Sixth Sunday of Easter
Is-Sitt Hadd ta’ l-Ghid
Messalin C 217
Some who had come down
from Judea were instructing the brothers, “Unless
you are circumcised according to the Mosaic practice, you cannot be saved.” Because
there arose no little dissension and debate by Paul and Barnabas with them, it was decided that Paul, Barnabas, and some
of the others should go up to Jerusalem Antioch Antioch , Syria
L-Ewwel Qari - mill-Ktieb ta'l-Atti ta' l-Appostli 15,
1-2, 22-29
F'dak iż-żmien, niżlu xi wħud
mill-Lhudija u bdew jgħallmu lill-aħwa: "Jekk ma toqogħdux għaċ-ċirkonċiżjoni
skont id-drawwa li ġejja minn minn minn minn
Responsorial Psalm PSALM 67:2-3,
5, 6, 8
R. (4) O God, let all the nations praise you! or: R.
Alleluia.
May God have pity on us and bless us;
may he let his face shine upon us.
So may your way be known upon earth;
among all nations, your salvation. R/
may he let his face shine upon us.
So may your way be known upon earth;
among all nations, your salvation. R/
May the nations be glad and exult
because you rule the peoples in equity;
the nations on the earth you guide. R/
because you rule the peoples in equity;
the nations on the earth you guide. R/
May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you!
May God bless us,
and may all the ends of the earth fear him! R/
may all the peoples praise you!
May God bless us,
and may all the ends of the earth fear him! R/
Salm Responsorjali Salm 66 (67)
R/ Fost il-ġnus Alla wera s-salvazzjoni tiegħu.
Iħenn għalina Alla, u
jberikna;
idawwar għal fuqna d-dija ta'
wiċċu!
Biex jingħarfu fuq l-art
triqatek,
fost il-ġnus kollha
s-salvazzjoni tiegħek. R/
Jithennew il-ġnus u jgħannu
bil-ferħ,
għax trieġi l-popli bis-sewwa,
u l-ġnus fuq l-art inti
tmexxihom. R/
Ifaħħruk il-popli, o Alla,
ifaħħruk il-popli kollha.
Iberikna Alla, u tibża' minnu
l-art kollha minn
Reading 2 Revelations
21:10-14, 22-23
The angel took me in
spirit to a great, high mountain and
showed me the holy city Jerusalem
It-Tieni Qari
mill-Ktieb
tal-Apokalissi 21, 10-14, 22-23
L-anġlu ħadni fl-ispirtu fuq
muntanja kbira u għolja, u wrieni l-Belt
il-Qaddisa, Ġerusalemm,nieżla mis-sema mingħand
Alla, bil-glorja ta' Alla fiha, tiddi bħal ħaġra mill-aktar prezzjuża, bħal
ġaspru jleqq daqs il-kristall. Għandha ħajt kbir u għoli, bi tnax-il bieb fih,
u tnax-il anġlu fil-bibien li fuqhom hemm miktuba ismijiet. l-ismijiet
tat-tnax-il tribu' ta' wlied Iżrael.
Tlieta minn dawn il-bibien jagħtu għan-naħa tal-Lvant,
tlienta ħan- naħa
Gospel John 14:23-29
Jesus said to his
disciples: “Whoever loves me will keep
my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our
dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the
word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me. “I have told you this while I am with you. The
Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you
everything and remind you of all that I told you. 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.” This is the Word
of The Lord.
L-Evanġelju
- Qari
mill-Evanġelju skont San Ġwann 14, 23-29
F'dak iż-żmien, Ġesu' qal
lid-dixxipli tiegħu: "Jekk xi ħadd
iħobbni, iħares kelmti, u l-Missier
jħobbu, u aħna niġu u ngħammru għandu.
Min ma jħobbnix ma jħarisx
kliemi. U l-kelma li qegħdin tisimgħu
mhijiex tiegħi, imma tal-Missier li bagħatni. Għedilkom dan meta għadni magħkom. Imma d-Difensur, l-Ispirtu s-Santu, li
l-Missier jibgħat f'ismi, jgħallimkom kollox
u jfakkarkom dak kollu li għedtilkom.
Jien nħallilkom is-sliem; nagħtikom is-sliem tiegħi; ma
nagħtihulkomx kif tagħtih id-dinja. Tħallux qalbkom titħawwad u anqas
titbeżża'. Smajtu x'għedtilkom: "Jiena sejjer uu nerġa niġi
għandkom." Kieku kontu tħobbuni, kontu tifirħu li sejjer għand il-Missier,
għax il-Missier hu akbar minni. U
għedtilkom dan minn
///////////////////////////////////////////////
COMMENTARY by Mgr Francesco Follo, permanent observer of the Holy See to
UNESCO, Paris.
He Is Close to Each of Us, Forever
Jesus
has ascended and he is not departed and now, thanks to the fact that He is with
the Father, he is close to each one of us, forever (Benedict XVI, May 7, 2005).
Ecce Homo - The feast of
the Ascension of Christ makes us celebrate the joyful and glorious
manifestation of that true aspect of the Ecce Homo that was hidden by the
passion in a dramatic way. A little more than 40 days before this event of
heaven, Pilate had shown Christ, the suffering and bleeding Servant, to the
people reunited to condemn him, stressing in this way the offended and
humiliated face of the man.
“Look
at the man,” said the Roman Procurator. The people did not take pity on him and
condemned him to death. Even today television, news, web and movies
continuously present, sometimes with compassion, more often with cynicism, and
many times with the masochistic pleasure of self-destruction, the humiliated
and defeated man in all forms of horror: this is how man is, they keep telling
us. Science with the theory of evolutionism takes us to the past, shows us the
results of its research, the clay from which man came, and “ensures” us that
this is what man is.
The
event of the Saviour’s ascension tells to the old and new disciples that
Pilate’s statement upon showing the flogged Christ is only half true. Jesus is
not only a man with his head crowned with thorns and his body exhausted by
scourging; He is the Lord and his kingdom, with the “violence” of a sacrificial
love, gives back to man and to the entire world the original beauty. In
ascending to heaven Christ demonstrated to have lifted up the image of Adam. We
are not made only of dirt and pain, we are in Christ up to the heart of God.
“The
Ascension of Christ is the rehabilitation of man. It is not being hit that
lowers and humiliates but to hit; it is not being subject to spitting that
lowers and humiliates, but to spit on someone; it is not the one who is
offended but the one who offends that is dishonored; it is not haughtiness that
ennobles man but humility; it is not self-glorification that makes him great,
but the communion with God” (Benedict XVI, Images of Hope, 2005)
To
believe and to celebrate the Ascension
What
is the meaning of believing that Jesus “is ascended into heaven”? We can find
the answer in the Creed: “He is ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand
of the Father”. The fact that Christ is ascended into heaven means that He has
entered also with his human nature in the world of God that had been made Lord
of everything (as St Paul writes in the second reading of today’s liturgy). For
us “to go to heaven” or “go into Paradise ”
means to go and be with Christ(Phil 1, 23). Our true sky is the resurrected
Christ with whom we will reunite after the resurrection of the body.
“The Ascension does not point
to Jesus’ absence, but tells us that he is alive in our midst in a new way. He
is no longer in a specific place in the world as he was before the Ascension.
He is now in the lordship of God, present in every space and time, close to
each one of us”
(Pope Francis, General Audience, April 17th, 2013). With the feast of the
Ascension we celebrate the fact that the Paradise
opens its doors to humanity with the solemn and joyful entrance of Christ into
heaven to the right hand of the Father.
In
his farewell Jesus leaves his truth and his power to the Apostles because the
Ascension was not a departure but a way to intensify his presence everywhere in
the universe. It was not a farewell (in the current meaning farewell means that
we will see each other again only in heaven) but the promise and the certainty
of a continuous presence to the limits of time and space: “I will be with you
always until the end of the age “(Mt 28:20) In fact “farewell” comes from the
Latin “ad Deum”, towards God. When we greet each other in this way we commit
ourselves to a journey that means a return to the house of God. Our entire life
is towards an event, the one of the encounter with God-Love.
Waiting
to make this final encounter through the passage with the body on the last day,
Christians are called to make it happen every day with the heart. This passage
of the heart towards what is eternal doesn’t divert the Christian man and woman
from the historical duties that They have in this world. The question that the
two angels in white robes asked to the Apostles, “Why do you look up in the
sky?”, is valid for us too.
“To
go from this world” and “not to go with this world” (Saint Augustine Saint Paul
“To
go to heaven” or “to go into Paradise ” means
to go and to be “with Christ” (Phil 1:23) “And if I go and prepare a place for
you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also
may be.”( Jn 14:2-3) Therefore to celebrate and to live the Ascension is to
feed this holy desire of God and of a full life now and for eternity.
To
announce the Gospel is to carry Christ’s benediction.
Toward
the end of Sunday’s Gospel we read that Jesus: “As he blessed them he parted from them and was taken up to heaven.” Every time we go to Mass, every time we
experience the benediction, we can exit from the Church and go into the world
as blessed individuals and not as poor abandoned human beings.
“Personally I will never
forget the devotion and the interior dedication my father and my mother showed
when they signed us children with blessed water, making the sign of the cross
on our forehead, on our mouth and on our chest every time we had to leave. This
benediction was a sign of company by which we felt guided. It was a visible
sign of our parents’ prayer that followed us with the certainty that this
prayer was backed by the Redeemer’s benediction. I think that this act of
blessing, as a full and benevolent expression of the universal priesthood of
all baptized, should come back regularly into our daily life and should be
energized with the love that comes from the Lord; to bless is a priestly act:
in the sign of the cross we perceived our parents’ priesthood, its dignity and
its strength”
(cf Joseph Ratzinger “Introduction to Spirit of Liturgy”).
Hands
that bless are hands that offer and pray. The consecrated Virgins are called in
a particular way to fulfill this deed. In offering themselves entirely to
Christ they unite their hands to those of Christ and become like the roof on
our heads. With the benediction of the Bishop, the consecrated life of the
Virgins is rewarded with the gifts of salvation and life, is offered in prayer
and thanksgiving for the received gifts and is an offering of intercession for
the Church and the entire World (Cf Ritual of consecration of the Virgins,
prayer of consecration recited by the Bishop N°24).
///////////////////////////////////////// A short explanation of some of the Gospel’s
words
“Taken up” comes from the
verb anapherein (= to go up, to be carried up in the new translation of the
Bible) which suggests a progressive action, is in the passive form (this is the
only time it is used in this way in the New Testament) and explains God’s action
with a connection to the description of takings in the Bible( Gen5;24; Sir
44:16;49:14;1 King 2:9;Sir 48:9.24). The idea that the Evangelist wants to
transmit is a different one. He indicates the exaltation of the
resurrected at the right hand of God as it is confirmed by the Apostles’
preaching (Phil 2; 9; 1Tim3:16; 1 Pt3:22, Acts2:33; 5:31)
.////////////////////////////////////////////////
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