than those of Jesus? Is Jesus teasing us with a bit of unreal praise or is he providing us with the scintillating opportunity of living in a never-never land for a few blissful moments?

These words in John's gospel may be reaching into the deep subconscious of Jesus and expressing something that parents often think and say to their children: what I couldn't do, you must do! You take my dreams and make them real. Jesus must have dreamed of a mission to the entire world and yet for many reasons was inhibited from acting upon it. He told the Canaanite woman, as he was journeying in "the district of Tyre and Sidon" outside the living area of the Jewish people: "My mission is only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." And when she persisted, Jesus even stood his ground against her argument. Finally Jesus admitted: "Woman, you have great faith! Your wish will come to pass" (Matt 15:21-28). Your wish, Jesus seemed to say, is my wish, how I long to see us all one, joined around the heavenly banquet table. No one would then survive simply from the crumbs that fall to the ground!

As Jesus reached outward, often more instinctively than with clear precision of what was happening, he came into trouble with those who gave a very strict interpretation to the Mosaic laws and traditions. The transition from one family to another, from one world to another, was almost as dramatic as the moment of Jesus' incarnation, when the eternal word began to exist as Jesus, son of Mary, the Jewish maiden of Nazareth. Perhaps the Church's mission was still more dramatic, a work greater by far than anything which he had accomplished. Such changes are traumatic for many people, and eventually it cost Jesus his life, for it brought him into trouble with the religious leaders of his own people and with the civil authorities of Rome.

At Pisidian Antioch, where Paul has been living and preaching, the great instinctive dream of Jesus came true, and again with a violent thrust of the sword that divided families and friends, that involved religious and civil authorities (Luke 12:51-53). Paul and Barnabas were excommunicated from the synagogue and expelled from the territory. On this occasion Paul quoted from the prophet Isaiah: "I have made you a light to the nations, a means of salvation to the ends of the world."

Our life too changes, at times with traumatic drama, at other times with agony, and still again with scintillating joy. These transitional moments usually come unexpectedly with demands that seem exorbitant and even unreasonable. They change our life, upsetting our security. Not only are we asked to share our finest joys and most precious hopes with others, but others will make something different of them than we intended. Just as when Judaism became Christianity and the eternal God became human, our whole self is transformed by what others do with our gift.

Such moments occur: as we grow from youth to adult life, from single life to marriage, religious vocation and priesthood, from health to sickness, from independence to helpless old age, from earthly to heavenly existence. These are the way to the Father, the works greater than those of Jesus' own lifetime, the light and consolation of others. We can reread today's Scripture in the context of any personal crisis. er people color and transform that light, just as earth transformed the light that you were from all eternity in heaven.

The next sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy; and blaspheming, they contradicted what was spoken by Paul. Then both Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, "It was necessary that the word of God should 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 set you to be a light for the Gentiles, so that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.'"

When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and praised the word of the Lord; and as many as had been destined for eternal life became believers. Thus 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, and stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their region. So they shook the dust off their feet in protest against them, and went to Iconium. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."

Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? 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 say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves.

Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

As we energetically begin a day or a project, we really want to be instructed by the Holy Spirit "in everything. " Then, we will be such instruments of the Spirit, that people will sense the power of miracles within us, as once they did within Paul. And as we look at others, even if they are crippled in body or in mind, we too like Paul will see a faith strong enough to heal them of their infirmity. Today's Scriptures instruct us on ways to arrive at this change and expression of the Holy Spirit.

First, we must be obedient to the Holy Spirit. The least desire of God must become a commandment of love. To disobey is to be destroyed. Commandments then are not a set of difficult rules but an assurance that we are following God's holy will, moment by moment. This same Holy Spirit will also remind us of everything that Jesus has spoken, and in doing so, the Spirit will revive hidden resolutions for prayer or forgiveness, for patience or helpfulness. All these earlier graces from Jesus, which at one time meant so much to us, will stir with fresh life. Somehow or other, we are brought back to the first moment of youth when life lay before us and we bounded with all sorts of wonderful ideas. The Holy Spirit, then, touches us where we are at our best, God's masterpiece, a creation of love, meant to be an instrument of love toward others, and so to reveal the wonderful presence of God.

Jesus' word, which the Holy Spirit enables us to hear as though spoken for the first time, brings us into the cycle of God's magnificent life. This word comes from the Father and therefore as Jesus confessed, "is not mine." It sends Jesus forth on his ministry of world salvation, drawing him into desert nights of prayer, inspiring him to teach and to heal. It reaches us today in the Scriptures and through the Scriptures articulates the words of the Spirit within our spirit. It animates our hidden hopes and good ambitions. Thus the word sustains a cycle of divine life, from heaven to earth and back again to heaven. That word then has left its traces in our created universe and in our memories and subconscious. St. Paul expressed it this way in today's reading:

We are bringing you the good news that will convert you ... to the living God, "the one who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them." ... In bestowing his benefits, he has not hidden himself without a clue. From the heavens he sends down rain and rich harvests; your spirits he fills with food and delight.

The second condition or suggestion from today's Scripture reading, enabling us to be instruments of the

Spirit within our community and family, rests upon the strong faith that God's word is written everywhere. The Word (with capital W) within the Scriptures makes the other words intelligent and forceful.

A third condition is imbedded within the second. If the word is everywhere, then it belongs to everyone. It can never be heard and then captured as an individual's private property. By its nature it must be shared or it dies. Just as the Father's word, according to Jesus, "is not mine. It comes from the Father who sent me ... [to] instruct you in everything," likewise the word which we perceive in our hearts and in our world must continuously flow through us to inspire new life in others.

Fourthly, this life-giving, life-restoring word must be received, not only obediently (as we mentioned earlier) but also unconditionally. We must not put boundaries or conditions upon it, otherwise (again) it dies! To put this aspect of the word as clearly as possible, we must be convinced that we can be God's instrument, through the word, in working miracles. As we speak the Word (with a capital W) that absorbs and transforms all of our words (with a small w), that is, as God's inspired Word infuses new life into all our thoughts and expressions, others must respond like the crippled man at Lystra. They look on us and see in us "the faith to be saved." How can such a moment happen? Jesus answers:

The Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will instruct you in everything.

And when an attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews, with their rulers, to mistreat them and to stone them, the apostles learned of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and to the surrounding country; and there they continued proclaiming the good news.

In Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet and had never walked, for he had been crippled from birth. He listened to Paul as he was speaking. And Paul, looking at him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed, said in a loud voice, "Stand upright on your feet." And the man sprang up and began to walk. When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, "The gods have come down to us in human form!" Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates; he and the crowds wanted to offer sacrifice.

When the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting, "Friends, why are you doing this? We are mortals just like you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. In past generations he allowed all the nations to follow their own ways; yet he has not left himself without a witness in doing good - giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, and filling you with food and your hearts with joy." Even with these words, they scarcely restrained the crowds from offering sacrifice to them.

They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them." Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, "Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?" Jesus answered him, "Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me. I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you."

Jesus speaks of going away. He will return to the Father. He has come forth in obedience to the Father's will, and now at the bidding of God the Father Jesus directs his face toward the cross, resurrection and ascension. He will be reunited with the Father and the Spirit. Earlier, Philip had questioned Jesus. "Show us the Father," Philip remonstrated, "and that will be enough for us." Still earlier in the preceding day's gospel, Thomas argued with Jesus: "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" In one sense, the disciples cannot follow Jesus. And in still another sense, they must walk in the footsteps of Jesus. Jesus had said, again during the gospel of last Friday, "I am going to prepare a place for you ... I am the way."

One of the ways by which we follow Jesus, into his mysterious life with the Father and the Spirit, is to allow our own spirit come to rest in the deepest part of ourselves. Here is where the temple of God is constructed; here is the Holy of Holies of that temple, here resides the Ark of the Covenant, containing the tablets of the law (Deut 31:26). Here is where we hear God's word, the "commandment" that requires immediate obedience, as was discussed yesterday. For if God really and truly speaks, we have no choice, only one of life or death. To disobey would be to destroy our very selves as created by God.

Before this Holy of Holies, the seraphim continually call out: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, Qadoshl Qadosh! Qadosh yahweh seba'oth!" Holy, in the Hebrew qadosh, means separation, overwhelming distance, awesome transcendence, as fearful as approaching the sun, as murky and black as the bottom of the ocean. Yet, this same God speaks with us and calls us "friend!" We can approach this God, we can fly into the sun and sink to ocean depths. The more personal is God's embrace, the more profound is our ecstasy of love. Jesus is the way to the Father. We can know that way only by faith, and faith means a surrender out of love to the unknown. This unknown aspect of faith becomes all the more mysterious and undecipherable because it is not a quality of an object but the love of a person. That person is God, Father, Son and Spirit.

When we settle into the depths of ourselves, we hear God speak our name, like the Creator calling us into existence. This word, ourselves, is spoken in the same dark, mysterious, wondrous, thoroughly personal and still overwhelmingly transcendent way that a child is conceived. God speaks our name and we are created. We must let our spirit come to rest at the depths of ourselves, so that we can hear that name, that word of ourselves, spoken again, with the pure strong accents of God's voice.

At such moments we experience a peace beyond words, a peace that the world cannot give, as Jesus says in today's gospel.

Within such eternal moments of peace, God calls us forth into new life. Like Paul and Barnabas the door is opened for us to move through "foreign" lands and to live with "gentiles." Through the word of God, we absorb new strength and new wisdom. Our most hidden hopes come alive. Our ideals, that once frightened us because of their weird unreality, take on the force of a divine commandment; they are spoken anew by God.

Surrendering to such ideals means suffering! As St. Paul said to the Christian community of Antioch [where Peter was in charge for a while]:

We must undergo many trials if we are to enter into the reign of God.

Paul could speak from experience. He had just been stoned and left for dead at Pisidian Antioch [farther north than the other Antioch]. Yet, it may be possible that Paul suffered less from the stoning than he did from the demand of God to forgive those who stoned him. It must have been far easier for Paul to put up with persecution than to bear with jealousy which prompted the persecution.

We are called by Jesus to peace. And peace means forgiving others, bearing with other's differences, even their misunderstanding and jealousy.

Peace is my farewell to you, my peace is my gift to you;

I do not give it to you as the world gives peace. Do not be distressed or fearful.

But Jews came there from Antioch and Iconium and won over the crowds. Then they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. But when the disciples surrounded him, he got up and went into the city. The next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe.

After they had proclaimed the good news to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, then on to Iconium and Antioch. There they strengthened the souls of the disciples and encouraged them to continue in the faith, saying, "It is through many persecutions that we must enter the kingdom of God." And after they had appointed elders for them in each church, with prayer and fasting they entrusted them to the Lord in whom they had come to believe.

Then they passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia. When they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia. From there they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had completed. When they arrived, they called the church together and related all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith for the Gentiles. And they stayed there with the disciples for some time.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, 'I am going away, and I am coming to you.' If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me; but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us be on our way.

Each biblical reading reaches into the roots and sources of life and calls upon us to locate our origins in Jesus. For the Jewish people circumcision was the seal of the covenant, not only upon the flesh but also upon the transmission of life. Through this mark, the Jewish people not only reached back to their ancestor, the patriarch Abraham (Gen 15), but they also manifested their willingness to be known as a follower of Moses, and if need be, to die out of loyalty to the covenant of Mount Sinai. Circumcision then was much more than a ceremony. It was a family and ancestral symbol of loyalty to one another and to Yahweh, the God of their ancestors, who united them as his very own people (Ex 19:5-6).

Jesus, we learn in the gospel of Luke, was circumcised on the eighth day after his birth (Luke 2:21). So was St. Paul (Phil 3:5). Each, therefore, followed the Mosaic law scrupulously. Jesus may have differed with some of the Jewish groups like the Pharisees about the interpretation of the law and about the binding force of some traditions. Yet, Jesus himself told his followers to obey the rules set down by the priests, even if the priests' example was not worthy of imitation (Matt 23:3).

Circumcision then reached into the roots and sources of life where bonds of love and loyalty were maintained between the people and with their God. And Jesus belonged at the heart of this relationship.

Jesus, moreover, said: I am the vine, you are the branches. We have already learned from the gospel that Jesus is the Way whose footsteps we are to follow. The question became very serious: was circumcision to be required of all Christian converts, if they were male? And if female, were they required to undergo the ceremonial bath and to follow the strict dietary laws?

This question has long been settled within Christianity. Paul's theology triumphed, claiming that Jesus had brought the Old Law to its finality and fulfillment. Because of Jesus' birth, death and resurrection, it was no longer necessary first to be a Jew in order to become a Christian. Yet, the revolutionary effect of this question upon early Christianity and its relation with Judaism has a continuing impact upon our lives and decisions today.

When the scriptures force us to think deeply, to return to the roots and sources of life, we are brought into contact with the basic issues of life and death. As a result, all other questions fall away. We can no longer nitpick at small things, argue about pennies and nickels, force an ultimatum for reasons of personal pride. Heroic decisions are asked, yea demanded of us. These decisions may be as crucial as healing family feuds, going the extra mile to retrieve a friend, taking great risks and even financial losses to bring a true Christian environment into one's family, answering the call to prayer, day by day, at ever longer periods of time, awakening a new awareness to the many social injustices in our society. These kinds of decisions reach so deeply that they are bound to transform our attitudes and our external life style. They will influence our circle of friends, separating us from some and making new friends of others.

These are the moments when we realize how desperately we rely upon Jesus. As we act courageously upon these inspirations, we realize ever more forcefully that the spirit is not our own; it is the spirit of Jesus. Now we know that Jesus is the vine, we are the branches. Deep in our heart, we know for certain that Jesus has been inspiring these desires and hopes, that Jesus has been strengthening us in our long travail of decision-making, that Jesus has brought these secret hopes to extraordinary fulfillment. Jesus says: without me you can do nothing. We can now add: with Jesus we can do everything.

When we are thus servants of the spirit, a spirit that is at once Jesus' and our own, a spirit that is like the sap which flows from vine to branches and back again, then Jesus says also to us:

If you live in me and my words stay part of you, you may ask what you will and it will be done for you. My Father has been glorified in your bearing much fruit and becoming my disciples.

In this wondrous interchange of life, we are challenged by the Spirit of Jesus to follow through with momentous decisions. Just as the early Church could reach beyond the practice of Jesus and no longer demand circumcision, we too are being asked to leap forward from ideas and devotions that separated us from others and to make heroic decisions of forgiveness, patience, social justice and concern for the oppressed, a thoroughly Christian homelife. Then, our own hopes can be trusted as divinely inspired and we can be confident: you may ask what you will, and it will be done for you. When we live this deeply-at the roots-in God, then there is an immediacy and certainty of God's force and direction in life.

Then certain individuals came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to discuss this question with the apostles and the elders. So they were sent on their way by the church, and as they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, they reported the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the believers.

When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them. But some believers who belonged to the sect of the Pharisees stood up and said, "It is necessary for them to be circumcised and ordered to keep the law of Moses." So the apostles and the elders met together to consider this matter.

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples."

A spontaneous interchange of life, love and joy flows between God the Father and God the Son. This force which attracts and unites them is so personal and real as to be God the Holy Spirit. Jesus desires that this same bond exist between ourselves and his own person. "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Live on in my love. Let my joy be yours that your joy may be complete."

This spirit of love and enthusiasm was found to exist among non-baptized gentiles by Peter and Paul. What Jesus had prayed to come among his disciples, was already present among foreigners even before their baptism. Peter was referring to the "second Pentecost" when the Holy Spirit descended upon the household of Cornelius, a non-baptized Roman, in almost the same way as when the

Spirit came upon the first disciples of Jesus in the upper room (Acts 1:13, 2:1). We read in Acts:

Peter had not finished these words when the Holy Spirit descended upon all who were listen ing to Peter's message. The circumcised believers who had accompanied Peter were surprised that the gift of the Holy Spirit should have been poured out on the gentiles also, whom they could hear speaking in tongues and glorifying God (Acts 10:44-46).

Peter, therefore, directed that these people be baptized at once in the name of Jesus Christ. These pagan Romans were not required first to be circumcised, to undergo ceremonial baths and to obey dietary laws among the Jewish people. To baptize the pagans immediately seemed like a command from Jesus, even though Jesus himself had submitted to circumcision and other Mosaic prescriptions.

We all experience moments, like those which suddenly came upon Peter and Paul in the apostolate, when we are faced with a fait accompli, the accomplished fact of a person manifesting undeniable gifts of the Spirit and yet thinking and acting in a way different from our own tradition and customs, maybe even opposed to our ways. These people are sincere, authentic, gifted with common sense, yet unable to agree with us. These "gentiles" receive the spirit in a way that clashes with our own traditions and customs. To put it as bluntly as possible, God's way of acting in them seems (to our way of judging) to break God's laws! Perhaps, we think to ourselves: these people are mistaken and therefore cannot be directed by the spirit of Jesus. Or, they are partially right and partially wrong, partially good and sincere and partially blinded and biased. Yet, every human being combines these strange opposites. At the same time it is not possible at the moment to pull the threads apart and separate the

Fifth Week of Easter      95 good from the bad, the correct from the erroneous, as we interact with these "gentiles."

The Scriptures offer us some good advice. First, let us never deny the existence of the Holy Spirit whenever we see a manifestation of affection, concern, patience, and self-sacrifice for the sake of others. These are undeniable gifts of the spirit, no matter what faults, errors and misconceptions also lodge in the same person. Certainly the gentiles of the household of Cornelius, baptized immediately by Peter, still clung to many pagan, superstitious ideas. There is good reason to think that their moral principles did not measure up to those of the first disciples of Jesus. Yet, Peter ordered baptism immediately. And later Paul defended this action as a policy for the Church.

Yet, in the decision reached at Jerusalem, a second piece of advice was given. The gentiles were required to respect some deeply imbedded sensitivities of the Jewish people. These were customary procedures all related to blood: not to undertake marriage with certain close relatives; not to partake of blood whether directly, or indirectly in animals improperly butchered; and not to purchase meat from the common market as it had not only been offered to pagan gods but had not been correctly drained of blood. Therefore, expectations were rightly made on both sides, even today, by which people show a gentle, calm consideration for the customs and impressions of others. Conversion, therefore, is not simply a theological debate; it is a reconciliation with a family where Jesus is the head.

Finally, in his response at the Jerusalem council, James quoted from the prophet Amos to find a foreshadowing of this future conversion of the gentiles. James, however, did not quote verbatim from the Hebrew Scriptures. After repeating that God "will raise up the fallen house of David" he omitted the next line, "that they may conquer what is left of [the gentile people of] Edom." James omitted the military conquest, forcing gentiles to submit to God's chosen people. James, therefore, adapted the Hebrew Scriptures to a development which took place with Jesus who avoided political and especially military confrontations. Jesus separated himself from the political implications of the kingdom of David and spoke rather of the kingdom of God. James reached into Scripture to understand better the surprising gift of the spirit to gentiles. Yet, his Scripture was the living and therefore the evolving word of God. We too when faced with serious differences, yet also with the evident manifestation of the good spirit of Jsus in others, ought to reach into tradition and into the Scriptures for guidance.

Conversion in the Spirit, therefore, is much more than a theological victory; it is reconciliation within a family, the household of the faith. Then as Jesus says in the gospel: "My joy may be yours and your joy may be complete."

After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, "My brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that I should be the one through whom the Gentiles would hear the message of the good news and become believers. And God, who knows the human heart, testified to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us; and in cleansing their hearts by faith he has made no distinction between them and us. Now therefore why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? On the contrary, we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will."

The whole assembly kept silence, and listened to Barnabas and Paul as they told of all the signs and wonders that God had done through them among the Gentiles.

After they finished speaking, James replied, "My brothers, listen to me. Simeon has related how God first looked favourably on the Gentiles, to take from among them a people for his name. This agrees with the words of the prophets, as it is written, 'After this I will return, and I will rebuild the dwelling of David, which has fallen; from its ruins I will rebuild it, and I will set it up, so that all other peoples may seek the Lord - even all the Gentiles over whom my name has been called. Thus says the Lord, who has been making these things known from long ago.' Therefore I have reached the decision that we should not trouble those Gentiles who are turning to God, but we should write to them to abstain only from things polluted by idols and from fornication and from whatever has been strangled and from blood. For in every city, for generations past, Moses has had those who proclaim him, for he has been read aloud every sabbath in the synagogues."

Jesus said to them: "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete."

Today's biblical readings combine human compromise along with heroic expectations. Heroically, we are to love one another as Jesus has loved us and has laid down his life for us. Such extensive and demanding loyalty was preached within the early Church, which also arrived at an heroic compromise: gentiles are not required to follow what seemed essential laws of Judaism (like circumcision and dietary rules) yet they were asked to maintain certain customary procedures, like not eating the meat of strangled animals (see yesterday's meditation). Both the compromise decision of the Jerusalem Council and the willingness to die for one's friends are attributed to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

We will all agree that martyrdom must be inspired by the Spirit of God, but we often think of compromise as at least slightly immoral and almost always as a decline in personal ideals. Yet the letter of the Jerusalem Council begins: "It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and ours too, not to lay any burden beyond that which is strictly necessary. ..." The word in italics, strictly, indicates some kind of minimalist interpretation.

The Jerusalem Council helped to solve one of the most serious threats ever encountered by the Church. If it had repudiated Paul's action (of not requiring circumcision and dispensing gentile converts from the full Jewish law), Christianity would have remained a small sect within the Roman Empire, a satellite of Judaism, and never what Jesus intended as the fulfillment of all prophecies and hopes, the new covenant promised by Jeremiah and Ezekiel (Jer 31:31-34; Ez 36:22-28), the final age of the world. This decision had not been clearly made by Jesus himself. Although Jesus gave hints or signals of a world religion, breaking the bonds of the practice of the ancestral religion in his days, still his clear statement almost said the opposite: he instructed his twelve disciples: "Do not visit pagan territory and do not enter a Samaritan town. Go instead after the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matt 10:5-6). Jesus likewise defended himself before the requests of the Canaanite woman: "My mission is only to the ost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matt 15:24). Paul's struggle to win acceptance in the Church for his own "liberal" position (many in the early Church called it heretical, and even Peter weakened, Gal 2:11-14) is clear enough proof that Jesus had left the question undecided, perhaps unasked!

The Church faced this crucial test of her nature and mission by calling an assembly of "the whole Jerusalem church" with the apostles and elders. Their decision was set by a letter placed in the hands of Paul and Barnabas along with the leading men of the community, Judas, known as Barsabbas, and Silas.

This letter bears all the marks of compromise and diplomacy. First, the Jerusalem church states clearly that it had not sent those "of our number" ... [who] have upset you ... and disturbed your peace of mind." Secondly, the decision rests upon the principle, "not to lay on you any burden beyond that which is strictly necessary." The Council, therefore, followed the sunshine policy of open discussion, so that everyone bore the responsibility of the decision. It also voted for freedom wherever possible. It asked for special consideration as regards certain Jewish customs where sensitivities were delicate.

Such a solution, at that moment, would fulfill the Lord's commandment: "Love one another as I have loved you ... [even to] laying down one's life for one's friends." The practice of patience can be heroic. To give in on unimportant details summons extraordinary humility. To discuss quietly an explosive issue and to remain at the conversation till a solution is reached manifest enormous trust in others' goodwill as in God's assistance.

Often enough very simple answers make all the difference between peace and war, whether among nations or among families and friends. How often, unfortunately, we are unwilling to listen and speak with calm perseverance, to give and to take, to barter and exchange, to be conscious of others' feelings and sensitivities, to forgive and forget quarrels and accusations.

The heroic compromise of the Jerusalem Council still must have been a serious blow at many Jewish Christians. Practices of piety and devotion, styles of worship and prayer, received from their ancestors and from Jesus himself, would no longer be binding upon the gentile Christians who very soon outnumbered the Jewish Christians. These same Christians of Hebrew origin would have been embarrassed before their Jewish relatives and friends who did not become followers or disciples of Jesus nor members of the Christian church. The torch was being passed to a new generation. It is a glorious moment; it is also a moment of heroic pain and separation. Jesus said to his disciples:

This is my commandment: to lay down one's life for one's friends.

Then the apostles and the elders, with the consent of the whole church, decided to choose men from among their members and to send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leaders among the brothers, with the following letter: "The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the believers of Gentile origin in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings. Since we have heard that certain persons who have gone out from us, though with no instructions from us, have said things to disturb you and have unsettled your minds, we have decided unanimously to choose representatives and send them to you, along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, who have risked their lives for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you no further burden than these essentials: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell."

So they were sent off and went down to Antioch. When they gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter. When its members read it, they rejoiced at the exhortation.

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

Adversity continues to exert its important role in the apostolate. Persecuted in one place, the disciples fled to another place. And so the gospel moved onward and continued to spread across the Roman Empire. Whenever local conditions threw road blocks in Paul's way and kept him from preaching in the name of Jesus, the Scripture explains the situation thus: "They had been prevented by the Holy Spirit from preaching the message." This highly theological phrase, "prevented by the Holy Spirit," almost seems like a quieting and smothering blanket, spread over a snarling case involving intrigue, jealousy, fear, false ambition, such as we know to have happened in other places when the full documents are available, as for instance at Corinth (Acts 18; 1-2 Cor). While the apostolate proceeds within the full human setting, with its false judgment and selfish motivation, nonetheless, the Scriptures are always intent to recognize a mystery of salvation being achieved "by the Holy Spirit" through human instruments.

In the Scriptures the action of the Holy Spirit is almost always embracing human plans and prudent compromise. For instance, we read for today's selection from Acts that "Paul had him [namely Timothy] circumcised because of the Jews of that region." Yet, at the same time Paul was transmitting "to the people for observance the decisions which the apostles and elders had made in Jerusalem." Among these decisions was the clear stipulation that difficult burdens, like the rule of requiring circumcision before baptism, was not to be imposed, as we have already discussed in the preceding two meditations. Once Paul had settled the issue that circumcision was not necessary, then he felt free to circumcise! Paul's human plans, accordingly, included some rather sophisticated reasoning, some hard bargaining with the Jerusalem church, some staunch loyalty to principle, some provision for compromise on non-essentials. Now that circumcision was no longer an absolute prerequisite for salvation, Paul ignored this monumental ictory and decided to have Timothy circumcised, if that young man was to be his assistant. Paul did this "because of the Jews of that region"!

Paul wanted to preserve a clear line of continuity with the Jewish ancestry of the Christian faith. He would act, even with diplomatic finesse and compromise; he would also act with stern dedication to principle. Through it all, Paul was conscious of being led by the Holy Spirit. At other times this continuity would have to be maintained in the midst of hostility and persecutions. Once again, this problem was handled variously. At times, hardships had to be faced directly, even to the point of martyrdom. Paul eventually died such a death, a heroic witness of his devotion and obedience to the Spirit. Paul could then have remembered the words of Jesus, as we hear them in today's gospel:

If you find that the world hates you, know that it has hated me before you ... You do not belong to the world. But I chose you out of the world.... They will harry you as they harried me.

To be chosen out of this world can reach the point of martyrdom.

At other times, to be chosen out of the world means to avoid Bithynia "the province of Asia" in preaching the gospel. We do not know the exact problems, but in any case Paul did not crash into them but went around them. And twice the decision, to be prudent and to compromise, is attributed to the Holy Spirit. In some way, Paul is being chosen "out of [or away from] the world", of Asia and Bithynia, and in still another way Paul remained very much in the world, as the Spirit beckoned him to Macedonia.

"Beckoned to Macedonia" turns out to be a simple phrase, slipped almost unnoticed into the inspired text of the Bible. Yet, here is one of those monumental, most dramatic steps. Christianity passes into Europe. The heart of biblical religion will no longer be located at Jerusalem but somewhere else. The decision has not yet been made, of course, but the first step in its formulation has been taken. That step was induced by a set of human circumstances, some petty and insignificant yet all the while annoying, others much more theological and serious. Paul handled the situation with a combined reaction of stern principle and diplomatic compromise. All the while, he was convinced that he was being led by the Holy Spirit.

Paul went on also to Derbe and to Lystra, where there was a disciple named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer; but his father was a Greek. He was well spoken of by the believers in Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him; and he took him and had him circumcised because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. As they went from town to town, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in numbers daily.

They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. When they had come opposite Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them; so, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.

"If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world - therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, 'Servants are not greater than their master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also. But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.

Paul's life at Philippi at first settled down to one of exceptional peace. By contrast today's gospel anticipates persecutions and martyrdom, inflicted by those who do not know either the Father or the Son. Such is always the Church, at peace in some areas, rent apart by severe trials in other areas. If we experience happy tranquility, we must always remember those who are suffering and dying. If we are the victims of pain, separation and unreasonable and seemingly useless persecution, we should never lose heart; we also belong to a victorious, happy Church. Such contradictions are the normal conditions of life. Life, furthermore, can change quickly and dramatically, from serenity to anxiety and onward to baffling questions and deep agony. Paul, in fact, was experiencing such a striking transition in his life. Up till now in Asia Minor (more or less equivalent to modern Syria and Turkey), he had been plagued by Jewish Christians who challenged his credentials as an apostle and who contradicted his "gospel" (2 Cor 11-12) that faith in Jesus has set us free, particularly from the Mosaic prescriptions. Summoned by a vision to come to Macedonia (Greece), as we found in last Saturday's reading, Paul stepped into a period of peace. In Greece, he moved rather quickly to the city of Philippi and was graciously received by a wealthy woman named Lydia, who offered the use of her home as his headquarters.

Paul literally fell in love with the Philippi church. His epistle to them is among the most touching in the Bible. He wrote:

I give thanks to my God every time I think of you, which is constantly, in every prayer I utter, rejoicing, as I plead on your behalf, at the way you have all continually helped promote the gospel from the very first day ... I hold all of you dear ... God himself can testify how much I long for each of you with the affection of Christ Jesus! (Phil 1:3-8).

The passage from Acts, which describes in a bit more detail Paul's first days at Philippi, also helps to correct the misapprehension of Paul's misogyny. If he had been a fiercely outspoken anti-feminist, then a woman as sophisticated and discerning as Lydia, a wealthy merchant, should not have been won to Christianity by Paul's preaching and then have offered him the use of her own house.

Paul seemed to be surrounded with contentment and success, at least at first while living at Philippi. At the same time, in today's scriptural readings, John's gospel refers to the way that Christians were to be expelled from religious assemblies. They would be put to death by people who mistakenly claimed to be serving God. This clash in themes may seem unreal and unworkable, yet it is as real as life can be. Today, somewhere in the world, Christians are being expelled from their homes and from their churches, are being dragged before law courts and sentenced to long imprisonment and to death. Or their death may come less gloriously, as they rot away in confinement.

Perhaps in our own lives, part of ourselves must keep a joyful appearance, while another part of ourselves harbors a secret reservoir of pain, disappointment and doubt. All of us in one way or another, combine success and failure, achievement and frustration.

This combination has many advantages, and lest we forget, the liturgy puts the diverse situations clearly before us in today's two readings. God allows sorrow and disappointment to overshadow our lives so that our joy does not get out of hand and degenerate into forgetfulness of God, sensuality, indifference toward the needy and other forms of selfishness. Such sorrow enables us to be compassionate toward others in their suffering. Yet, this compassion is far more optimistic than a consoling drink of cool water before execution. It is compassion with hope and optimism. Life can be better, for in Jesus we have the reassuring words of someone who has suffered more than we endure.

In sorrow we intuitively feel the hope which comes to us from other parts of the Church, which is enjoying the peace and victory of Christ. As a result we can suffer more, be more compassionate, extend more hope, undertake new and greater trials for the sake of others. We can be convinced that we will never slip to any extreme and find ourselves cut off; the Church remembers all these experiences of life. In this embrace the Church encloses great suffering and overwhelming peace, not only the assurance that greater risks can be taken for the sake of others but also the realization that the Church will balance whatever may otherwise tend to extremes. The Spirit who prompts all good actions and who consoles all sorrowing people, that same Spirit comes to us from the Father and bears witness on behalf of Jesus.

We set sail from Troas and took a straight course to Samothrace, the following day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city for some days. On the sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there. A certain woman named Lydia, a worshipper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul. When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home." And she prevailed upon us.

"When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.

"I have said these things to you to keep you from stumbling. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, an hour is coming when those who kill you will think that by doing so they are offering worship to God. And they will do this because they have not known the Father or me. But I have said these things to you so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you about them.

Crises usually hit us by surprise. Seldom can we plan for them, particularly those which we have never before experienced. Suddenly, Paul's peaceful life at Philippi was shattered. We read earlier from the account in Acts, that Paul "became annoyed" with the girl who followed him, shouting, "These men are servants of the Most High God; they will make known to you a way of salvation." So, Paul "turned around and said to the spirit, 'In the name of Jesus Christ I command you, come out of her.' "

The account in Acts continues: "When her masters saw that their source of profit was gone" as this girl had brought substantial money to them by her fortune-telling, "they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them ... before the local authorities" and stirred up a mob who "joined in the attack."

We can sympathize with Paul's annoyance, but we can't help but wonder if a bit more patience and tolerance would have saved him a lot of trouble! Or perhaps Paul was stirred with pity for the unfortunate girl whom her masters used for their own profit. In any case, the whole situation changed dramatically for Paul and Silas. times of crises we discover hidden resources of strength and wisdom through our faith in Jesus. That Jesus should make the supreme difference is evident from Acts. Paul was able to endure a punishment as torturous, as a public scourging. This punishment could not be inflicted upon a Roman citizen. In this case, Paul was later to demand a public apology from the magistrates. Yet, for the moment, Paul and Silas maintained an extraordinary calm. "About midnight ... Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God." Then another quick change happened. An earthquake broke down the prison gates. Paul and Silas could have fled away, yet they remained within the prison.

This calm strength was not possessed by the jailer. He woke up, saw the prison gates wide open and drew his sword to kill himself. He could not endure the disgrace of losing his prisoners. Paul shouted: Do not harm yourself! After a quick instruction about Jesus, Paul baptized the jailer and his entire household. This man then spread a feast to celebrate his newly found faith. It was not just the decision of the prisoners not to run away that transformed a person in panic into a strong, steady man. The Scriptures say that faith made the difference.

We too possess hidden resources of strength, if our faith is strong and if we truly believe in Jesus' love and power to save us. Then, like Paul, when a crisis hits unexpectedly, for instance a death in the family or community, our faith at once places us into the wide world of the deceased in Purgatory or in Heaven. We do not flee from the reality of our situation (we remain like Paul in prison), yet we can conquer death. In the Eucharist we recline with the saints and with the suffering souls in Purgatory, just as the jailer prepared a magnificent banquet for his entire household. Or we recline at table with the poor and lowly, those persons wondrously saved as in Psalm 22:26-27. We belong by faith to such a cloud of witnesses (Heb 12:1).

Then we recall Jesus' words that "he will prove the world wrong about sin, about justice and about condemnation." We recognize the justice of God, in that his promises are "justly" fulfilled, as fully as God intended and announced. The world, even our own individual, narrow-minded world, is convinced of sin. We had been wrong to limit God's family to those alive with us on earth. We can enjoy the eternal peace of the deceased. And so we "condemn" spontaneously whatever has been holding us back from believing in the mighty power of the Spirit.

When tragedy summons such mighty responses from our heart, we somehow understand these mysterious words of Jesus:

I tell you the sober truth:

It is better for you that I go.

If I fail to go, the Paraclete will never come to you, while if I go,

I will send him to you.

Crises then are not so much a test of our personal endurance but the occasion to realize the overwhelming loyalty and love of the Holy Spirit. Because such consolation reaches beyond our understanding, we can never declare ahead of time how much we can endure for the faith out of love for Jesus. The love of Jesus surpasses our ways of measurement. Only by surrendering in faith will God be able to prove "the sober truth" of his infinite care for us.

The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods. After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely. Following these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was an earthquake, so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were unfastened. When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, since he supposed that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted in a loud voice, "Do not harm yourself, for we are all here." The jailer called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them outside and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" They answered, "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved you and your household." They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay. He brought them up into the house and set food before them; and he and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God.

But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, 'Where are you going?' But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.

Paul recognized in the Areopagus at Athens the wonderful, even ecstatic beauty of God's creatures, as carved out of marble. The Greeks exulted in the perfect expression of the human form and carved some of the most exquisite statues of male and female as created by God. Further, their temples to Athena and all the deities remain wonders of the world even today. By these statues and architectural achievements the Greeks sought to communicate with others and to commune within themselves about this wonderful mystery of human nature.

John's gospel for today also alludes to the awesome mystery of human life. We receive the Spirit who gradually reveals what we cannot bear to receive all at once right now. This Spirit has absorbed and has actually become the mysterious life uniting the Father and Son in the Holy Trinity. Earlier, on Monday of the Fifth Week of Easter, Jesus had stated that the Father reveals everything to him. This "truth" of all life and hope, which comes from the Father and becomes the Son, now unites them so closely as to become the person of the Holy Spirit. This Spirit receives, like Jesus, the mystery of God's life and desires, and fulfills Jesus' desire of making this truth a part of our own life. Jesus says in today's gospel: the Spirit of truth ... will guide you to all truth ... will speak what he hears and will announce to you the things to come. In doing this he will give glory to me.

While the Greeks identified the mystery of human greatness with the surface beauty of male and female forms, with majestic structures, or with philosophical concepts, John's gospel recognizes the presence of this mystery more deeply at the roots of our being, far beyond our control, even beyond ourselves in the mystery of God's secret life as Father, Son and Spirit. Therefore, what we are to become, the secrets of the things to come, cannot be expressed in statues or philosophical concepts.

Paul endeavored to win over the Greeks to the far more divine mystery in human life when he spoke on the Areopagus. He directed attention to the altar inscribed "To a God Unknown." He went on to say: "What you are thus worshiping in ignorance I intend to make known to you." Paul ended his polished, well-articulated and carefully reasoned speech with an idea that leaped beyond reason and denied the perfection of human nature as it appeared now to the Greeks. He referred to Jesus whom God "has endorsed in the sight of all by raising him from the dead. "

At that point, we are told that "some sneered, while others said, 'We must hear from you on this topic some other time.'" At best he received a polite and condescending smile: maybe we'll have time for you some other time, maybe not! Yet, one member of the court of the Areopagus, by name Dionysius, and a woman named Damaris, and a few others became believers in Jesus.

Christianity then insists that perfection is not a human product, it cannot be achieved by putting our best efforts to the task, whether individually or communally. Perfection exists now as a hope, a hope so exalted, so demanding, so mysterious, that it can drive a person to martyrdom, as it did Jesus and eventually Paul, or to heroic suffering or to contemplative prayer. The Spirit of truth seeks to unite men and women in the same bond of love and affection, of equal dignity and respect, that it can be compared with the bond uniting Father, Son and Spirit in the Holy Trinity. This hope is beyond what we can bear to hear right now, it will eventually exert its superhuman expectations, that like Jesus we will pass through a valley of sorrow and death and yet by this same hope we will be raised from the dead.

Such perfection then is not a human achievement. It can be attained only by surrendering to a power, actually a Person, the Holy Spirit, and then in this total risk of what we are at present and of what we can become, we stake everything upon this ineffable "Truth."

Even if this final accomplishment cannot result from an expenditure of the best human effort, still as Paul pointed out to the Athenians, it will be seen in people. This "unknown God," worshiped by the Greeks, does not dwell in statues or sanctuaries. Rather as Paul pointed out, "it is he who gives to all life and breath and everything else. From one stock he made every nation of humankind to dwell on the face of the earth ... 'for we are his offspring' [and so] he calls on all men and women everywhere to reform their lives." Paul's vision of God's wonder resides in people, all sons and daughters of the same God, all sharing the same dignity and all challenged by the same hopes. Only by such bonds of love and forgiveness can we manifest the bond of love within the Holy Trinity and be absorbed within the mystery. Little by little Jesus sends the Spirit to reveal such expectations. Little wonder too that we cannot bear such a message all at once. Yet in possessing the Spirit we have within us the Person of God,the full message of Jesus, the pledge of what we are to become by dying with Jesus and rising with him.

Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens; an after receiving instructions to have Silas and Timothy join him as soon as possible, they left him.

While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and also in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. Also some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers debated with him. Some said, "What does this babbler want to say?" Others said, "He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign divinities." (This was because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.) So they took him and brought him to the Areopagus and asked him, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? It sounds rather strange to us, so we would like to know what it means." Now all the Athenians and the foreigners living there would spend their time in nothing but telling or hearing something new.

Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus an said, "Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, 'To an unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him - though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For 'In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we too are his offspring.' Since we are God's offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead."

When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed; but others said, "We will hear you again about this." At that point Paul left them. But some of them joined him and became believers, including Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.

"I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

The Scriptures accept and record the quick transitions which can come into all our lives. Paul left behind the capital city of Athens with its sophisticated audience and proceeded to Corinth. Here he ran into severe opposition from the Jewish people, yet one of the leaders of the synagogue "put his faith in the Lord." More and more gentiles accepted Paul and turned to the Lord Jesus. Paul continued to minister to the Jewish people, but he is definitely moving away from them toward a gentile environment.

Sudden changes also appear in the gospel narrative. Here it is expressed in terms of Jesus' presence, absence and new presence. As we review all of these movements, from one part of human life to another, we realize that no stage of our existence is permanent. "The world as we know it is passing away" (1 Cor 7:31).

We learn from world history that when a culture or an empire is at its point of highest development and furthest reach, it is usually at the moment of collapse and disintegration. Usually what breaks an empire or collapses a culture is a small, seemingly insignificant force somewhere on the outer edge. In the Old Testament an upstart from a small vassal state overturned the political equilibrium of the Babylonians and Egyptians and created the Persian Empire; his name was Cyrus the Great. Jesus, from an unknown village called Nazareth, so unimportant as never to be mentioned in the Hebrew Scripture, turned into a key figure of world religions. All of us possess such elements of extraordinary change within our lives and circle of friends and work. We should learn to be tolerant and patient, to be humble and docile, able to learn from every aspect of our lives and from everyone within our acquaintance. That person or that event may be announcing our future, the new coming of Jesus into our lives.

We cannot afford to slough off anyone; we cannot look down our nose at any event; we cannot pass by and keep walking with our head in the clouds, unwilling to learn from what is being said and done. In the ancient Scripture, perhaps no person prefigured the ministry and character of Jesus more than the suffering servant in the prophecy of Isaiah. In one of the Servant Songs (49:1-9a) this servant has "the tongue of a disciple," or more literally "the tongue of one who has been taught." Later in the same Song, the servant suffers shame and humiliation. In this way, the servant is able to uphold those who are cast down and insert a new dignity into the lowest moments of human existence. And from this servant Jesus learned peace and the way of his own apostolate.

Not only will we learn the future from people and events seemingly of little or no importance, but from "nowhere" come the dramatic changes in our lives. Furthermore, these transitions usually happen, by surprise. No matter how well we think to be preparing ourselves, we seem to be caught unaware, at least unable to cope with all that happens. Once more the prophet Second Isaiah instructs us; we may have heard the prophecies over and over again. God may have made sure that we were acquainted with them. Yet, God adds: "Suddenly I take action and they come to be" (Is 48:3). Only if we are gracious, yes humble toward the small people and the incidental details of our life, will we be able to handle the moment of dramatic change. Courteous good nature and patient appreciation instill the courage and strength to do the right thing at traumatic moments of change.

Such kindliness and openness prepare us for that "short while" when Jesus disappears from us and returns to us. Our grief at his departure reaches deeply within us, yet our patience enables us to wait upon the Lord. Such waiting renews our strength (Is 40:31); it develops our longing for what is best in life. This waiting upon the Lord also flows from a temperate and thoughtful response to sorrow.

You will grieve for a time, but your grief will be turned into joy.

Quickly, suddenly, by surprise the Lord will return, again by means of silent events that we could easily pass by unnoticed.

Jesus returned to Paul in such normal ways at Corinth. The apostle met a couple who engaged in the same trade as himself; they were tentmakers. It seems that they were also Jewish Christians like himself. Not only did they keep Paul in contact with his roots, which could seem to have been severed in the difficult turn of events, but they also kept Paul rooted down to earth in the practical, everyday details of secular life. He would work for his living. It is possible that these normal responses prepared Paul for the sudden, dramatic change: "I will turn to the gentiles." Perhaps, in the secular marketplace where everyone equally works for a living, Paul heard the Lord calling him to broaden his ministry and to gather the foreigners into the community of Jesus' disciples.

When our life seems to collapse suddenly, we are not so much humiliated in our defeats and straightened in the seeming absence of Jesus. Rather, we are reduced to a point where we become brothers and sisters to all God's family. At this moment of gracious love, Jesus "in that little while" returns to us.

After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. There he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, and, because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them, and they worked together - by trade they were tentmakers. Every sabbath he would argue in the synagogue and would try to convince Jews and Greeks.

When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with proclaiming the word, testifying to the Jews that the Messiah was Jesus. When they opposed and reviled him, in protest he shook the dust from his clothes and said to them, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles." Then he left the synagogue and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshipper of God; his house was next door to the synagogue. Crispus, the official of the synagogue, became a believer in the Lord, together with all his household; and many of the Corinthians who heard Paul became believers and were baptized.

"A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me." Then some of his disciples said to one another, "What does he mean by saying to us, 'A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me'; and 'Because I am going to the Father'?" They said, "What does he mean by this 'a little while'? We do not know what he is talking about." Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, "Are you discussing among yourselves what I meant when I said, 'A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me'? Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy.

Because the Bible is the word of God, we often think to ourselves that it will answer all our questions. Yet, today's Gospel indicates that we will have questions on our mind until the second coming of Jesus. "[Only] on that day you will have no questions to ask me." We might expect such a statement from the early parts of the New Testament, say from the gospel of Mark, or still earlier in the Epistle to the Thessalonians. It would not be surprising if the sacred writer of these first New Testament works would reassure us that sooner or later all our questions will be answered, once the gospels take shape and the traditions of the Church are assembled. Yet, we meet the statement in one of the last of the New Testament writings, the gospel of John. Because this gospel could call upon the entire Hebrew Scriptures and also upon the New Testament Scriptures, its author should have had all the answers. Certainly, the Church should not have had to wait until the second coming of Jesus, an event which has still not taken place, before all her questioning would stop.

Further indecisiveness stirs beneath the surface of today's biblical readings, and this unsteadiness becomes all the more surprising in view of the opening incident in Acts. Jesus appeared to Paul, strengthened him and assured Paul: "I am with you." Yet, after this initial promise, serious questions come to mind. Paul is dragged before the Roman proconsul. Then the case is suddenly dismissed. The Jewish people turn upon a leading man of the synagogue, Sosthenes, and beat him up. The account in Acts gives no reason for this violence; instead, it turns quickly to say that Paul remained "quite a while" at Corinth, most probably a year and a half. Paul's loyalty to the Mosaic traditions, despite the fact that his fellow Jews attempted to put him on trial before the Roman proconsul, shows up clearly in Paul's consecration of himself with the Nazirite vow (Num 6:1-21). He shaved his head and would not cut his hair again until the vow is completed. He would follow strict dietary laws and keep himself "ceremonially pur." In a very real sense, Paul again becomes thoroughly a Jew and immerses himself in some of the strictest of Jewish customs. He then took leave from Cenchreae, the seaport of Corinth, facing the east, and began the journey toward Jerusalem.

All kinds of questions come to our mind. Why was Sosthenes beaten up publicly? Why would Paul continue living as a fervent Jew, obedient to its strictest rules, when he was proclaiming the freedom of Jesus' disciples from these laws and regulations.

Evidently, Jesus' will for Paul was taking a long time to be clarified and understood in the mind of the apostle. We are reminded of the example of Jesus about a pregnant woman. She will weep and mourn that her time has come. She suffers greatly, all the while unsure about the child, about its sex, facial features, health, about its future which will affect the parents and the entire family. Paul, and in fact we ourselves are all like that pregnant woman, for we possess hopes beyond our comprehension. We are being called to pledge ourselves to other people and to other work, and often enough the future is not clear. At times there are movements of new life which cause us pain and which raise questions.

We have the assurance of Jesus that "your grief will be turned into joy." Although Jesus in one sense can prove this statement from the mystery of the resurrection in his own life, nonetheless, Jesus' glory seems so far remote from us, particularly from us when we are caught in sorrow and darkness, that his resurrection no longer seems to prove anything. And when more questions arise, Jesus' resurrection does not offer us any clear answers,  only the strength to live with our questions still longer!

Yet, somehow or other, mysteriously enough but nonetheless beyond all doubt, we sense the presence of Jesus in our lives. Jesus comes to us "one night" in the midst of our darkness, and the force of his presence seems like a vision. He says to us as to Paul: "Do not be afraid. Go on speaking and do not be silenced, for I am with you." The strongest reassurance comes when we are silent, prayerful, immersed in God's holy presence. In such weakness we sense the strength of God deeply within us.

Jesus' presence does not seem to alter the external form of our lives. Paul continued to live as a very devout Jew, even to the point of taking the Nazirite vow and committing himself to dietary laws stricter than those for the ordinary Jewish person. Even when dragged by some of the Jewish people before the Roman proconsul and when another of his friends, Sosthenes, was publicly beaten up, still Paul remained a faithful Jew. We too are not asked to cut all our ties and disassociate ourselves from family and friends. In fact, the presence of Jesus ought to strengthen those bonds and make our loyalty all the more dependable.

Yet, all the while, our hopes continue to grow within us, as a child develops within its mother's womb. Through prayer and patience, through peace and loyalty, we perceive these wonders and possibilities. We live staunchly within the present moment and yet we realize our call toward Jesus that will transform our lives. Our questions now deepen our spirit of faith in Jesus, our willingness to wait and so to renew our strength.

One night the Lord said to Paul in a vision, "Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent; for I am with you, and no one will lay a hand on you to harm you, for there are many in this city who are my people." He stayed there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal. They said, "This man is persuading people to worship God in ways that are contrary to the law." Just as Paul was about to speak, Gallio said to the Jews, "If it were a matter of crime or serious villainy, I would be justified in accepting the complaint of you Jews; but since it is a matter of questions about words and names and your own law, see to it yourselves; I do not wish to be a judge of these matters." And he dismissed them from the tribunal. Then all of them seized Sosthenes, the official of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal. But Gallio paid no attention to any of these things.

After staying there for a considerable time, Paul said farewell to the believers and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. At Cenchreae he had his hair cut, for he was under a vow.

Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy. When a woman is in labour, she has pain, because her hour has come. But when her child is born, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought a human being into the world. So you have pain now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. On that day you will ask nothing of me. Very truly, I tell you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.

While the gospel implies an immediate awareness of the Holy Spirit and a direct communication between ourselves and the heavenly Father, the first reading seems to take a different slant. Acts points out that despite his brilliance, learning and eloquence Apollos had not advanced beyond the teaching of John the Baptist. Apollos was certainly on the way toward being a disciple of Jesus and was a person of tremendous good will. Yet, good will was not enough. In the plan of God, Apollos would be led into the mystery of Jesus through the ministry of the couple Priscilla and Aquila.

It is interesting to note that the wife's name precedes that of her husband, a phenomenon somewhat unusual for the customs of the time and indicative of the strong role of this woman in the Church's ministry. Texts like this one help us to appreciate the attitude of St. Paul toward women and toward the team work of married people in the apostolate of the Church. This couple not only acted as a welcoming committee at Ephesus but also as educators in theology. To dialogue with someone as sharp and knowledgeable as Apollos and to lead him beyond the Hebrew Scriptures and the preaching of John the Baptist meant that the couple were well informed, capable of making distinctions and advancing the discussion, and most of all open to incisive insights from the Holy Spirit.

For Apollos to advance beyond his perception of the Hebrew Scriptures and beyond his loyalty to John the Baptist, it was necessary that he explore the Bible to its outer limit. Like Job it would be necessary that he be impelled by his inquisitive mind and desire for truth, to reach beyond human consolations and accepted wisdom. With pathetic strength Job wrote about this search:

Oh, that I had one to hear my case, and that my accuser would write out his indictment! Surely, I would wear it on my shoulder or put it on me like a diadem; Of all my steps I should give him an account; like a prince I should present myself before him.

This is my final plea; let the Almighty answer me! (Job 31:35-37).

Apollos had to be ready for the plunge beyond the limits of what he knew and controlled. He had to be compelled like Job to share his luminous and convincing insights, insights all the while that manifested both sturdy control and fragile fear. What Apollos knew, he knew exceptionally well; but he was also convinced that the fulfillment of his desires lay beyond him and required a risk of all of his knowledge. He had to take his case immediately before his maker. He probably felt again like Job when he was discussing that evening with Priscilla and Aquila:

I will take my flesh between my teeth, and take my life in my hand (Job 13:14).

Apollos was risking his security, his theological synthesis, and his renown as a self-possessed preacher to be led beyond the borders of his human knowledge and eloquence. The Spirit could have led Apollos into the mystery of Jesus in the solitude of a desert or in the privacy of his room. Rather that mysterious journey was made under the direction of two superior teachers and interpreters of spirit, Priscilla and Aquila. Evidently the Spirit is received while people share that spirit with one another. A community of faith must be formed in which it becomes evident that all are risking their possessions and even their very selves for what the Spirit will reveal. Within the church of Ephesus the Holy Spirit was granted to God's servant Apollos.

Jesus himself exemplified this process of conversion and transformation. He must leave this world in order to send the Holy Spirit. In this respect there is a good comparison with the risks of leaving behind the tried and true, experienced by Apollos. To ask in Jesus' name is to be one with Jesus' total surrender to the Father. Only in making such a gift of oneself do we realize where we have come from and where we are being led.

I did indeed come from the Father; I came into the world. Now I am leaving the world to go to the Father.

These two biblical readings then lay out a plan for spiritual direction. More than that, they show the absolute necessity of seeking and receiving advice in a context of total sharing of the Spirit.

Prayer:

Lord, we pray for the courage to pursue the Scriptures and to know them thoroughly. We confess our need for a Priscilla and Aquila to share the Spirit. Then what is veiled in human wisdom and human control will manifest its wondrous, mysterious person, Jesus.124      Seventh Week

After spending some time there he departed and went from place to place through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.

Now there came to Ephesus a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria. He was an eloquent man, well-versed in the scriptures. He had been instructed in the Way of the Lord; and he spoke with burning enthusiasm and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue; but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained the Way of God to him more accurately. And when he wished to cross over to Achaia, the believers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. On his arrival he greatly helped those who through grace had become believers, for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the scriptures that the Messiah is Jesus.

On that day you will ask nothing of me. Very truly, I tell you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.

"I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures, but will tell you plainly of the Father. On that day you will ask in my name. I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world and am going to the Father."

The plain language of Jesus' discourse in John's gospel still baffles us. Why will the disciples find peace in Jesus, once they are scattered, each to his own way, and Jesus is left alone? How does such a disintegration of loyalties and friendship convince the disciples that Jesus knows everything and has come from God?

When we read this gospel episode with the selection from Acts, the "plain" language is scrambled still more as the disciples speak in tongues and prophesy. Such an extraordinary manifestation of the Spirit draws us beyond rational discourse and human logic. When God's Spirit descends into our midst in such a marvelous way, we can do only one of two things: either declare it all a hoax and walk away, or acknowledge that God is present, beyond all doubt and beyond all discussion. Earlier in the Acts of the Apostles, when a group of gentiles began to speak in tongues, Peter declared: "What can stop these people who have received the Holy Spirit, even as we have, from being baptized with water?" (Acts 10:47). And when Peter was later challenged that he "entered the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them" (Acts 11:2), his only defense was: "the Holy Spirit came upon them ... Who was I to interfere with him?" (Acts 11:15,17). Peter's plain speech repudiated even the possibility of discussing his actions. The Church was left with no other option but to accept this intervention of the Holy Spirit.

Normally, plain speech functions in a different way. It moves with clear ideas and in logical sequence. We are able to obtain further clarification and more nuanced reasons. We can express our difficulties about the logic. If our minds are alert and if we are able to express our ideas clearly, we are in control. Unless logical reasons are presented, we will remain unconvinced and uncommitted. We are free to accept or reject on the logic of the reasoning.

Tongues and prophecy, on the contrary, reach beyond the limits of logic and plain speech. Tongues are an ecstatic expression of the wondrous experience of the Holy Spirit. Tongues reach into foreign languages and beyond, like the many stops of an organ, opened up in full power, as the fingers touch one key after another. The sound is overwhelmingly beautiful, so much so that it drowns out and prohibits the accompanying sound of a singer's words. Communication is more by experience; it happens by touching the strings of emotion and the memory fibers in the heart. Such reactions are not subject to logic; they just happen! And if they happen, one can only say: yes! amen! hallelujah! Praise the Lord! Or as Peter responded: "the Holy Spirit came upon them.... Who was I to interfere" by logic or even by theology? I proceeded at once to baptize them, uncircumcised as they were, different as they were even from the Lord Jesus who was thoroughly a Jew.

Yet, such a response, which rules out all further discussion and certainly all further objections, has the hallmark of plain speech in that it is immediately "yes" or

"no," as Jesus wanted our language to be (Matt 5:37). This kind of reply, which waves aside all further discussion and acts at once, possesses another quality of plain speech. Unveiled language, which says it as it is, reaches to the heart or center, and there it discovers the God inspired ability of the human heart to be heroic. Quick reactions can be impulsive; they can also reveal an extraordinary power to love, to protect, to forgive, to die as a martyr.

Jesus' plain speech touches that divinely inspired gift in all of us to act beyond reason (not against reason) and to do what can be explained only afterwards as healthy, beautiful and good. Even though the disciples scattered and left Jesus alone, still Jesus then manifested such strength and resourcefulness, that all will confess: we are not alone; Jesus and the Father are with us. At no time does Jesus' example of forgiving others call us to forgive so heroically as in the story of his Passion. Jesus exemplifies the plain speech of forgiving seventy times seven (Matt 18:22) and of loving to the extent of dying for one's friends (John 15:13).

Jesus' actions bring an immediate response from us: I too must forgive again. I too must be willing to die. I cannot discuss nor negotiate these decisions. The Spirit has moved me. My language reaches beyond rational discourse and I can speak only in tongues. I must fulfill the prophecy of Jesus. Heroic response corresponds to our nature as created and inspired by God. live at peace with our nature which is meant to be heroic. We thank you for telling us this ennobling truth as plainly as you did.

While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul passed through the interior regions and came to Ephesus, where he found some disciples. He said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?" They replied, "No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit." Then he said, "Into what then were you baptized?" They answered, "Into John's baptism." Paul said, "John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, in Jesus." On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied - altogether there were about twelve of them.

He entered the synagogue and for three months spoke out boldly, and argued persuasively about the kingdom of God.

His disciples said, "Yes, now you are speaking plainly, not in any figure of speech! Now we know that you know all things, and do not need to have anyone question you; by this we believe that you came from God." Jesus answered them, "Do you now believe? The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each one to his home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!"

Both Paul and Jesus indicate that an important phase of their ministry has been completed: Paul must proceed to Jerusalem and if he survives the persecutions in that city, he hopes to sail westward to Rome and then to Spain; Jesus declares that he has finished the work given to him by the heavenly Father and now asks: "Do you now, Father, give me glory at your side?"

Paul's words take the form of a final address in which he sums up the duties of pastors and religious leaders. Jesus, on the other hand, prays aloud and offers us one of those rare insights. We are told the content of his prayer to the Father.

Whether in sermon or in prayer, each looks to the future with calm faith and free conscience. Both Paul and Jesus confess from their heart that they have done their very best. Paul states plainly to the elders: "You know how I lived among you from the first day I set foot in the province of Asia, how I served the Lord with humility through the sorrows and trials that came my way from the plottings" of some people. As Jesus prays that the Father give him glory at his side, he adds: "These men you gave me were yours; they have kept your word. I have made your name known to them."

Paul adds many instructions which would be out of place in a prayer that Jesus spoke. We detect a strong confidence and self-assurance. His entire life has been an open book, for he lived, preached and made a secular living to support himself, all in a very visible way. He states so easily what others would be forced to admit: "I put no value on my life if only I can finish my race and complete the service to which I have been assigned by the Lord Jesus." For this reason a stern warning follows: "Therefore I solemnly declare this day that I take the blame for no man's conscience for I have never shrunk from announcing to you God's design in its entirety." Paul's church has been more than adequately instructed: "Never did I shrink from telling you what was for your own good, or from teaching you in public or in private."

Jesus' self-confidence appears much more indirectly: "you have given him [that is, the Son, Jesus himself] authority over all humankind, that he may bestow eternal life on those you gave him." Again, Jesus declares almost by way of gratitude to the Father for the privilege confided to him: "I entrusted to them the message you entrusted to me, and they received it."

Along with this calm interior strength, manifested clearly though differently by Paul and Jesus, each faces a future of uncertainty. Paul does not know the exact details, only that chains and hardships await him at Jerusalem. He admits that he will not see the Ephesians again. According to some scholars, Paul did return to this area. In that case his statement here must be modified with some clause as "insofar as I see the situation right now." Jesus, for his part, prays for his disciples. Their future is uncertain because of the dangers and tensions, the demands and disappointments of the apostolate. "For these I pray ... I am in the world no more, but these are in the world as I come to you." Jesus could not, or at least did not predict exactly what lies ahead; he would only pray that his followers remain faithful to his person and to his teaching.

Interior strength and a clear conscience do not remove the holy fear and healthy caution about the future. Our previous experience of God does not give us the right or privilege to predict the future, much less to tell God what it ought to be. We are not in a position to quote the Scriptures back to God and insist on the future outcome of our lives! Like Paul, we must be willing to accept the chains and hardships; like Jesus we must pray for enlightenment and strength. We continue to live "in the world," as Jesus said in prayer about his followers. To live in the world means that we must continue to interact with many unpredictable uncertainties, with change of mood and ideas on the part of others.

Yet, we can face the future calmly. For when we finish the work given to us by the Father, God will give us glory at his side.

From Miletus he sent a message to Ephesus, asking the elders of the church to meet him. When they came to him, he said to them: "You yourselves know how I lived among you the entire time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears, enduring the trials that came to me through the plots of the Jews. I did not shrink from doing anything helpful, proclaiming the message to you and teaching you publicly and from house to house, as I testified to both Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus. And now, as a captive to the Spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and persecutions are waiting for me. But I do not count my life of any value to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the good news of God's grace.

"And now I know that none of you, among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom, will ever see my face again. Therefore I declare to you this day that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.

After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.

"I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.

The necessity of prayer and of concern about his disciples is proven beyond all doubt by the fact that Jesus himself lost one of his own followers, Judas Iscariot, "him who was destined to be lost in fulfillment of the Scripture." The Bible never predicted that a man named Judas Iscariot would betray Jesus and then commit suicide, but it did point out how one's own friends, for good or evil reasons in their own mind, can turn against God. Jeremiah was told by the Lord: "even your own brothers, the members of your father's house, will betray you; they have recruited a force against you" (Jer 12:6). Psalm 69:9 cries aloud: "I have become an outcast to my brothers, a stranger to my mother's sons."

We cannot take the future for granted. We cannot presume that we ourselves will always make the right judgment or courageously act upon a good decision. We cannot take for granted that others will always be acting sincerely, or if they are sincere, that their judgments are well formed and for our good.

At this point the Scriptures do not advise us to be suspicious of everyone. Nor do they seek to draw us out of the world to some solitary spot. As Jesus prayed: "I do not ask you [heavenly Father] to take them out of the world but to guard them from the evil one."

Biblical advice moves in another direction, asking us to look toward our own motives, our prayer and our concern for tradition. True, Paul refers to wolves who will distort the truth and says to be on one's guard against them. Prudence and common sense dictate that we be reasonably cautious and not permit ourselves to be swept along by every wind of an idea! Yet, Paul gives much more attention to other advice.

The elders are to remember Paul's blood and tears, his manual labor and his tireless preaching of the gospel. Strength of conviction and strong emotional ties are revealed in Paul's words: "I never ceased warning you individually even to the point of tears." Paul's solicitude reached to each person individually and it came from a heart flowing over with tears. Paul then speaks of the word which he preached and to which he is confiding the elders at Ephesus. This gospel came from Paul's heart, and the words were soaked with Paul's tears and blood. In a literal sense, he mingled his own tears and blood with those of Jesus, from whose dying side came water and blood (John 19:34). The elders too are to preach with concern for the truth but equally with emotional conviction.

We are to face the future by concern for the poor. After Paul explicitly describes how he worked to support himself and his companions, he did so with "these hands of mine" in an open gesture, he tells the elders to do the same. "I have always pointed out to you that it is by such hard work that you must help the weak." We are to provide for our future by making it even more insecure; we are to give away what little we possess. Such a generous spirit will insure good judgment on our part and will enable us to form good evaluations about others.

Paul then quotes from the Lord Jesus "who said, 'There is more happiness in giving than receiving.' " This precise statement cannot be found in any of the gospels. It is very surprising that Luke who composed one of the gospels as well as the book of Acts did not include it in his collection of Jesus' sayings. Paul must be depending upon an oral tradition and we see how true it is that there would not be "room enough in the entire world to hold the books" if all that Jesus said and did were written down (John 21:24-25). We look toward the future, not only aware of the written Scriptures, but also of the many traditions and customs handed down in our Church. We need to be continually aware of the example of the saints and to look to the "cloud of witnesses" who have preceded us (Heb 12:1).

Despite the difficulties and trials ahead of us in the world, we live joyfully. Jesus advises us in his prayer to the Father: "I say all this while I am still in the world that they may share in my joy completely." Without joy we suspect the worst and are not willing to accept the good in anyone. This joy is deep, it brings tranquility, it bears the fruit of patience. It fits us well to face what the future may bring.

Finally, both Paul and Jesus, each in his own way, state that we have been consecrated by the word or by the truth, by the gospel and by tradition. We are as sacred as the word, we are as much God's creation as the word that comes from his inspiration. We never doubt our relationship with God. you give power and strength to your people. Let us be your instruments that all the kingdoms of the earth sing your goodness. We look out upon that world and upon our future with your blessing.

Keep watch over yourselves and over all the flock, of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God that he obtained with the blood of his own Son. I know that after I have gone, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Some even from your own group will come distorting the truth in order to entice the disciples to follow them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to warn everyone with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the message of his grace, a message that is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all who are sanctified. I coveted no one's silver or gold or clothing. You know for yourselves that I worked with my own hands to support myself and my companions. In all this I have given you an example that by such work we must support the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, for he himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"

When he had finished speaking, he knelt down with them all and prayed. There was much weeping among them all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, grieving especially because of what he had said, that they would not see him again. Then they brought him to the ship.

Jesus said to them, "And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth."

Jesus signals unity as the most characteristic mark of his disciples, the sign and the goal of true faith, when he prayed: "that they may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me." Paul of Tarsus appears in today's reading, yet not as a messenger of peace and unity. He deliberately stirred a discussion, which he knew would turn into a shouting match and then into physical abuse. He got the Sadducees pitted against the Pharisees on the subject of the resurrection from the dead. Paul aligned himself with the Pharisees (23:6).

Paul wrote eloquently about peace and unity in 1 Corinthians 11-13 and in Ephesians 4. He was not always stirring up trouble. Jesus for his part was not always a messenger of peace. Jesus had put this question before his disciples: "Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? I assure you, the contrary is true; I have come for division. From now on, a household of five will be divided three against two and two against three; father will be split against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother" (Luke 12:51-53).

Although unity and peace remain a sign of Jesus' discipleship, nonetheless, Jesus was not giving in to peace at any price! Certainly Jesus wanted his followers to display patience and forebearance, to know when and how to be silent, yes even to turn the other cheek (Luke 6:29). But Jesus also called for courage (if a hand scandalize you, cut it off!, Mark 9:43-48), for truth (let your language be yea or nay, Matthew 5:37), for generosity (the one line which Paul quotes of Jesus in Acts reads, "There is more happiness in giving than receiving"), for fidelity, as his statement on marriage and divorce makes clear, for total dedication ("let the dead bury the dead", Luke 9:60).

Jesus' disciples were not united around the weak principle that no body will ever hurt the feelings of anyone else, but rather around an intense desire to enable one another to seek and share the best. Jesus stirred his followers to see a vision of goodness, of kindliness, of peace and justice, of fidelity and honesty. This vision beckoned at times to overwhelming happiness, at other times to the cross and the loss of all that one holds dear. More than anything else according to the gospel for today, this unity was to be modeled upon that of the Holy Trinity. Here the Father shares his entire life with the Son, and the two are locked in love so intense that it becomes the person of the Holy Spirit. For this goal to be realized, Jesus' disciples must fix their eyes upon him, who in turn lives only for the Father in the bond of the Holy Spirit. Jesus in turn will share with his disciples the glory given to him by the Father before the world began. Jesus also declared:

Your love for me may live in them, and I may live in them.

The resurrection then became all important. The resurrection had enabled Jesus even to despise this earthly life out of love for others and to die for them. In that case he would share the ultimate moment of human existence but he would also be able to introduce the eternal life of God into human death. His own resurrection became a harbinger of everyone's resurrection. Because each of us sees this vision of Jesus in glory, we too are strengthened to give our lives for others. We are able to undergo heroic suffering for the sake of those we love,  and this object of love may have been a stranger up till that moment.

Paul, therefore, could not compromise on the resurrection. Unity was not worth such a cost! Therefore, he clearly announced: "I am a Pharisee and was born a Pharisee. I find myself on trial now because of my hope in the resurrection of the dead." Paul sought unity, in this case with the Pharisees, unity that kept a vision of the highest hopes before others.

At the same time Paul's words manifest an uncanny prudence. He averted the attack from his own person by pitting Pharisees and Sadducees against one another. Both were opposed to Paul for declaring that Jesus was the promised Messiah. A person, therefore, does not throw caution to the winds in order to rally round the banner of reckless courage. Just as weakness is not worth the cost and is to be despised, neither is imprudence to be advised, even if it comes under the name of bravery.

Jesus unites his disciples around the very best of human qualities. Jesus' ideals do more than sanctify our talents of mind and body. Jesus puts a vision before us that leads us beyond what we consider possible. Jesus does more than that. He places that desire at the heart of our existence in the person of himself. He said:

I living in them, you [Father] living in me,  that their unity may be complete.

Since he wanted to find out what Paul was being accused of by the Jews, the next day he released him and ordered the chief priests and the entire council to meet. He brought Paul down and had him stand before them.

When Paul noticed that some were Sadducees and others were Pharisees, he called out in the council, "Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. I am on trial concerning the hope of the resurrection of the dead." When he said this, a dissension began between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. (The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, or angel, or spirit; but the Pharisees acknowledge all three.) Then a great clamor arose, and certain scribes of the Pharisees' group stood up and contended, "We find nothing wrong with this man. What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?" When the dissension became violent, the tribune, fearing that they would tear Paul to pieces, ordered the soldiers to go down, take him by force, and bring him into the barracks. That night the Lord stood near him and said, "Keep up your courage! For just as you have testified for me in Jerusalem, so you must bear witness also in Rome."

"I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

"Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."

The sequence of events is important, so natural and yet so filled with spiritual meaning that we must delay here. Youth is marked by an active pursuit of goals. Many options open out before a young man or young woman. With study, experimentation and advice they freely decide. As a person gets older, a more passive acceptance of the inevitable seems to be the only option. As we become still older and now helpless, we may be able to do nothing at all but wait for the inevitable. As we long for death and its release from misery, we must wait for the moment that God decides. At the very end Jesus says, "Follow me!"

In the more active span of life, with many good possibilities opening out before us, we also fail at times to choose what is best. We may turn to evil. Such at least happened to the apostle Peter. Three times out of fear he denied Jesus (Mark 14:66-72). After the resurrection when the apostles had returned to their former trade of fishing, seemingly because their vision of Jesus had evaporated in his death, Jesus appeared to them. He singled out Peter and three times asked, "Do you love me?" Peter no longer seems to be the ebullient impulsive man of the earlier days. He has been humiliated, he has failed even to the extent of betraying Jesus, he has returned to the only occupation which he could manage. Peter is ready to enter the next stage of his life.

Peter has been sobered by failure. He has been made compassionate by his own need for forgiveness and mercy. His heart is open to more and more people, for he shares their reactions and feelings. Not once, not even twice, but three times Jesus asks and insists, "Do you love me?" When Peter answers with humble love, with total surrender, "Lord, you know everything," then Jesus commissions him to "Feed my sheep."

In this second stage of his career, Peter summons his first energy and moves from Jerusalem to Antioch and then to Rome. Love, humility, compunction and obedience to the Lord are to be the hallmarks of his ministry. As such, he is the rock of the Church and head of the apostolic band. Even though Peter acts with all his power, still there is a quality of passivity about that exercise: to love and to be loved, to be humble and open to others in their ideas and talents, to be sorrowful for sin and able to appreciate the weakness of others, to obey Jesus at all costs.

Jesus not only singled out Peter from all the apostles but called him particularly to "Feed my sheep." He was to be the supreme pastor of the Church. Jesus, however, did more. He also announced the martyrdom of Peter:

When you are older you will stretch out your hands, and another will tie you fast and carry you off against your will.

In the third stage of Peter's life, the quality of being passive to God's will and to the desires of others will be all the more pronounced. Peter will be helpless! And at that point, Jesus adds, "Follow me." Just as Jesus' supreme act of obedience to his heavenly Father happened when he accepted the cross and allowed others to take his life from him, Peter too would summon all his power and make the most energetic response of his entire life by passively accepting death. "Against his will" and yet willingly because it was the Father's will, Peter allowed himself to be led away. His only request, according to tradition was to be crucified upside down. He was unworthy to die exactly as did the Lord Jesus!

We too pass through these natural stages of life. We may think that our most valuable contribution comes when we are young. Then we bounce with life and vigor; then we choose between a thousand and one possibilities, in order to do the very best for God. We seem to make all kinds of sacrifices, putting aside many options, for what we believe is what God wants. Yet, there can be a great deal of selfishness in all this, certainly more than a little forgetfulness about others. We just have not lived long enough to really know how they feel. How can the healthy who have never been sick know how physical weakness corrodes a person's interest, desires and patience. The young in this first stage of their existence can be too innocent or too impulsive, to be tolerant of weakness in others. Sooner or later, they enter the second stage, usually because of some traumatic experience. Peter's dramatic change came with his betrayal of Jesus just as the Master was humiliated, rejected and killed.

The second stage can become monotonous, as fewer and fewer options appear on the horizon and we settle down more seriously to do the one important task of our life. Yet, once we have experienced how to do it capably well, our energy begins to seep away through sickness and age. This is the moment when we repeat the maxim: if age only could and youth only would.

The third and last stage is our final illness and death. Again Jesus repeats the beckoning of our first call. He says once more, "Follow me." How can we, as we are unable to walk and to do anything that seems productive? We simply wait. Yet, from deep in our soul we know the meaning of love. Love gives not things but oneself. Love does not seek gifts, even great opportunities, only the person of the other. Jesus does not have to ask: "Do you love me?" He knows it and we know it. He says simply, "Follow me!" We respond with our entire self, most lovingly, most actively for we are not distracted by any other option or choice, most passively for we are carried off. The Scripture says, "against your will," yet that means how much we would want to run, not be carried. "Against your will" is the ultimate gift of our entire self to Jesus.

After several days had passed, King Agrippa and Bernice arrived at Caesarea to welcome Festus. Since they were staying there several days, Festus laid Paul's case before the king, saying, "There is a man here who was left in prison by Felix. When I was in Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed me about him and asked for a sentence against him. I told them that it was not the custom of the Romans to hand over anyone before the accused had met the accusers face to face and had been given an opportunity to make a defense against the charge. So when they met here, I lost no time, but on the next day took my seat on the tribunal and ordered the man to be brought. When the accusers stood up, they did not charge him with any of the crimes that I was expecting. Instead they had certain points of disagreement with him about their own religion and about a certain Jesus, who had died, but whom Paul asserted to be alive. Since I was at a loss how to investigate these questions, I asked whether he wished to go to Jerusalem and be tried there on these charges. But when Paul had appealed to be kept in custody for the decision of his Imperial Majesty, I ordered him to be held until I could send him to the emperor." Agrippa said to Festus, I would like to hear the man myself." "Tomorrow," he said, "you will hear him."

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my lambs." A second time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Tend my sheep." He said to him the third time, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" And he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep. Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go." (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, "Follow me."

The readings for this day are drawn from the final verses of Acts and of John's gospel. Acts rounds out the total theological purpose of St. Luke, which extended from his earlier book, the gospel, into his second book, called The Acts of the Apostles. Luke's gospel moves from Old Testament Jerusalem (Chs. 1-2) or from the Jordan River where the conquest of the Promised Land once began under Joshua (Ch. 3), full circle back again to Jerusalem, where Jesus was crucified and glorified and where the disciples are back again in the temple, praising God (Chs. 22-24). One of the central features in Luke's gospel is found in the "Journey Narrative" (Lk 9:51; 19:28) during which Jesus' entire ministry is put in the context of going up to Jerusalem, as a way toward the cross and glorification.

Acts too begins in Jerusalem. Its central action consists in Paul's "Journey Narrative" (Chs. 13-28). Paul travels through the Greek speaking world several times, founding churches, almost always by way of bringing the synagogue and its Jewish worshipers (or many of them at least) into the Christian community. All of Paul's activity leads up to Rome, where the hope of Israel triumphs in a world manifestation of the Lord. Rome, then, is the new Jerusalem where the disciples praise the Lord. Here too is the sign of the cross in the suffering and martyrdom of the saints (Paul, however, at this time was to be set free) and here also is fulfillment of centuries of waiting and prediction.

The "Journey Narrative" of Luke's gospel and of Acts must find a path in our lives. It must work its way to the center. Every other moment and every other experience, good or bad, easy or difficult, is pointed toward this new "Jerusalem," this "Rome." Here we praise God for his wonderful acts in our lives. Prophecies are fulfilled. At this point the words of Jesus to the beloved disciple come to mind: "I want him to stay until I come." As Jesus explained to Peter, this statement does not mean that we will never die but rather Jesus will come to get us. Jesus comes at the final fulfillment of all prophecies in our lives.

Both the gospel and Acts then inflame our faith and confidence. No moment is to be considered lost and useless. All can be turned into the direction of Jerusalem. That road has all kinds of stops or stages along its route. There are stages of triumph and joy; others of strenuous effort; still others of blunder and error. At times we have to go around a barrier, and then for a while we are going backward. There is the necessity of resting and recouping strength. All of these moments are found in the gospel and in Acts. Jesus can turn each experience, no matter what it may have been, into a new turn in the road toward our destination, the heavenly Jerusalem.

If the final stage along the way turns out to be Rome, the counterpart to the earthly Jerusalem, then all experiences point toward Rome, Rome is always the rallying center for all God's disciples. Here is where the unity which Jesus desired earnestly for his Church is typified (see Thursday, Seventh Week of Easter). At the end, then, we reassemble with all our family, community and friends. Even those persons who parted company through disagreement and quarrels will find their way to this destination for everyone. One of the final stages along the way to Rome, Jerusalem, then, must be the place of reconciliation.

The final verses in John's gospel, however, seem to give a slightly different nuance to the sense of arrival at the end, to this fulfillment of prophecy in our lives, and to this coming of the Lord Jesus for us. "The world," John writes at the very end, "does not have space to hold the books to record" all the details of Jesus' life and ministry. We get the sense of much more to learn and to experience. The end, in a true sense, is only the beginning. What we have seen and heard about Jesus, as we follow along the route with him to our Jerusalem (Rome,) stores up memories that need an eternity of time to unravel. Every other person must feel the same.

"I want him to stay until I come", Jesus' statement about John and now about ourselves, can have an extended meaning. "Wait!" I come anew each moment of eternity. I come to revive your memories. I come to share the memories of all your brothers and sisters. "Wait until I come." Eternity will be the continuation of the final moment in our earthly Jerusalem - Rome. Jesus comes wondrously - and he comes again and again. Even as we meditate now on the gospels for our consolation, in heaven these and thousands of other memories, too many for the world to contain the books, will be re-experienced. Our prayer now is a foretaste of that heavenly joy. What

Paul said to his Jewish visitors in Rome, he says to us: we share the hope of Israel, as fulfilled in the death and resurrection of Jesus at Jerusalem.

As Pentecost brings an end to the Easter season we read the final sentences in the Acts and the fourth Gospel, both endings that open up a life-giving future for those who trust in Jesus.

When we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself, with the soldier who was guarding him. Three days later he called together the local leaders of the Jews. When they had assembled, he said to them, "Brothers, though I had done nothing against our people or the customs of our ancestors, yet I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans. When they had examined me, the Romans wanted to release me, because there was no reason for the death penalty in my case. But when the Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to the emperor - even though I had no charge to bring against my nation. For this reason therefore I have asked to see you and speak with you, since it is for the sake of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain." They replied, "We have received no letters from Judea about you, and none of the brothers coming here has reported or spoken anything evil about you. But we would like to hear from you what you think, for with regard to this sect we know that everywhere it is spoken against."

After they had set a day to meet with him, they came to him at his lodgings in great numbers. From morning until evening he explained the matter to them, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus both from the law of Moses and from the prophets. Some were convinced by what he had said, while others refused to believe. So they disagreed with each other; and as they were leaving, Paul made one further statement: "The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your ancestors through the prophet Isaiah,

'Go to this people and say, You will indeed listen, but never understand, and you will indeed look, but never perceive. For this people's heart has grown dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes; so that they might not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and understand with their heart and turn - and I would heal them.' Let it be known to you then that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen."

He lived there two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.

Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; he was the one who had reclined next to Jesus at the supper and had said, "Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?" When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, "Lord, what about him?" Jesus said to him, "If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!" So the rumor spread in the community that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, "If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?"

This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true. But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.