May 29, 2009

Acts 25:13-21
13Some days later King Agrippa and his sister Bernice arrived in Caesarea to greet Festus. As they were to stay there several days, Festus told the king about Paul’s case and said to him,
14“We have here a man whom Felix left as a prisoner. 15When I was in Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews accused him and asked me to sentence him. 16I told them that it is not the custom of the Romans to hand over a man without giving him an opportunity to defend himself in front of his accusers. 17So they came and I took my seat without delay on the tribunal and sent for the man.
18When the accusers had the floor, they did not accuse him of any of the crimes that I was led to think he had committed; 19instead they quarreled with him about religion and about a certain Jesus who has died but whom Paul asserted to be alive. 20I did not know what to do about this case, so I asked Paul if he wanted to go to Jerusalem to be tried there. 21But Paul appealed to be judged by the emperor. So I ordered that he be kept in custody until I send him to Caesar.”

Commentaries:
To understand the chapters dealing with Paul’s trial we have to remember that justice in the Roman empire was very well organized. The supreme tribunal was in Rome: this was the Tribunal of Caesar, and Roman citizens fearing a mistrial in their province could appeal to the Tribunal of Caesar. There were governors (or procurators) who administered justice in each province. In the Jewish territory, the Romans who occupied the country kept the important cases for themselves, but they left the rest to the Jewish tribunals, especially religious affairs. Paul was to go through various tribunals, beginning with the Sanhedrin, or religious court of the Jews, all the way to the tribunal of Caesar.
Thus, through Paul, the words of Jesus entrusting to his apostles the mission of proclaiming him before Jewish and pagan authorities was to be fulfilled.
Paul tries to make the resurrection of Christ the theme of his declaration. There was a trial to condemn Jesus. Now, Paul tries to have the governors pay attention to the cause of the risen Jesus, and he succeeds.
In every age, such will be the zeal of the witnesses of Christ when they are accused: to demonstrate that they are not acting out of self-interest, nor from any human motive, but because they are the servants of Christ.


Psalms 103:1-20
1 Bless the Lord, my soul; all my being, bless his holy name!
2Bless the Lord, my soul, and do not forget all his kindness; 3he forgives all your sins and heals all your sickness; 4he redeems your life from destruction and crowns you with love and compassion; 5he gives fulfillment to your years, and renews your youth like the eagle’s.
6The Lord restores justice and secures the rights of the oppressed.
7He has made known his ways to Moses and his deeds to the people of Israel.
8The Lord is gracious and merciful, abounding in love and slow to anger; 9he will not always scold nor will he be angry forever. 10He does not treat us according to our sins, nor does he punish us as we deserve.
11As the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his love for those fearing him; 12as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove from us our sins.
13As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him.
14For he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.
15The days of mortals are like grass; they bloom like a flower of the field;
16but the wind passes over it, and it is gone, his field will not see him again.
17But the Lord’s kindness is forever with those who fear him; so is his justice, for their children’s children, 18for those who keep his covenant and remember his commands, for those who put them into practice.
19The Lord has set his throne in heaven; he rules, he has power everywhere.
20Praise the Lord, all you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, you who obey his word.

Commentaries: Because of their origin and their inconsistency, humans are dust. They are also God’s creation and God’s children. God is all-powerful but his authentic greatness is his infinite capacity to love, to increase the flame of his love from his own fire. God’s characteristic is to be mercifully forgiving. In this regard, the psalmist uses a simple but grandiose image: the enormous distance between heaven and earth, the east and the west, is less representative of the greatness of God than of his merciful love. Christians will discover many resonances in this psalm:
– God is indulgent because he knows we are but dust, but also because he wanted to experience the human condition including suffering, death and even temptation.
– His pardon can be seen: the cross of Jesus Christ surmounting the world and history to the end of time.
– His covenant with Israel: definitive and universal.
– All the good that has come to us through Christ goes far beyond what the psalmist had hoped for: the truth of the Gospel and the grace of redemption leading us to eternal life.
– The permanence of the Church, the crowd of witnesses to Jesus Christ, those of yesterday and those of tomorrow, and finally our own experience of God in this life.
These are some of our reasons for hoping in God and for celebrating his immense glory.



Jn 21:15-19
15After they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” And Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”
16A second time Jesus said to him, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” And Peter answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Look after my sheep.” 17And a third time he said to him, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was saddened because Jesus asked him a third time, “Do you love me?” and he said, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.”
Jesus then said, “Feed my sheep. 18Truly, I say to you, when you were young you put on your belt and walked where you liked. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and another will put a belt around you and lead you where you do not wish to go.”
19Jesus said this to make known the kind of death by which Peter was to glorify God. And he added, “Follow me.”


Commentaries: See Mk 2:18-22 Many religious leaders sympathized with Jesus. How they would have liked that he rekindle the faith of the nation! Jesus himself did not feel that his primary task was to reorganize worship and bring people to the synagogues.
The Pharisees were fasting. Fasting, a sign of repentance, supported their prayers that God come and liberate his people. God comes in the person of Jesus: joy and celebration are more appropriate than fasting. The prophets had announced the wedding feast of God with his people when he would come to visit us (Is 62:4-5). Because of this, in presenting himself as the bridegroom, Jesus identifies who he really is.
What is the new wine? (Mk 2:22) It is of course the Gospel, and the enthusiasm because of the Holy Spirit that leads the disciples to every kind of madness to manifest the love of the Father and the freedom that they have acquired. In order to understand this, let us read the Acts of the Apostles and the lives of the saints, who have marked Church history.
Old skins: Gospel does not fit into the molds of religion and likewise does not enter into those persons who hold onto them at all costs. Mark wants us to catch Gospel’s novelty. We have just seen Jesus welcoming sinners, now we wonder that he doesn’t come like religious groups with prayers and fasting.
The events related in this chapter show how Jesus situates himself in society and with what people he relates: with a small group of fishermen who will be in charge of his new movement, with lepers and sick people who seek him. He calls people who, like Levi, belong to a despised group.