Daily Readings Reflection for 4/14/10

Reflection on Today’s Daily Readings by Fr. Bertrand Buby, SM

Today’s Readings


Scripture: April 14, Lectionary # 269. Acts 5:17-26. Psalm
34:2;9,17-18,19-20. John 3:16-21.

There is no doubt that God loves us--that means each and everyone of us.
Whether we believe and accept that Scriptural truth is up to us through our
faith response to the living word of God.  Today all of the readings head
in that direction, that is, in the love of God manifested in deed and
prayer and word. The Acts of the Apostles testifies to the action of God in
freeing those bound in prison. The love of God does that for the emerging
and growing community.  Then the Psalm is a prayer that helps us to
creatively imagine God's love and goodness by associating it with one of
the five senses, that of taste.  "Taste and see how good the Lord is."

In the Gospel we have the direct revelation of God's love: "God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so that everyone who believes
in him might not perish but have eternal life."  This is one of the most
comforting passages in the New Testament and one that has been cited very
often in our country.  The statement occurs in the Book of Signs--that part
of John's Gospel that emphasizes a personal relationship with Jesus through
our faith and our trust in him as a person who is both Son of God and Son
of Man.  The Fourth Evangelist may already be preparing us for the second
section of his Gospel where the theme of agape/agapan (unconditional love,
love that is total).  John 13:1 lead us into the Paschal Mysteries with an
absolute statment of love on the part of the Evangelist who reads the mind
of Jesus so well and reveals it to us. "Before the feast of Passover, Jesus
knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. He loved
his own who were in the world and he loved them to the end (that is, to the
utmost possible)."

During this Easter Season we are being led by the Holy Scriptures to have
such a love and to respond to God who is loving us so unconditionally.
Maybe those who think they are farthest from God are the ones who are being
loved the most and have nothing to fear.  Jesus has told all of us
throughout the Gospels, "Do not fear."  Here Jesus is telling us to love
Him and to love one another with the same love given to us--no limits or
constraints attached to this type of love which unites and brings peace and
joy.  That is why John uses the special verb "agapan" and not philein (love
between friends).  Agapan and agape are the highest forms of love possible
and God through Jesus has shown us how that is possible.  Mary his mother
loved this way and found out that "with God nothing is impossible."