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From: Acts 13:44-52

Paul and Barnabas Preaches to the Pagans

[44] The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered together to hear the Word
of God. [45] But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with jealou-
sy, and contradicted what was spoken by Paul, and reviled him. [46] And Paul
and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the Word of God
should be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it from you, and judge yourselves
unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. [47] For so the Lord has
commanded us, saying, ‘I have set you to be a light for the Gentiles, that you
may bring salvation to the uttermost parts of the earth.’”

[48] And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the Word of
God; and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. [49] And the Word
of the Lord spread throughout all the region. [50] But the Jews incited the devout
women of high standing and the leading men of the city, and stirred up persecu-
tion against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district. [51] But
they shook off the dust from their feet against them, and went to Iconium. [52]
And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

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Commentary:

45. The opposition of these Jews, who in their jealousy contradict what Paul
says, will from now be the typical attitude of the synagogue to the Gospel. It
emerges everywhere the Apostle goes, with the exception of Beroea (cf. 17:10-
12).

46. Paul may have been hoping that Christianity would flourish on the soil of Ju-
daism, that the Jews would peacefully and religiously accept the Gospel as the
natural development of God’s plans. His experience proved otherwise: he encoun-
tered the terrible mystery of the infidelity of most of the chosen people, his own
people.

Even if Israel had been faithful to God’s promises, it would still have been neces-
sary to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles. The evangelization of the pagan world
is not a consequence of Jewish rejection of the Word; it is required by the univer-
sal character of Christianity. To all men Christianity is the only channel of saving
grace; it perfects the Law of Moses and reaches out beyond the ethnic and geo-
graphical frontiers of Judaism.

47. Paul and Barnabas quote Isaiah 49:6 in support of their decision to preach to
the Gentiles. The Isaiah text referred to Christ, as Luke 3:32 confirms. But now
Paul and Barnabas apply it to themselves because the Messiah is “light for the
Gentiles” through the preaching of the Apostles, for they are conscious of spea-
king in Christ’s name and on His authority. Therefore, probably here “the Lord”
refers not to God the Father but to Christ.

51. “They shook the dust from their feet”: a traditional expression: the Jews re-
garded as unclean the dust of anywhere other than the holy land of Palestine.

Our Lord extended the meaning of the phrase when He told the disciples He
was sending them out to preach, “If any one will not receive you or listen to your
words, shake off the dust from your feet” (Matthew 10:14; cf. Luke 9:5). This ges-
ture of Paul and Barnabas echoes what Jesus said and amounted to “closing the
case” or putting on record the unbelief of the Jews.

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

From: John 14:7-14

Jesus Reveals the Father

(Jesus said to Thomas,) [7] “If you had known Me, you would have known My
Father also; henceforth you know Him and have seen Him.

[8] Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied.” [9]
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know Me,
Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us
the Father?’ [10] Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in Me?
The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father
who dwells in Me does His works. [11] Believe Me that I am in the Father and
the Father in Me; or else believe Me for the sake of the words themselves.

[12] “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me will also do the works that
I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father. [13]
Whatever you ask in my name I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in
the Son; [14] if you ask anything in my name, I will do it.”

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Commentary:

8-11. The Apostles still find our Lord’s words very mysterious, because they can-
not understand the oneness of the Father and the Son. Hence Philip’s persistence.
Then Jesus “upbraids the Apostle for not yet knowing Him, even though His works
are proper to God—walking on the water, controlling the wind, forgiving sins, raising
the dead. This is why He reproves him: for not recognizing His divine condition
through His human nature” (St. Augustine, “De Trinitate”, Book 7).

Obviously the sight of the Father which Jesus refers to in this passage is a vision
through faith, for no one has ever seen God as He is (cf. John 1:18; 6:46). All ma-
nifestations of God, or “theophanies”, have been through some medium; they are
only a reflection of God’s greatness. The highest expression which we have of
God our Father is in Christ Jesus, the Son of God sent among men. “He did this
by the total fact of His presence and self-manifestation—by words and works,
signs and miracles, but above all by His death and glorious resurrection from the
dead, and finally by sending the Spirit of truth. He revealed that God was with us,
to deliver us from the darkness of sin and death, and to raise us up to eternal life”
(Vatican II, “Dei Verbum”, 4).

12-14. Before leaving this world, the Lord promises His Apostles to make them
sharers in His power so that God’s salvation may be manifested through them.
These “works” are the miracles they will work in the name of Jesus Christ (cf.
Acts 3:1-10; 5:15-16; etc.), and especially the conversion of people to the Chris-
tian faith and their sanctification by preaching and the ministry of the sacraments.
They can be considered greater works than Jesus’ own insofar as, by the Apos-
tles’ ministry, the Gospel was not only preached in Palestine but was spread to
the ends of the earth; but this extraordinary power of apostolic preaching pro-
ceeds from Christ, who has ascended to the Father: after undergoing the humi-
liation of the cross Jesus has been glorified and from Heaven He manifests His
power by acting through His Apostles.

The Apostles’ power, therefore, derives from Christ glorified. Christ our Lord says
as much: “Whatever you ask in My name, I will do it”. “It is not that he who be-
lieves in Me will be greater than Me, but that only that I shall then do greater
works than now; greater, by him who believes in Me, than I now do by myself
without Him” (St. Augustine, “In Ioann. Evang.”, 72, 1).

Jesus Christ is our intercessor in Heaven; therefore, He promises us that every-
thing we ask for in His name, He will do. Asking in His name (cf. 15:7, 16; 16:
2324) means appealing to the power of the risen Christ, believing that He is all-
powerful and merciful because He is true God; and it also means asking for what
is conducive to our salvation, for Jesus is our Savior. Thus, by “whatever you ask”
we must understand what is for the good of the asker. When our Lord does not
give what we ask for, the reason is that it would not make for our salvation. In
this way we can see that He is our Savior both when He refuses us what we
ask and when He grants it.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.