Saturday of Week 6 of Easter – Gospel

Commentary on John 16:23-28

We are coming now to the end of John chapter 16 and Jesus’ discourse at the Last Supper. Today Jesus makes a solemn promise that whatever his disciples ask the Father in Jesus’ name will be given to them. Up to this, of course, they have not been praying to God through Jesus. That will only happen after the resurrection and ascension. But then it will become the normal way for the Church to pray to the Father, as we do in all the prayers in the liturgy of the sacraments.

Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.

As we have pointed out before, this is not a carte blanche for us to make any request that comes into our heads. It is understood that we will be praying, first of all, for what we genuinely need and not just for what we want.

And what we need most of all is to be close to our God, and to be equipped with all those things and do all those things which will bring us closer to his will—things which will enable us to work with him for the building of the Kingdom. Those prayers will be answered, although not always exactly in the way we might envisage. It may not be until much later that we will realise just how our prayers have been answered—often in very unexpected ways.

Jesus says a strange thing at this point, when his disciples ask for something in his name:

I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf…

And the reason he gives is:

…for the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.

Our Father already knows all our needs and he wants to satisfy them for us in his love. He will not need the intercession of his Son.

And, when we are already closely related in love and faith with the Father and Jesus, mediation is hardly necessary: our relationship is the mediating factor. Our prayer through Jesus is not to tell God something he does not know already. Rather it is to help make us aware of what our real needs are and to go to where those needs will be answered.

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Saturday of Week 6 of Easter – First Reading

Commentary on Acts 18:23-28

Today we begin the third, and final, missionary journey of Paul. After leaving Corinth, Paul, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila, crossed over to Ephesus on the west coast of present-day Turkey. He separated from them there and went to preach in the local synagogues. In spite of the unwelcome reception he so often got from his fellow-Jews, he always made a point of approaching them first when he arrived in a new place. He apparently did well there, because they asked him to stay longer. However, he was clearly anxious to get back to Syrian Antioch, but he promised that he would return—and he did.

On reaching Palestine, he landed at Caesarea where he greeted the local church before going on northwards to Antioch, and it is at that point that today’s reading begins.

He stayed in Antioch for an unspecified length of time before setting out on his third—and final—missionary journey. He began by revisiting the places where he had planted the church almost 10 years previously. He followed the same route he had taken when beginning his second journey, but in the reverse order. The only place mentioned is the “region of Galatia and Phrygia”, which is in the southern part of present-day central Turkey.

We are then introduced to Apollos, who had just arrived from Ephesus in Lydia, on the west coast. He was a Jew and a native of Alexandria, which was on the north coast of Egypt and, at the time, the second largest city of the Roman Empire. It also had a large Jewish population.

Apollos is spoken of very highly as a man of eloquence, well-versed both in the Hebrew Scriptures and:

…instructed in the Way of the Lord…

Apollos also:

…spoke with burning enthusiasm and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John.

He was clearly a deeply spiritual person. It is strange though, that in spite of all that Apollos knew about Jesus, he had not yet been properly baptised in the name of Jesus. Basically, like John the Baptist, he was still looking forward to the coming of the Messiah. His baptism was based on repentance for sin rather than full incorporation through the gift of the Spirit in the Christian community.

In Ephesus, he became an enthusiastic preacher and spoke fearlessly in the Jewish synagogue there. Here he drew the attention of Paul’s friends, Priscilla and Aquila, who took him to their house and gave him a deeper understanding of the new Way.

Perhaps because of what he had heard from Priscilla and Aquila, Apollos was anxious to go across to Achaia, in other words to Corinth, and letters were written to guarantee him a warm welcome. There he gave great encouragement to the believers while continuing to debate with his fellow-Jews, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was indeed the Messiah.

It is clear that Apollos had a very special charism for evangelisation, so much so that cliques began to form in the community where some were for Paul and others for Apollos. These developed into quarrelling factions. Paul would later deplore this development in one of his letters (see 1 Cor 1:12 and 3:4-11).

These remarks about Apollos have something in common with the description of what we find in the next chapter (chap 19) that describes Paul’s arrival in Ephesus. Here, we are told that the disciples there were only baptised:

…into John’s baptism [and had] not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.

Paul had all these people baptised in the name of Jesus.

Despite the quarreling factions that arose, we should take inspiration from the insights and zeal of Apollos for the Way of Jesus in the context of evangelisation today.

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