Texts taken from the Messalino “On Your Word” May-June 2024

6th Sunday of Easter (B)
2nd week, psalter

FIRST READING

From the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48)
When Peter was about to enter [the house of Cornelius], the latter went to meet him and fell at his feet to pay him homage. But Peter raised him up, saying: “Get up: I too am a man!” Then Peter began to speak and said: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and acts uprightly is acceptable to him.” While Peter was still speaking these things, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the word. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, for they heard them speaking in tongues and glorifying God. Then Peter responded, “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit even as we have?” He ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited him to stay for a few days. - The Word of God.

Commentary on the first reading

Peter is sent by God to the home of an uncircumcised foreigner, Cornelius, a God-fearing centurion. In that house of Gentiles, the Apostle preaches Christ crucified and risen and the forgiveness of sins to everyone who believes in him. And behold, while Peter is speaking, the Holy Spirit is poured out upon Cornelius and his family, who are immediately baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Something like this had never happened before. Peter acknowledges God's action, and this experience leaves him freer from himself and more deeply in communion with God and others. The Church's evangelizing work cannot and must not be an obstacle to God's creative work; for this reason, each of us is asked to foster the encounter of hearts with the Lord. It is good to ask ourselves from time to time how we behave toward our brothers and sisters, particularly toward those who are not Christians: are we an obstacle to their encounter with God, or do we facilitate it? Do we feel the need to proclaim Jesus Christ crucified and risen to everyone? Let us allow ourselves to be amazed by God's surprises, becoming ever more instruments of his creativity in the Spirit.

SECOND READING

From the first letter of Saint John the Apostle (1 John 4:7-10)
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love. In this way the love of God was revealed among us: God sent his only-begotten Son into the world so that we might have life through him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. - The Word of God.

Commentary on the second reading

“Love is of God,” writes Saint John, which is the same as saying, “God is love.” God's essential action is love, and his love precedes every other love: God always loves us first, and this love of his is real; it has become visible, indeed, it has become flesh in his Son Jesus. Commenting on the first letter of Saint John the Apostle, Saint Augustine states: “If nothing else had been written in the rest of the letter, or rather in the rest of Scripture, in praise of love, and we had heard only that one declaration from the mouth of God's Spirit, ‘God is love,’ we should seek nothing else.” In the incarnation of the Word, what God always is, was, and will be becomes visible, but there is more: whoever loves reveals that they have been loved by God and begotten by him. Those who are loved, in turn, love: God's love incarnate in Jesus must also become incarnate in the disciples called to open themselves to new horizons, those of their brothers and sisters. Saying that “God is love” is far from a definition; it is the announcement that we can experience God as love, always!

GOSPEL OF THE DAY

From the Gospel according to John (John 15:9-17)
At that time, Jesus said to his disciples: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I love 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 no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another.” - The Word of the Lord.

Commentary on the Gospel of the day

The great truth that illuminates our lives is that God loves us, and this fills every aspect of our existence, from beginning to end, with meaning. We are not the result of chance; rather, we come from a divine plan of love. From the beginning, God envisioned us and therefore created and redeemed us in Christ, destined us for a blessed eternity with him. Thus the invitation to “remain,” that is, to live rooted in him, is filled with meaning. Believing cannot be reduced to accepting certain truths; on the contrary, faith asks for love, that is, an intimate and personal relationship with Christ. As the fruit of remaining rooted in Christ's love, we receive a profound joy that will always be possible even amid the most difficult aspects of our lives, because we are united with the one who is the source of the joy and happiness our hearts desire. What consolation it is to hear Jesus call us friends. The slave is one who does not know, while the friend is bound to the one who loves them by a profound knowledge, an intimate understanding and insight into their heart. Being friends of the Lord does not mean living an inward-looking faith, but taking seriously, in everyday life, the life in Christ into which Baptism has brought us.