If at First You Don't Succeed

May 9: Tuesday of Fifth Week of Easter

I saw on Facebook today a protestant claiming he’d attended a Catholic mass, and never saw anything so unbiblical. Either he was lying about attending mass, or he’s unfamiliar with scripture. Pretty much every line in mass is a quote from some scripture passage or other!

Just reading the first line of today’s Gospel makes me instinctively reach out to shake someone’s hand.

Reading 1

Acts 14:19-28

In those days, some Jews from Antioch and Iconium arrived and won over the crowds. They stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. But when the disciples gathered around him, he got up and entered the city. On the following day he left with Barnabas for Derbe.

After they had proclaimed the good news to that city and made a considerable number of disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch. They strengthened the spirits of the disciples and exhorted them to persevere in the faith, saying, "It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God."

They appointed presbyters for them in each Church and, with prayer and fasting, commended them to the Lord in whom they had put their faith. Then they traveled through Pisidia and reached Pamphylia. After proclaiming the word at Perga they went down to Attalia. From there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work they had now accomplished. And when they arrived, they called the Church together and reported what God had done with them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. Then they spent no little time with the disciples.

Let’s review the madcap adventures we’ve been reading about in the last week or so—Paul and Barnabas were expelled from one city, mistaken for gods in another, and now stoned nearly to death in a third.

After surviving all that, what do they do? Go back.

They go back the way they came, and establish churches in all of those places. Why? "It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God."

Talk about getting back on the horse.

The crazy thing is, it worked! Those churches are still there, two thousand years later.

So, if you’re ever feeling discouraged, like, expelled-from-town-and-then-stoned levels of discouragement, look to Saint Paul.

Responsorial Psalm

Ps 145:10-11, 12-13ab, 21

R. Your friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
Let all your works give you thanks, O LORD,
and let your faithful ones bless you.
Let them discourse of the glory of your kingdom
and speak of your might.
R. Your friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
Making known to men your might
and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
Your kingdom is a kingdom for all ages,
and your dominion endures through all generations.
R. Your friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
May my mouth speak the praise of the LORD,
and may all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.
R. Your friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your kingdom.

God isn’t king just because He says so. We can see His glory, in the works of creation, in the miracles of His Church, and in the love we feel for one another. Every kingdom is small compared to His, and so He is worthy of praise.

Alleluia

See Lk 24:46, 26

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Christ had to suffer and to rise from the dead,
and so enter into his glory.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Jesus suffers as an example for the saints, and for us.

Gospel

Jn 14:27-31a

Jesus said to his disciples: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. You heard me tell you, 'I am going away and I will come back to you.' If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe. I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me, but the world must know that I love the Father and that I do just as the Father has commanded me."

Jesus is obviously prophesying His coming death. He’s telling the Apostles not to worry, even though, as we all know, they will. Like us, they’re only human.

But after today’s psalm, the refence to “the ruler of the world” might be confusing. Jesus talking about Satan, and his influence over the Sanhedrin, et al, who will crucify Him. How can Satan be the “ruler of the world” if God is king of everything?

Well, because God allows it. It’s part of what’s called God’s “permissive will.” He gives us free choice, which means we can be swayed be demons as well as angels.

Satan doesn’t have power of Jesus, although Jesus allowed Himself to be crucified. If we choose to be obedient to God, Satan won’t have power over us, either.