Commentary: Wayback Machine.
'Tis also the festival of Saint Luke Kirby, Priest & Martyr (circa 1549-1582), martyred in the reign of the queen Elizabeth I, one of the Forty Martyrs of England & Wales: Martyr-link & Wikipedia-link; Wikipedia-link XL.
Scripture of the Day
Mass Readings—Easter Weekday
The Acts of the Apostles, chapter twenty, verses seventeen thru twenty-seven;
Psalm Sixty-eight, verses ten & eleven, twenty & twenty-one;
The Gospel according to John, chapter seventeen, verses one thru eleven(a).
Commentary: Easter Gospel reflection by Bishop Robert Barron (Word on Fire):
Friends, Jesus’ prayer in today’s Gospel sums up his wonderful work as he prepares to return to his Father. Jesus was, in his very person, the meeting of heaven and earth. God and humanity came together in him, and his entire ministry was the outward expression of that inward identity. By calling a scattered Israel to unity, inviting the poor to table fellowship, healing the sick in body and heart, and embodying the path of forgiveness and love, Jesus was bringing God’s will and purposes to earth.
But then in his passion and death, Jesus brought heaven all the way down. He carried the divine light into the darkest places of the human condition: hatred, cruelty, violence, corruption, stupidity, suffering, even death itself. And by exposing them to the light of God, he thereby transformed them. Ultimately, what proves that heaven is able to transform earth is, of course, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
We often think that cruelty, hatred, violence, fear, suffering, and death are the most powerful forces in the world. But through Jesus’ resurrection, we now know that the divine love is more powerful. God’s kingdom has, in principle, broken the kingdoms of the world, which thrive upon and in turn produce those very negativities.
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