Friendship with Jesus in Faith and the Holy Spirit

CATHOLIC DAILY SCRIPTURE READING

Welcome to my blog. The Catholic Church under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit gives us each day at least two readings from the Bible, plus several verses from a psalm which is an inspired response to one of the readings, normally the first.

There is a cycle (a two year cycle for weekdays and a three year cycle for Sundays) which covers the major parts of the Old Testament, the Gospels and the New Testament writings.

Through these readings we get our spiritual nourishment. In my blog I give the readings and the inspirations I have received in my prayer. I want to share them with others. If they help some to get in touch with God and his image in this world, Jesus the Christ, then my purpose will be fulfilled. May God bless you through his Spirit.

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Friday 15 May 2020

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Friendship with Jesus in Faith and the Holy Spirit

Prayer

Father, as Jesus died to this life and rose to a new life in his Resurrection, may we who believe in him also die now to sin and evil and rise to the new life in the Holy Spirit which will lead us into the glory of your presence in heaven. We make our prayer through your Son Christ our Lord.

First reading

Acts 15:22-31 ·

It has been decided by the Holy Spirit and by us not to burden you beyond these essentials

The apostles and elders decided to choose delegates to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas; the whole church concurred with this. They chose Judas known as Barsabbas and Silas, both leading men in the brotherhood, and gave them this letter to take with them:

‘The apostles and elders, your brothers, send greetings to the brothers of pagan birth in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia. We hear that some of our members have disturbed you with their demands and have unsettled your minds. They acted without any authority from us; and so we have decided unanimously to elect delegates and to send them to you with Barnabas and Paul, men we highly respect who have dedicated their lives to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accordingly, we are sending you Judas and Silas, who will confirm by word of mouth what we have written in this letter. It has been decided by the Holy Spirit and by ourselves not to saddle you with any burden beyond these essentials: you are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols; from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from fornication. Avoid these, and you will do what is right. Farewell.’

The party left and went down to Antioch, where they summoned the whole community and delivered the letter. The community read it and were delighted with the encouragement it gave them. THE WORD OF THE LORD.

The Church in Jerusalem, the Apostles and elders, are confidant that they are guided by the Holy Spirit. Not only them, but the Holy Spirit will guide the Church, which Jesus founded and in which he lives, until the end of time. This is the supreme promise of Jesus at the Last Supper.

We may wonder why all these conditions which we may not have to follow today. The pagan converts were living together with Jewish converts. Charity would oblige the new converts to avoid things that were abhorrent to Jews such as eating food with blood in it, certain forbidden degrees of marriage. Meat offered to idols, too, may disturb the faith of new converts if they ate it.

Notice too how the Apostles do not give a mighty command, but say, if you keep free of these, you will be doing what is right.

If we are led by the Holy Spirit we always speak with love and in a way to build up others.

Psalm

Psalm 57:8-12

I will thank you, Lord, among the peoples.

My heart is ready, O God,

my heart is ready.

I will sing, I will sing your praise.

Awake, my soul,

awake, lyre and harp,

I will awake the dawn.

I will thank you, Lord, among the peoples.

I will thank you, Lord, among the peoples,

among the nations I will praise you

for your love reaches to the heavens

and your truth to the skies.

O God, arise above the heavens;

may your glory shine on earth!

I will thank you, Lord, among the peoples.

Gospel

John 15:12-17

I do not call you servants. i call you my friends

Jesus said to his disciples:

‘This is my commandment:

love one another,

as I have loved you.

A man can have no greater love

than to lay down his life for his friends.

You are my friends,

if you do what I command you.

I shall not call you servants any more,

because a servant does not know

his master’s business;

I call you friends,

because I have made known to you

everything I have learnt from my Father.

You did not choose me:

no, I chose you;

and I commissioned you

to go out and to bear fruit,

fruit that will last;

and then the Father will give you

anything you ask him in my name.

What I command you is to love one another.’  

THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD

Jeremiah tells in 17:9 that the human heart is more deceitful that anything else. One way in which we deceive ourselves is to think that we are very great. When in great need we may pray to God with great passion and tears. When God does not answer us as we wish, how many of us think. ‘it’s a waste of time to pray to God.’ Others even get angry with God and refuse to pray again. ‘My child has died, my husband has died, or my wife and God did nothing to help’ and they give up their religion, never go to church again.

Isaiah in chapter 40 explains how the whole universe before God is as a drop of water, or like a grain of sand in our hands. It is as nothing before him. ‘In his eyes all the nations of the world count for nothing, they are just like froth’. So then what am I? Before God we humans should sit in awe-full silence. How can I or all of this ‘grain of sand’ together understand the ways and mind of God?

But this God who is beyond anything we can think or imagine, someone who transcends us so much that we can know nothing about him as he is in himself, this God has become a human being. He has become like me in every way, with all the limitations that I have and, in his humanity, has emptied himself of all his divine prerogatives. He is Jesus, born of Mary.

He wants me to be his friend. He wans to share everything with me, to be at my side. It won’t be that everything will go so placidly and without pain – I look at his Cross – but he is my friend. He will not leave me; he will give me joy and peace even now and he will bring me one day to the Resurrection. To be a faithful friend is the key.

Are you close, in faith, to Jesus as a human being? Are you a real friend to him, faithful through thick and thin? He is. We have nothing to fear, everything will be well, whatever happens.

The Crucified is risen from the dead

and has redeemed us, alleluia.

Prayer

Father, may we who through our faith enjoy intimate friendship with Jesus, your Son, always live to please him in our every thought, word and deed and be faithful to him until death, just he was for us. We make our prayer through your Son, Christ our Lord.