Holy Father's Prayer Intentions For May 2009
General: That the laity and the Christian communities may be responsible promoters of priestly and religious vocations.
Mission: That the recently founded Catholic Churches, grateful to the Lord for the gift of faith, may be ready to share in the universal mission of the Church, offering their availability to preach the Gospel throughout the world.
From: Acts 13:13-25
They Cross into Asia Minor
Preaching in the Synagogue of Antioch of Pisidia
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Commentary:
15. Sabbath services in synagogues went right back to the post-exilic period (after
the Babylonian Captivity, which lasted from 586 to 539 B.C.), and by now they had
a very settled form. They consisted of readings from Sacred Scripture, preaching
and public prayers. No one was especially appointed to preside over these servi-
ces; the president or ruler of the synagogue could ask any member of the
community to take the ceremony (cf. 18:8); he supervised the preparations and
made sure that everything was done properly.
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
quotations from Sacred Scripture, chosen to show that the decisive event of the
Resurrection 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.
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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.