From: Acts 22:30, 23:6-11
Speech before the Sanhedrin
[6] But when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Phari-
sees, he cried out in the council, “Brethren, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees;
with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead I am on trial.” [7] And
when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sad-
ducees; and the assembly was divided. [8] For the Sadducees say that there is
no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.
[9] Then a great clamor arose; and some of the scribes of the Pharisees’ party
stood up and contended, ‘We find nothing wrong in this man. What if a spirit of
an angel spoke to him?” [10] And when the dissension became violent, the tri-
bune, afraid that Paul would be torn in pieces by them, commanded the soldiers
to go down and take him by force from among them and bring him into the bar-
racks.
[11] The following night the Lord stood by him and said, “Take courage, for as
you have testified about me at Jerusalem, so you must bear witness also at
Rome.”
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Commentary:
30. This does not seem to have been a regular session of the Sanhedrin; it is an
informal one arranged by Lysias (Acts 23:26) to enable documentation to be pre-
pared, now that “evidence” cannot be extracted from Paul by torture.
6-9. From St Luke’s Gospel (cf. 20:27) we know that the Sadducees, unlike the
Pharisees, did not believe in a future resurrection of the dead. This is the only
place in the New Testament where it says that they also denied the existence
of angels and spirits; however, this is confirmed by Jewish and secular sources.
In the course of his trial, Paul brings up a subject which sets his judges at each
other. Personal advantage is not his main reason for doing this. He is obviously
very shrewd, but he really does not expect to get an impartial hearing from the
Sanhedrin. Therefore he tries to stir their consciences and awaken their love for
the truth and thereby elicit some sympathy for Christians. Although Christian be-
lief in the Resurrection was not the same thing as the Pharisees’ belief, the two
had this in common: they believed in the resurrection of the dead.
9. They are referring to his vision on the road to Damascus. They are not going
as far as to say that it was Jesus who spoke to Paul, but they do not rule out
the possibility that he had a genuine spiritual experience.
11. The Lord is Jesus. These words of consolation to Paul show him that God
will guide him all along, right up to his court appearance in Rome.
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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 17:20-26
The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (Continuation)
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Commentary:
20-23. Since it is Christ who is praying for the Church His prayer is infallibly effec-
tive, and therefore there will always be only one true Church of Jesus Christ. Uni-
ty is therefore an essential property of the Church. “We believe that the Church
founded by Jesus Christ and for which He prayed is indefectibly one in faith, in
worship and in the bond of hierarchical communion” (Paul VI, “Credo of the Peo-
ple of God”, 21). Moreover, Christ’s prayer also indicates what the basis of the
Church’s unity will be and what effects will follow from it.
The source from which the unity of the Church flows is the intimate unity of the
Three Divine Persons among whom there is mutual love and self-giving. “The Lord
Jesus, when praying to the Father ‘that they may all be one...even as we are one’
(John 17:21-22), has opened up new horizons closed to human reason by imply-
ing that there is a certain parallel between the union existing among the Divine
Persons and the union of the sons of God in truth and love. It follows, then, that
if man is the only creature on earth that God has wanted for its own sake, man
can fully discover his true self only in a sincere giving of himself” (Vatican II,
“Gaudium Et Spes”, 24). The unity of the Church is also grounded on the union
of the faithful with Jesus Christ and through Him with the Father (verse 23). Thus,
the fullness of unity — “consummati in unum” — is attained through the superna-
tural grace which comes to us from Christ (cf. John 15:5).
The fruits of the unity of the Church are, on the one hand, the world believing in
Christ and in His divine mission (verses 21, 23); and, on the other hand, Chris-
tians themselves and all men recognizing God’s special love for His faithful, a
love which is a reflection of the love of the Three Divine Persons for each other.
And so, Jesus’ prayer embraces all mankind, for all are invited to be friends of
God (cf. 1 Timothy 2:4). “Thou hast loved them even as Thou hast loved Me”:
this, according to St. Thomas Aquinas, “does not mean strict equality of love but
similarity and like-motivation. It is as if He were saying: the love with which You
have loved Me is the reason and the cause of Your loving them, for, precisely be-
cause You love men do You love those who love Me” (”Commentary on St. John,
in loc.”). Besides noting this theological explanation, we should also ponder on
how expressively Christ describes His ardent love for men. The entire discourse
of the Last Supper gives us a glimpse of the depth of Jesus’ feelings — which infi-
nitely exceeds anything we are capable of experiencing. Once again all we can
do is bow down before the mystery of God-made-man.
20. Christ prays for the Church, for all those who, over the course of centuries,
will believe in Him through the preaching of the Apostles. “That divine mission,
which was committed by Christ to the Apostles, is destined to last until the end
of the world (cf. Matthew 28:20), since the Gospel, which they were charged to
hand on, is, for the Church, the principle of all its life for all time. For that very rea-
son the Apostles were careful to appoint successors in this hierarchically consti-
tuted society” (Vatican II, “Lumen Gentium”, 20).
The apostolic origin and basis of the Church is what is termed its “apostolicity”,
a special characteristic of the Church which we confess in the Creed. Apostoli-
city consists in the Pope and the Bishops being successors of Peter and the A-
postles, holding the authority of the Apostles and proclaiming the same teaching
as they did. “The sacred synod taught that the bishops have by divine institution
taken the place of the Apostles as pastors of the Church, in such wise that who-
ever listens to them is listening to Christ and whoever despises them despises
Christ and Him who sent Christ (cf. Luke 10:15)” (Vatican II, “Lumen Gentium”,
20).
21. Union of Christians with Christ begets unity among themselves. This unity of
the Church ultimately redounds to the benefit of all mankind, because since the
Church is one and unique, she is seen as a sign raised up for the nations to see,
inviting all to believe in Christ as sent by God come to save all men. The Church
carries on this mission of salvation through its union with Christ, calling all man-
kind to join the Church and by so doing to share in union with Christ and the
Father.
The Second Vatican Council, speaking of the principles of ecumenism, links the
Church’s unity with her universality: “Almost everyone, though in different ways,
longs for the one visible Church of God, a Church truly universal and sent forth to
the whole world that the world may be converted to the Gospel and so be saved,
to the glory of God” (”Unitatis Redintegratio”, 1). This universality is another cha-
racteristic of the Church, technically described as “catholicity”. “For many centu-
ries now the Church has been spread throughout the world, and it numbers per-
sons of all races and walks of life. But the universality of the Church does not de-
pend on its geographical distribution, even though this is a visible sign and of mo-
tive of credibility. The Church was catholic already at Pentecost: it was born ca-
tholic from the wounded heart of Jesus, as a fire which the Holy Spirit enkindled.
“In the second century the Christians called the Church catholic in order to distin-
guish it from sects, which, using the name of Christ, were betraying His doctrine
in one way or another. ‘We call it catholic’, writes St. Cyril, ‘not only because it
is spread throughout the world, from one extreme to the other, but because in a
universal way and without defect it teaches all the dogmas which men ought to
know, of both the visible and the invisible, the celestial and the earthly. Likewise
because it draws to true worship all types of men, governors and citizens, the
learned and the ignorant. And finally, because it cures and heals all kinds of sins,
whether of the soul or of the body, possessing in addition — by whatever name it
may be called — all the forms of virtue, in deeds and in words and in every kind
of spiritual life’ (”Catechesis”, 18, 23)” (St. J. Escriva, “In Love with the Church”,
9).
Every Christian should have the same desire for this unity as Jesus Christ expres-
ses in His prayer to the Father. “A privileged instrument for participation in pursuit
of the unity of all Christians is prayer. Jesus Christ Himself left us His final wish
for unity through prayer to the Father: ‘that they also may be in us, so that the
world may believe that Thou hast sent Me’ (John 17:21).
“Also the Second Vatican Council strongly recommended to us prayer for the uni-
ty of Christians, defining it ‘the soul of the whole ecumenical movement’ (”Unitatis
Redintegratio”, 8). As the soul to the body, so prayer gives life, consistency, spi-
rit, and finality to the ecumenical movement.
“Prayer puts us, first and foremost, before the Lord, purifies us in intentions, in
sentiments, in our heart, and produces that ‘interior conversion’, without which
there is no real ecumenism (cf. “Unitatis Redintegratio”, 7).
“Prayer, furthermore, reminds us that unity, ultimately, is a gift from God, a gift
for which we must ask and for which we must prepare in order that we may be
granted it” (Bl. John Paul II, “General Audience”, 17 January 1979).
22-23. Jesus possess glory, a manifestation of divinity, because He is God, equal
to the Father (cf. note on John 17:1-5). When He says that He is giving His disci-
ples this glory, He is indicating that through grace He makes us partakers of the
divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). Glory and justification by grace are very closely united,
as we can see from Sacred Scripture: “Those whom He predestined He also cal-
led, and those whom He called He also justified, and those whom He justified He
also glorified” (Romans 8:30). The change grace works in Christians makes us
ever more like Christ, who is the likeness of the Father (cf. 2 Corinthians 4:4; He-
brews 1:2-3): by communicating His glory Christ joins the faithful to God by gi-
ving them a share in supernatural life, which is the source of the holiness of Chris-
tians and of the Church: “Now we can understand better how [...] one of the prin-
cipal aspects of her holiness is that unity centered on the mystery of the one and
triune God. ‘There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one
hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and
Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all’ (Ephesians 4:4-6)” (St.
J. Escriva, “In Love with the Church”, 5).
24. Jesus concludes His prayer by asking that all Christians attain the blessed-
ness of Heaven. The word He uses, “I desire”, not “I pray”, indicates that He is
asking for the most important thing of all, for what His Father wants—that all may
be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth (cf. 1 Timothy 2:4): which is
essentially the mission of the Church—the salvation of souls.
As long as we are on earth we share in God’s life through knowledge (faith) and
love (charity); but only in Heaven will we attain the fullness of this supernatural life,
when we see God as He is (cf. 1 John 3:2), face to face (cf. 1 Corinthians 13:9-12).
Therefore, the Church has her sights fixed on eternity, she is eschatological: that
is, by having in this world all the resources necessary for teaching God’s truth, for
rendering Him true worship and communicating the life of grace, she keeps alive
people’s hope of attaining the fullness of eternal life: “The Church, to which we are
all called in Christ Jesus, and in which by the grace of God we acquire holiness,
will receive its perfection only in the glory of Heaven, when will come the time of
the renewal of all things (Acts 3:21). At that time, together with the human race,
the universe itself, which is so closely related to man and which attains its desti-
ny through him, will be perfectly reestablished in Christ (cf. Ephesians 1:10; Co-
lossians 1:20; 2 Peter 3:10-13)” (Vatican II, “Lumen Gentium”, 48).
25-26. God’s revelation of Himself through Christ causes us to begin to share in
the divine life, a sharing which will reach its climax in Heaven: “God alone can
give us right and full knowledge of this reality by revealing Himself as Father, Son
and Holy Spirit, in whose eternal life we are by grace called to share, here below
in the obscurity of faith and after death in eternal light” (Paul VI, “Credo of the
People of God”).
Christ has revealed to us all we need to know in order to participate in the mutual
love of the Divine Persons—primarily, the mystery of who He is and what His mis-
sion is and, with that, the mystery of God Himself (”I made known to them Thy
name”), thus fulfilling what He had announced: “No one knows the Father except
the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him” (Matthew 11:27).
Christ continues to make known His Father’s love, by means of the Church, in
which He is always present: “I am with you always, to the close of the age”
(Matthew 28:20).
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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