Wednesday 24 April 2024
St. Fedele from Sigmaringen; St. Mary of Cleophas; S. Antimo
4th of Easter
Acts 12.24 – 13.5; Ps 66; John 12,44-50
May the people praise you, O God, may all the people praise you
MORNING PRAYER
Lord, you ask us to call God “Our Father”, because he alone is truly paternal without being possessive. Even if we are sinners, he does not call us “servants”, because we live in the warmth of a family, not in fear. May we be able to transmit to a troubled world this fatherhood that does not oppress, this love that uplifts, illuminates and sets us free.
ENTRANCE ANTIPHON
I will praise you, Lord, among all peoples, I will announce your name to my brothers. Alleluia.
COLLECTION
O God, life of your faithful, glory of the humble, bliss of the just, hear the prayer of your people, and satisfy the thirst of those who hope in your promises with the abundance of your gifts. By our Lord Jesus Christ…
FIRST READING
Reserve Barnabas and Saul for me.
From the Acts of the Apostles 12.24-13.5
In those days, the word of God grew and spread. Barnabas and Saul then, having completed their service in Jerusalem, returned taking John, known as Mark, with them. There were prophets and teachers in the Church of Antioch: Bàrnaba, Simeon known as Niger, Lucius of Cyrène, Manaèn, childhood companion of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were celebrating the worship of the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said: “Reserve for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then, after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them away. They therefore, sent by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and from there set sail for Cyprus. Once they arrived in Salamis, they began to announce the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews.
God’s word.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM (From Psalm 66)
R: May the people praise you, O God, may all the people praise you.
God have mercy on us and bless us,
let his face shine upon us;
so that your way may be known on earth,
your salvation among all people. R.
Let the nations rejoice and rejoice,
because you judge the people with righteousness,
govern the nations on earth. R.
May the people praise you, O God,
may all peoples praise you.
God bless us and fear him
all ends of the earth. R.
SONG TO THE GOSPEL (Jn 8.12)
Hallelujah, hallelujah.
I am the light of the world, says the Lord:
whoever follows me will have the light of life.
Alleluia.
GOSPEL
I came into the world as light.
+ From the Gospel according to John 12,44-50
At that time, Jesus exclaimed: «Whoever believes in me does not believe in me but in him who sent me; whoever sees me sees the one who sent me. I came into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me will not remain in darkness. If anyone hears my words and does not observe them, I do not condemn him; because I have not come to condemn the world, but to save the world. Whoever rejects me and does not accept my words has someone who condemns him: the word that I have spoken will condemn him on the last day. For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to speak and what I should say. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. Therefore, the things that I say, I say just as the Father has said them to me.”
Word of the Lord.
HOMILY
Jesus then cried out in a loud voice: “Whoever believes in me does not believe in me but in him who sent me; whoever sees me sees the one who sent me.” The cry arises from the intensity of love, from the importance of the message that is about to be announced, from the lively desire to be heard by everyone. It is a cry that must reach us, due to its urgency, and which must be welcomed by everyone with the best disposition. Christ is the icon of the Father and the faith that he claims for his person concerns the heavenly Father himself. Believing and seeing means seeing the person of the Son with faith, accepting his message to believe in the Father. The beacon that illuminates is the person of Christ himself, who proclaims himself as the light of the world and the determining factor and source of faith. The evangelist John himself, in announcing the incarnation of the Word in the Prologue to his gospel, says: «In him was life and the life was the light of men; the light shines in the darkness, but the darkness did not receive it.” Preferring darkness to light is the sin of the world, it is the rejection of Christ: one gropes in the dark and gets lost in error, one finds oneself entangled with evil and one is still afraid of allowing oneself to be enlightened and so darkness and evil end to live with us permanently. These are the phenomena that mark the worst moments in history, often, as happens nowadays, disguised by an apparent well-being, which deceives and does not even touch the inner fibers of the soul. Thus it seems clear to us how illusions of happiness and profound inner malaise can coexist. With the lights off we are no longer able to hope for salvation and Christ himself appears to us more as a judge of the world than a bringer of salvation. This is why he repeats to us: «I have not come to condemn the world, but to save the world!. Any condemnation will not arise from a judgment, but will be the sad inevitable consequence of a guilty refusal. We still need the radiant light of Christ to notice and expertly remedy our absurdities, the evils that lurk within the darkness of our soul. Faith, a gift from God, if not nourished every day, slowly goes out like a lamp without oil. Already on the day of our baptism we are given a candle, a symbol of faith and the church recommends burning it continuously throughout our lives and never letting it go out. Saint Paul also recommended to the first faithful not to quench the Spirit, but to probe with that light the depths and riches of divine love. (Silvestrine Fathers)
PRAYER ON OFFERINGS
O God, who in this mysterious exchange of gifts makes us participate in communion with you, the only and supreme good, grant that the light of your truth may be witnessed by our lives. Through Christ our Lord.
ANTIPHON TO COMMUNION
The Lord says: “I have chosen you out of the world and appointed you so that you should go and bear fruit, and your fruit should remain. Alleluia.
PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION
Assist your people with kindness, O Lord, and since you have filled them with the grace of these holy mysteries, grant them to move from their native human frailty to new life in the risen Christ. He lives and reigns forever and ever.
EVENING PRAYER
Father, as the day draws to a close, let us meditate on the great truths. Free us from the problems and frenzy of our day. Keep us away from the tyranny of materiality and the attraction of common idols. Let our hearts focus on thoughts of death and the gift of eternal peace.
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