April 30, 2005
Saturday of the Fifth Week of Easter
Psalm: Saturday 20
Reading IActs 16:1-10
Paul reached also Derbe and Lystra
where there was a disciple named Timothy,
the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer,
but his father was a Greek.
The brothers in Lystra and Iconium spoke highly of him,
and Paul wanted him to come along with him.
On account of the Jews of that region, Paul had him circumcised,
for they all knew that his father was a Greek.
As they traveled from city to city,
they handed on to the people for observance the decisions
reached by the Apostles and presbyters in Jerusalem.
Day after day the churches grew stronger in faith
and increased in number.
They traveled through the Phrygian and Galatian territory
because they had been prevented by the Holy Spirit
from preaching the message in the province of Asia.
When they came to Mysia, they tried to go on into Bithynia,
but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them,
so they crossed through Mysia and came down to Troas.
During the night Paul had a vision.
A Macedonian stood before him and implored him with these words,
"Come over to Macedonia and help us."
When he had seen the vision,
we sought passage to Macedonia at once,
concluding that God had called us to proclaim the Good News to them.
Responsorial PsalmPs 100:1b-2, 3, 5
R (2a)
Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.or:
R
Alleluia.Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;
serve the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful song.
R
Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.or:
R
Alleluia.Know that the LORD is God;
he made us, his we are;
his people, the flock he tends.
R
Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.or:
R
Alleluia.The LORD is good:
his kindness endures forever,
and his faithfulness, to all generations.
R
Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.or:
R
Alleluia.
GospelJn 15:18-21
Jesus said to his disciples:
"If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first.
If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own;
but because you do not belong to the world,
and I have chosen you out of the world,
the world hates you.
Remember the word I spoke to you,
‘No slave is greater than his master.'
If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.
And they will do all these things to you on account of my name,
because they do not know the one who sent me."
From: Acts 16:1-10
Timothy joins Paul
[1] And he came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there,
named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer; but his
father was a Greek. [2] He was well spoken of by the brethren at Lystra
and Iconium. [3] Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him; and he took him
and circumcised him because of the Jews that were in those places, for
they all knew that his father was a Greek.
A Tour of the Churches of Asia Minor
[4] As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them
for observance the decisions which had been reached by the Apostles and
elders who were at Jerusalem. [5] So the churches were strengthened in
the faith and they increased in numbers daily.
[6] And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been
forbid
den by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. [7] And when
they had come opposite Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but
the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them; [8] so, passing by Mysia, they
went down to Troas. [9] And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a
man of Macedonia was standing beseeching him and saying, "Come over to
Macedonia and help us." [10] And when he had seen the vision,
immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had
called us to preach the gospel to them.
Commentary:
1-3. At Lystra, a city which he evangelized during his first journey
(cf. 14:6), Paul meets a young Christian, Timothy, of whom he had
received good reports. His Jewish mother Eunice and his grandmother
Lois were Christians, and Timothy had received the faith from them.
Paul's apostolic plans for Timothy, and the fact that, despite being
Jewish through his mother, he had not been circumcised, lead him to
circumcise him: everyone in the city knew he was a Jew and those who
practised the Mosaic Law might easily have regarded him as an apostate
from Judaism, in which case he would be unlikely to be an effective
preacher of the Gospel to the Jews.
"He took Timothy," St. Ephraem comments, "and circumcised him. Paul did
not do this without deliberation: he always acted prudently; but given
that Timothy was being trained to preach the Gospel to Jews everywhere,
and to avoid their not giving him a good hearing because he was not
circumcised, he decided to circumcise him. In doing this he was not
aiming to show that circumcision was necessary--he had been the one most
instrumental in eliminating it--but to avoid putting the Gospel at risk"
("Armenian Commentary, ad loc.").
In the case of Titus, St. Paul did not have him circumcised (cf.
Galatians 2:3-5); which showed that he did not consider circumcision a
matter of principle; it is simply for reasons of pastoral prudence and
common sense that he has Timothy circumcised. Titus was the son of
Gentile parents; to have circumcised him--at a point when Paul was
fighting the Judaizers--would have meant Paul giving up his principles.
However, the circumcision of Timothy, which takes place later, is in
itself something that has no relevance from the Christian point of view
(cf. Galatians 5:6, 15).
Timothy became one of Paul's most faithful disciples, a most valuable
associate in his missionary work (cf. 17:14ff; 18:5; 19:22; 20:4; 1
Thessalonians 3:2; Romans 16:21) and the recipient of two of the
Apostle's letters.
4. The text suggests that all Christians accepted the decisions of the
Council of Jerusalem in a spirit of obedience and joy. They saw them as
being handed down by the Church through the Apostles and as providing a
satisfactory solution to a delicate problem. The disciples accept these
commandments with internal and external assent: by putting them into
practice they showed their docility. Everything which a lawful council
lays down merits and demands acceptance by Christians, because it
reflects, as the Council of Trent teaches, "the true and saving doctrine
which Christ taught, the Apostles then handed on, and the Catholic
Church, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, ever maintains;
therefore, no one should subsequently dare to believe, preach or teach
anything different" ("De Iustificatione", Preface).
[Pope] John Paul II called on Christians to adhere sincerely to
conciliar directives when he exhorted them in Mexico City to keep to the
letter and the spirit of Vatican II: "Take in your hands the documents
of the Council. Study them with loving attention, in a spirit of
prayer, to discover what the Spirit wished to say about the Church"
("Homily in Mexico Cathedral", 26 January 1979).
6. In Galatia Paul had the illness which he refers to in Galatians 4:13:
"You know that it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the
Gospel to you at first...": his apostolic zeal makes him turn his
illness, which prevented him from moving on, to good purpose.
7. We are not told how the Holy Spirit prevented Paul from going to
Bithynia. It would have been through an interior voice or through some
person sent by God.
Some Greek codexes and a few translations say simply "Spirit" instead of
"Spirit of Jesus", but really the two mean the same: cf. Philippians
1:19; Romans 8:9; 1 Peter 1:11.
9. This vision probably took place in a dream: Acts tells us of a number
of instances where God made His will known in that way (cf. 9:10, 12;
10:3, 17; 18:9; 22:17). Paul and his companions were convinced he had
received a message from God.
The vision is quite right to describe the preaching of the Gospel as
help for Macedonia: it is the greatest help, the greatest benefit, a
person or a country could be given, an immense grace from God and a
great act of charity on the part of the preacher, preparing his
listeners, as he does, for the wonderful gift of faith.
10. The conviction that Paul and his companions have about what they
must do is the way every Christian, called as he is at Baptism, should
feel about his vocation to imitate Christ and therefore be apostolic.
"All Christians", [Pope] John Paul II teaches, "incorporated into Christ
and His Church by baptism, are consecrated to God. They are called to
profess the faith which they have received. By the Sacrament of
Confirmation, they are further endowed by the Holy Spirit with special
strength to be witnesses of Christ and shares in His mission of
salvation. Every lay Christian is therefore an extraordinary work of
God's grace and is called to the heights of holiness. Sometimes, lay
men and women do not seem to appreciate the full dignity and the
vocation that is theirs as lay people. No, there is no such thing as an
'ordinary layman', for all of you have been called to conversion through
the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As God's holy people you
are called to fulfill your role in the evangelization of the world.
Yes, the laity are 'a chosen race, a holy priesthood', also called to be
'the salt of the earth' and 'the light of the world'. It is their
specific vocation and mission to express the Gospel in their lives and
thereby to insert the Gospel as a leaven into the reality of the world
in which they live and work" ("Homily in Limerick", 1 October 1979).
Now the narrative moves into the first person plural (16:10-17; 20:5-8;
13-15; 21:1-18; 27:1-28, 16). The author includes himself among St.
Paul's companions, as an eyewitness of what he reports. Luke must have
joined the missionaries at Troas and then stayed behind in Philippi.
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.
From: John 15:18-21
A Hostile World
(Jesus said to His disciples,) [18] "If the world hates you, know that
it has hated Me before it hated you. [19] If you were of the world, the
world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I
chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
[20] Remember the word that I said to you, `A servant is not greater
than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you; if
they kept My word, they will keep yours also. [21] But all this they
will do to you on My account, because they do not know Him who sent Me."
Commentary:
18-19. Jesus states that there can be no compromise between Him and the
world, the kingdom of sin: anyone who lives in sin abhors the light
(cf. John 3:19-20). This is why Christ is persecuted, and why the
Apostles will be in their turn. "The hostility of the perverse sounds
like praise for our life", St. Gregory says, "because it shows that we
have at least some rectitude if we are an annoyance to those who do not
love God; no one can be pleasing to God and to God's enemies at the
same time. He who seeks to please those who oppose God is no friend of
God; and he who submits himself to the truth will fight against those
who strive against truth" ("In Ezechielem Homiliae", 9).
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.
In December of 1565, Pope Pius IV died, his one monumental achievement the resumption and successful conclusion of the Council of Trent. The man chosen to succeed Pius IV and upon whose shoulders rested the responsibility for carrying out the decrees of the council was Michael Ghislieri, a Dominican friar. It was the late pontiff's nephew St. Charles Borromeo who had been the driving force in the election of the new pope, for he recognized that a remarkable leader would be needed if the decrees of the council were to bear fruit. 
Her name was originally Marie Guyard. She was married in her youth and bore a son; when her son was 12 years old, her husband died and she decided to enter the Ursuline order. At her entreaty, the authorities gave her and another nun permission to go to New France to work among the Native Americans. In 1639 she arrived in Quebec, where she was soon head of an Ursuline convent. She administered her house with great success and worked among the Native Americans with notable results. Her letters are valuable sources of French Canadian history. She wrote devotional works and catechisms, not only in French but in Native American languages. She died of hepatitis in Quebec, Canada. — See A. Repplier, Mère Marie of the Ursulines (1931). 
