for May 9
Saturday of the Fourth Week of Easter

Two questions frame today’s readings:  Who can know God? And how is God known? Both the reading from Acts and the Gospel passage present Jesus as a challenge to previously held answers to those questions.

In Acts, Paul and Barnabas are in the synagogue in Antioch of Pisidia following up on Paul’s sermon of the previous week, a portion of which we read yesterday. That appearance apparently became the talk of the town and a crowd gathered on this, the following Sabbath, to hear more. Paul had spoken of Jesus as going beyond the Mosaic law in his power to forgive sins. This was a profound challenge to the Jewish authorities. The way to know God was to follow the law, meaning to live as pious Jews, and those who were versed in its interpretation were thought to know God best. So, when the authorities see the huge response Paul has generated, they refute him vigorously. And in return Paul and Barnabas proclaim the startling new possibility that Gentiles, that is, non-Jews, can also come to know God—through Jesus.

The Gospel continues Jesus’s final conversation with his disciples before his passion. Generally called his final discourse, it is not just a speech. Coming after his washing of their feet and sharing his final meal with them, he speaks lovingly with them and strives to reassure them of his continued care for them in the trying days ahead. However, since they haven’t understood what is about to happen, neither can they appreciate his concern for them even as he faces his own greatest trial. For three years Jesus has taught them, traveled with them, formed them to carry on his mission, and loved them. Speaking out of the depth of the relationship they share, he passes the mantle of leading God’s mission on earth to them:“If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” But they don’t know that they have. They know Jesus intimately, yet their inherited expectations of how God can be known and who can know him still blind them to Jesus’s true identity: “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” How poignantly Jesus answers: “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me?”

How might you answer that question? Jesus is with each one of us at all times. Have we come to know him? Does he seem close? Or are we expecting him to make himself known in some other way? Is our changed life these days a challenge to our relationship with God? When our world is shaken, do we feel consoled or abandoned by God?

The psalm is full of joy and inclusion: “All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God.” It’s a lot easier to embrace that belief when we’re feeling comfortable and secure. When things get distressing, it can be tempting to despair and turn on others. But if we can know God as the one who is with us always no matter what happens, we can, like Paul and Barnabas, be filled with joy and the Holy Spirit even if the world kicks us around.
—Christine Szczepanowski

The readings can be found on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops website.