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A team of 200 priests comment on daily Gospel

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Liturgical day: Sunday 5th (C) of Easter

View 1st Reading and Psalm
1st Reading (Acts 14:21b-27): After Paul and Barnabas had proclaimed the good news to that city and made a considerable number of disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch. They strengthened the spirits of the disciples and exhorted them to persevere in the faith, saying, «It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God». They appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, commended them to the Lord in whom they had put their faith. Then they traveled through Pisidia and reached Pamphylia. After proclaiming the word at Perga they went down to Attalia. From there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work they had now accomplished. And when they arrived, they called the church together and reported what God had done with them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.
Responsorial Psalm: 144
R/. I will praise your name for ever, my king and my God.
Let them make known your might to the children of Adam, and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. Your kingdom is a kingdom for all ages, and your dominion endures through all generations.
2nd Reading (Rev 21:1-5a): Then I, John, saw a new heaven and a new earth. The former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, «Behold, God's dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will always be with them as their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, for the old order has passed away». The One who sat on the throne said, «Behold, I make all things new».
Verscicle before the Gospel (Jn 13:34): Alleluia. I give you a new commandment, says the Lord: love one another as I have loved you. Alleluia.
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Gospel text (Jn 13,31-33a.34-35): When Judas had gone out, Jesus said, «Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. God will glorify him, and He will glorify him very soon.

»My children, I am with you for only a little while; you will look for me, but, as I already told the Jews, so now I tell you: where I am going you cannot come. Now I give you a new commandment: love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another».

«Love one another»

Fr. Jordi CASTELLET i Sala
(Sant Hipòlit de Voltregà, Barcelona, Spain)

Today, Jesus invites us to love one another. In our complex world, too. Complex because good and evil are being mixed and mingled together. We often feel tempted to look at our world as our misfortune, as a piece of bad news, whereas we Christians, instead, are responsible for bringing out, to this violent and unfair world, the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Yes, indeed, Jesus tells us «love one another. Just as I have loved you» (Jn 13:34). And, a good way to love one another, to put God's Word into practice, is to announce, always and everywhere, the Good News of the Gospel, which is nothing else but Jesus Christ!

«But we have this treasure in clay vessels», Saint Paul tells us (2Cor 4:7). But, what treasure is this? That of the Word, that of the very God, and we happen to be its clay vessels. Yet, this treasure is too precious for us to keep for ourselves. We have to divulge it: «Therefore go and make disciples of all nations (...) and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age» (Mt 28:19-20). In fact —as the Holy Father has written— «Those who have come into genuine contact with Christ cannot keep him for themselves, they must proclaim him».

With this confidence in God, let us announce the Gospel and, let us do it with all our available means and wherever we can: by word of mouth, by our deeds and thoughts, through newspapers, Internet, in our work and with our friends... «Your kindness should be known to all. The Lord is near» (Phil 4:5).

Therefore, and as His Holiness John Paul II emphasizes, we must use the new technologies, openly, without beating around the bush, to spread as much as possible the Good News of the Church today, because only if our kindness is known to all, only by changing our heart, we shall achieve that our world changes too.