We have moved out of the Easter octave and are now in the second week of the season , 11 days after Easter. The readings for daily mass continue to be from The Acts. Today the verses being Acts 5:17-26 . The Gospel is from John 3:16-21 .
Lets start with the Gospel passage. It starts with John 3:16 is one of the central messages of Christianity. It goes like this... "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life".... Everything else in our faith goes around this central theme which this verse attempts to bring to believers as well as non believers. As the passage goes, the apostle John, who was one of the original twelve apostles of Christ formed persoanlly by Christ Himself, describes Christ as the Light of the world and the goes on to exhort people to be in Light. It brings out the mercy of God in Christ. Verse 17 says Christ came not to condemn the world but that it might be saved. It must understood that it is the love and mercy for God which comes out in the Christ. No where does he mention a list of do's or dont's. Just one (mandatory) requirement 'Believe and be saved'. Believe in Christ and start your jouney towards your salvation. Many Christians to this day believe that it is their efforts which will earn their salvation. Salvation is a free gift from God to the whole world. If he were to start finding faults, who could escape His judgment? None. So John's verse brings a lot of hope and encouragement for all those who, weighed down by their sins, consider themselves not worthy of God's love or atonement. Their is no sin under the sin which the Cross of Christ has not had victory over and no sinner for whom the Lord has not loved or did not shed His precious blood for. The fact is He came only for the sinners like me & you and not for the self righteous. For the self righteous continue to believe that they are 'ok' and directly or indirectly reject the need for a Saviour , reject Christ and thus automatically put themselves out of God's umbrella of divine mercy. And so John ends this passage stating that those who do not want to be in Light, prefer to stay in darkness and thus lose out on the joy and the freedom of being in Light. Conversely, those who chose (it's a choice one has to make) to walk in light, the Lord ensures that their deeds are well 'wrought' (made or done in a careful or decorative way). That's His love for His people.
In first reading from The Acts (Acts 5:17-26), the apostles are arrested for proclaiming the Gospel of Christ. However, true to what today's Gospel passage above teaches, they are saved miraculously from the prison and come out of the prison. Once the guards realise that they are preaching at the temple (Jewish Synagogue), they go and bring them back again but this time, for the fear of the crowd, they ensure that they are not hurt in anyway. Thus we also find there is a link between the Gospel & the other reading (those who believe shall be saved and their deeds shall be wrought by the Lord)..... There is undoubtedly a higher form of wisdom in the way readings and Gospel passages have been picked for daily liturgy by Church.
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