6th Sunday of Easter (B)
2nd week, alternate cycle
Texts taken from the “On Your Word” Missal May-June 2021
We are in the midst of the Easter season, and the great solemnities of the Ascension and Pentecost are drawing near. On this Sunday, the Lord invites us to remain in his love. It is a beautiful image: faith means remaining united with God, immersed in him, protected and enveloped by his merciful love, like a child in its mother’s womb. How can we concretely remain in his love? Jesus tells us: «if you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love». The Lord chose each one of us; he does not call us to small things, but to great things: to love as he loved us, so that our lives may become masterpieces!
FIRST READING
From the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48)
When Peter was about to enter [Cornelius’s house], Cornelius came to meet him and fell at his feet in homage. But Peter raised him up, saying: «Stand up; I too am a man!». Then Peter began to speak: «Truly, I am beginning to realize that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and acts uprightly is acceptable to him». While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit came down upon all who were listening to the Word. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit had also been poured out on the pagans; for they heard them speaking in other tongues and glorifying God. Then Peter said: «Can anyone prevent these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have from being baptized with water?». And he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay for a few days. The word of the Lord.
Reflection on the First Reading
Peter’s decision to enter the house of the pagan Cornelius is guided by the Spirit. There he begins his third discourse, no longer addressed to the Jews in Jerusalem who know the facts about Jesus, but in a pagan setting, where people have heard of him but do not know all the details of what happened. Peter proclaims that salvation is found only in Jesus and in faith in him. All those who are listening and welcoming the Word, who is Jesus, are filled with divine power: the Holy Spirit descends upon them even before Peter has finished his speech. Peter and his companions recognize the descent of the Spirit through the gift of speaking in new tongues, and it is a moment of great joy. Peter allows himself to be instructed by the Lord and, with courage, asks that the pagans be baptized in the name of Jesus. Faced with God’s initiative, Peter does not want to get ahead of God and gives us a great lesson: we must be docile to God, because his ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts.
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 from God; everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this way God’s love was revealed among us: God sent his only-begotten Son into the world so that we might have life through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. The word of the Lord.
Reflection on the Second Reading
«God is love». John is not developing a theological reflection, but wants to present his life experience as valid for everyone. He is the disciple who describes himself as loved by the Lord. John experienced this with a very special intensity, and so he passed it on to the communities entrusted to him; at the same time, he asks us to be witnesses to it: love prevails over everything. No longer slavery, punishment, or revenge, but forgiveness and reconciliation. Love does not mean complacency or letting everything pass without recognizing the seriousness of situations; it means opening our hearts to accept God’s forgiveness, for he is infinitely merciful. In God, nothing is self-centered; everything is a flow and return of self-giving, acceptance of the other, and service with completely wholehearted availability. God who is love is the source from which we must draw for all our human relationships and to give light and strength to our prayer. Christians can be the salt and leaven of a world without hope, because they put down roots in a heaven inhabited by God who is love.
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 has loved me, so I have loved 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 these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. This is my commandment: 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 no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to 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, and for your fruit to remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another». The Gospel of the Lord.
Reflection on the Gospel of the Day
«I no longer call you servants,… but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from my Father». We experience his friendship by listening to the Word he gives us, through the sacraments, signs of his love, and through fraternal charity. The Lord makes us his friends: he entrusts everything to us; he entrusts himself to us. What trust! And how do we respond? In what way are we his friends? Do we desire to commit ourselves to this friendship every day? Friendship means sharing in thought and will, and this communion of thought with Jesus requires practice! This means that, in order to come to know him in an increasingly personal way, we must listen to him, live together with him, and remain in his presence. Friends talk to one another, listen to one another, and confide in one another! We need to listen to him by reading Sacred Scripture, reflecting on his words and actions before him, and praying alone with him. Only in this way does friendship grow; only in this way can we bring Jesus to others, because we learn from him how to live and act.
