From: Acts 14:21-27
The Return Journey to Antioch
[24] Then they passed through Pisidia, and came to Pamphylia. [25] And when
they had spoken the Word in Perga, they went down to Attalia; [26] and from
there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of
God for the work which they had fulfilled. [27] And when they arrived, they ga-
thered the Church together and declared all that God had done with them, and
how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.
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Commentary:
20-22. “If you accept difficulties with a faint heart you lose joy and your peace,
and you run the risk of not deriving spiritual profit from the trial” (St. J. Escriva,
“The Way”, 696).
St. Paul is not cowed by persecution and physical suffering. He knows that this
crisis is the prelude to abundant spiritual fruit, and in fact many people in this re-
gion do embrace the Gospel.
Even though St. Luke records the progress and success of the Word of God, he
also shows that its preachers certainly encounter the cross (cf. 13:14, 50). The
Gospel meets with acceptance everywhere—and also with opposition. “Where
there are many laurels”, St. Ambrose says, “there is fierce combat. It is good for
you to have persecutors: that way you attain more rapid success in your enterpri-
ses” (”Expositio in Ps 118”, 20, 43).
The Apostles have no difficulty in pointing to events to show the disciples that
suffering and difficulties form part of Christian living.
“Cross, toil, anguish: such will be your lot as long as you live. That was the way
Christ went, and the disciple is not above his master” (St. J. Escriva, “The Way”,
699). “Each of us has at some time or other experienced that serving Christ our
Lord involves suffering and hardship; to deny this would imply that we had not yet
found God [...]. Far from discouraging us, the difficulties we meet have to spur us
on to mature as Christians. This fight sanctifies us and gives effectiveness to our
apostolic endeavors” (St. J. Escriva, “Friends of God”, 28 and 216).
23. The appointment of elders in each church means that Christians were inves-
ted with a ministry of government and religious worship, by a liturgical rite of ordi-
nation. These have a share in the hierarchical and priestly ministry of the Apos-
tles, from whom their own ministry derives.
“The ministry of priests [...]”, Vatican II teaches, “shares in the authority by
which Christ Himself builds up and sanctifies and rules His Body” (”Presbytero-
rum Ordinis”, 2). The ministerial office of priests is essential to the life of every
Christian community, which draws its strength from the Word of God and the
Sacraments. Their priesthood, derived from our Lord, is essentially different
from what is called the “priesthood common to all the faithful”.
A man becomes a priest of the New Testament through a special calling from
God. “Our vocation,” John Paul II told a huge gathering of priests in Philadelphia,
“is a gift from the Lord Jesus Himself. It is a personal, individual calling: we have
been called by our name, just as Jeremiah was” (”Homily at the Civic Center”,
4 October 1979).
The priestly life is a sublime vocation which cannot be delegated or transferred
to anyone else. It is a lifelong vocation and means that one has to give himself
entirely to God—and this he can do, with the help of grace, because “we do not
claim back our gift once given. It cannot be that God, who gave us the impulse
to Yes, should now desire to hear us say No....
“It should not surprise the world that God’s calling through the Church should
continue, offering us a celibate ministry of love and service according to our Lord
Jesus Christ’s example. This calling from God touched the very depths of our
being. And after centuries of experience the Church knows how appropriate it is
that priests should respond in this specific way in their lives, to demonstrate the
totality of the Yes they have said to our Lord” (”Ibid.”).
“Since He wishes that no one be saved who has not first believed (cf. Mark 16:
16), priests, like the co-workers of the bishops that they are, have as their first
duty to proclaim to all men the Gospel of God” (Vatican II, “Presbyterorum Ordi-
nis”, 4). To carry out this mission well, a priest needs to be in contact with our
Lord all the time—”a personal, living encounter—with eyes wide open and a heart
beating fast—with the risen Christ” John Paul II, “Homily in Santo Domingo Ca-
tedral”, 26 January 1979).
Reminding priests of their special duty to be witnesses to God in the modern
world, John Paul II invites them not only to bear in mind the Christian people,
from whom they come and whom they must serve, but also people at large; they
should not hide the fact that they are priests: “Do not help the trends towards ‘ta-
king God off the streets’ by yourselves adopting secular modes of dress and be-
havior” (”Address at Maynooth University”, 1 October 1979).
24-26. Paul and Barnabas return to Syrian Antioch, taking in the cities they have
visited—in reverse order: Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, Pisidian Antioch and Perga. At
the port of Attalia they take ship for Syria and arrive shortly afterwards in Antioch.
Their journey, which began around the year 45, has taken four years.
Despite the animosity and persecution they experienced in these cities, the two
missionaries do not avoid returning. They want to complete arrangements for the
government of the new churches and to consolidate the faith of the disciples. The
possible risks involved do not cause them any concern.
“Whosoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for My sake
and the Gospel’s will save it” (Mark 8:35). “These are mysterious and paradoxical
words,” John Paul II writes. “But they cease to be mysterious if we strive to put
them into practice. Then the paradox disappears and we can plainly see the deep
simplicity of their meaning. To all of us this grace is granted in our priestly life
and in our zealous service” (”Letter to All Priests”, 8 April 1979, 5).
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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: Revelation 21:1-5a
A New World Comes Into Being. The New Jerusalem
[1] Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first
earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. [2] And I saw the holy city,
new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride ador-
ned for her husband; [3] and I heard a great voice from the throne saying, “Be-
hold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be
his people, and God himself will be with them; [4] he will wipe away every tear
from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor
crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.”
[5a] And he who sat upon the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.”
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Commentary:
1-4. The prophet Isaiah depicted the messianic times as a radical change in the
fortunes of the people of Israel—so radical that, as he put it, God was going to cre-
ate new heavens and a new earth, a new Jerusalem full of joy, where the sound
of weeping would never more be heard, where God would make himself plain for
all to see and where everything would be as it was in paradise before sin (cf. Is
65:12-25). The author of the Apocalypse uses this same format to describe the
future Kingdom of God. The imagery of a new heaven and a new earth (taken in
a physical sense) was very much in vogue in Jewish writing around the time of
the Apocalypse (cf. 1 Enoch 72:1; 91:16), and is probably reflected also in 2 Pe-
ter 3:10-13 and Matthew 19:28. Scripture nowhere indicates what form the new
heaven and the new earth will take. However, what is clear is that there will be a
radical “renewal” of the present cosmos, contaminated as it is by the sin of man
and the powers of evil (cf. Gen 2:8-3:24; Rom 8:9-13); through this renewal all
creation will be “recapitulated” in Christ (cf. Eph 1:10; Col 1:16:20). No reference
is made to the sea, probably because in Jewish literature it symbolized the a-
byss, the abode of demonic powers hostile to God.
Those who will inhabit this new world (symbolized by the Holy City, the new Jeru-
salem) are the entire assembly of the saved, the entire people of God (cf. vv. 12-
14)—a holy people disposed to live in loving communion with God (as reflected by
the image of the adorned bride: cf. vv. 2, 9). The promise of a new covenant (Ezek
37:27) will be fulfilled to the letter: God will see to it that none of the evil, suffering
or pain found in this world will find its way into the new world.
This passage of the Book of Revelation strengthens the faith and hope of the
Church—not only St John’s own generation but all generations down the ages for
as long as the Church makes its way through this valley of tears. The Second
Vatican Council says: “We know neither the moment of the consummation of
the earth and of man nor the way the universe will be transformed. The form of
this world, distorted by sin, is passing away and we are taught that God is pre-
paring a new dwelling and a new earth in which righteousness dwells, whose
happiness will fill and surpass all the desires of peace arising in the hearts of
men. Then with death conquered the children of God will be raised in Christ and
what was sown in weakness and dishonor will put on the imperishable: charity
and its work will remain, and all of creation which God made for man, will be set
free from its bondage to decay” (”Gaudium Et Spes”, 39).
5-8. For the first and only time in the entire book God himself speaks. He does
so as absolute Lord of all, to ratify what has just been expounded. While the au-
thor and his readers are still in this world of suffering, God affirms that he—even
now—is creating a new world. There is, then, a connection between present hu-
man suffering and the future world which is taking shape thanks to the mercy of
God.
Although that new world will emerge in its complete form on the last day, the re-
newal of all things has already begun; it began with the life, death and resurrec-
tion of Christ. “The kingdom of life has begun,” St Gregory of Nyssa teaches,
“and the empire of death has been undone. Another generation, another life, ano-
ther way of loving has made its appearance: our very nature is being transformed.
What type of generation am I referring to? A generation which results not from
blood or carnal love or human love, but from God. Are you wondering how that
can be? I shall explain it in a few words. This new creature is begotten by faith;
the regeneration of Baptism brings it to birth; the Church, its nurse, weans it by
her teaching and institutions and nourishes it with her heavenly bread. This new
creature matures through holiness of life; its marriage is marriage with Wisdom;
its children, hope; its home, the Kingdom; its inheritance and its riches, the de-
lights of paradise; its final destiny is not death, but eternal and joyful life in the
dwelling-place of the saints” (”Oratio I In Christi Resurrectionem”). We should
remember that “the Kingdom is mysteriously present here on earth; when the
Lord comes it will enter into its perfection” (”Gaudium Et Spes”, 39).
The promise of a world to come is so sure that although that world has not a-
chieved its full perfection, it can be categorically stated that it is a promise “al-
ready kept”—”It is done”: God himself, the Lord of history guarantees it (cf. note
on Rev 1:8)....
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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.