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Lifelong Catechesis

Forming Catholic identity across generations
February 15, 2025
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Easter

The sound of Alleluias fills the 50 days of Easter Sunday to Pentecost as we give thanks for the gift of our salvation. The Easter Triduum recalls the passion and resurrection of Christ in the sacred journey from Holy Thursday to Easter Vigil. "Dying he destroyed our death. Rising he restored our life."

Sunday Readings and Backgrounds

Seventh Sunday of Easter

Reading I : Acts 1:15-17, 20-26

The choice fell to Matthias.

  • The paragraphs in Acts 1 immediately before these tell the story of the disciples witnessing Jesus' Ascension into Heaven, then returning to Jerusalem. The only activity described is constant prayer.
  • Twelve is the number of the tribes of ancient Israel, each historically led by a patriarch, then by a judge. These Jewish followers of Jesus are still thinking in fairly strictly Jewish terms.
  • They have yet to experience Pentecost, when people from all the ends of the earth are to hear these men preach as if in multiple languages.
  • They're still thinking in terms of fulfillment of ancient promises, not in terms of entirely new promises and prospects.

Reading II : 1 John 4:11-16

We must love one another as God has loved us.

  • The original recipients of the first letter of John were specific Christian communities some of whose members were advocating false doctrines.
  • These recipients have refused to acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, who came into the world as true man.
  • These recipients are denying the redemptive value of Jesus' Death.

Gospel : John 17:11-19

That they may be one.

  • The Name of God is Yahweh, YHWH. In the time of Jesus, this name was pronounced saying Adonai, Kyrios, Lord.
  • In the Upper Room (Cenacle), during nine days, from the Ascension to Pentecost, the Apostles persevered in prayer together with Mary, the Mother of Jesus.
  • To continue to be in the world without being of or belonging to the world means, concretely, to live in the system of the Empire, whether liberal or Roman, without allowing themselves to be contaminated.