MASS READINGS
April 28, 2024 (Readings on USCCB website)
PROPERS [Show]
COLLECT PRAYER
Fifth Sunday of Easter: Almighty ever-living God, constantly accomplish the Paschal Mystery within us, that those you were pleased to make new in Holy Baptism may, under your protective care, bear much fruit and come to the joys of life eternal. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
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I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you (Jn 15:5-7).
Commentary on the Mass Readings for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, Cycle B:
The First Reading taken from the the Acts of the Apostles 9:26-31 is about St. Paul's first visit to Jerusalem after his conversion.
The Second Reading is from the First Letter of John 3:18-24. In today's verses the Beloved Disciple is urging his readers to believe firmly in Jesus Christ the Son of God, and to love their neighbor with a practical love, a love which will help him in his corporal and spiritual needs.
The Gospel is from St. John 15:1-8. The words of consolation and encouragement which our Lord spoke to his Apostles on Holy Thursday night were intended to console and encourage all his followers for all time. They encourage and console us today, and we need encouragement to persevere on the road to heaven. Living a truly Christian life is never easy. We have always the attraction of the world, and the temptations by the agents of evil, to make that life less easy still. But in our own day these difficulties have increased a hundredfold. The attractions of this world have been multiplied by the increased comforts, pleasures and means of self-indulgence which science and technology have put within our reach. Human nature, always inclined to choose the easiest way out, has been given so many means of escape from the strain of self-control that even for a fervent Christian it is frequently very difficult to avoid these worldly allurements.
Having the ordinary comforts of life and the possession of some of this world's goods is not wrong or anti-Christian, but the natural temptation is to get more and more of these comforts and riches, and the point is soon reached where this becomes the only purpose in life. When this sad stage is arrived at, God and our future life are forgotten; this world becomes our idol and our prison. The temptations which the agents of evil put in Christ's way are also multiplied today. The communications media are now very technically improved and perfected and can be, and sometimes are, a means for good. Unfortunately, more frequently, they are the channels of bad example. The evil deeds of men have more "news value" than their good deeds. And it is so much easier to follow the bad example! Permissiveness, rejection of authority, glorification of unlawful sexual indulgence, drug addiction, and other such crimes are placed before the minds and the eyes of the youth of today, and are unfortunately copied by far too many.
It is indeed hard to swim against the current; it is so much more pleasant to allow oneself to be carried along without effort by the rushing tide. But when there are rocks and shoals ahead, the thoughtless and ease-seeking swimmer will end in grief. Our Lord has warned us today, as he warned his first followers, to abide in him, to remain closely united with him, as is the branch to the vine, if we hope to bear fruit worthy of heaven. He promises us that if we remain closely united to him, that is, if we strive daily to keep his commandments, he will be ever ready to answer our requests, and to heed all our prayers. The sincere prayer today of every man who is trying to lead a Christian life is for the grace to overcome the allurements of the world, the flesh and the devil. Let us take courage, then. Christ has promised to remain beside us during life if only we stay close to him. While we remain healthy branches of the vine, Christ, we will be on the road to heaven. Our daily tasks, our work as well as our prayer, our recreation as well as our rest, our joys as well as our sorrows, will give glory to God and prove that we are worthy to be called disciples of Christ.
—Excerpted from The Sunday Readings by Fr. Kevin O'Sullivan, O.F.M.
Meditation for the Fifth Sunday of Easter: Christian Spirituality
The glorification of Christ was not completed by His resurrection from the dead. He goes to the Father also as man, that He may take possession of His throne and, as the glorified Savior, share with God dominion over the world. "Sing ye to the Lord a new canticle" (Introit). He withdraws His visible presence from His disciples and from His Church that He may send them the Holy Spirit in His place. But by means of the Holy Spirit, He will always remain with them invisibly and spiritually. "If I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you" (Gospel).
"I go to Him that sent Me" (Gospel). Jesus withdraws His visible presence from His disciples and from His Church. They must free themselves from their attachment to His human form; they must give up the comfort and the solace of having Him physically near them and associating with Him. They, too, must become spiritualized. Then only can He send them His Holy Spirit and make them bearers of the Spirit. They must acquire the strength of the Spirit if they are to become the rulers of the world and comfort mankind in all its trials and difficulties. "I go to Him that sent me." This is a call to become more spiritual, to become detached from all that is worldly.
In our piety we all too often act in a manner that is not spiritual, even with our Lord. We long for His sensible presence, for sensible devotion. We wish to have Him speak to us audibly and give us real visions or some tangible manifestation of His love; we long for sensible graces and consolations of many sorts. This is an unsound sort of spirituality, based on sensible devotion. But Christ tells us, "It is expedient to you that I go." We must become more spiritual: that is the lesson taught by the liturgy during the time before Pentecost. We are taught that we must lift up our hearts to the glorified, heavenly Christ, and free ourselves from all that is perceptible to the senses, and live for the life above. We must seek a spirituality based on the spirit of faith and on a determined effort to overcome all our selfish desires and tendencies. Our spirituality must be based on a love that attends to God alone and occupies itself entirely with what comes from Him and leads to Him. "It is expedient to you that I go; for if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you."
"I will send Him to you." Jesus leaves us; but since He is no longer bodily present, He sends us His Holy Spirit. He merited for us this greatest of all God's gifts, the Holy Spirit, through His suffering and death. Now He ascends into heaven that He may send Him to us as our comforter to take His place. But the Holy Spirit has not come to protect us from all suffering and adversity, from temptation and difficulties. He comes rather to fill us with the strength to live and work for Jesus under all circumstances; that is, to work in the spirit of truth and humility. He comes to help us live in voluntary poverty, humility, and suffering. In a word, the Holy Spirit comes to help us conform our lives perfectly to the life of Christ. The Holy Spirit induces us to live in Jesus and for Jesus. He makes us witnesses (martyrs) and this spirit we gladly embrace ridicule, injustice, suffering, the loss of our possessions, and even the loss of our life. How much we stand in need of such a helper and comforter! How fervently we should pray during this week that God may send this blessed comforter to us and to His Church!
With the newly baptized we perceive the sensible presence of the Lord in the great festivities and symbols of Easter day. Now the liturgy seeks to lead us from the joy of Easter back to the struggle and the sufferings of the world. She seeks to anchor our hearts in heaven, to elevate them above attachment to the world and the love of mere temporal things. She seeks to lift our hearts to heaven, "where true joys are to be found" (Collect). For us who are Christians, a higher world, a world of eternity, is the one reality. To help us reach that world, the glorified Lord sends us the Holy Spirit. We long for His coming and cry without ceasing: Veni, Sancte Spiritus: "Come, Holy Spirit, and fill the hearts of Thy faithful."
The most effective means of acquiring true Christian spirituality is through participation in the Mass. We must renounce our personal, human, egotistical spirit, and rid ourselves of all that is worldly and transient. For this reason we receive the Holy Eucharist, which is the spiritualized and glorified flesh and blood of the Lord, who pours forth the wealth and the riches of the Holy Spirit upon us.
—Benedict Bauer, O.S.B, from The Light of the World, Vol II, Fourth Sunday after Easter
