The Farewell Discourse of Jesus

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In the final weeks of the Easter Season, our gospel readings are from the Farewell Discourse of Jesus at the Last Supper, an important source for understanding the liturgy, the sacraments and especially the Eucharist. The Farewell Discourse is read by the latin church and all the eastern churches at this time.

The readings are more than a picture of the Last Supper. The Farewell Discourse also reveals the experience of Jesus his first followers of Jesus had when they ate and drank with him after his resurrection.

They’re troubled, even in the presence of Jesus. They experience joy, but they also realize that soon he will not be with them physically.  They’re becoming orphans, they feel.. They’re uncertain and have questions, even as  Jesus tells them he is the way. “Do not let your hearts be troubled and afraid,” he says to them.

They question him even as he promises great things: “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.” (John 14:1-6) They’re uneasy.

 “A little while and you will no longer see me, and again a little while later and you will see me.” So some of his disciples said to one another, “What does this mean that he is saying to us, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’? ”So they said, “What is this ‘little while’ [of which he speaks]? We do not know what he means.” (John 15:17)

Patristic teachers like Ambrose and Cyril of Jerusalem saw a similarity in the experience of the disciples and the experience of a newly baptized Christian. They are called to know Jesus in the limitations of sacraments and life in a sacramental age. “Is this it? Ambrose hears them say. Cyril appeals to the sacramental signs that reveal the mystery. Trust the signs, he says.

“In the sacraments Christ himself is at work” the catechism says, “ it is he who baptizes, he who acts in his sacraments in order to communicate the grace that each sacrament signifies.” (Cat. 1127)  Yet it’s the Christ of faith at work. “Although you have not seen him you love him; even though you do not see him now yet believe in him,” Peter says. (1 Peter 1:3-9)

We usually go to theological summaries like that in the Catechism of the Catholic Faith ( Cat. 1066-1690 ) when we want information on the sacraments, but we shouldn’t forget this liturgical source.  John’s Farewell Discourse was the early church’s basic source for learning about the world of signs that Jesus left his disciples after his resurrection. The Farewell Discourse offers a more existential picture of sacramental life in a sacramental church than theological summaries do.

One of the reasons we read the Acts of the Apostles along with the Farewell Discourse in the Easter Season is that Acts pictures the church growing despite the misgivings of Jesus’ disciples, who yearn for his physical presence. Movements usually die when their leaders die; the church grew when Jesus passed from this life to the Father. 

In his Farewell Discourse, Jesus says that loving him brings us to keep his commandments and leads us to love the Father. “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him” (John 14: 21-26) 

Raymond Brown in his commentary on the Farewell Discourse makes the interesting observation that Jesus only speaks of loving him at this time in the gospel, namely at the time of his death and resurrection. He never mentions loving him during his ministry in Galilee and in Judea. 

Love appears now because his death and resurrection are supreme signs of his love. Jesus shows his disciples the wounds in his hands and his side, not just as proof that he is alive, but as signs of his great love, which calls for love in return.

The Sign of his Cross, which recalls the death and resurrection of Jesus, is the great sign of the Easter Season. It’s remembered in the gospels, the sacraments. It’s the sign of the sacramental age. 

Readings here

The Feast of St. Mark

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Mark
April 25th is the Feast of St. Mark, author of one of the gospels. We may forget that real people wrote the gospels, but the medieval portrait above shows the evangelist real enough as he adjusts his spectacles and pours over a book, surely his gospel. A lion looks up at him, the powerful voice of God.

He’s an old man, his eyes are going,  He has to be old if he’s a disciple of Peter, as tradition claims. (cf. 1 Peter 5:14)  Mark’s gospel appears shortly before or after the destruction of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD. If he’s the author of the gospel, as it’s said,  he’s in his 70s at least.

He may have written his account in Rome, where he came with Peter, who calls Mark in his 1st Letter “my son.”  In 64 AD, Roman Christians  experienced a vicious persecution at the hands of the Emperor Nero. Peter and Paul died in that persecution. For years afterwards, Christian survivors were still asking themselves, no doubt, why it happened.

They say Mark wrote his gospel in answer to that dreadful experience. He would have heard Peter’s witness to Jesus many times; he knows his story.

Yet Mark was not just a stenographer repeating Peter’s eyewitness account; he’s adapted the apostle’s story, adding material and insights he had gathered on his own. For a long time Mark’s gospel was neglected by the church, thought to be simply a synopsis of Matthew’s gospel.  Today scholars admire it for its simplicity and masterful story telling. It’s the first gospel written and Matthew and Luke derive much of their material from it.

I like the wonderful commentary: The Gospel of Mark, in the Sacra Pagina series from Liturgical Press, by John Donohue,SJ and Daniel Harrington, SJ (Collegeville, Min. 2002). A great guide to this gospel and its rich message. We read Mark in the lectionary from the Feast of Baptism of Jesus up to Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent.

Mark’s Gospel offers a unique wisdom. It does not flinch before the mystery of suffering and does not try to explain it away. There’s a darkness about this gospel that makes it applicable to times like ours. We’re disciples of Jesus who must follow him, no matter what.

Our gospel for the feast is the final commission Jesus gives to his disciples, according to Mark.
“Go into the whole world
and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved;
whoever does not believe will be condemned.
These signs will accompany those who believe:
in my name they will drive out demons,
they will speak new languages.
They will pick up serpents with their hands,
and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them.
They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

Like Jesus, his disciples will drive out demons and speak new languages. They’ll pick up serpents and drink poison, yet be unharmed. They will even believe, without understanding everything. In answer to Jesus’ command, tradition says Mark went to Egypt and founded the church in Alexandria.

 

Father,
You gave St. Mark the privilege of proclaiming your gospel. May we profit by his wisdom and follow Christ more faithfully. Grant this, through Christ, your Son.

Church Leaders

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Peter the Apostle, Cloisters, New York

Keep Peter and the rest of the apostles in mind when thinking about church leaders. In today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles  Peter finds himself called from Joppa to bring the gospel to a Roman centurion, Cornelius, and his household. Joppa, remember, was the seaport where Jonah began his perilous journey to Nineveh and the gentile world.

In Joppa, the tired apostle asleep on the roof of Simon the Tanner’s house overlooking the vast sea has a disturbing vision. Instead of the usual  kosher food  a gentile banquet is poured out before him; as a good Jew Peter pushes it away. Three times the vision invites the puzzled apostle to eat.

Then, messengers appear at the door from Cornelius, a gentile soldier stationed in Caesaria Maritima, Rome’s headquarters just up the coast, asking Peter to come and speak about “the things that had happened.” He’s invited to the gentile banquet he saw in his dream.

“As I began to speak,” Peter says describing their meeting, ” the Holy Spirit fell upon them as it had upon us at the beginning.” It was a gentile Pentecost. Peter baptized the Roman soldier, his friends and his household. “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but every nation is acceptable to him,” 

Did Peter know then where his visit to Cornelius would lead? Was the simple fisherman, who spoke Aramaic with a Galilean accent, who felt the pull of home, family and fishing boats, ever comfortable in a gentile world? Later, he traveled to Antioch in Syria and then to Rome, where he was killed in the Neronian persecution in the 60’s. Was he ever completely comfortable at a gentile meal and a gentile world?

Artists usually portray Peter in Rome as a church leader firmly in charge of the church, holding its keys tightly in hand. Clearly, he is a rock.

I saw another image of Peter years ago in the Cloisters Museum in New York. He’s softer, reflective, more experienced, not completely sure of himself. There’s a consciousness of failure in his face. He seems to be listening humbly for the voice of the Shepherd, hoping to hear it and ever surprised by the unexpected coming of the Holy Spirit.

Church leaders never fully understand the mysterious ship they’re called to steer. They have to listen for the Shepherd’s voice and look for signs of the Spirit.

We’re Living in a New Creation

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I know it’s hard to see life differently these days when so much in the world seems to be spinning out of control. We can be overwhelmed by life before us. But let’s not forget we’re celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. We’re living in a day the Lord has made. Like the beautiful stain glass window above, God has brought light into our darkness.

St. Gregory of Nyssa, an early saint, says in a sermon: 

“The reign of life has begun, the tyranny of death is ended. A new birth has taken place, a new life has come, a new order of existence has appeared, our very nature has been transformed! This birth is not brought about by human generation, by human will power or by the desire of the flesh, but by God.

Let me explain it in clear language. Faith is the womb that conceives this new life, baptism the rebirth which brings it into the light of day. The Church is its nurse; her teachings are its milk, the bread from heaven is its food. 

It’s brought to maturity by the practice of virtue; it’s wedded to wisdom; it gives birth to hope. Its home is the kingdom; its rich inheritance the joys of paradise; its end, not death, but the blessed and everlasting life prepared for those who are worthy.

We’re living in the day the Lord has made – a day far different from those made when the world was first created and which are measured by the passage of time. This is the beginning of a new creation. On this day, as the prophet says, God makes a new heaven and a new earth. 

On this day is created the true human being, made in the image and likeness of God. This day the Lord has made is the beginning of a new world. This day, the prophet says, is not like other days, nor is this night like other nights. 

But still we have not spoken of the greatest gift it brings us. This day destroyed the pangs of death and brought to birth the firstborn of the dead.

I ascend to my Father and to your Father, to my God and to your God. O what wonderful good news! For our sake he became like us in order to make us his brothers and sisters, now he presents to his true Father his own humanity in order to draw all of us up after him.

What is this new heaven? It is the firmament of our faith in Christ. What is the new earth? A good heart, a heart like the earth, which drinks up the rain that falls on it and yields a rich harvest.”

Strange, haunting words to hear in the jumble of daily news reports from the world of wars and politics. So different from the words and images we swim in these days. Faith is a womb, he says, bringing life and hope. We’re living in the day the Lord has made. 

He brings an “Alleluia” to your mind.

How Does the Church Grow?

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In the Easter Season we recall the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, his ascension into heaven, his presence among us in signs, his Spirit sent to us. We also see the mystery of the resurrection in his body, the church.

We can get the impression from a cursory reading of the Acts of the Apostles that from the beginning the church spread like wild fire. In today’s reading, for example, “The word of God continued to spread and grow.” (Acts 12,24) Leaving the church at Antioch, fearless missionaries like Paul and Barnabas, blessed by the Holy Spirit, set out for other towns and places and brought the gospel to the gentiles. 

It seems like a lively church, confident, joyful, united, focused on saving the world, with no doubts or questions. “O God, let all the nations praise you,” our psalm for today says. Yet, if we read Acts of the Apostles carefully, we can find confusion, division, uncertainty in this church. It may be more like our own church today than we suspect. The church always shares in the mystery of the passion and resurrection of Jesus.

We may look at our church today, at least in the western world, and see only signs of decline, not growth. It’s older, not young, and right now tarnished with scandal. What is important is not to lose the promise of resurrection.

In today’s psalm we pray:

“May God have pity on us and bless us;
may he let his face shine upon us.
So may your way be known upon earth;
among all nations, your salvation.”

We need to turn to the surprising face of the Risen Christ.

“Merciful God, Word come into a dark world, 

remember us and bless us.

 Jesus Christ, son of Mary, turn your face towards us and enlighten us. 

 You came into the world as light, so that we might not remain in our darkness. 

Now turn your face and shine on us,

so that we may make your way known upon earth, among all nations.”

Caesarea Maritime

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Caesarea Maritime is an important city to keep in mind as we read these early chapters of the Acts of the Apostles. For Christians it’s important first because the Roman centurion Cornelius and his household were baptized here by the Apostle Peter. A “Gentile Pentecost” in this city inaugurated the mission into the gentile world.

In the Acts of the Apostles Luke devotes long accounts to Peter’s journey to Caesarea Maritime from Joppa, the port where Jonah began his journey to Nineveh. ( Acts 10:1-48; 11:1-18)  Peter recalls his experience in Caesarea Maritime at the crucial meeting in Jerusalem that decides the approach to the gentiles. (Acts 15:7-11) 

Luke then turns to Paul and follows him on his missionary journey into Asia Minor and eventually Rome. Yet, let’s not forget those other places – Damascus, Ethiopia, Samaria– where the gospel also was preached, only mentioned briefly by Luke.  

Caesarea Maritime, 33 miles north of Joppa, was built as a seaport by Herod the Great  and for many years was the Roman military center of Judea where Roman officials, like Pontius Pilate, resided. 

Philip the Deacon and his four daughters settled there after the persecution of Stephen, Luke reports. They received Paul in their house on his way to Jerusalem. When Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed in 70 AD, Caesarea Maritime became the main city of Judea and was also an important home of the Christian church. In later centuries, its bishop was the region’s leading bishop, until a bishop was installed in Jerusalem after Constantine rebuilt it in the 4th century.  

Caesarea Maritime remained a thriving center of Christian learning where great figures like Origen, Gregory Nazianzen and Jerome studied and taught. Poor infrastructure and   Moslem invasions finally brought about its end a few centuries later. Only impressive ruins now tell us of the city’s former glory.

If we follow Luke as our only source, however, we may miss the rich life and spirituality of Eastern Christianity. The gospel has more than one story and it’s not all found in the Acts of the Apostles. Caesarea Maritime reminds us of that.

MISSION TO THE GENTILES

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When Peter visits followers of Jesus in Joppa I’m sure he had no idea he would be called to journey up the coast to meet Cornelius, the Roman centurion and baptize him and his household. Significantly, Joppa was the seaport where Jonah began his mission to Nineveh. Like Jonah, Peter was reluctant to undertake the mission he’s given. Jonah and Peter are very much alike.

Only after God’s strong prodding in a vision does Peter accept the invitation from Cornelius to come and speak about Jesus. When he finally goes to Caesarea Maritime Peter experiences nothing less than a Gentile Pentecost .

That’s what we’re seeing in our readings at Mass this week. A Gentile Pentecost.

Not all saw it that way, however. Some in Jerusalem question the apostle for entering a Roman city, baptizing a Roman soldier and his friends and eating at their table. “God has given life-giving repentance to the Gentiles too,” Peter responds. The Spirit has come once more.  

It was not his doing, but the work of the Spirit, Peter adds. “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them as it had upon us at the beginning… God gave them the same gift he gave to us when we came to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, so who was I to be able to hinder God?”

The apostle makes no claim his eloquence, wisdom or planning did it. He wasn’t expecting what happened and he doesn’t know where it will lead. It’s the work of God. It didn’t happen in Jerusalem, where the Spirit appeared at first, but in a Roman city Jews considered an enemy’s stronghold.

I think Pope Francis is following this story of Peter in calling recently for a Synod of Synodality. He’s calling the church to recognize the Spirit but, as we see in the story of Peter, it’s not easy to see the Spirit’s activity beyond the world we know. 

He’s asking the church to journey, like Peter, to a world beyond Jerusalem and its temple, its revered history and ordered piety and look for the other Pentecosts the Spirit is preparing everywhere. They’ll be there. 

“Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.”

Earth Day: God So Loved the World

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Today is Earth Day. As Christians we see the earth through eyes of faith. The earth is God’s creation

God created and cares for more than the human family. You are the “hope of all the earth and of far distant isles”, Psalm 65 says. “You uphold the mountains with your strength, you still the roaring of the seas…The ends of the earth stand in awe at the sight of your wonders. The lands of sunrise and sunset you fill with your joy.

“You care for the earth, give it water, you fill it with riches. Your river in heaven brims over to provide its grain. And thus you provide for the earth; you drench its furrows; you level it, soften it with showers; you bless its growth. You crown the year with your goodness. Abundance flows in your steps, in the pastures of the wilderness it flows. The hills are girded with joy, the meadows covered with flocks, the valleys are decked with wheat. They shout for joy, yes they sing.” (Psalm 65, Tuesday. Morning Prayer, week 2)

Along with the human family, the earth praises God, its creator,. The natural world, as a vital part of God’s creation, shouts for joy and sings. There’s even surprise in the psalms that God, the Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, could have a special care for the human family. “When I see the heavens, the work of your hands, the moon and the stars which you arranged, what is man that you should keep him in mind, mortal man that you care for him?”  ( Psalm 8, Saturday Morning, week 2, 4 )

The view of God’s close engagement with the natural world proclaimed by the psalms and the scriptures fell into disfavor when science became the primary way of looking at the natural world with the age of the Enlightenment. Science became our guide and the human world became the center that controls everything. God’s engagement with the natural world and the human world came into question. The scriptural accounts were just poetry.

But poetry can also be true.  

As we hear the Risen Jesus in the Easter season using the great images of bread from heaven, the shepherd, the vine, we shouldn’t miss their cosmic import. Images point out many things. Certainly “bread from heaven” points to the sacrament of the Eucharist; the shepherd and vine point to the life of the church and the intimacy we enjoy as branches grafted into the vine that is Jesus Christ.

But let’s not forget God’s rule over the whole world. We know so much more about it now. We also know how endangered it has become because of human neglect. More than ever, we need to acknowledge its dignity before God, who still covers the meadows with flocks, “the valleys are decked with wheat.” The natural world shouts for joy and sings during the Easter season. Its Shepherd guides it; it receives daily bread.  It shares in the promise of the Risen Christ.  

Readings: 4th Week of Easter

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April 22 Mon Easter Weekday Acts 11:1-18/Jn 10:1-10 
23 Tue Easter Weekday [St George; Saint Adalbert, ] Acts 11:19-26/Jn 10:22-30 
24 Wed Easter Weekday (St Fidelis of Sigmaringen,r]Acts 12:24—13:5a/Jn 12:44-50 
25 Thu St Mark, Feast 1 Pt 5:5b-14/Mk 16:15-20 
26 Fri Easter Weekday  Acts 13:26-33/Jn 14:1-6 
27 Sat Easter Weekday  Acts 13:44-52/Jn 14:7-14 
28 SUN 5th SUNDAY OF EASTER  Acts 9:26-31/1 Jn 3:18-24/Jn 15:1-8

This week’s readings from the Acts of the Apostles describe the growth of the church in the Gentile world. Peter journeys to Joppa, the seaport  Jonah embarked from on his mission to Nineveh. On his way he raises up a paralyzed man at Lydda and in Joppa  he raise a young girl, Tabitha, from the dead–signs similar to those Jesus worked.(Saturday, 3rd Week of Easter) 

Some, however, question Peter for baptizing the Roman soldier Cornelius and eating at table with him. (Monday) “God has given life-giving repentance to the Gentiles too,” Peter responds, initiating a new phase in the church’s growth. His response is based, not on human judgment, but because he has seen signs from the Spirit.

The readings from Acts from Wednesday to Saturday describe Barnabas and Saul’s opening campaign into the Gentile world. Let’s not ignore, though, the reading from Tuesday which recalls the unknown survivors of the persecution of Stephen who, driven into the Gentile world, “speak to the Greeks, proclaiming the Lord Jesus to them. The hand of the Lord was with them and a great number turned to the Lord.” Clearly, others besides those we know brought the gospel to the Gentiles.

We are all involved, not just a chosen few, in bringing the gospel to the world.

In the  Gospel readings from John (Monday-Wednesday) Jesus continues to speak of himself as the Good Shepherd. As Risen Lord, he goes before us, guiding his flock to final pasture. We hear his voice, not the voice of a stranger. His voice is the same as the Father’s voice.

On Thursday, the readings from John bring us back to the supper room. For the remaining days of the Easter season, we will listen to Jesus’ words of encouragement and love for his own who are in this world.