Daily Mass Readings — Fifth Sunday of Easter
May 3, 2026 | Lectionary: 52 | Year A | Liturgical Colour: White
"I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by me." — John 14:6
Liturgical Context
The Fifth Sunday of Easter opens a new arc within the Easter Season: the Church moves from the Resurrection appearances to the great Last Supper discourse of John 14–17, where Christ prepares His disciples for His departure and the coming of the Paraclete. Today's First Reading gives us the institution of the diaconate in Jerusalem — the young Church ordering itself under the Spirit's guidance — while the Second Reading proclaims the royal priesthood of all the baptised, and the Gospel answers Thomas's bewildered question with the most absolute claim Christ ever made: I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
✠ First Reading — Acts of the Apostles 6:1–7
¹ And in those days, the number of the disciples increasing, there arose a murmuring of the Greeks against the Hebrews, for that their widows were neglected in the daily ministration.
² Then the twelve calling together the multitude of the disciples, said: It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables.
³ Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.
⁴ But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.
⁵ And the saying was liked by all the multitude. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith, and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte of Antioch.
⁶ These they set before the apostles; and they praying, imposed hands upon them.
⁷ And the word of the Lord increased; and the number of the disciples was multiplied in Jerusalem exceedingly: a great multitude also of the priests obeyed the faith.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Commentary
This brief passage is full of intriguing details about the young community. The first thing we notice is a division — between the Hellenists (Greek-speaking Jewish Christians, formed in the world of Hellenic culture) and the Hebrews (Aramaic-speaking Palestinian Jews) — over the care of widows. It is striking that all seven men appointed to resolve the problem bear Greek names; one of them, Nicolas, is explicitly a Gentile convert. The early Church did not resolve its tensions by suppressing the minority; it gave them leadership. The qualifications for this service are refreshingly simple: full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom. There is nothing about administrative competence or social standing — the Spirit can be trusted. The laying on of hands by the apostles is the first record of a distinct ordination to ministry in the Church, and St. Jerome identifies this as the institution of the permanent diaconate (Against the Luciferians, 9).
The consequence is startling: "the word of the Lord increased" and even a great multitude of the priests obeyed the faith. Good ecclesial order does not constrain the Gospel; it liberates it. The apostles freed for prayer and preaching, the deacons freed for service — and the word of God overflows every boundary, reaching even those most institutionally committed to resisting it.
✠ Responsorial Psalm — Psalm 32 (33):1–2, 4–5, 18–19
R. Lord, let Thy mercy be upon us, as we place our trust in Thee.
or R. Alleluia.
¹ Rejoice in the Lord, O ye just: praise becometh the upright. ² Give praise to the Lord on the harp; sing to him with the psaltery, the instrument of ten strings.
R. Lord, let Thy mercy be upon us, as we place our trust in Thee.
⁴ For the word of the Lord is right, and all his works are done with faithfulness. ⁵ He loveth mercy and judgment; the earth is full of the mercy of the Lord.
R. Lord, let Thy mercy be upon us, as we place our trust in Thee.
¹⁸ Behold the eyes of the Lord are on them that fear him: and on them that hope in his mercy. ¹⁹ To deliver their souls from death; and feed them in famine.
R. Lord, let Thy mercy be upon us, as we place our trust in Thee.
Commentary
"The earth is full of the mercy of the Lord" — this is the Easter world seen from above. The diaconal service instituted in today's First Reading is itself one form of this mercy made visible: widows fed, the neglected remembered, the word of God freed to multiply. St. Thomas Aquinas observed that mercy is not weakness but the perfection of justice — it gives more than is strictly owed, as God always does (Summa Theologiae, I, q. 21, a. 3).
✠ Second Reading — 1 Peter 2:4–9
⁴ Unto whom coming, as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen and made honourable by God:
⁵ Be you also as living stones built up, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
⁶ Wherefore it is said in the scripture: Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious. And he that shall believe in him, shall not be confounded.
⁷ To you therefore that believe, he is honour: but to them that believe not, the stone which the builders rejected, the same is made the head of the corner:
⁸ And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of scandal, to them who stumble at the word, neither do believe.
⁹ But you are a chosen generation, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people: that you may declare his virtues, who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Commentary
The background of this passage is the covenant of Sinai, where the mountain was so sacred that only Moses could approach it. Now St. Peter declares that all the baptised are a kingly priesthood who may draw close to the living stone that is Christ. The Second Vatican Council's Lumen Gentium §10 developed precisely this teaching: the faithful participate in the priesthood of Christ by virtue of their Baptism, a common priesthood that is ordered toward the ministerial priesthood of orders but is genuinely priestly in itself. The whole people offers the Eucharistic sacrifice with and through the ordained priest. The image of living stones is as important as the image of the cornerstone: the Church is not merely a building organised around Christ; she is made of Christ's life, each member drawing sap from the Vine, each stone alive with the same divine life that makes the cornerstone live.
✠ Alleluia — John 14:6
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, saith the Lord; no man cometh to the Father but by me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
✠ The Holy Gospel — John 14:1–12
The Lord be with you. — And with your spirit.
A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John. Glory be to Thee, O Lord.
¹ Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me.
² In my Father's house there are many mansions. If not, I would have told you: because I go to prepare a place for you.
³ And if I shall go, and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will take you to myself; that where I am, you also may be.
⁵ Thomas saith to him: Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?
⁶ Jesus saith to him: I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by me.
⁷ If you had known me, you would without doubt have known my Father also: and from henceforth you shall know him, and you have seen him.
⁸ Philip saith to him: Lord, shew us the Father, and it is enough for us.
⁹ Jesus saith to him: Have I been so long a time with you; and have you not known me? Philip, he that seeth me seeth the Father also.
¹¹ Believe you not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?
¹² Amen, amen I say to you, he that believeth in me, the works that I do, he also shall do; and greater than these shall he do.
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise be to Thee, O Lord Jesus Christ.
Commentary
There are two aspects to this Gospel that deserve close attention. The first is the final purpose announced in the opening verses: "In my Father's house there are many mansions." The word mansions translates the Latin mansiones (from manere, to remain), which in turn renders the Greek monai (dwelling-places). The image is not of separate compartments — as if heaven were a hotel with allocated rooms — but of the inexhaustible spaciousness of the Father's life. There is no problem of scarcity, no sense that only a few will win the prize: the Father's house has many mansions, and Christ goes ahead to prepare a place for each.
The second aspect is the almost shocking promise of verse 12: "He that believeth in me, the works that I do, he also shall do; and greater than these shall he do." Greater than healing the sick and raising the dead? What St. Paul teaches in Colossians 1:24 — that believers "fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ" — is part of the answer: in every age the Church carries on the works of Christ, applying His saving Passion to new generations, new peoples, new wounds. The greater works are not individually more spectacular miracles but the global multiplication of Christ's saving action across all of history, in every sacrament administered, every sinner converted, every widow fed by a deacon in Jerusalem. Today's First Reading is itself one of those greater works. St. Augustine writes: "Christ ascended to the Father and poured out His Spirit — and through that Spirit His works continue everywhere at once, which He could not do in one body confined to one place" (Tractates on John, 72).
✠ Closing Prayer
O Lord Jesus Christ, who art the Way that leads to the Father, the Truth that sets us free, and the Life that death could not extinguish, let not our hearts be troubled. Prepare in us a dwelling for Thyself, and prepare in Thy Father's house a place for us, that where Thou art we also may be. Through the royal priesthood of our Baptism, make us living stones in Thy spiritual house, offering to the Father the sacrifice of praise and of lives conformed to Thine. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Our Father… Hail Mary… Glory be…
✠ Laus Deo semper — Praise be to God always ✠
%20Virgin%20and%20Martyr.jpeg)
No comments:
Post a Comment