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Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:1-8; John 14:6-14

The Gospel reading features Philip’s final appearance in the Gospel account. It happens during the long account of the Last Supper from John, where Jesus speaks at length to his disciples. They must have been in somewhat of a confused state, knowing that the enemies of Jesus were practically outside the door waiting to destroy him. Even at this late date, there were still many parts of Jesus’ teaching that they did not understand.

Jesus, who is soon about to leave them, has just told them not to worry, as he is preparing a place where they and he will be together. He tells them:

And you know the way to the place where I am going.
(John 14:4)

Thomas, the chronic grumbler, interjects:

Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? (John 14:5)

Now picking up from today’s Gospel, Jesus gently replies:

I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Perhaps we should be grateful to the cranky Thomas for eliciting such a beautiful and meaningful answer from Jesus. He is not just a way; he is the Way. There is no other way to God except through him and with him—for the simple reason that he is the Word of God; he is God expressed through human nature. To be like Jesus, then, is to be like God through our humanity. This is something not just for believing Christians; it is simply the Way for every human being who wants to live a truly meaningful life.

Jesus then spells out the meaning of what he has just said:

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

But this is a bit too much for Philip who asks:

Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.

One can almost hear the sigh in Jesus’ voice as he replies:

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’?

Jesus’ reply is simply another way of saying that he is the Way. To know the inner meaning of Jesus’ life and to make it one’s own is to know the Father because Jesus is the em-bodi-ment, the incarnation of the Father in human form. Again, we are grateful to Philip for his question.

And that is the last appearance of Philip in the Gospel. Nor does James, son of Alphaeus, appear again.

However, the example of these two men among the twelve foundation stones on which Jesus’ work would be built and grow should be a lesson to us as to how God can carry out his plans with what seem rather inferior materials. By everywhere preaching the Gospel (see Mark 16:20), the Apostles sowed the seed of what would be a worldwide community against which the “gates of hell” would not prevail. It is a message to each one of us that, no matter what our gifts or lack of them, we are called to show others the Way that is Truth and Life.

Paul, too, who did so much to plant the Gospel in so many places, was all too aware of his own weaknesses and even prayed to be rid of them. He tells us his many prayers were answered by his becoming aware:

I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ, for whenever I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Cor 12:10)

In the First Reading from the First Letter to the Corinthians, Paul speaks of his calling to be an Apostle. He wants the Christians of Corinth to be mindful of the message he preached to them and on which their Christian faith stands. It is a faith which will bring them salvation and life unending. Paul emphasises strongly that it was not his own message he was preaching, but what he received from Jesus Christ, the Word of God.

The essence of that message was that Christ died for our sinfulness, that he was buried and raised three days later and finally that, after his resurrection, he appeared to Peter and all the Apostles. He then appeared to 500 disciples, some of whom had already died, and then to James (whose feast we are celebrating today) and all the rest of the Apostles. Finally, says Paul, he appeared to Paul himself, as to one born unexpectedly. After all, Paul had been a fierce persecutor of the followers of Christ and the last person one expected to be an Apostle.

It is thanks to all of these people that the message of Christ and his Gospel has reached us, and it reminds us that we, too, have the same obligation to pass on the Good News of Christ to others if they are to share the privileged experience we have had.

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Today we celebrate the feast of two of the Twelve Apostles—James and Philip. James is known as the ‘son of Alphaeus’, and to be honest, we know practically nothing about him beyond his name and that he was chosen to be one of the inner circle of Jesus’ disciples—the Twelve. He is known as ‘James the Less’ and is not to be confused with James, one of the two sons of Zebedee, known as ‘James the Greater’. Nor is he to be confused with James, son of Clopas in the Acts of the Apostles, who was a “brother” (cousin) of Jesus, later ‘bishop’ of Jerusalem and the traditional author of the Letter of James.

Philip came from the same town as Peter and Andrew, Bethsaida in Galilee. In the first chapter of John’s Gospel we see Jesus calling him directly, whereupon he went in search of Nathanael and told him:

We have found him about whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.
(John 1:43-45)

Philip comes across as someone who is rather innocent and naïve, and it takes him some time to acknowledge the full identity of Jesus.

The naivety of his character comes across in two incidents in the Gospel, one of which is described in the Gospel reading. The other took place when Jesus had crossed Lake Galilee in a boat with his disciples and was faced by a huge crowd of people waiting for him (John 6:1). The people were hungry in both body and spirit. Knowing how he was going to deal with the situation, Jesus teasingly asked the unassuming Philip where they could get bread to feed such a huge crowd. John comments that Jesus:

…said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. (John 6:6)

Philip innocently replied:

Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little. (John 6:7)

In other words, there was no way it could be done. But Philip would very soon find out how the problem would be solved, namely, when a small boy generously gave away his lunch of five loaves and two fish.

Because Philip’s name was Greek (Philippos, meaning ‘lover of horses’), we are told that one day two ‘Greeks’, probably converts to Judaism, approached him and his companion, Andrew (Andreos, also a Greek name, meaning ‘manly’), and said they wanted to “see Jesus”. Jesus is in Jerusalem and it is on the eve of his Passion. When told about this request, Jesus replied enigmatically with the image of the seed having to fall into the ground and die before it gave fruit. Clearly, it was a way of telling these men that ‘seeing’ Jesus was much more than seeing his exterior; they would also have to grasp the inner meaning of his sacrificial death as an essential part of his identity.

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Commentaries on the Readings: Genesis 1:26-2:3 or Colossians 3:14-15,17,23-24; Matthew 13:54-58 Read Saint Joseph the Worker – Readings DUPLICATE »

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Commentary on 1 John 1:5—2:2; Matthew 11:25-30

The Gospel reading, taken from Matthew, consists of a prayer of Jesus to his Father. In it he thanks his Father for revealing his message, not to those who regard themselves as “wise and…intelligent”, but to the “infants”. The so-called wise and learned can be very arrogant, so that their minds are closed to ideas which are contrary to their convictions.

This was the situation with many of the scribes and Pharisees who refused to listen to the teaching of Jesus and could not see the Word of God in his words and actions. Rather, it was his disciples, people of little or no learning, who were open to hear his message and who, a little further on in this Gospel, will acknowledge their Master as the Messiah, the Son of God and the Saviour King of the new Israel. This was also, of course, because they had been chosen, for:

…no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

But even those who are chosen to hear the message may reject it or lapse from it.

The passage is very relevant to Catherine. She had received little or no formal education and could neither read nor write. Nevertheless, she was clearly a person of high intelligence who became both a philosopher and theologian. She mixed easily in the ranks of popes, bishops and political leaders, and acted as mediator between them. The dictated writings she left behind earned her the title of Doctor of the Church. She was also, from her early years, a deeply spiritual person, a mystic, in very close communication with God. Her childlike quality was that she saw herself totally as an instrument of God in the service of the Church, and especially in bringing about reconciliation and healing between divided factions.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

Her whole life was devoted to bringing the Light of Christ into the life of the Church.

Today’s First Reading talks about this ‘light’ saying:

…God is light and in him there is no darkness at all….if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

This was the mission of Catherine—to bring the light of Jesus and his Gospel into the Church so that it might be cleansed of all sin, especially the sin of corrupt power and scandalous division.

The Church still needs people like Catherine, and it is for each one of us to see how we can contribute to making our Church a united community and a source of healing for a divided world.

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Commentary on 2 Timothy 4:1-5; Psalm 40; Matthew 5:13-19

Peter Canisius was very much an exemplar of the teaching in today’s Gospel. The reading is taken from the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew. The Sermon begins with the Beatitudes, which are a set of values which should characterise the true disciple of Jesus. In fact, they can be called a portrait of Jesus himself.

They are immediately followed by Jesus telling his disciples that these values are not just for themselves, but are to be communicated to the whole world. And Jesus uses a number of dramatic images to emphasise the impact that his disciples are to make on the world. They are to be the salt of the earth. Salt is a very valuable commodity and is both necessary to give taste to food, but also as a need for the functioning of our bodies. One of the characteristics of salt is that it is totally absorbed into the food so that it cannot be seen, and yet its presence or absence is immediately noticeable.

That is how Christians are to be present in our society. We are to be fully immersed in it, fully part of it but, at the same time, make a difference by the values of the Gospel. If we make no impact, if we live our Christian vocation in a way that is purely for ourselves and is unnoticed by others, then we are like tasteless salt and only good to be thrown out.

Other images are that the followers of Jesus are to be the light of the world. We do that by living our lives in the way that Jesus lived his. No one could say that Jesus was invisible – neither should we be. Or we are to be like a city built in a hilltop (as Jerusalem was) and visible for miles around. Or we are to be like a lamp in a house which, after it has been lit, is not hidden away under something…this would be nonsense. At the same time, our lives are to shine out before the world, not so that people will admire us, but so that they will be led to search for the source of that light and find their way to God, the Father, Source and Goal of all being.

Undoubtedly, Peter Canisius lived out this Gospel. He was a light for the Catholic faith and did not spare himself in spreading its message all over Central Europe. The words of the First Reading from the Second Letter to Timothy can so well be applied to him. Paul is instructing his missionary companion Timothy:

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you: proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage with the utmost patience in teaching.

He is warned that people will not want to listen to the truth and will “wander away to myths”.

Timothy, on the other hand, is to:

…be sober in everything, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.

Peter lived in the highly contentious world of the Reformation when there were deep divisions among Christians, between Catholics and Protestants, and between Protestants themselves who, after separating from Rome, became ever more fragmented.

Everything indicates that Peter was a person who spoke with convincing power of argument, but also with courtesy and respect for those who disagreed with him. Our Church today remains deeply divided, but in more recent times there has been a strong desire for the divisions to be overcome and for the restoration of unity, which is not the same as uniformity.

We need to remember the prayer of Jesus at the Last Supper, where he prayed for unity among his followers as a sign of the truth of his and their message:

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:35)

Let that be the guide for our lives too.

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Commentary on 1 Peter 5:5-14; Mark 16:15-20

Ironically, the Gospel reading is from a passage at the end of Mark’s Gospel, a section that is thought to be an added supplement to his original text. It is believed that Mark’s Gospel ends with verse 8 of chapter 16 where we read:

So they [the women] went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

This seems to have been regarded as too abrupt an ending, so brief summaries borrowed from other sources were added on. These include the appearance to Mary Magdalene (from John); the appearance to two disciples “on their way to the country”, a clear reference to the disciples on their way to Emmaus (from Luke); the appearance of the Risen Jesus to the eleven apostles (from Matthew, Luke and John); and Jesus taken up to heaven (from Luke and Acts).

The reading is taken from the appearance to the Eleven where Jesus gives them the mandate to proclaim the gospel to the whole world, and where there is a promise that believers will be able to work wonders—expelling evil spirits, speaking in strange tongues, being protected from harmful elements and bringing healing to the sick. The reading ends with a brief description of the Ascension, when the Risen Jesus goes back to his Father’s right-hand side.

Mark, of course, through his Gospel has spelled out the challenge for followers of Christ to imitate him in living out their discipleship and fulfilling the missionary command to establish the Kingdom where God’s will is being done on earth.

The First Reading from the last chapter of the First Letter of Peter contains instructions to the younger leaders of the community. The first instruction is that all should be eager to serve each other and to not have some dominating over others. They are also warned to be on the watch for evil forces and to be firm and strong in their faith. They need to realise that their brothers and sisters in faith are suffering in many places because of persecution. But in time, God will strengthen them and put them on a firm foundation.

Again, it was through his Gospel that Mark conveyed this message by his presentation of Jesus as establishing God’s Kingdom. Mark also made clear that every follower of Jesus must identify with Jesus’ spirit of self-sacrifice and share in it. As Jesus accepted his cross, and through his death passed to glory, so his followers too must carry their cross to share in the same glory.

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Commentary on Revelation 12:10-12; Psalm 33; John 17:11-19

The Gospel is taken from Jesus’ long prayer at the Last Supper, which comes in John’s Gospel at the end of the long discourse he makes with his disciples.  In this part of the prayer, Jesus is praying for his disciples in their future mission in the world. Although they will be in the world, they will not belong to the world, in the sense that they will not identify with the values of the secular world. He prays:

I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one.

If the message of Jesus is to be spread to people, then Jesus’ disciples must mingle with that world, but not be contaminated by its negative values.  For:

They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.

The only way that Jesus’ message will be heard is if its members both by their words and actions challenge the values of the secular world. And so, although Jesus’ disciples do not belong to the world, he sends them into the world. That is where their apostolate is to be carried out. They are to be the leaven in the dough, they are to be the salt that gives taste to the world, they are to be the city on a hill and the lamp giving light to all in the house.

Stanislaus, as bishop, was inescapably involved with political issues, but remained true to the Gospel spirit and eventually gave his life in defence of the Gospel.

The First Reading is from the Book of Revelation and seems a strange choice at first. The passage is expressed in very apocalyptic and symbolic language. The first part of the chapter (not in our reading) is nowadays often used as a description of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, but that is not likely the intended meaning here. Rather, the woman symbolises God’s people in both the Old and New Testament. It was was Israel who gave birth to the Messiah and thus became the new Israel—the Christian Church—which is now being persecuted by the dragon, a symbol of Satan personified in the rule of the Roman Empire. 

This image corresponds to a widespread myth throughout the ancient world that a goddess pregnant with a saviour was pursued by a horrible monster. By miraculous intervention, she bore a son who then killed the monster. Because of Eve’s sin, the woman gives birth in distress and pain and indeed the coming of Jesus was preceded by great trials and suffering for the people of Israel. The dragon’s seven heads perhaps indicate great knowledge and the ten horns widespread power while the seven diadems speak of the fullness of Satan’s domination over the kingdoms of the world.

The woman, Israel, gave birth to a child, destined to be lord of all the nations and who was caught up to God and his throne, a reference to Jesus’ resurrection and ascension to the right hand of the Father. But she then fled into the desert for sanctuary. In other words, God protects the persecuted church in the desert, the traditional Old Testament place of refuge for the afflicted. Twelve hundred and sixty days (v 8) is a symbol of the length of time of persecution.

The struggle between the Christians and their Roman persecutors is symbolised by the war between the archangel Michael, traditionally the protector and champion of God’s people (see Dan 10:13,21) and the Satan, the personification of evil. Michael, of course, prevails as did the Church when the Roman Empire ultimately collapsed. After the battle, Satan now defeated, the author says:

I heard a loud voice in heaven proclaiming,
“Now have come the salvation and the power
and the kingdom of our God
and the authority of his Messiah,
for the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.”

The passage can be read today as a symbolic representation of Stanislaus’ struggle against a wicked king, who brought about the death of Stanislaus, but who was himself ousted from this throne because of his wicked act.

We, too, should not be surprised if our Christian Way is attacked, even to the point of violence. But let us remember the prayer of Jesus and his promise that he will be with us to the end of time.

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Commentary on 2 Samuel 12:7-10,13; Galatians 2:16,19-21; Luke 7:36-8:3 Read Sunday of Week 11 of Ordinary Time (Year C) »

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Commentary on 1 Kings 17:17-24; Galatians 1:11-19; Luke 7:11-17 Read Sunday of Week 10 of Ordinary Time (Year C) »

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Note: The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ—also known as Corpus Christi—is traditionally celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. But in some countries and in some dioceses, it is celebrated on the following Sunday.

Commentary on Genesis 14:18-20; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; Luke 9:11-17

In a way, we have already celebrated this feast. We did so on Holy (Maundy) Thursday in Holy Week. On that occasion, the emphasis was on the institution, the gift of the Eucharist to us as one of Jesus’ last acts before his suffering and death. It was, moreover, to be an enduring memorial of that great liberating act by which God’s love would be forever kept before our minds.

One reason why we may have this second feast of the Eucharist is that it takes place during the more joyful period of the Easter season when we can celebrate it with greater freedom from the constraints of Lent and Holy Week. In many parts of the world, there will be a solemn and joyful procession of the Blessed Sacrament through the parish grounds or even through the public streets.

Community dimension
Perhaps today we should emphasise more the community dimension of the celebration of the Eucharist, which is often missing. We tend to see ‘going to Mass’ very much in individual terms. If ‘I’ fail to ‘go to Mass’ through ‘my own fault’, ‘I’ have committed a mortal sin. We also tend to talk about ‘hearing’ Mass, or being ‘at Mass’. We ask questions like: “Who said the Mass?” The priest himself may even be heard to announce: “I am saying this Mass for the repose of the soul of…” or even “I am saying this Mass for all of you here”.

On reflection, these expressions are very strange. They tend to present the Eucharist as something that the priest alone does on behalf of other people. People seem to feel themselves present at a performance in which they are only expected to be physically present. This is sometimes further accentuated by a choir doing all the singing (that is, if there is singing) and a ‘commentator’ shouting out all the prayers over the microphone. Quite a number of people come in late and many leave before the end. These things are all so common that we hardly notice them. We may even accept these things as ‘just the way they are’. But it tells us a lot about what it means to people to be present (or not present) at the Eucharist.

Active participation
The Eucharist is essentially, and of its very nature, a community action in which every person present is expected to be an active participant. We are here, on the one hand, recalling what makes us Christians in the first place—our identification with the life, suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus. And that identification with Jesus is expressed not through a one-to-one relationship with him, but in a community relationship with him present in all those who call themselves Christian. We relate to him through his Risen Body, which is the whole community bearing his name. There is no place in Christianity for individualism. It is a horizontal faith: we go to God with and through those around us.

Every Lord’s Day we come together as that Body, as a community, to say thanks to him and hence the name ‘Eucharist’ which means ‘thanks’. It is regrettable, then, if we are only in church to ‘keep the Third Commandment’ on a purely private, individual, devotional basis. With that mentality, it will not be surprising if we think it does not matter if we are late or leave early. Because, with that mentality, ‘going to Mass’ is a private affair for me and all the others who ‘happen’ to be there, too.

Some even resent that there is too much going on. They wonder why they cannot be “left in peace to say their prayers”. It is true some Mass celebrations can be overactive or over-intrusive, but on the other hand, it is not a time for contemplative prayer. One can do that much better at home. The whole point of being at Mass is to celebrate together with one’s fellow-Christians as a community of the disciples of Jesus.

Eating together
As well as remembering and giving thanks as a community—as the Body of Christ—the Eucharist is also a time when we express that unity through the eating and drinking together of that Body.

The key to our being in Christ is love, love not only for God, but for every single person. Jesus said that the two ways by which it would be known publicly that we live in him would be by our love for each other and the unity which follows from that:

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:35)

and

…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. (John 17:21)

and

I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you [the Father] have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (John 17:23)

This, of course, we are to manifest first and foremost by the way we live our daily lives. And one of the reasons we may find it difficult to express ourselves as community during Mass is because we do not have that deepdown sense of togetherness as Christians in general. Mass is not the time to manufacture community; rather, it is the time to celebrate it. Unfortunately, past emphasis on individual morality as the key to ‘saving my soul’ still runs deep several decades after the Second Vatican Council. As a result, we come into the church on Sunday largely as strangers to each other.

Stiff and formal
Not surprisingly, the ‘sign of peace’ is, in many cases, hardly a warm-hearted act of reconciliation and friendship, but a stiff and formal bowing in which some people still decline to take part.

Communion can be seen primarily as ‘receiving Jesus in my heart’. I close my eyes lest I might be ‘distracted’ by the people around me. The choir sings on my behalf while I make ‘my thanksgiving’. Certainly reverence and prayer have their place at Communion time, as throughout the Eucharist. But we need to remember, too, that we are taking part in the joyful celebration of a community of brothers and sisters. This communion calls for sharing and communication and even a certain level of spontaneity and naturalness.

‘Going to communion’ is not a private ‘receiving’, but a sharing—an eating together of the one Bread and the shared drinking of the one Cup. This one Bread and one Cup is Jesus in his Risen Body; it includes not only Jesus, but the whole community present. We recognise in the sharing not just the individual Jesus coming to me, but Jesus in his Body, of which we are all part.

Jesus is in the host, but he is also in the hand that gives the host and in the hand of the one who receives. There are some ultra-devotional people who genuflect just before receiving. By right, they should also genuflect to the whole congregation because that is where the real presence of Christ is. If Jesus is not present by faith and action in this community, what meaning can the Eucharist have?

Eucharistic ministers
Hence the meaningfulness now, in some parishes, of having the induction of lay Eucharistic ministers on this day. We have moved from a purely priest-centred Eucharist at which the laity are passive spectators to one that is community-centred because that is where Christ is to be found. The priest certainly has his role, of course, as the one who presides. He is the focal point of unity around which the community gathers, but it is the community—including the priest—who celebrates.

These ministers may also be bringing the Eucharist to the sick and the homebound. This is, too, an extension of the community celebration of the Eucharist. Our sick brothers and sisters cannot come personally to the community celebration, but they are reminded of their membership when they share the same Body of Christ, which binds all together. In Communion, not just Jesus, but the whole parish comes to them.