Matthew 9:36–10:8

³⁶ When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. ³⁷ Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; ³⁸ therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

¹⁰ And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. ² The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; ³ Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; ⁴ Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

⁵ These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, ⁶ but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. ⁷ And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ ⁸ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay.

Matthew 9:36–10:8 ESV – Bible Gateway

---

This passage appears in a section of Matthew that detailed nine miracle stories involving physical healings. When Jesus saw the crowd, he felt compassion for them before the feeding of the 5,000. He sees us in both are physical and spiritual suffering and when there are physical healings; they are often joined with the more important spiritual ones. God can use us in his plan to affect these healings on others. Usually, by healing us to some degree, we look beyond self to see those around us. Here, Jesus is calling us to pray for an increase in those entering the mission field.

Peter Kreeft, in his commentary, on the start of this passage:

Jesus looks on the crowds, in today’s Gospel, as sheep without a shepherd: confused, alone, and troubled. Sheep are very stupid. Without help, without a shepherd, they will always wander away and get lost and die and be the easy prey for wolves or other wild animals. Who are these sheep? Look in the mirror.

But Jesus doesn’t scorn or sneer at these stupid sheep, this ship of fools. But neither is he satisfied with them. Instead, his heart is moved with pity toward them, a pity that doesn’t just passively feel something but that actively does something for them. And what he does about it is to make his disciples into the shepherds that the sheep need. He turns twelve of his sheep into shepherds.[1]

Brant Pitre amplifies the image of the need for workers:

A second image is this image of the harvest being plentiful, but the laborers being few. So here the image shifts. Now it’s not a flock of sheep in need of shepherds. It’s a harvest in need of laborers, in need of harvesters, in need of reapers to go out and harvest the fruits of the field, harvest the grain of the wheat. And so in that context, the need for the harvest to take place, Jesus calls the Twelve to him and he sets them apart from his other followers and gives them authority. The Greek word here is exousia, and it can also be translated as power. It’s the same word that is used to describe Jesus’ teaching earlier in the Gospel of Matthew at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, when the people say, “He taught as one having authority.” Or he taught with power, there was a power in his words, an authority in his words. Well, the very authority that Jesus himself possesses when he speaks the Sermon on the Mount, he then gives to Matthew and Thomas and Andrew and James and John and Judas, the Twelve, who are chosen to be his emissaries, chosen to act as shepherds on behalf of him as the messianic shepherd of God in leading the people into the kingdom of God. So the Twelve Apostles are not just Jesus’s closest friends, they’re not just the followers that were particularly intimate with him and close to him amongst the multitudes. No, no, no. He gives them exousia. They have a share in his own authority and it’s through that exousia, through that authority that they are able not just to proclaim the kingdom of God, but to shepherd people into it, to go out and harvest, so to speak, to participate in the harvest of souls that Jesus is calling for with the coming of the kingdom.[2]

There are so many familiar Old Testament images being invoked here regarding shepherds and the selecting of 12 leaders. Jesus is the Good Shepherd and all true authority flows from him.

From the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture for Matthew:[3]

Those needing spiritual and physical healing lie close to Jesus’ heart (14:14; 15:32; 20:34). like sheep without a shepherd: A familiar OT simile.
– Sheep often represent the people of Israel (1 Kings 22:17; Jud 11:19; Jer 23:1–3; Zech 10:2). Shepherd imagery is used for Israel’s spiritual leaders.
– (1) Joshua was Moses’ successor and the “shepherd” of Israel (Num 27:17).
– (2) David was elected to “shepherd” Israel as its king (2 Sam 5:2–3).
– (3) In Ezek 34, God himself promised to set “one shepherd” (Ezek 34:23) over his people to feed and protect them as a new Davidic king (Ezek 34:23–24; cf. Jer 23:1–6). Jesus draws on these to illustrate his own role as the Shepherd and King of the restored Israel, the Church (25:31–34; Jn 10:16; 1 Pet 2:25).

Jesus invests the 12 disciples with his authority to heal both physical and spiritual afflictions. To spread the good news that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. This is also a reminder to them and to use that we can do nothing on our own without him. None of the tasks that Jesus gives them is anything they could do of their own talent or merit. They are all in submission to him “so that no man can boost.” Any good in the world where we have been used as an instrument for God’s will should place it on our knees in gratitude. To do the “mightier works” that Jesus prophesied is to be met with a commiserate humility. The free gift of grace given to us, we should rejoice when we see the same for others. “You received without paying; give without pay.”

Jesus initially focuses their mission field on their fellow Israelites. While the true scope of the mission field is the entire world, we also have to start with those around us. Starting with our own conversions, our scope should fan out to our family members, co-workers, and those we interact with. St. Paul would start in the synagogues and then move on to the gentiles everywhere he went. We can either be a witness or a counter-witness to the faith that is within us. Most of all, let God direct us where we are. This might mean a call to a wider missionary field. I think of St. Therese of Lisieux’s wanting to be a missionary and God granting this desire despite being cloistered. I also think of the missionary zeal of St. Francis Xavier, SJ and all the countries he travelled to and all those he baptized.

Sources

• Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings Cycle A
• Catholic Productions, Commentaries by Brant Pitre
• The Gospel of Matthew (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture)
• Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

⁵¹ I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

⁵² The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” ⁵³ So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴ Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. ⁵⁵ For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. ⁵⁶ Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. ⁵⁷ As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”

Luke 14:25–33 ESV – Bible Gateway

---

When it comes to reflecting on scripture, we can but skim the surface and rely on saints who have dived more deeply in scripture to our advantage. To look at the mystery revealed in the Bread of Life discourse, even lightly skimming the surface, reveals much.

John Bergsma looks at one aspect of the Eucharist, invoking both joy and sorrow:

Our reflection on these Scripture passages for Corpus Christi should cause us great joy, first of all, for God’s tremendous provision for our needs, both physical and spiritual, the greatest sign of which is his daily gift of the Eucharist, the Flesh of his own Son, for us.

At the same time, we should feel sorrow because the Eucharist is a call for the unity of all Christians (see the Second Reading) as well as call for our own unity with the Son and the Father (see the Gospel). The Eucharist represents and causes our unity with the Holy Trinity (celebrated last week), which it signifies. Yet so often we do not live or act in a way that would inspire our family members or co-workers to think, He lives in Christ, and Christ lives in him. May we use the opportunity provided by the Masses this weekend to pray that our thoughts, words, and behavior in this coming week and the rest of our lives may make more visible our union with Christ through this Sacrament.[1]

In Matthew 10:34, Jesus references the divisive nature of truth and that there will be divisions even within our own households. This discourse in John later references that some of his disciples would leave him over this teaching. The Eucharist continues to divide. There are those who accept Jesus’ teaching and his promise and those who diminish it as just a symbol or something lesser than the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus. It is a strange reversal to see the Eucharist as less miraculous than the manna given during the Exodus. Nobody saw the manna as just a symbol, they were nourished and thrived on it.

Brant Pitre on the Catholic emphasis on the Eucharist:

Again, notice here this line where he says “whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. This is a very important verse. Sometimes nonCatholic Christians, our separated brothers and sisters, say “why do you Catholics make so much out of the Eucharist” or “why do you insist on receiving the Eucharist frequently, like daily even with daily Mass.” The answer is simple, because Jesus himself said that “if you eat his flesh and drink his blood, he will abide in you and you will abide in him.” So if you want to abide in Christ you need to receive his body and his blood in the Eucharist. And if you want Christ to abide in you—and I can’t think of any Christian who would say “I don’t want Jesus to abide in me”—then we need to receive his body and blood, we need to eat his flesh and drink his blood under the form of food and drink, which is of course the Eucharist.[2]

As Jesus continues on, not only does he not back down on the implication of Eucharistic realism, he effectively doubles down on it as Steve Ray shows:

In this discourse it seem as if Jesus is being overly difficult and desires to scare off his disciples unnecessarily. At this point, he speaks extremely hard words to them, seemingly asking them to become cannibals, and, as a result, most of them turn away in disgust and leave him. The word translated “eat” (trōgein) is not a dignified word used to describe fine dining, but is the Greek verb for “gnaw” and “munch” and could be translated “masticating the flesh”. The use of trōgein certainly emphasizes “the realism of the eucharistic flesh and blood.” “This offense”, according to Cullmann, “belongs now to the Sacrament just as the ❲offense of the❳ human body belongs to the ❲divine❳ Logos.”[3]

This language invoked an even stronger reaction from some of his followers. From the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture for this Gospel:

The Jews react more strongly than before. They quarreled (literally, “fought”) among themselves over Jesus’ statement about eating his flesh. Jesus’ command to eat his flesh, and later to drink his blood, is appalling to his hearers. The Torah expressly forbade the eating of blood or of flesh with any blood left in it (Lev 17:14; 19:26; Deut 12:23); eating human flesh would be unthinkable.[4]

It is easy to sit back with the distance of time and think of the foolishness of the disciples who rejected this teaching and walked away. Many of them had seen Jesus perform miracles and had seen him teach with authority as no person had done before. It seems their cultural biases kept them from considering that his teaching could be a great mystery and a great truth. Let he who has never made a hot take, cast the first stone. I like to think that some of those disciples who walked away later returned.

I find it amazing how much Jesus trusts us with the truth. He reveals the Trinity to us, knowing how it would become the source of so many heresies to those wanting to amplify one aspect that they accept. The simplifiers approach a mystery and reject all they can’t quickly understand. Jesus gives himself in the Eucharist, knowing how many will reject him in the Sacrament.

We sometimes hear of surveys regarding Catholic belief in the Eucharist and the low percentage of people who accept this teaching. While it is true, as I have found, that the survey questions on this subject are not well crafted, there is a more accurate survey result we can look at. How many Catholics go to Mass on Sunday and Holy Days of obligation? Depending of country and region, this is shockingly low. Can you say you believe in the Eucharist and then don’t make it to Mass for some trivial reason, other than valid reasons such as sickness or caring for others? When we look at this obligation and wish it fitted in with our schedule better. Or Mass becomes a rote obligation and not a desire to worship the Lord and receive him in the sacrament? Do we look for opportunities to go to Daily Mass if possible?

Just judging from my experience, it is easy to fall into this even if we fully accept and have some understanding of the source and summit of our faith. I reflected on some of this during the Covid lockdown as they prevented us from going to Mass. I promised myself I would never again complain about the time and access to Mass once the lockdown was lifted. I have not kept that promise perfectly, but when those thoughts come to mind, I am much quicker to shut them down and smother them in gratitude to being able to go to Mass daily.

In the United States, we have an ongoing program of Eucharistic Revival that takes into consideration some of this. The critic in me has a thousand suggestions for why they are doing it wrong or that no revival ever came from a bureaucracy, especially an ecclesial bureaucracy. Instead, I asked myself what I could do to increase my own Eucharistic piety, no matter how small. Constant reminders to myself of the thankfulness I should hold in awe and wonder. It is a constant project not to receive the Eucharist perfunctory. God keeps lifting us up to try again.

Peter Kreeft looks at the works for “life” used here:

There are two Greek words for “life.” One, bios, means natural, mortal life. The other, zoe, means supernatural, eternal life. That’s the word Christ uses here. When we receive Christ in the Eucharist, our bios changes into zoe, just as in the Eucharist the bread and wine miraculously change into Christ’s Body and Blood. It is as miraculous as a frog changing into a prince in the fairy tales. It is like Pinocchio changing from a wooden puppet to a living boy. At the very heart and essence of Christianity is this astonishing miracle.[5]

Sometimes I will look at St. Thomas Aquinas’ Catena Aurea, where he links up scriptural passages with the writings of the Church Fathers and other ecclesiastical writers. The quotes for this passage from John are overwhelming in regards Eucharistic realism.

Last year I read Erick Ybarra’s “Melchizedek and the Last Supper: Biblical and Patristic Evidence for the Sacrifice of the Mass” which had a plethora of quotes involving Eucharistic realism, and I am not using “plethora” lightly here. The collection of quotes is amazing.

Sources

• The Word of the Lord: Reflections on the Sunday Mass Readings for Year A – John Bergsma
• Catholic Productions, Commentaries by Brant Pitre
• St. John’s Gospel: A Bible Study Guide and Commentary for Individuals and Groups: Ray, Stephen K.
• The Gospel of John (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture)
• Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings Cycle A
• Catena Aurea: Commentary on the Four Gospels, Collected out of the Works of the Fathers, Volume 4: St. John – Verbum
• Melchizedek and the Last Supper
• Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

---

1. The Word of the Lord: Reflections on the Sunday Mass Readings for Year A, John Bergsma, Corpus Christi  ↩
2. Catholic Productions, Brant Pitre, Year A, Corpus Christi  ↩
3. St. John’s Gospel: A Bible Study Guide and Commentary for Individuals and Groups. Steve Ray, 2002  ↩
4. Francis Martin, William M. Wright IV, The Gospel of John (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture)  ↩
5. Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings Cycle A, Corpus Christi  ↩

John 3:16–18

¹⁶ “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

John 3:16–18 ESV – For God So Loved the World – “For God – Bible Gateway

---

This is a verse so famous that even most Catholics can cite it chapter and verse. 😁

These three verses are so theological rich. They encapsulate Jesus’ role as savior and the reason that God the Father sent him. Showing also how our response has consequences that ultimately can not be ignored. That we need to respond to the love initiated by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It should be easy to dwell on verse 16 and respond in love. If only our egos didn’t rise in rebellion to this greatest good of all.

From the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible:

The earthly mission of Jesus is part of the heavenly plan of the Father, who displays the depth of his love through the sacrifice of his Son (Rom 5:8; 1 Jn 3:16; CCC 219). This verse marks a transition from the dialogue between Jesus and Nicodemus (3:1–15) to an extended monologue by either Jesus or the evangelist himself (3:16–21). eternal life: The expression refers both to the divine quality of new life in Christ as well as its duration. We receive this gift already on earth in the hope that we will possess it irrevocably in heaven (10:10; 1 Jn 5:13).[1]

Peter Kreeft comments on an important aspect of the Trinity:

That’s the nature of the Trinity. God is a Trinity because “God is love.” Love itself is Trinitarian: for love to happen, there must be a lover, a beloved, and a loving relationship between the two persons, whether human or divine. And in God, that relationship is so real that it is itself a third eternal person. If God were not a Trinity, God could not be self-giving love because there would be no other selves to give himself to until he created us. And that’s impossible because God’s eternal nature can’t be dependent on our existence.[2]

John Bergsma also amplifies this:

Love is the essence of the Trinity. The Trinity tells us that God is not a monopersonal individual who had only himself to love before creatures were made. Self-love is an imperfect form of love. Therefore, God would have needed creatures to love in order to achieve perfection of love. God would have been imperfect in himself.[3]

God is love is reality and not some abstract label we assign to the concept of God. This was revealed to us progressively through both Testaments of the Bible. Even the Greek philosophers that were open that there is one God who holds existence in himself, did not make the move to a God that loves us intensely. An impersonal God was what they found through natural philosophy.

Continuing with Dr. Bergsma:

In other words, the reason we exist is to enter into the life and love of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit for all eternity. So it’s fitting that at the beginning of every Mass, the priest has the option of taking the trinitarian greeting of Paul and proclaiming it and inviting us into that mystery. Because that’s really what every Mass is. It isn’t just the recapitulation and representation of Calvary. It is certainly that. It isn’t just the celebration of the Eucharist…although it’s certainly that. Every single Mass is a trinitarian mystery, and we’re being invited into the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit.[4]

This love requires a response of faith as noted in the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture on this Gospel passage:

Having set forth Jesus’ teaching about eternal life, which his cross makes available and into which believers are born by the Spirit’s action, the Evangelist now penetrates to the heart of this Gospel’s message: For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. The Father’s love for the world leads him to give his only Son, his all, for the world’s salvation. The world is under condemnation and in spiritual darkness on account of sin, but the Father does not want any to perish (see 2 Pet 3:9). Hence he gives his Son so that the world might be saved through him. The gift of salvation, which the Father offers us all through Jesus, is eternal life: a participation in the divine life of the Trinity. We accept this gift through faith in Jesus. Faith is yielding to the action of the Spirit, who first moves a person to assent to what God has revealed and to commit one’s whole life to God. As Jesus will later tell a crowd, faith is our consenting to and cooperating with God’s work in us: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him” (6:44).[5]

There are of a couple things that Catholics might bring to mind if asked about the central mystery of the Christian faith. The answer Catechism gives might surprise them.

234 The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the “hierarchy of the truths of faith.” The whole history of salvation is identical with the history of the way and the means by which the one true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, reveals himself to men “and reconciles and unites with himself those who turn away from sin.”[6]

There is good reason that John 3:16 gets quoted and is a favorite verse of many. In the second half of John 3:18, we don’t want to think about when our response to this Trinitarian love is less than adequate.

St. John Chrysostom. Because however He says this, slothful men in the multitude of their sins, and excess of carelessness, abuse God’s mercy, and say, There is no hell, no punishment; God remits us all our sins. But let us remember, that there are two advents of Christ; one past, the other to come. The former was, not to judge but to pardon us: the latter will be, not to pardon but to judge us. It is of the former that He says, I have not come to judge the world. Because He is merciful, instead of judgment, He grants an internal remission of all sins by baptism; and even after baptism opens to us the door of repentance, which had He not done all had been lost; for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. (Rom. 3:23) Afterwards, however, there follows something about the punishment of unbelievers, to warn us against flattering ourselves that we can sin with impunity. Of the unbeliever He says, ‘he is judged already.’—But first He says, He that believeth on Him is not judged. He who believeth, He says, not who enquires. But what if his life be impure? Paul very strongly declares that such are not believers: They confess, he says, that they know God, but in works deny Him. (Tit. 1:16) That is to say, Such will not be judged for their belief, but will receive a heavy punishment for their works, though unbelief will not be charged against them.[7]

St. John Paul II in Redemptor Hominis wrote:

Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate intimately in it. This, as has already been said, is why Christ the Redeemer “fully reveals man to himself”. If we may use the expression, this is the human dimension of the mystery of the Redemption. In this dimension man finds again the greatness, dignity and value that belong to his humanity. In the mystery of the Redemption man becomes newly “expressed” and, in a way, is newly created. He is newly created! “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus”. The man who wishes to understand himself thoroughly-and not just in accordance with immediate, partial, often superficial, and even illusory standards and measures of his being-he must with his unrest, uncertainty and even his weakness and sinfulness, with his life and death, draw near to Christ. He must, so to speak, enter into him with all his own self, he must “appropriate” and assimilate the whole of the reality of the Incarnation and Redemption in order to find himself. If this profound process takes place within him, he then bears fruit not only of adoration of God but also of deep wonder at himself. How precious must man be in the eyes of the Creator, if he “gained so great a Redeemer”, and if God “gave his only Son ”in order that man “should not perish but have eternal life”.

… Unceasingly contemplating the whole of Christ’s mystery, the Church knows with all the certainty of faith that the Redemption that took place through the Cross has definitively restored his dignity to man and given back meaning to his life in the world, a meaning that was lost to a considerable extent because of sin. And for that reason, the Redemption was accomplished in the paschal mystery, leading through the Cross and death to Resurrection.[8]

Sources

• The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible꞉ The New Testament
• Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings Cycle A
• The Word of the Lord: Reflections on the Sunday Mass Readings for Year A – John Bergsma
• The Gospel of John (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture)
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition
• Redemptor Hominis (4 March 1979) | John Paul II
• Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

---

1. Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament  ↩
2. Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings Cycle A  ↩
3. The Word of the Lord: Reflections on the Sunday Mass Readings for Year A, John Bergsma  ↩
4. ibid  ↩
5. Francis Martin, William M. Wright IV, The Gospel of John (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture)  ↩
6. Catholic Church. (2000). Catechism of the Catholic Church (2nd Ed). United States Catholic Conference.  ↩
7. St. John Chrysostom, Abp. of Constantinople, A.D.398. (Hom. xxviii. 1.)  ↩
8. Encylical letter “Redemptor Hominus”, Pope John Paul II, March 4, 1979  ↩

John 20:19–23

¹⁹  On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews,\❳ Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” ²⁰  When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. ²¹  Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”²²  And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³  If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

John 20:19–23 ESV – Bible Gateway

---

For Pentecost, like the Ascension, the Gospel reading, in a sense, is trumped by the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles; which goes into more details. In this case our Gospel reading takes place on the night of the Resurrection when Jesus first meets with the majority of the Apostles in the upper room. For the Ascension, Jesus leaves the Apostles who are in a state of joy and our fully preparing themselves for the promise of the Holy Spirit spending time day and night in prayer.

This reading shows the Apostles in the midst of uncertainty and fear. They know something is going on and they have reports of Jesus’ return, but also knew their own precarious position regarding the authorities.

The Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture for this Gospel points out:

As he did in regard to Mary Magdalene, John provides insight into the spiritual disposition of Jesus’ disciples as they are gathered in Jerusalem. Mary came to Jesus’ tomb “while it was still dark” (20:1). The disciples are similarly gathered in the evening darkness, †signifying the absence of Christ the light and their own hopelessness. [1]

Peter Kreeft notes:

The disciples were cowering in fear behind locked doors because they thought, quite naturally, that those who had succeeded in killing Jesus would now come after them too. But Christ came through their locked doors, and he also comes through ours. For it’s not just keys but fear that locks our doors, especially the fear that God does not wholly love us and understand us and our weaknesses; that we cannot trust him completely. And pride, and the refusal to admit that we are in the wrong. But faith and love cast out fear. Even weak faith and love let him in. Open the door to him one inch, and he will come in a mile. [2]

Jesus appears amidst them and tells them “Peace be with you.” I think it is difficult to really envision this scene and the apostle’s reaction. The doors are locked to prevent intrusion and Jesus appears directly among them. They would be so very aware that the doors are locked. They truly were in need of that peace that Jesus was giving them in this circumstance. Plus what would they make of the fact that right after this Jesus shows them his hands and side, a demonstration of the wounds that still appear in his glorified body.

Returning to the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture:

The presence of the wounds of crucifixion on the risen Jesus’ body is significant. They indicate that the body resurrected to glory is the same one that died on the cross (see Luke 24:39). Resurrection is not the return of a human being to ordinary mortal life but total transformation into a glorified mode of existence. As St. Paul wrote, the natural body is transfigured by the Holy Spirit into a glorified, “spiritual body” (1 Cor 15:44). The wounds on Jesus’ resurrected body reveal that he is forever fixed in the act of love in which he died. The love and sacrifice that he offered on the cross are forever present before the Father as “expiation for our sins, and … for those of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). Jesus’ wounds also signify that the victory of the resurrection comes only through the cross. Similarly, the Lamb in the book of Revelation bears the wound of his slaughter by which he accomplished the work of redemption (Rev 5:6, 9). In this way, St. Thomas Aquinas, drawing on the Venerable Bede, can speak of the wounds on Jesus’ resurrected body as “trophies” of his victory.[3]

Jesus shows them his wounds to show them that he can heal their wounds. That he would be healing and preparing them so that they in turn can heal and prepare others. Jesus makes this explicit when he repeats a blessing of peace on them and then tells them that he is passing on a mission to them given by his father. When Jesus breathes on them and institutes the sacrament of reconciliation, he is equipping them in the good news, the evangelium, for the forgiveness of sins. The very healing we all need the most. The shalom Jesus gives them, they in turn will give and pass onto to others who will find true peace in this sacrament. There is and will always be woundedness in the body of Christ, but there will also always be access to a remedy.

CCC 1462 Forgiveness of sins brings reconciliation with God, but also with the Church. Since ancient times the bishop, visible head of a particular Church, has thus rightfully been considered to be the one who principally has the power and ministry of reconciliation: he is the moderator of the penitential discipline. Priests, his collaborators, exercise it to the extent that they have received the commission either from their bishop (or religious superior) or the Pope, according to the law of the Church

In his book titled “The Life of Christ”, Venerable Fulton J. Sheen wrote:

“Then Our Lord breathed on them as He conferred some power of the Holy Spirit. When love is deep, it is always speechless or wordless; God’s love is so deep that it can be expressed humanly by a sigh or a breath. Now that the Apostles had learned to lisp the alphabet of Redemption, He breathed on them as a sign and an earnest of what was to come. It was but a cloud that would precede the plenteous rain; better still, it was the breath of the Spirit’s influence and a foretelling of the rushing wind of Pentecost. As He had breathed into Adam the breath of natural life, so now He breathed into His Apostles, the foundation of His Church, the breath of spiritual life. As man became the image of God in virtue of the soul that was breathed into him, so now they became the image of Christ as the power of the Spirit was breathed into them. The Greek word used to express His breathing on them is employed nowhere else in the New Testament; but it is the very word which the Greek translators of the Hebrew used to describe God’s breathing a living soul into Adam. Thus there was a new creation as the first fruit of the Redemption.…

“Three times the Holy Spirit is mentioned with some external sign; as a dove at Christ’s baptism betokening His innocence and Divine Sonship; as fiery tongues on the day of Pentecost as a sign of the Spirit’s power to convert the world; and as the breath of the Risen Christ with all of its regenerative power.”[4]

The mission that the Holy Spirit empowers is not for the Apostles and their descendants alone. We are also sent forth into the world to empower the spread of the good news.

St. Cyril of Alexandria wrote:

All of us who have received one and the same Spirit, that is, the Holy Spirit, are in a sense blended together with one another and with God. For if Christ, together with the Father’s and his own Spirit, comes to dwell in each of us, though we are many, still the Spirit is one and undivided. He binds together the spirits of each and every one of us, … and makes all appear as one in him. For just as the power of Christ’s sacred flesh unites those in whom it dwells into one body, I think that in the same way the one and undivided Spirit of God, who dwells in all, leads all into spiritual unity.[5]

Sources

• Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings Year C
• The Gospel of John (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture)
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition
• Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

---

1. Francis Martin, William M. Wright IV, The Gospel of John (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture)  ↩
2. Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings Year C  ↩
3. aquinas54  ↩
4. Fulton Sheen, Life of Christ (New York: Image Books/Doubleday, 1990), 420.  ↩
5. St. Cyril of Alexandria, In Jo. ev., 11, 11: PG 74, 561.  ↩

¹⁶ Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. ¹⁷ And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. ¹⁸ And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:16–20 ESV – Bible Gateway

---

The Ascension is one occasion where the First Reading for the gives us the details since they do not reference it in any of the Gospels. It is the Acts of the Apostles that this event is told. The passage used is from the end of the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus gives the disciples, and all of us, the Great Commission.

From the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture for the Gospel of Matthew:

Placing the final scene in Galilee, Matthew brings the story full circle. This is where it all began, where Jesus grew into manhood (2:22–23), where the first apostles were recruited (4:18–22), and where the message of the kingdom first sounded forth (4:12–17). Readers have anticipated a return to Galilee since the prediction in 26:32 and the instructions given in verses 7 and 10. Galilee, the launching point for the Messiah’s mission to Israel, is now to become the take-off point for a mission to the whole world (v. 19).[1]

At the end of the 40 days Jesus stayed with them, they returned to “they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away.” (Acts 1:12)

It seems remarkable that it explicitly says some disciples (the eleven), that some doubted. Later on, after 40 days added to the years they spent with him, they are still asking questions as to restoring a political kingdom. (Acts 1:6)

More remarkable is how we still don’t fully answer this call to “make disciples of all nations” wanting to outsource it to others more capable.

From Peter Kreeft:

Christ explicitly connects our command to evangelize with his own authority. He says, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore,” go out and convert the world. Keep your eyes on me, he says, on my authority, not yours; not on your own fears and inadequacy, or other people’s resistance and rebellion, but on my authority, the authority of my truth and my love.[2]

John Bergsma makes this distinction:

Let us consider this catechetical mission a little more closely. The words of the Gospel do not say “teaching them all that I have commanded you,” but rather “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” It’s like the difference between a course in hydrodynamics and a course in swimming. You ought not to learn simply the theory of the buoyancy of bodies in water, but you must learn how to swim! We have sadly neglected this. With good intentions, we have taught many people about Christianity but not how to live the Christian life.[3]

There is such a gap between what we are called to do and what we do. Speaking from personal experience, this call is rather daunting when we have any inkling of the weight of it. The call overwhelmed some of the Prophets as I understand it now. A total change to their life that was not a call to personal comfort. We think first about the areas where we are lacking and can’t see that God can be exalted even in our weakness. Our brokenness is no barrier to this call. I am preaching to myself here because I am more willing to offer excuses than to offer myself more fully to Christ. St. Thérèse of Lisieux said, “You cannot be half a saint. You must be a whole saint or no saint at all.”

The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible has these notes on this passage:

28:19 Go therefore: Christ’s commission to evangelize and catechize the world fulfills God’s covenant oath to Abraham that “all the nations” would be blessed (Gen 22:18; Gal 3:8). His outline for the Church’s mission is threefold: (1) Evangelizing all nations involves more than winning individuals; it entails the conversion of entire cultures. Every area of life must be brought under the Lordship of Christ and in line with the gospel. (2) The administration of the sacraments is essential to the Church’s mission and our response. Baptizing new converts is the first step in a long process of sanctification and participation in the life of the Church. (3) The transmission of all that Christ taught necessitates the assistance of the Holy Spirit, who guides the Church to proclaim the gospel infallibly (cf. Jn 14:26). See note on Jn 16:13.

The Sacrament of Baptism incorporates Christians into the divine family of the Trinity as children of God (cf. Gal 3:26, 27). The single name of the Father, Son, and Spirit reveals the unity of God’s inner life and the oneness of his nature. This expression has become the normative baptismal formula for the Church (CCC [[849 (CCC)|849]], [[1122 (CCC)|1122]], [[1257 (CCC)|1257]]).[4]

Brant Pitre elaborates on the importance of the Ascension:

it is important to recall that the Ascension is a distinct event from the resurrection of Jesus. Sometimes these can get blurred in people’s minds. It is very important to remember that the resurrection is the reunification, the reunion, of Jesus’ body and soul into a new glorified state, and that happens on Easter Sunday. However, the Ascension, which takes place 40 days later, is, as the Catechism says, “the irreversible entry of Jesus’ humanity into divine glory.” So it’s a distinct event in terms of time, but also in terms of significance. And third and finally, as we will see in a minute—this is really important—the Ascension of Jesus is a bodily event. It’s not just the ascension of his soul into heaven—like our souls might go to heaven after we die—it’s the entry of his soul and his body into glory, as the catechism says in paragraph [[663 (CCC)|663]], Christ is “seated bodily at the right hand of the Father.” That’s what we mean when we say in the Apostle’s Creed, “he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.”[5]

When Jesus gave us this mission, he knew how weak we were and that we would have to learn over and over we can do nothing without him. Our self-reliance will betray us time and time again. It is only when we fully see ourselves as unprofitable servants that we are opened up to glorifying him and making disciples. Here he reminds us he is with us “always, to the end of the age.” Else, where he reminds us that the Father loves us and the Holy Spirit has been sent to us as another advocate. We fail when we think we are all alone—nothing could be further from the truth—in fact, the Truth is seeking us.

From the Catechism:

CCC 659 “So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.” Christ’s body was glorified at the moment of his Resurrection, as proved by the new and supernatural properties it subsequently and permanently enjoys. But during the forty days when he eats and drinks familiarly with his disciples and teaches them about the kingdom, his glory remains veiled under the appearance of ordinary humanity. Jesus’ final apparition ends with the irreversible entry of his humanity into divine glory, symbolized by the cloud and by heaven, where he is seated from that time forward at God’s right hand. Only in a wholly exceptional and unique way would Jesus show himself to Paul “as to one untimely born,” in a last apparition that established him as an apostle.p[6]

Sources

• The Gospel of Matthew (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture)
• Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings Cycle A
• The Word of the Lord: Reflections on the Sunday Mass Readings for Year A – John Bergsma
• The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible꞉ The New Testament
• Catholic Productions, Commentaries by Brant Pitre
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition
• Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

---

1. The Gospel of Matthew, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, Edward Sri and Curtis Mitch  ↩
2. Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings Cycle A, Ascension  ↩
3. The Word of the Lord: Reflections on the Sunday Mass Readings for Year A, John Bergsma, Ascension  ↩
4. Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament  ↩
5. Catholic Productions, Brant Pitre, Year A, Ascension  ↩
6. Catholic Church. (2000). Catechism of the Catholic Church (2nd Ed). United States Catholic Conference.  ↩