Reflection on the Readings at Mass for the 5th Sunday of Easter – Year A. The Liturgical Sense of the Scriptures Podcast, by Catholic Author and Theologian David L. Gray. (Fifth Sunday of Easter) Year A. READINGS: Acts 6:1-7, 1 Peter 2:4-9, and John 14:1-12
The Liturgy is not an Appeal to Diversity, but a Call to Oneness In Christ
Today’s First Reading for the 5th Sunday in Easter is very interesting from a historical perspective. What we have learned from the readings of the Book of Acts from the Third and Fourth Week in Easter is that the Church in Jerusalem is growing in number. Acts 2:41 informed us that those who had accepted Peter’s Sermon at Pentecost were baptized and amounted to about “three thousand persons.” Then, in chapters 3 through 5 of Acts largely recounts the works of miracles of the Apostles and them being viewed by the Jewish religious establishment as a threat, because of their growth, and, thereby, treated accordingly. Now comes today’s reading Acts 6:1-7 that begins with a problem; the fast growth of the early Catholic community has stretched their resources. “As the number of disciples continued to grow, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.” There appears to be some dissension or favoritism that is taking place during the daily distribution charity for widows being shown in favor of the widows of the Hebrew/Palestinian Jewish culture, against widows from the Hellenist/Greek diaspora Jewish culture. The resolution that the Twelve Apostle devised to remedy this issue was to appoint seven Hellenist/Greek Jews with the task of serving at table, so that Apostles could devote themselves ‘to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
It is unclear exactly how choosing only disciples who were obviously Hellenist/Greek Jews; evident by their names, would balance the scales at the daily distribution. Moreover, Luke does not feel the need to give an accounting of any of them performing that particular job, as much as he is interested in telling us that their duties expanded as we find Stephen and Philip preaching in public in later chapters of Acts. Notwithstanding, according to the text today, “the proposal was accepted by the whole community, so they chose Stephen, a man filled with faith and the Holy Spirit, also Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicholas of Antioch, a convert to Judaism. They presented these men to the apostles who prayed and laid hands on them.” Now that this administrative hiccup in the Church has been resolved by anointed these new servant ministers, Luke’s important message of early Church growth and expansion returns, writing, “The word of God continued to spread, and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly; even a large group of priests were becoming obedient to the faith.” Here the author Luke is not only telling us how many were entering the Church, but also how socially and culturally diverse it was. Not only were widows and ordinary Hebrews and Hellenists entering the Church, but also were converts to Judaism, such as Nicholas of Antioch, and even educated and well-trained Jewish priests coming to follow Jesus.
Yet, diversity is something we come into our faith with, but not something we leave with. Rather, we come as many, but leave as one, as Christ Jesus prayed in John 17:11 we would, “Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are,” and as the Apostle Paul instructed in 1 Corinthians 10:17, “Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.” As the Holy Trinity and as the Body of Christ is, so are we being made into; one people for one God. What makes us a distinct and set apart people, is not who we came into the faith as, but who we were made into, who we were Baptized into, which the Second Reading today from 1 Peter 2:4-9 tells us: “You are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises” of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” Our race is not anything that world has told us it is; black, brown, white, yellow, red; whatever those obvious skin pigment observations were desired to do us are not what Holy Spirit is teaching here; our race is not a skin pigment or melanin composition. Rather, our race is that we were chosen and our vocation is belonging to the royal priesthood to make spiritual sacrifices and our nation is not where we were born or what country has given us citizenship. Rather, our nation is called holy, which means our nationality is holy, and we were called by God out of darkness and into His wonderful light and into this race, nation, and vocation to announce His praises.
Today’s Gospel Reading from John 14:1-12 has the markings of being a scene from any sitcom. Notice how our Lord goes through extensive measures to assure His disciples that they have nothing to worry about, saying, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. Where I am going you know the way.” Then, no sooner than Jesus gets done telling them to not worry, to just have faith, I’m coming right back, and when I come back I’ll take you to where I went, because you know the way there, because like I told you a few chapters go, I am the way…’ Thomas and Philip can’t help themselves but to tell everyone they are worried, anxious, they have very little faith, and clearly, they haven’t been paying attention to anything Jesus has said the past three years. Thomas is asking, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” Philip is saying, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.”
The reason why the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church is antithetical to diversity in way is because diversity is about independence, it’s about isolation, and it points to self for the sake of self, exclaiming, ‘look at me, I’m different!’ Yet, God is so completely one, that even the Son cannot point anywhere but to the Father. Even when He points to Himself He is pointing to the Father, responding to Thomas asking for the way, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me,” and to Philip asking to see the Father, Jesus says, “How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” At every opportunity, Jesus speaks to the unity and oneness of the Holy Trinity.
The consistent message in today’s reading is that the call to unity and oneness in Christ is so that we might put ourselves aside and serve His people, so they might find their way home. Truly, everything about the liturgy is focused on repeatedly reinforcing in us this message; that we are one people of one God. We may have come as many, but we leave as one. This is why the priest is called to only speak what the Church as given him to speak and perform only the movements that the Church has given him to perform so that he will be in unity with all those who participate in the ordained sacrificial ministry, and why we have been given our response to speak so that we might be in union with all of brothers and sisters in the faith, and why we share the same one bread and one cup, because there is no communion with union. That is, we cannot communion with Christ Jesus, the Holy Eucharist if grave sin as broken our union with Him. The grace of union through the absolving of our sin and the advancement of our union with Christ through sanctification is the work of every sacrament of the Church and the Divine Symphony. As Christ the Bread is many, but one, so too have we come as many, but are called to leave as one in Christ.
This is just one way how the readings at Mass this Sunday connect to the liturgy and how the liturgy is forming us how to live our lives in the world. Be in the world what you have received through the liturgy.
