From: Acts 4:7-12
Address to the Sanhedrin
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Commentary:
8-12. The Apostles’ confidence and joy is quite remarkable, as is their outspo-
kenness in asserting that “we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard”
(verse 20). “This is the glorious freedom of the children of God. Christians who
let themselves be browbeaten or become inhibited or envious in the face of the
licentious behavior of those who do not accept the Word of God, show that they
have a very poor idea of the faith. If we truly fulfill the law of Christ—that is, if we
make the effort to do so, for we will not always fully succeed—we will find our-
selves endowed with a wonderful gallantry of spirit” (St. J. Escriva, “Friends of
God”, 38).
Christians have a duty to confess their faith where silence would mean its im-
plicit denial, disrespect for religion, an offense against God or scandal to their
neighbor. Thus Vatican II: “Christians should approach those who are outside
wisely, ‘in the Holy Spirit, genuine love, truthful speech’ (2 Corinthians 6:6-7),
and should strive, even to the shedding of their blood, to spread the light of life
with all confidence (Acts 4:29) and apostolic courage. The disciple has a grave
obligation to Christ, his Master, to grow daily in his knowledge of the truth he
has received from Him, to be faithful in announcing it and vigorous in defending
it” (”Dignitatis Humanae”, 14).
Pope Paul VI asked Catholics to check on any weak points in their faith, inclu-
ding ignorance and human respect, “that is, shame or timidness in professing
their faith. We are not speaking of that discretion or reserve which in a pluralist
and profane society like ours avoids certain signs of religion when with others.
We are referring to weakness, to failure to profess one’s own religious ideas for
fear of ridicule, criticism or others’ reactions [...] and which is a cause — perhaps
the main cause—of the abandonment of faith by people who simply conform to
whatever new environment they find themselves in” (Paul VI, “General Audience”,
19 June 1968).
8. Even in the very early days of Christianity Jesus’ prediction is borne out: “Be-
ware of men; for they will deliver you up to councils.... When they deliver you
up, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you
are to say will be given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit
of your Father speaking through you” (Matthew 10:17-20).
10. “Whom God raised from the dead”: St. Peter once again bears witness to
the Resurrection of Jesus, the central truth of apostolic preaching; he uses here
the same words as he did at Pentecost. These are compatible with our holding
that Jesus “rose by His own power on the third day” (Paul VI, “Creed of the Peo-
ple of God”, 12). The power by which Christ rose was that of His divine person,
to which both His soul and His body remained joined even after death separated
them. “The divine power and operation of the Father and of the Son is one and
the same; hence it follows that Christ rose by the power of the Father and by His
own power” (St. Thomas Aquinas, “Summa Theologiae”, III, q. 53, a. 4).
“By the word ‘Resurrection’,” the “St. Pius V Catechism” explains, “we are not
merely to understand that Christ was raised from the dead, which happened to
many others, but that He rose by His own power and virtue, a singular preroga-
tive peculiar to Him alone. For it is incompatible with nature and was never given
to man to raise himself by his own power, from death to life. This was reserved
for the almighty power of God. [...] We sometimes, it is true, read in Scripture
that He was raised by the Father; but this refers to Him as man, just as those
passages on the other hand, which say that He rose by His own power, relate
to Him as God” (I, 6, 8).
11. St. Peter applies the words of Psalm 118:22 to Jesus, conscious no doubt
that our Lord had referred to Himself as the stone rejected by the builders which
had become the cornerstone, the stone which keeps the whole structure toge-
ther (cf. Matthew 21:42 and par.).
12. Invocation of the name of Jesus is all-powerful because this is our Savior’s
own name (cf. note on Matthew 1:21). Our Lord Himself told His Apostles this:
“If you ask anything of the Father, He will give it to you in My name” (John 16:23),
and they, trusting in this promise, work miracles and obtain conversions “in the
name of Jesus”. Today—as ever—the power of His name will work wonder in the
souls of those who call upon Him. Monsignor Escriva gives this advice: “Don’t
be afraid to call our Lord by His name—Jesus—and to tell Him that you love Him”
(”The Way”, 303); and the Liturgy of the Hours invites us to pray: “God our
Father, You are calling us to prayer, at the same hour as the Apostles went up
to the temple. Grant that the prayer we offer with sincere hearts in the name of
Jesus may bring salvation to all who call upon that holy name” (Week 1, Monday
afternoon).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
From: 1 John 3:1-2
We are Children of God
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Commentary:
1-24. This entire chapter shows how moved the Apostle is when he contemplates
the marvelous gift of divine filiation. The Holy Spirit, who is the author of all Sa-
cred Scripture, has desired John to pass on to us this unique revelation: we are
children of God (v. 1).
It is not easy to divide the chapter into sections, because the style is very cyclic
and colloquial and includes many repetitions and further thoughts which make for
great vividness and freshness. However, we can distinguish an opening proclama-
tion of the central message (vv. 1-2) and emphasis on two requirements of divine
filiation — rejection of sin in any shape or form (vv. 3-10), and brotherly love lived
to the full (vv. 11-24).
1. “We should be called children of God”: the original Hebrew expression, which
reads “we are called...”, is also used by our Lord in the Beatitudes (cf. Mt 5:9):
“to be called” means the same as “to be called by God”; and in the language of
the Bible, when God gives someone a name he is not simply conferring a title but
is causing the thing that the name indicates (cf., e.g., Gen 17:5), for the word of
God is efficacious, it does what it says it will do. Hence St John’s adding: “and
so we are”.
Therefore, it is not just a matter of a metaphorical title, or a legal fiction, or adop-
tion human-style: divine filiation is an essential feature of a Christian’s life, a mar-
velous fact whereby God gratuitously gives men a strictly supernatural dignity, an
intimacy with God whereby they are “domestici Dei”, “members of the household
of God” (Eph 2:19). This explains the tone of amazement and joy with which St
John passes on this revelation.
This sense of divine filiation is one of the central points in the spirituality of Opus
Dei. Its founder wrote: “We do not exist in order to pursue just any happiness.
We have been called to penetrate the intimacy of God’s own life, to know and
love God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and to love also — in
that same love of the one God in three divine Persons — the angels and all men.
“This is the great boldness of the Christian faith — to proclaim the value and dig-
nity of human nature and to affirm that we have been created to obtain the digni-
ty of children of God, through the grace that raises us up to a supernatural level.
An incredible boldness it would be, were it not founded on the promise of salva-
tion given us by God the Father, confirmed by the blood of Christ, and reaffirmed
and made possible by the constant action of the Holy Spirit” (”Christ Is Passing
By”, 133).
“The world does not know us, (because) it did not know him”: these words are
reminiscent of our Lord’s at the Last Supper: “the hour is coming when whoever
kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do this because
they have not known the Father, nor me” (Jn 16:2-3). Divine filiation brings with
it communion and a mysterious identification between Christ and the Christian.
2. The indescribable gift of divine filiation, which the world does not know (v. 1),
is not fully experienced by Christians, because the seeds of divine life which it
contains will only reach their full growth in eternal life, when we see him “as he
is”, “face to face” (1 Cor 13:12); “this is eternal life, that they know thee the only
true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent” (Jn 17:3). In that direct sight
of God as he is, and of all things in God, the life of grace and divine filiation
achieve their full growth. Man is not naturally able to see God face to face; he
needs to be enlightened by a special light, which is given the technical theologi-
cal name of “lumen gloriae”, light of glory. This does not allow him to “take in”
all God (no created thing could do that), but it does allow him to look at God di-
rectly.
Commenting on this verse, the “St Pius V Catechism” explains that “beatitude
consists of two things — that we shall behold God such as he is in his own na-
ture and substance; and that we ourselves shall become, as it were, gods. For
those who enjoy God while they retain their own nature, assume a certain admi-
rable and almost divine form, so as to seem gods rather than men” (I, 13, 7).
“When he appears”: two interpretations are possible, given that in Greek the verb
has no subject: “when (what we shall be) is revealed we shall be as he is”; or, as
the New Vulgate translates it, “when he (Christ) is revealed we will be like him
(Christ)”. The second interpretation is the more likely.
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.