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SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTER
Monday
Readings
First Reading
Acts 19:1–8
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 68:2–3ab, 4–5acd, 6–7ab
Gospel
Jn 16:29–33
Meditation on Today’s Readings
Both of today’s readings contain examples
of incomplete confessions of faith. In Acts, Paul meets disciples
who were baptized with the baptism of John, intended only to prepare
the way for “the stronger One” who would baptize with
the Holy Spirit (cf. Lk 3:15–16). As Luke Timothy Johnson
remarks, “The fact that John apparently has disciples twenty
years after his death in places as far from the Jordan as Alexandria
(Apollos) and Ephesus, supports the portrait of John as an important
religious figure in his own right.”—* The disciples,
who had never even heard of the Holy Spirit, receive the Spirit’s
gifts.
Thinking they finally understand his words,
the disciples of Jesus make a partial confession of faith in him.
Like Peter at Caesarea Philippi (cf. Mk 8:27–30 and par.),
they profess their belief that he has come from God, but they have
not yet reckoned with the manner of his return to the Father. His
hour is still coming, and it will usher in their hour as well. With
a view to this—the loneliness of their hour—Jesus assures
them, “I have conquered the world.”
The copyright for the Sunday
Missal Introductions is:
Copyright (c) 2001, Daughters of St. Paul
The copyright for the Weekday
Missal Introduction is:
Copyright (c) 2002, Daughters of St. Paul |
