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From: Acts 4:8-12

Address to the Sanhedrin (Continuation)

[8] Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, "Rulers of
the people and elders, [9] if we are being examined today concerning a
good deed done to a cripple, by what means this man has been healed,
[10] be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by
the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God
raised from the dead, by Him this man is standing before you well.
[11] This is the stone which was rejected by you builders, but which
has become the head of the corner. [12] And there is salvation in no
one else, for there is no other name under Heaven given among men by
which we must be saved."

Commentary:

8-12. The Apostles' confidence and joy is quite remarkable, as is their
outspokenness 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 ourselves 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 implicit 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, including 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"
([Pope] Paul VI, "General Audience", 19 June 1968).

8. Even in the very early days of Christianity Jesus' prediction is
borne out: "Beware 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" ([Pope] Paul VI, "Creed of the People 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 prerogative 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 together (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).

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: 1 John 3:1-2

We are Children of God

[1] See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called
children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know
us is that it did not know him. [2] Beloved, we are God's children now;
it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he
appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

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 Sacred 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 proclamation 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 adoption human-style: divine filiation is an essential
feature of a Christian's life, a marvelous 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 dignity of human nature and to affirm that we have been
created to obtain the dignity 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 salvation 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 theological 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 directly.

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 nature 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 admirable 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.