Tuesday of the Sixth Week of Easter
May 11, 2021
Tuesday of the Sixth Week of Easter
Lectionary: 292
Reading I
The crowd in Philippi joined in the attack on Paul and Silas,
and the magistrates had them stripped
and ordered them to be beaten with rods.
After inflicting many blows on them,
they threw them into prison
and instructed the jailer to guard them securely.
When he received these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell
and secured their feet to a stake.
About midnight, while Paul and Silas were praying
and singing hymns to God as the prisoners listened,
there was suddenly such a severe earthquake
that the foundations of the jail shook;
all the doors flew open, and the chains of all were pulled loose.
When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open,
he drew his sword and was about to kill himself,
thinking that the prisoners had escaped.
But Paul shouted out in a loud voice,
“Do no harm to yourself; we are all here.”
He asked for a light and rushed in and,
trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas.
Then he brought them out and said,
“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus
and you and your household will be saved.”
So they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to everyone in his house.
He took them in at that hour of the night and bathed their wounds;
then he and all his family were baptized at once.
He brought them up into his house and provided a meal
and with his household rejoiced at having come to faith in God.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (7c) Your right hand saves me, O Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
I will give thanks to you, O LORD, with all my heart,
for you have heard the words of my mouth;
in the presence of the angels I will sing your praise;
I will worship at your holy temple,
and give thanks to your name.
R. Your right hand saves me, O Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Because of your kindness and your truth,
you have made great above all things
your name and your promise.
When I called, you answered me;
you built up strength within me.
R. Your right hand saves me, O Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Your right hand saves me.
The LORD will complete what he has done for me;
your kindness, O LORD, endures forever;
forsake not the work of your hands.
R. Your right hand saves me, O Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I will send to you the Spirit of truth, says the Lord;
he will guide you to all truth.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Now I am going to the one who sent me,
and not one of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’
But because I told you this, grief has filled your hearts.
But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go.
For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you.
But if I go, I will send him to you.
And when he comes he will convict the world
in regard to sin and righteousness and condemnation:
sin, because they do not believe in me;
righteousness, because I am going to the Father
and you will no longer see me;
condemnation, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.”
Reflection: THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT
With the boom of technology, the world we live in has seen a tremendous growth within last two decades. With the introduction of computers, every field and discipline of knowledge has had embraced a new mode and method of work ethic. To this end, the physical wall calendar or the appointment calendar diaries have been side-lined with the arrival of Apple iCalendar, Google calendar, and many other applications that support scheduling of events, travel, and meetings. The times of Jesus were different to the extent that the day and night were determined by the hour that is not necessarily related to the sixty-minute time calculation of the modern times. In today's gospel, Jesus makes a mention about arrival of the time for him to return to the Father. Jesus knew that the disciples were filled grief since he mentioned about his departure from the world. At a time when no specific time frame or the means to understand what this departure of Jesus meant, the disciples were totally lost in their train of thought, and so did not quite get implications of Jesus' message. The disciples were so confused that they did not understand the role of the Holy Spirit in the larger picture of the gospel and its proclamation. Alongside this, the birth of the Christian communities abundantly reflected the work of the Spirit in the world. The power of the Holy Spirit that Jesus promised to send is indeed the power behind the mission of the gospel. In our spiritual life and progress, we need the guidance of the Holy Spirit to unpack to us the riches that are hidden in Christ since the foundation of the world. It is the Holy Spirit that prompts our actions, and the evangelizing mission of the Church to its fullest potential. Our openness to the message of the Gospel is the work of the Holy Spirit, leading us to the fuller knowledge and the truth of Jesus Christ. Let us open ourselves to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.