From: Acts 13:26-33
Preaching in the Synagogue of Antioch of Pisidia (Continuation)
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Commentary:
16-41. Paul’s address here is an excellent example of the way he used to present
the Gospel to a mixed congregation of Jews and proselytes. He lists the benefits
conferred by God on the chosen people from Abraham down to John the Baptism
(verses 16-25); he then shows how all the messianic prophecies were fulfilled in
Jesus (verses 26-37), and, by way of conclusion, states that justification comes
about through faith in Jesus, who died and then rose from the dead (verse 38-41).
This address contains all the main themes of apostolic preaching, that is, God’s
saving initiative in the history of Israel (verses 17-22); reference to the Precursor
(verses 24-25); the proclamation of the Gospel or “kerygma” in the proper sense
(verses 26b-31a); mention of Jerusalem (verse 31b); arguments from Sacred
Scripture (verses 33-37), complementing apostolic teaching and tradition (verses
38-39); and a final exhortation, eschatological in character, announcing the future
(verses 40-41). In many respects this address is like those of St. Peter (cf. 2:14ff;
3:12ff), especially where it proclaims Jesus as Messiah and in its many quota-
tions from Sacred Scripture, chosen to show that the decisive event of the Resur-
rection confirms Christ’s divinity.
Paul gives a general outline of salvation history and then locates Jesus in it as
the expected Messiah, the point at which all the various strands in that history
meet and all God’s promises are fulfilled. He shows that all the steps which lead
up to Jesus Christ, even the stage of John the Baptist, are just points on a route.
Earlier, provisional elements must now, in Christ, give way to a new, definitive
situation.
“You that fear God” (verse 26): see the notes on Acts 2:5-11 and 10:2).
28. Paul does not back off from telling his Jewish listeners about the cross, the
painful death freely undergone by the innocent Jesus. They naturally find it shoc-
king and hurtful, but it is true and it is what brings salvation. “When I came to
you, brethren,” he says on another occasion, “I did not come proclaiming to you
the testimony of God in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing a-
mong you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:1f).
Sometimes human logic cannot understand how Jesus could have died in this
way. But the very fact that he did is evidence of the divine character of the Gos-
pel and supports belief in the Christian faith. With the help of grace man can in
some way understand the Lord making Himself “obedient unto death, even death
on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). He can discover some of the reasons why God de-
cided on this superabundant way of redeeming man. “It was very fitting,” St. Tho-
mas Aquinas writes, “that Christ should die on a cross. First, to give an example
of virtue. [...] Also, because this kind of death was the one most suited to ato-
ning for the sin of the first man.... It was fitting for Christ, in order to make up for
that fault, to allow Himself to be nailed to the wood, as if to restore what Adam
had snatched away. [...] Also, because by dying on the cross Jesus prepares
us for our ascent into heaven. [...] And because it also was fitting for the univer-
sal salvation of the entire world” (”Summa Theologiae”, III, q. 46, a. 4).
Through Christ’s death on the cross we can see how much God loved us and
consequently we can feel moved to love Him with our whole heart and with all
our strength. Only the cross of our Lord, an inexhaustible source of grace, can
make us holy.
29-31. The empty tomb and the appearances of the risen Jesus to His disciples
are the basis of the Church’s testimony to the resurrection of the Lord, and they
demonstrate that He did truly rise. Jesus predicted that He would rise on the
third day after His death (cf. Matthew 12:40; 16-21; 17:22; John 2:19). Faith in
the Resurrection is supported by the fact of the empty tomb (because it was im-
possible for our Lord’s body to be stolen) and by his many appearances, during
which he conversed with his disciples, allowed them to touch Him, and ate with
them (cf. Matthew 28; Mark 16; Luke 24; John 20-21). In his First Letter to the
Corinthians (15:3-6) Paul says that “[what I preached was] that Christ died for
our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that He was buried, that He was
raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that He appeared
to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then He appeared to more than five hundred bre-
thren.”
32-37. Paul gives three pertinent quotations from Scriptures—Psalm 2:7 (”Thou
art my Son”), Isaiah 55:3 (”I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David”)
and Psalm 16:10 (”thy Holy One”). All refer to aspects of the Lord’s Resurrection.
Taken together, they help support and interpret one another, and to someone fa-
miliar with the Bible and with what ways of interpreting it then current they reveal
the full meaning of the main texts concerning the promises made to David. Paul’s
interpretation of Psalm 2 and 16 gets beneath the surface meaning of the texts
and shows them to refer to the messianic king who, since He is born of God,
will never experience the corruption of the grave.
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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: John 14:1-6
Jesus Reveals the Father
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Commentary:
1-3. Apparently this prediction of Peter’s denial has saddened the disciples. Je-
sus cheers them up by telling them that He is going away to prepare a place for
them in Heaven, for Heaven they will eventually attain, despite their shortcomings
and dragging their feet. The return which Jesus refers to includes His Second Co-
ming (Parousia) at the end of the world (cf. 1 Corinthians 4:5; 11:26; 1 Thessalo-
nians 4:16-17; 1 John 2:28) and His meeting with each soul after death: Christ
has prepared a Heavenly dwelling-place through His work of redemption. There-
fore, His words can be regarded as being addressed not only to the Twelve but
also to everyone who believes in Him over the course of the centuries. The Lord
will bring with Him into glory all those who have believed in Him and have stayed
faithful to Him.
4-7. The Apostles did not really understand what Jesus was telling them: hence
Thomas’ question. The Lord explains that He is the way to the Father. “It was
necessary for Him to say ‘I am the Way’ to show them that they really knew
what they thought they were ignorant of, because they knew Him” (St. Augus-
tine, “In. Ioann. Evang.”, 66, 2).
Jesus is the way to the Father—through what He teaches, for by keeping to His
teaching we will reach Heaven; through faith, which He inspires, because He
came to this world so “that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life” (John
3:15); through His example, since no one can go to the Father without imitating
the Son; through His merits, which make it possible for us to enter our Heavenly
home; and above all He is the way because He reveals the Father, with whom
He is one because of His divine nature.
“Just as children by listening to their mothers, and prattling with them, learn to
speak their language, so we, by keeping close to the Savior in meditation, and
observing His words, His actions, and His affections, shall learn, with the help
of His grace, to speak, to act, and to will like Him.
“We must pause here...; we can reach God the Father by no other route ... ;
the Divinity could not be well contemplated by us in this world below if it were
not united to the sacred humanity of the Savior, whose life and death are the
most appropriate, sweet, delicious and profitable subjects which we can choose
for our ordinary meditations” (St. Francis de Sales, “Introduction to the Devout
Life”, Part II, Chapter 1, 2).
“I am the way”: He is the only path linking Heaven and Earth. “He is speaking to
all men, but in a special way He is thinking of people who, like you and me, are
determined to take our Christian vocation seriously: He wants God to be forever
in our thoughts, on our lips and in everything we do, including our most ordinary
and routine actions.
“Jesus is the way. Behind Him on this Earth of ours He has left the clear out-
lines of His footprints. They are indelible signs which neither the erosion of time
nor the treachery of the Evil One have been able to erase” (St. J. Escriva,
“Friends of God”, 127).
Jesus’ words do much more than provide an answer to Thomas’ question; He
tells us: “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life”. Being the Truth and the
Life is something proper to the Son of God become man, who St. John says in
the prologue of his Gospel is “full of grace and truth” (1:14). He is the Truth be-
cause by coming to this world He shows that God is faithful to His promises,
and because He teaches the truth about who God is and tells us that true wor-
ship must be “in spirit and truth” (John 4:23). He is Life because from all eterni-
ty He has divine life with His Father (cf. John 1:4), and because He makes us,
through grace, sharers in that divine life. This is why the Gospel says: “This is
eternal life, that they know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom
Thou has sent” (John 17:3).
By His reply Jesus is, “as it were, saying, By which route do you want to go? I
am the Way. To where do you want to go? I am the Truth. Where do you want to
remain? I am the Life. Every man can attain an understanding of the Truth and the
Life; but not all find the Way. The wise of this world realize that God is eternal life
and knowable truth; but the Word of God, who is Truth and Life joined to the Fa-
ther, has become the Way by taking a human nature. Make your way contempla-
ting His humility and you will reach God” (St. Augustine, “De Verbis Domini Ser-
mones”, 54).
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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.