[00:00:05] Hello, my name is Sally Moriarty-Flask. Welcome to: From His Word to Our Hearts, my weekly Bible Study podcast.
[00:00:13] Together we will explore the readings to be proclaimed at the Catholic Mass on Sunday, May 18, 2025, the Fifth Sunday of Easter.
[00:00:24] This week's episode is entitled: New Things, Eternal Kingdom, and in these readings, we are presented with lots of new things: a new commandment, new elders, new churches, a new heaven and a new earth, a new Jerusalem, a new order… yet they all lead us to the same destination, the kingdom of God.
[00:00:50] As we journey through the readings this week, consider the following:
Change is hard, isn't it? It's inevitable, it's part of life, but it's hard. And new things mean change. New attitudes, new habits, new outlooks… but through it all, Jesus is always there to guide us on the path that leads us to our heavenly home.
[00:01:22] So let's begin.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[00:01:27] Heavenly Father, we praise you and we thank you for the heavenly home that your Son has prepared for us. Give us the strength to see the people and things of this world with new eyes and to build new habits based on inclusion, acceptance, and love, so that we can do our part in creating the new earth in Saint John's vision, the earth of light and peace. We ask this through Our Lord Jesus Christ, the firstborn from the dead, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit forever. Amen.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[00:02:13] Now that we've opened our hearts in prayer, let's listen to what God is telling us in the Scriptures.
[00:02:19] Our Gospel this week is from John 13: 31-33a, 34-35.
[00:02:27] “When [Judas] had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now is the Son of Man glorified, and in him God is glorified. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. My children, [I will be with you only] a little while [longer]. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. [E]ven as I have loved you, you also [should] love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’”
[00:03:11] This is part of the Farewell Discourse of Jesus at the Last Supper.
[00:03:18] This passage fits into a biblical genre called a Testament which is a type of literary presentation, expressing a person's last wishes and providing final instructions to their successors before they confront their own impending demise. And as I said, this Discourse takes place at the Last Supper. So, this is Jesus giving his apostles their sort of marching orders, their final instructions.
[00:03:51] Jesus knows his Death on the Cross is imminent, so he is doing all he can in the little time he has left to prepare his disciples for his Passion and Death. He's actually been doing that along their entire journey to Jerusalem, but this is sort of that eleventh hour for that to take place.
[00:04:17] And he's also teaching them how they will need to live in the new reality they will face after he's gone. So, let's delve a little more deeply into what Jesus is telling his disciples in this part of John's Gospel… in this Farewell Discourse>
“When [Judas] had gone out,”
That's where this particular passage starts and, of course, that is Judas Iscariot. And his abrupt departure from the Last Supper sets all subsequent events in motion.
[00:04:53] “Jesus said, ‘Now is the Son of Man glorified,’”
[00:04:58] Of course, by now we all know that the term Son of Man originated with the prophets Ezekiel and Daniel. But what are we to suppose Jesus means by the word “now”? “Now is the Son of Man glorified?”
[00:05:16] Well, we start with the fact that events, as I said, have now been set in motion, but those events cannot be derailed. And he gives us a hint about those events back in Chapter 3 of John's Gospel when he says: “so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”
[00:05:40] So with those words he's comparing his own Crucifixion (being lifted up on the Cross) to the bronze serpent that Moses lifted up in the desert to heal all those who had been bitten by the seraph serpents, we hear that story in the Book of Numbers.
[00:06:02] Those words – “now is the Son of Man glorified” - are Jesus’ way of confirming that the events that will take place over the next few days will bring glory to him.
[00:06:18] Now that may sound conceited to our modern ears, but that's because we either aren't listening correctly, or we aren't understanding what we're hearing. So, what should we be hearing and how should we understand the words Jesus is saying?
[00:06:41] Jesus is saying that his Crucifixion will be a visible manifestation, a palpable, real, and perceptible display of God's transcendent majesty… because it is precisely on the Cross that Jesus’ total self-gift of love will be definitively revealed for all time. Then, Jesus goes on…
“and in him God is glorified.”
[00:07:23] We should understand those words in the same way… that God's gift of his Beloved Son, and the Son's self-sacrifice on the Cross, done in obedience to the divine will, done out of love beyond all telling, will be a manifestation of God's awesome majesty. He goes on again…
[00:07:52] “If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once.”
[00:08:06] Okay, by now your heads are probably spinning with “the glorifies” as mine is. It's a lot of that word used over and over again. That last sentence seems almost like a circular argument, and it kind of is. But bear with me, because we can best understand it when we look at it through the lens of the shared nature of God – Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit.
[00:08:44] If God the Father is glorified (or made manifest) to us through the actions of Jesus, then God the Father will also glorify (manifest or reveal) Jesus' divine identity within his own human bodily existence, and Jesus says it will happen quickly. Jesus says, actually: “at once.”
[00:09:15] So Jesus will manifest the Father, and the Father will reveal Jesus… which they can do because they are consubstantial, right? We profess that every week in the Nicene Creed - they share one substance.
[00:09:36] And Jesus reminded us of that at the end of last week's Gospel when he said: “the Father and I are one.” There's just another instance of how Good Shepherd Sunday sort of is a bridge for us from the post-Resurrection appearances to the teaching ministry.
[00:10:02] So hopefully that bit of apparently circular reasoning makes a little more sense to us and to our modern ears.
[00:10:12] “My children, [I will be with you only] a little while [longer].”
And, of course, we know that by that Jesus means his Crucifixion, Death and Burial, which will separate him from the disciples, absolutely, that is definitely what he means. But he also means his Resurrection when he will return to his Father's kingdom - to the kingdom of heaven - all those events will take place (from our point of view, they've already taken place). But from the disciples’ point of view, they will take place. And they all lead to a new reality in which Jesus will never again be with his disciples as he has been for the past three years.
[00:11:05] What will come will be something new. So, to prepare his disciples for that, Jesus says…
“A new commandment I give to you. that you love one another.”
[00:11:23] But wait, wait… why is this a new commandment? Jesus already told his disciples to love God and love neighbor. So, what makes this different?
[00:11:37] This is different because this commandment is no longer based upon Mosaic Law as the original one was - as that one I just mentioned was: love God, love neighbor - that came from the Mosaic law.
[00:11:55] This commandment is based in a relationship with Jesus, who is the source of love. And we see that in his next words…
“[E]ven as I have loved you, you also [should] love one another.”
[00:12:19] And there it is - there's that relationship… that relational idea… that is at the heart of this and what makes it a new commandment. The disciples sitting around the table at the Last Supper have no idea what Jesus means by that… they think they do, or they think they might.
[00:12:47] But they will not understand the full meaning of Jesus' words until Good Friday, and not even then, to be truthful. On Good Friday, they will see the reality - the totality - of Jesus' gift of love. But they still won't understand the fullness until the Resurrection, until they see the presence of his wounds transformed, glorified, and eternal - the proof of his love captured in his own flesh for all eternity.
[00:13:25] “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
[00:13:32] That new commandment must - absolutely must - guide the disciples as they undertake Jesus' mission to establish and spread the Church… absolutely. But it must also guide the Church and all of her members down through the ages, down until the end of time.
[00:14:05] It's not easy. In fact, that commandment is tremendously difficult. Nevertheless, it is what Jesus tells us we are to do… no exceptions! He doesn't say: love one another when it's easy… he doesn't say: love one another when the other person loves you… he says: love one another.
[00:14:35] This passage weaves together the realities of glory and love, both of which find their perfect fulfillment on the Cross. In fact, they are so closely related, so intertwined that they shed light on each other, revealing the depth, breadth, and fullness of love between the Father and the Son, that eternal exchange which proceeds from the Father and the Son, which is the Holy Spirit.
[00:15:27] The Father gives his Son for the world's salvation… out of love.
[00:15:40] The Son makes his life a gift of perfect obedience… out of love.
[00:15:56] We receive that love, and when we do, we are instructed to share it with others… how can we not? How can we be selfish and not share that great gift with others?
[00:16:21] That takes us to our First Reading, which is from Acts 14: 21-27.
[00:16:29] “When [Paul and Barnabas] had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Ico’nium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying. ‘It is necessary for us to undergo many tribulations to enter the kingdom of God.’ And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they believed. Then they passed through Pisid’ia, and came to Pamphyl’ia. And when they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attali’a. [F]rom there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work which they had fulfilled. And when they arrived, they gathered the church together and declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.”
[00:17:38] So, we are - again - still in the Acts of the Apostles, as we are throughout the Easter Season, and this passage describes for us the end of Paul's First Missionary Journey. That journey both began and ended in the Syrian city of Antioch.
[00:18:04] It covered hundreds of miles and took two years to complete. Paul and Barnabas left Antioch in 46 AD and returned in 48 AD. Between what we heard last week and what we hear this week, Paul and Barnabas have visited several cities and gotten into some very serious and quite dangerous situations. If you've ever read anything about Paul's Missionary Journeys in Acts or in any of the numerous books that have been published about Paul and his travels, you have learned that trouble followed Paul like a constant companion… it dogged his steps without fail.
[00:19:02] And no one can say that Paul did not suffer for his preaching, because he certainly did.
[00:19:11] So let's catch up with Paul and Barnabas as they conclude This First Missionary Journey…
[00:19:18] “When [Paul and Barnabas] had preached the gospel”
Remember, the word gospel (here is lowercase “g” gospel) - meaning the good news of Jesus. There were no written Gospels (that we know of today), no account of Jesus' life written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. At that time, in the mid-40s, mid to late-40s, there were no written Gospels.
[00:19:43] “When [they] had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples,”
[00:19:49] That city is, by the way, Derbe in Galatia. Derbe was the turning point in that First Missionary Journey. From there, Paul and Barnabas mostly retraced their steps – mostly. On their outbound journey, they made a couple of stops on the island of Cyprus and then landed in the port city of Perga in Pamphylia before continuing their journey over land which eventually ended at Derbe; that was its furthest destination.
[00:20:25] And then they turned around from there and came back. But on their return journey, they stopped in Perga before actually sailing out of the port city of Attalia (which is about 12 miles away from Perga) and they skipped Cyprus altogether - on the way home. That's kind of an encapsulation of their journey.
“they returned to Lystra and to Ico’nium and to Antioch.”
[00:20:53] So Paul and Barnabas visited those three cities on both legs of their journey, outbound and homebound. And remember, this isn't Syrian Antioch from which they launched their journey, this is Antioch in Pisidia.
“strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, ‘It is necessary for us to undergo many tribulations to enter the kingdom of God.’”
[00:21:27] Well, as I said, if you've read anything about Paul's Missionary Journeys, you know that Paul and Barnabas certainly had firsthand experience with tribulation. As I said earlier, they were often in dangerous situations. And Lystra was actually one of those dangerous situations. Paul was actually dragged out of Lystra, stoned, and left for dead.
[00:21:55] It's always been surprising that Paul traveled back through Lystra on his return journey, which I think shows that Paul was both brave and incredibly stubborn.
“And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they believed.”
[00:22:20] Luke tells us there that Paul and Barnabas appointed elders - and what he means by that is that they chose leaders for those local churches that would provide guidance and stability for the faithful in those communities while Paul continued his travels.
[00:22:44] And then Luke tells us that, through prayer and fasting, they committed them to the Lord. Paul and Barnabas committed these new leaders to the Lord.
[00:22:58] And we should think there of a type of commissioning rather than a modern Ordination as we would understand it today.
[00:23:10] It's way too early for official Ordinations at that time, what modern Catholics would understand to be Ordination (the Sacrament of Holy Orders). That isn't mentioned anywhere until about the third century, but this would have been similar and would very probably have involved a laying on of hands to indicate the transfer of authority. We know the laying on of hands was used - even in Acts - to indicate the transfer of authority, right? Because the first Deacons that were appointed in the Church were given authority by the laying on of hands. So, we know that that was - from the very beginning of the Church - we know that's how a sharing of authority was granted.
[00:24:07] “Then they passed through Pisid’ia, and came to Pamphyl’ia. And when they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attali’a.”
[00:24:17] As I said before, that is basically Luke telling us that Paul and Barnabas retraced their steps.
[00:24:23] “[F]rom there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work which they had fulfilled.”
Again, this is Syrian Antioch, where they began their journey two years earlier.
[00:24:42] When Luke talks about the work they did, the work that Paul and Barnabas did, he means preaching the good news of Jesus and fulfilling the mission set for them by the Holy Spirit.
[00:24:58] If you remember back to the beginning of chapter 13 (or if you want to go back and read it) we are told that they were chosen… Paul and Barnabas were chosen for this work by the Holy Spirit.
[00:25:13] “And when they arrived, they gathered the church together and declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.”
[00:25:26] When Paul and Barnabas finally reached Antioch in Syria, they gathered the faithful together to deliver a report of all their activities. That's basically what Luke is telling us.
[00:25:41] And notice Luke doesn't say that they - Paul and Barnabas - reported everything THEY had done as if they had accomplished it totally on their own. No, no, no!
[00:25:55] They reported “all that God had done with them.” And then Luke uses a metaphor here… “opened a door of faith” which we actually hear in Paul's writings over and over again.
[00:26:17] And we can equate God opening a door with him giving the gift of faith to all Paul heard preach the good news. And we know Luke uses a lot of the same terminology that Paul does because Luke was a companion of Paul, he traveled with him at times. So, that metaphor appears both in Acts and in Paul's writings.
[00:26:45] That idea of opening a door, giving the gift of faith, that's only the beginning though, right? It's an invitation, if you will.
[00:27:00] But the person receiving that gift - the person hearing Paul preach - has to accept the invitation and walk through the open door.
[00:27:16] The elders appointed in those various communities would have been the ones responsible for continuing the work begun by Paul and Barnabas, meaning the elders would be the ones encouraging those who heard Paul's preaching to step through that open door, to undertake that change of attitude, to develop a new outlook, and build new habits of holiness.
[00:27:50] And of course, we know that Jesus himself is always there to guide them to their ultimate destination, which is the kingdom of heaven. That is - all of us who believe - that is our true home, our ultimate destination.
[00:28:08] That takes us to our Responsorial Psalm, which this week is Psalm 145. And the refrain is:
“I will praise your name for ever, my king and my God.”
[00:28:21] That response is based on verse 1 in the RSV translation - and most versions of the Psalter that I consulted. Verse 1 actually says: “I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name for ever and ever.” The Church paraphrased that original text to read: “I will praise your name for ever, my king and my God” as the response for this Psalm this week.
[00:28:51] And here are the verses:
[00:28:54] “The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in kindness. The LORD is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made.”
“All your works shall give thanks to you, O LORD, and all your saints shall bless you! They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom, and tell of your power.”
“[Let them] make known to the sons of men your mighty deeds, and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations.”
[00:29:35] This Psalm is a Hymn of Praise to God, and it really shows how difficult it can be for us to separate what God DOES from who he IS.
[00:29:52] Obviously, God is infinitely more than what he does for us, but what he does for us and who he is to us are inextricably intertwined for human beings, for our limited human understanding.
[00:30:13] Because what God does for us is precisely how we come to know him. That's why it's so difficult for us to understand more than that.
[00:30:26] This Psalm, interestingly enough, was not written as one cohesive message, as most Psalms are… it's more of a list describing God's goodness.
[00:30:44] One other note - and it's sad that this is lost for us - but in our English translation of the Psalm, we do lose the fact that this composition - this Psalm - was initially a Hebrew acrostic poem, meaning that every verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
[00:31:10] Again, we lose that in the English translation - there's no way for us to do that. But there's just another obscure piece of trivia for you.
[00:31:20] That takes us to our Second Reading, which is from Revelation 21: 1-5a.
[00:31:29] “Then I, John, saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the [former] heaven and the [former] earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; and I heard a great voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling of God is with [the human race]. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them. [H]e will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.’ And he who sat upon the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new.’”
[00:32:35] I've said a lot about the Book of Revelation over the past few weeks, but one thing I haven't covered specifically is its literary genre. Since we began this week's episode with a mention of the “Testament” genre in the Gospel, I thought I'd bring that full circle by talking about the genre of Revelation.
But let me start by explaining a bit about genres. And to do that, let's start with some examples.
[00:33:05] We wouldn't read a science fiction novel in the same way we would read a biography or an autobiography. It's easy to see the difference between those two types of writings, since one is based in fact and the other is based in fiction.
But what about a textbook on law and the sports section in the newspaper? They both contain factual information, but we would read them very differently because they have different purposes and different intended outcomes.
[00:33:45] Or how about comparing a book of poetry with a treatise on mechanical engineering? Or a Doctor Seuss book with an operations manual for a Boeing aircraft? There's absolutely no common ground between those last pairs of examples.
[00:34:06] They're all things we read, but we read all of them different ways for different purposes at different times.
[00:34:15] So knowing the genre that we're dealing with has a direct bearing on our understanding of what we read. And knowing the types of genres we encounter in the Bible will help us better understand what we read in the Scriptures.
[00:34:36] So what are the main genres that we encounter in the Bible? Well, we encounter: The Law, History, Wisdom Literature, Poetry, Narrative, Prophecy, Parables, Epistles, and Apocalyptic Literature.
[00:35:03] Now, most of those broad genres can be further divided into subgenres, and that's where the Testament we encountered in our Gospel comes in - Testament is actually a subgenre of a Narrative - but that large grouping list provides a starting point for us to understand Biblical genres.
[00:35:28] The Book of Revelation belongs in the genre of Apocalyptic Literature.
[00:35:36] Now, that category often gives us pause, because when we hear apocalypse, we think of the wholesale destruction of the world… we think of nuclear explosions, we think of zombies, we think of all kinds of horrible things, right? That's absolutely a modern understanding.
[00:36:02] And it is NOT the purpose of Apocalyptic Literature, so set all those preconceived notions aside. Apocalyptic Literature does often focus on the end times, on divine judgment, and on the destruction of evil… it is rife with figurative language, vivid symbolism, dreams and visions, and prophecies… but its main purpose is to provide hope and encouragement to people who are experiencing some form of persecution by offering promises of mercy, new beginnings, and, ultimately, salvation.
[00:37:02] We tend to think primarily about the Book of Revelation when we think of Apocalyptic Literature, but the Old Testament contains several examples of Apocalyptic Writings… particularly in the prophets, people like Amos, Joel, Zechariah, parts of Isaiah, and the second half of the Book of Daniel.
[00:37:31] This week's passage comes toward the end of the Book of Revelation, and if you put that in perspective, that also means it's near the end of the Bible, and it describes John's final vision.
[00:37:50] So, let's see what we can understand out of this apocalyptic vision…
[00:37:59] “Then I, John, saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the [former] heaven and the [former] earth had passed away,”
[00:38:08] What John is saying is that in his vision, the world has been transformed! God's original creation, which mankind royally messed up, has been wiped clean in preparation for this new creation.
[00:38:31] Then John says…
“and the sea was no more.”
[00:38:36] That seems like, again, a strangely specific detail to include, but there's a really, really good reason for that. The sea was seen as an agent of chaos in Biblical times. And chaos was, of course, antithetical to everything that was holy - everything that God created.
[00:39:01] Violent storms were a regular occurrence on the seas at that time, monsters were feared to lurk under the surface, shipwrecks and drownings were commonplace, and boats typically sailed within sight of the shoreline because navigation was difficult. All of that contributed to the understanding that the sea was a source of chaos.
[00:39:34] John goes on…
“And I saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband;”
[00:39:49] Remember, bridal imagery was commonly used in the Old Testament to describe the relationship between God and his Chosen People, which also means infidelity was often used as a metaphor for Israel's unfaithfulness to the Covenant.
[00:40:13] Marital imagery was also used to describe the restoration of Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile… that reunion, that reunification, that renewal. John uses marital images here because he knows they will be familiar… they have been familiar and common throughout Scripture.
[00:40:40] “and I heard a great voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling of God is with [the human race].’”
[00:40:48] That is straight out of Isaiah. The birth of Emmanuel, remember, was the sign King Ahaz was too disingenuous to ask for openly.
[00:41:03] And then in the infancy narrative of Matthew's Gospel, Joseph was instructed - in his dream - to name the baby Mary was carrying Emmanuel, which means God is with us. That's precisely where that came from as well, from Isaiah - from the Emmanuel Prophecies in Isaiah.
“He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them.”
[00:41:37] The new Jerusalem is God's dwelling place, and all people are destined to be God's people. That is the fulfillment of Ezekiel 37!
[00:41:53] God promised the people a covenant of peace with one shepherd, from the line of King David, to rule as king over them forever… for all eternity.
[00:42:09] Christians see Jesus - who is from the line of King David - as the fulfillment of that prophecy. Therefore, when he took on human flesh in the Incarnation - as I just said (in Matthew's Gospel) Joseph is given the instruction to name the baby Emmanuel, which means God is with us… God is dwelling with his people.
[00:42:42] “[H]e will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.”
[00:42:59] John lists things that belong to the old order - pain, grief, death - then tells us that the old order will disappear in that new and eternal Jerusalem.
[00:43:16] Any one of us that has ever experienced these things - which means every one of us - await with great hope the passing of all of those difficulties.
[00:43:32] “And he who sat upon the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new.’”
[00:43:39] Newness - that is God's ultimate promise in this vision!
[00:43:47] But as hopeful as all of that sounds, newness means change and, as I said in the beginning, change is hard.
[00:44:01] It may be inevitable, it may be part of life, but it's still hard.
[00:44:10] And if you think back to what I said about Apocalyptic Literature, newness is one of the primary promises of that genre: mercy, salvation, and new beginnings.
[00:44:28] New beginnings, a new heaven and a new earth, a new Jerusalem, a new order, a new commandment, a new covenant, a new way of living… new attitudes, new habits, new outlooks… but thankfully, same destination - the one eternal, everlasting kingdom of Heaven.
[00:45:05] And Jesus, Our Savior, who gave his life for us, is always beside us to guide us on the path that leads to our heavenly home.
[00:45:23] If you would like to reach out to me with questions or comments, send me an email at
[email protected]
Thank you for spending this time with me and until next we meet, may God shower his blessings upon you like a soft and gentle rain and may he hold you, safe and secure, in the palm of his hand.
From His Word to Our Hearts is produced by SFS Audio Solutions.
The content of the show was assembled by me, Sally Moriarty-Flask.
Our music was composed by Jimmy Flask and is used with permission of the composer. All rights reserved.
Information regarding references used in preparing the exegesis for this podcast is available upon request.
[00:46:12] Thank you for listening and God Bless.
