The Catholic Calendar for Thursday, April 21, 2005
Thursday of the Fourth Week of Easter
St. Anselm, bishop and doctor of the Church

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Acts 13:13-25
Psalm 89:2-3,21-22,25,27
John 13:16-20

A reflection on today's Scripture. . . .

"...whoever receives the one I send receives me,
and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me." (John 13: 20)

If we accept the Scripture that God is the Author of all life and that He created man in His image, it follows that He intended humanity to reflect His holiness, His virtues. Surely, He has given us intellectual and moral dimensions lacking in the lower species. However, this discovery of our human potential for "good" and the love relationship with Him to which God calls us had to undergo many generations of preparation, successes and failures before it could be fully revealed. At the proper time, this revelation was given to us when God Himself came in Human flesh to illustrate in Christ His true Image, the One whose traits and virtues we are individually to emulate and embody in our own flesh. In our first reading Paul reviews Jewish history leading to the coming of their promised Messiah and world's Savior.

In today's Gospel, Jesus cites an ancient principle that is actually at the root of all missionary work. He, the Christ, is the One who had been sent by God to deliver the message of our need for salvation, first through our repentance and God's forgiveness of sin, and second, through a gradual process of restoration to the holy image of the One Who created us. Recall that the quotation upon which this reflection is based follows Christ's washing of His disciples' feet. Jesus here emphasizes that His followers who will proclaim Him as Savior, must, like Him, be humble, obedient servants of God. He also stresses that He and His message are genuinely of divine origin by foretelling Judas' betrayal, that they may then know that He is "I Am" of one and the same essence as His heavenly Father.

O Loving Redeemer,
make us good and faithful messengers of Your saving truth and love
through our proclaiming of Your word
and through the manner in which we live. Amen.

- Marie Bocko, OCDS
(mlbocko at earthlink dot net)

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