Gospel: April 30, 2024
(Tuesday)
5th Week of Easter
Psalter: Week 1 / (White)
St. Pius V, pope
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 145: 10-11, 12-13ab, 21
Your friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your Kingdom.
1st Reading: Acts 14: 19-28
Then some Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium and turned the people against them. They stoned Paul and dragged him out of the town, leaving him for dead. But, when his disciples gathered around him, he stood up and returned to the town. And the next day, he left for Derbe with Barnabas.
After proclaiming the gospel in that town and making many disciples, they returned to Lystra and Iconium, and on to Antioch. They were strengthening the disciples, and encouraging them to remain firm in the faith; for they said, “We must go through many trials to enter the kingdom of God.” In each church they appointed elders and, after praying and fasting, they commended them to the Lord, in whom they had placed their faith.
Then they traveled through Pisidia, and came to Pamphylia. They preached the word in Perga and went down to Attalia. From there, they sailed back to Antioch, where they had first been commended to God’s grace, for the task they had now completed. On their arrival, they gathered the Church together, and told them all that God had done through them, and how he had opened the door of faith to the non-Jews. They spent a fairly long time there with the disciples.
Gospel: John 14: 27-31
Peace be with you! My peace I give to you; not as the world gives peace do I give it to you. Do not be troubled! Do not be afraid! You heard me say, ‘I am going away, but I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.
I have told you this now before it takes place, so that when it does happen you may believe. There is very little left for me to tell you, for the prince of this world is at hand, although there is nothing in me that he can claim. But see, the world must know that I love the Father, and that I do what the Father has taught me to do. Come now, let us go.
Reflection:“The peace given by Jesus.”
A life guided by the Holy Spirit is a life of inner peace. This is the kind of peace that is given by Jesus. The peace offered by the world is always temporal, effected and affected by external factors. The peace which Jesus offers lasts. It is something that springs up from within us. It is the peace that is felt when we listen intently to God’s voice speaking from within our deepest core. Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, in order that the disciples would not be left all alone and in order that the disciples would not be separated from him in the present life. Jesus has returned to the Father but he is now ever nearer to us through the Holy Spirit. The present life could be very troublesome but as long as the followers of Jesus lead a Spirit-guided life, one that is characterized by inner peace, there would be no amount of problems that can ever shake them. Everyone aspires for a life of tranquility. However, even the life of Christians can be troublesome. When does this happen? Such happens when we ignore God’s voice speaking from within, ignoring also the inner peace it offers.
