Thursday of the Fifth Week of Easter
Acts 15:7-21 | Ps. 96:1-3, 10 | Jn. 15:9-11
Today, we hear the response from Peter to the questions raised yesterday. Peter, who has been converted, reminds all that the Holy Spirit descended upon the Gentiles in the same manner as the apostles. If the Holy Spirit has done this, who can question the call of the Gentiles or demand from them what they themselves would find impossible to do. So it is with us. We are called to do as Jesus tells us in the gospel. Jesus invites us to recognize that He has fulfilled all that God has asked of Him. He has loved the Father and tells us that as God has loved Him so God loves us. Thus Peter and the other apostles come to realize that God would not expect the gentiles to be circumcised and neither should they. We hear Paul’s description of all the great work that God has accomplished. What is required is a deep trust that God’s love is beyond all human conception of love and that God can bring about the conversion of all of us.
Take time to reflect on how you judge others. Do you need to change your attitude toward others? How is God calling you to conversion? Ask God for the grace to respond to the love that God sends to you today.