Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Thursday Sixth Week of Easter
May 29, 2014
Thursday Sixth Week of Easter
Acts 18: 1-8 / Ps 98: 1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4 / Jn 16: 16-20
Reading: Acts 18: 1-8
After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. There he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, following a decree of the Emperor Claudius which ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to visit them and then stayed and worked with them because they shared the same trade of tentmaking. Every Sabbath he held discussions in the synagogue, trying to convince both Jews and Greeks. When Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul was able to give himself wholly to preaching and proving to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah. One day when they opposed him and insulted him, he shook the dust from his clothes in protest, saying, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. I am not to blame if from now on I go to the non-Jews." So Paul left there and went to the house of a God-fearing man named Titus Justus who lived next door to the synagogue. A leading man of the synagogue, Crispus, along with his whole household, believed in the Lord.
Gospel: John 16:16-20
A little while and you will see me no more; and then a little while, and you will see me." Some of the disciples wondered, "What does he mean by: 'A little while and you will not see me, and then a little while and you will see me'? And why did he say: 'I go to the Father'?" And they said to one another, "What does he mean by 'a little while'? We don't understand." Jesus knew that they wanted to question him; so he said to them, "You are puzzled because I told you that in a little while you will see me no more, and then a little while later you will see me. Truly, I say to you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy.
Reflection:
Jesus often did or said things that appeared strange, radical or even contradictory to the disciples. Even if he assured the disciples that he was coming back again, bidding farewell in the above gospel reading was a puzzle to them and worse, Jesus was not helpful in his explanation. Instances like these of course ideally would give anyone the opportunity to exercise the virtue of faith. If Jesus actually said he would resurrect, the disciples would not understand it because in the first place they never even thought he was going to die. Nobody had resurrected before aside from those whom Jesus himself brought back to life. So then who would be able to bring a dead Jesus back to life? But primarily, how can the anointed savior himself die? This was why when Jesus actually died, the disciples started to have doubts as to whether they had chosen to follow the wrong messiah.
Saying goodbye at that point was not easy. It was easier for Jesus to say 'goodbye for now but not to worry because I am coming back soon anyway'. That is how departing parents usually soothe a crying child being left behind: that they are coming back right away and will be bringing a gift even. Often works too.
It is also a good area for reflection to imagine the different groups of people who were supposed to be joyful when Jesus left and who were to be sorrowful. It is not a difficult exercise actually. The better exercise would be to put a different twist to our reflection and ask: when it is time for us to leave, whether we have time to say our goodbyes or not, how many will be sorrowful and how many will be joyful? Scary and morbid isn't it? But all of us all are going that way anyway. It would not hurt to have especially deeper thoughts to keep us on our toes. More especially if we are not given the chance to say our goodbyes... most especially to those who will be sorrowful.
Prayer Requests:
We pray ...
... for a deep and profound respect for life, especially for the unborn
... for all the prayer intentions in the MTQ Dailyprayer Diary
... for families who are in need of healing
... for world peace and reconciliation
Finally, we pray for one another, for those who have asked our prayers and for those who need our prayers the most.
Have a good day!
**************************************************
These reflections are distributed free and are for personal use only. Feel free to send the Daily Prayer reflections to your friends, colleagues and relatives; however, if you do, please include the following:
+================================================+
| The Daily Prayer, a service and an apostolate of the
| priests, laity and friends of Mary the Queen Parish
| http://www.marythequeen.org
| Distributed free and for personal use only.
+================================================+
-- Thursday Sixth Week of Easter
Acts 18: 1-8 / Ps 98: 1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4 / Jn 16: 16-20
Reading: Acts 18: 1-8
After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. There he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, following a decree of the Emperor Claudius which ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to visit them and then stayed and worked with them because they shared the same trade of tentmaking. Every Sabbath he held discussions in the synagogue, trying to convince both Jews and Greeks. When Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul was able to give himself wholly to preaching and proving to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah. One day when they opposed him and insulted him, he shook the dust from his clothes in protest, saying, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. I am not to blame if from now on I go to the non-Jews." So Paul left there and went to the house of a God-fearing man named Titus Justus who lived next door to the synagogue. A leading man of the synagogue, Crispus, along with his whole household, believed in the Lord.
Gospel: John 16:16-20
A little while and you will see me no more; and then a little while, and you will see me." Some of the disciples wondered, "What does he mean by: 'A little while and you will not see me, and then a little while and you will see me'? And why did he say: 'I go to the Father'?" And they said to one another, "What does he mean by 'a little while'? We don't understand." Jesus knew that they wanted to question him; so he said to them, "You are puzzled because I told you that in a little while you will see me no more, and then a little while later you will see me. Truly, I say to you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy.
Reflection:
Jesus often did or said things that appeared strange, radical or even contradictory to the disciples. Even if he assured the disciples that he was coming back again, bidding farewell in the above gospel reading was a puzzle to them and worse, Jesus was not helpful in his explanation. Instances like these of course ideally would give anyone the opportunity to exercise the virtue of faith. If Jesus actually said he would resurrect, the disciples would not understand it because in the first place they never even thought he was going to die. Nobody had resurrected before aside from those whom Jesus himself brought back to life. So then who would be able to bring a dead Jesus back to life? But primarily, how can the anointed savior himself die? This was why when Jesus actually died, the disciples started to have doubts as to whether they had chosen to follow the wrong messiah.
Saying goodbye at that point was not easy. It was easier for Jesus to say 'goodbye for now but not to worry because I am coming back soon anyway'. That is how departing parents usually soothe a crying child being left behind: that they are coming back right away and will be bringing a gift even. Often works too.
It is also a good area for reflection to imagine the different groups of people who were supposed to be joyful when Jesus left and who were to be sorrowful. It is not a difficult exercise actually. The better exercise would be to put a different twist to our reflection and ask: when it is time for us to leave, whether we have time to say our goodbyes or not, how many will be sorrowful and how many will be joyful? Scary and morbid isn't it? But all of us all are going that way anyway. It would not hurt to have especially deeper thoughts to keep us on our toes. More especially if we are not given the chance to say our goodbyes... most especially to those who will be sorrowful.
Prayer Requests:
We pray ...
... for a deep and profound respect for life, especially for the unborn
... for all the prayer intentions in the MTQ Dailyprayer Diary
... for families who are in need of healing
... for world peace and reconciliation
Finally, we pray for one another, for those who have asked our prayers and for those who need our prayers the most.
Have a good day!
**************************************************
These reflections are distributed free and are for personal use only. Feel free to send the Daily Prayer reflections to your friends, colleagues and relatives; however, if you do, please include the following:
+================================================+
| The Daily Prayer, a service and an apostolate of the
| priests, laity and friends of Mary the Queen Parish
| http://www.marythequeen.org
| Distributed free and for personal use only.
+================================================+
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GoogleGroup Address: http://groups.google.com/group/daily_homily
Archive: http://biblereflection.blogspot.com/
To subscribe from this free mailing service, send email to: dailyhomily@earthlink.net
To unsubscribe: daily_homily-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
© 2014 Daily-Homily
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "DAILY-HOMILY" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to daily_homily+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
# posted by F O O D F O R T H O U G H T @ 10:11 AM 
