Reflection on Today’s Readings, Saturday of 5th Week of Easter, May 21st, 2022
Texts: Acts 16: 1-10; Psalm 100: 1-2.3.5; John 15:18-21
Sometimes we ask the question, “why me?” Jesus Christ tells us one of the likely answers in today’s gospel reading. The answer could be because we belong to Jesus Christ and not to the world. In His words: “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 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.” He let us know that we are not all alone in the situation by saying, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.” We are just participating in the situation with Him; it is His. This also reminds us that once we become Christian our ways are no longer the ways of this world; we now follow the ways of Christ. Following the ways of Christ makes us share in His lot. Hence, He says, “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. But all this they will do to you on my account, because they do not know him who sent me.” If the world pay deaf ear to us, we should not be surprised, they had done the same to Jesus. Whatever we are going through, He has gone through it.
Some questions that are begging for answers in today’s first reading are already answered in the gospel reading. Why did the spirit of Christ prevent Paul from preaching the gospel in Asia? It was because they would not keep the word; they had rejected the offer of grace, the grace of repentance. He saved their energy for Macedonia, people who were Ready to keep the word. Jesus had gone ahead of Paul to offer the grace of repentance to the people of Asia but they rejected it. We see the acceptance of this grace in the people of Macedonia who were eager to hear the word of salvation. It is said, “And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing pleading with him and saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’” Hence , true is the word of Christ: “if they kept my word, they will keep yours also.”
We also see the understanding of Paul concerning circumcision, as it is said, “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. 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.” His problem with circumcision was not circumcision as an act or mark but the attribution of salvation to it. His argument is this: we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ, not by circumcision. He circumcised Timothy not so that Timothy might be saved but that he might be accepted by the Jews. This also sheds light on the difference between idolatry and iconophilism. In iconophilism the honour is not to the image but to the person it represents.
Almighty eternal God, who through the regenerating power of Baptism have been pleased to confer on us heavenly life, grant, we pray, that those you render capable of immortality by justifying them, may by your guidance attain the fullness of glory. Amen (Collect)
Fr. Andrew Olowomuke
