Reading 1 Acts 11:1-18
heard that the Gentiles too had accepted the word of God.
So when Peter went up to Jerusalem
the circumcised believers confronted him, saying,
‘You entered the house of uncircumcised people and ate with them.”
Peter began and explained it to them step by step, saying,
“I was at prayer in the city of Joppa
when in a trance I had a vision,
something resembling a large sheet coming down,
lowered from the sky by its four corners, and it came to me.
Looking intently into it,
I observed and saw the four-legged animals of the earth,
the wild beasts, the reptiles, and the birds of the sky.
I also heard a voice say to me, ‘Get up, Peter. Slaughter and eat.’
But I said, ‘Certainly not, sir,
because nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’
But a second time a voice from heaven answered,
‘What God has made clean, you are not to call profane.’
This happened three times,
and then everything was drawn up again into the sky.
Just then three men appeared at the house where we were,
who had been sent to me from Caesarea.
The Spirit told me to accompany them without discriminating.
These six brothers also went with me,
and we entered the man’s house.
He related to us how he had seen the angel standing in his house, saying,
‘Send someone to Joppa and summon Simon, who is called Peter,
who will speak words to you
by which you and all your household will be saved.’
As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them
as it had upon us at the beginning,
and I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said,
‘John baptized with water
but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’
If then God gave them the same gift he gave to us
when we came to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,
who was I to be able to hinder God?”
When they heard this,
they stopped objecting and glorified God, saying,
“God has then granted life-giving repentance to the Gentiles too.”
Responsorial Psalm PS 42:2-3; 43:3, 4
or:
R. Alleluia.
As the hind longs for the running waters,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
Athirst is my soul for God, the living God.
When shall I go and behold the face of God?
R. Athirst is my soul for the living God.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Send forth your light and your fidelity;
they shall lead me on
And bring me to your holy mountain,
to your dwelling-place.
R. Athirst is my soul for the living God.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Then will I go in to the altar of God,
the God of my gladness and joy;
Then will I give you thanks upon the harp,
O God, my God!
R. Athirst is my soul for the living God.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Alleluia Jn 10:14
R. Alleluia, alleluia.I am the good shepherd, says the Lord;
I know my sheep, and mine know me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel Jn 10:1-10
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate
but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber.
But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.
The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice,
as he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
When he has driven out all his own,
he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him,
because they recognize his voice.
But they will not follow a stranger;
they will run away from him,
because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.”
Although Jesus used this figure of speech,
they did not realize what he was trying to tell them.
So Jesus said again, “Amen, amen, I say to you,
I am the gate for the sheep.
All who came before me are thieves and robbers,
but the sheep did not listen to them.
I am the gate.
Whoever enters through me will be saved,
and will come in and go out and find pasture.
A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy;
I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”
EXCLUDED NO LONGER
"God has granted life-giving repentance even to the Gentiles." –Acts 11:18
It might seem that the controversies of the first-century Church could be dry reading to modern eyes. However, the way this particular controversy, told in today's first reading, was handled meant that the vast majority of nearly everyone who is reading this teaching now has the opportunity to be saved!
If the members of the early Church were not listening closely to the Holy Spirit, they could have closed their hearts to the leading of the Holy Spirit, relied on the historical precedent of their forefathers, and decided that only practicing Jews could be Christians (see Acts chapters 11 and 15).
This means that most of us would be excluded from God's Kingdom, unless we converted to Judaism. However, "God has granted life-giving repentance even to the Gentiles," that is, to non-Jews (Acts 11:18). Now we have access to Jesus and to eternal life (see Eph 3:12).
If you were aware that the decisions you make today would impact the salvation of people two thousand years from now, how would you act? Hopefully, you would be moved to listen attentively to the Holy Spirit today. "If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts" (see Heb 3:15). Even if only one person would be led to salvation merely by observing you, that person might lead thousands to salvation in their life. Therefore, live for Jesus today so others will live for Him in the future.
| PRAYER: | Lord, grant that we would listen and obey today so that people of future generations will choose to live for Jesus. |
| PROMISE: | "I came that they might have life and have it to the full." –Jn 10:10 |
| PRAISE: | Rachel was raised by a Jewish father and a Christian mother, and chose her Messiah Jesus. |
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