Trong bài đọc thứ Nhất, chúng ta thấy, ông Appôlô là người có học thức và có được cách ăn nói hùng hồn. Hai điều kiệm rất quan trọng cho người đàn ông trong thế giới thời cổ đại. Ông đã được Chúa Thánh thần nung đốt trong niềm tin vào Chúa Giêsu và rao giảng to dân ngoại về Chúa Giêsu Kitô. Mặc dầu thế, sự hiểu biết về Tin Mừng và phép rửa của Chúa Kitô của ông chưa được đầy đủ, và ông đã nhờ sự chỉ bảo của bà Priscilla và ông Aquila để ông có thể hiểu biết vể Chúa hơn. Tài hùng biện hay sự thong minh của một người không nhất thiết là đã hiểu biết tất cả về chan lý và sự thật.
Chúng ta không bao giờ có thể nghĩ rằng chúng ta có tất cả những câu trả lời cho mọi thứ, và chúng ta nên cởi mở vả sẵn sang, khiêm thốn để hõi hỏi nơi những người khác. Điều này cũng sẽ giúp rất nhiều cho chúng ta để chúng ta có thể thừa nhận những sai lầm và sửa sai những ý kiến của chúng ta. Không một ai có thể hiểu biết mọi thứ và có tất cả những câu trả lời cho những thắc mắc của con người.
Trong bữa ăn tối sau cùng, Chúa Giêsu nói với các môn đệ rằng ngày sẽ đến Chúa Giêsu sẽ phải trở về với Chúa Cha, Ngày đó Ngài sẽ ban Chúa Thánh Linh xuông trên những ngưòi theo và Tin vào Ngài. Họ có thể cầu xin Thiên Chúa bất cứ điều gì họ cần một cách trực tiếp trong danh Ngài . Ngài đã kêu gọi họ nên trưởng thành trong tâm linh hơn là phụ thuộc vào người khác như trẻ con hoặc thụ động.
Tất cả chúng ta đã được Chúa Giêsu ban trao cho mỗi người quyền thiêng liêng như Ngài đã ban cho các môn đệ. Nhưng đây không phải là một việc cho không, biếu không, chúng ta phải thực hiện những điều cam kết với Chúa như các môn đệ để trở thành nhựng môn đệ thực sự của Chúa. Chúa Giêsu sẽ rất vui mừng nếu chúng ta tiếp tục công việc mà Ngài đã bắt đầu. Lạy Chúa, xin ban cho chúng con những hồng ân và ơn Chúa Thánh Thần của Ngài để hướng Dẫn chúng con tiếp tục sống và thực thi ý Chúa.
Apollos was educated and eloquent, both of which were very important in the ancient world. He was on fire for his new-found faith in Jesus. But his understanding was incomplete, and it was up to Priscilla and Aquila to set him straight. Eloquence or brilliance are not the same as truth. We should never think we have all the answers, and we should be open to correction from others. It would also help immensely if we could admit when we are wrong and revise our opinions. No one has all the answers.
At the last supper, Jesus told his disciples that the day was coming when they would no longer ask him for anything. At first, it sounded as if he was cutting them off, but that was not the case. He was speaking of their empowerment. Since Jesus was returning to the Father, he was empowering his followers with the Spirit. They would be able to ask God directly in Jesus’ name for whatever they needed. He was calling them to spiritual maturity rather than childish dependence or passivity.
We are offered the same spiritual empowerment that he gave his disciples. But this is not a free pass — we have to make the commitment to be real disciples. Jesus would be delighted if we continued the work that he began and do even greater things than he.
Lord, grant me the gift of Your Spirit.
“I have told you this in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures but I will tell you clearly about the Father.” John 16:25
When is it that Jesus will speak clearly about the Father? When is that “hour” of which He speaks? First, this “hour” can be understood to be the time after His death, Resurrection and Ascension to Heaven. It is then when the Holy Spirit will come upon them at Pentecost to open their minds to understand all that He has taught with much greater insight and clarity. But in John’s Gospel, the “hour” is also a reference to His death on the Cross. It is His hour of glory, the hour in which the Son of Man saves us through His holy passion. Therefore, this statement of Jesus should be read within the context of Him alluding to His coming passion. Recall that this sermon Jesus gives is part of His “Last Supper Discourse.” It is given immediately prior to Jesus going out to the Garden of Gethsemane to be arrested.
When we consider this “hour” to be the passion and death of Jesus on the Cross, we should be aware of the fact that His act of dying is not only a saving act of redemption, it is also one of the clearest ways in which He speaks about His Father in Heaven. Jesus’ suffering and death does, in fact, reveal the Father to the disciples in ways that His “figures of speech” could not reveal. Jesus’ veiled language was spoken as truth but as truth that could not be fully communicated. However, Jesus’ freely embraced suffering and death does clearly communicate the Father in the most profound way possible. The Cross is pure love, and the Father is pure love. Jesus’ death on the Cross in obedience to the will of the Father reveals to all that the Father loves us so much that He was willing to sacrifice His only begotten Son so that if we but believe in Him, we will inherit eternal life.
The message of the Cross is a true teaching about the love of the Father. It’s a teaching that took place through an act of the most pure and sacrificial love imaginable. The Cross was Jesus speaking “clearly about the Father” insofar as it reveals the depth of the Father’s love for all humanity. If you find this difficult to understand, then you are not alone. The disciples themselves struggled with this. That is why they ultimately needed the Holy Spirit to come upon them to open their minds. We too need the Holy Spirit if the veil is to be lifted and we are to comprehend this most powerful message of God’s infinite love.
Reflect, today, upon Jesus’ burning desire to lift the veil of His teaching and to reveal to you, clearly, the depth of the Father’s love for you. Allow the Holy Spirit to open your mind to this revelation as it is given through the Crucifixion. Pray for that gift. Listen to Jesus tell you He desires to give you this understanding and then await the grace you need to see and understand the very heart of the Father and His divine love for you.
My precious Jesus, Your hour of glory upon the Cross is the clearest and fullest revelation of the Father’s love. On the Cross, You show us all how deeply we are loved by You and Your Father in Heaven. Please do open my mind, dear Lord, to all You wish to reveal to me, so that as I come to know You, I will also come to know Your Father in Heaven. Jesus, I trust in You.
1. Blessed are You Among Women: Elizabeth’s greeting of blessing to Mary is familiar to us because we take up her words in the “Hail Mary” prayer. Saying, “Blessed are you among women,” was a Semitic way of saying that Mary is the “most blessed of all women.” Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit when she said these words, meaning that she was prompted by the Spirit to prophesy about Mary’s role in salvation history. Not only does Elizabeth prophetically acclaim that Mary is the mother of the royal Messiah and the Son of God, but also that she has a role to play with her Son in the crushing of the head of the ancient serpent (see Genesis 3:15).
Whatever You Ask the Father in My Name, He Will Give You: Throughout his public ministry, Jesus spoke of his relationship with the Father from a place of total security in the Father’s love. A man like us, he lived his life in loving trust in the Father and in absolute reference to him. He experienced unshakeable certainty that the Father listened to his every prayer and would not deny him anything he asked. In the last hours of his life, when every word counted, what was foremost on his mind was his desire that his beloved Apostles might discover the joy of absolute reliance on the Father whom he had always known. He invited them to “cast out their nets” in faith, to dare to entrust their deepest needs and desires to their heavenly Father in his name.
“I have told you this in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures but I will tell you clearly about the Father.” John 16:25
When is it that Jesus will speak clearly about the Father? When is that “hour” of which He speaks? First, this “hour” can be understood to be the time after His death, Resurrection and Ascension to Heaven. It is then when the Holy Spirit will come upon them at Pentecost to open their minds to understand all that He has taught with much greater insight and clarity. But in John’s Gospel, the “hour” is also a reference to His death on the Cross. It is His hour of glory, the hour in which the Son of Man saves us through His holy passion. Therefore, this statement of Jesus should be read within the context of Him alluding to His coming passion. Recall that this sermon Jesus gives is part of His “Last Supper Discourse.” It is given immediately prior to Jesus going out to the Garden of Gethsemane to be arrested.
When we consider this “hour” to be the passion and death of Jesus on the Cross, we should be aware of the fact that His act of dying is not only a saving act of redemption, it is also one of the clearest ways in which He speaks about His Father in Heaven. Jesus’ suffering and death does, in fact, reveal the Father to the disciples in ways that His “figures of speech” could not reveal. Jesus’ veiled language was spoken as truth but as truth that could not be fully communicated. However, Jesus’ freely embraced suffering and death does clearly communicate the Father in the most profound way possible. The Cross is pure love, and the Father is pure love. Jesus’ death on the Cross in obedience to the will of the Father reveals to all that the Father loves us so much that He was willing to sacrifice His only begotten Son so that if we but believe in Him, we will inherit eternal life.
The message of the Cross is a true teaching about the love of the Father. It’s a teaching that took place through an act of the most pure and sacrificial love imaginable. The Cross was Jesus speaking “clearly about the Father” insofar as it reveals the depth of the Father’s love for all humanity. If you find this difficult to understand, then you are not alone. The disciples themselves struggled with this. That is why they ultimately needed the Holy Spirit to come upon them to open their minds. We too need the Holy Spirit if the veil is to be lifted and we are to comprehend this most powerful message of God’s infinite love.
Reflect, today, upon Jesus’ burning desire to lift the veil of His teaching and to reveal to you, clearly, the depth of the Father’s love for you. Allow the Holy Spirit to open your mind to this revelation as it is given through the Crucifixion. Pray for that gift. Listen to Jesus tell you He desires to give you this understanding and then await the grace you need to see and understand the very heart of the Father and His divine love for you.
My precious Jesus, Your hour of glory upon the Cross is the clearest and fullest revelation of the Father’s love. On the Cross, You show us all how deeply we are loved by You and Your Father in Heaven. Please do open my mind, dear Lord, to all You wish to reveal to me, so that as I come to know You, I will also come to know Your Father in Heaven. Jesus, I trust in You.
