7 April 2027 · Latin Rite
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“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” John 3:17
The apostles have been healing and teaching in Solomon's Portico, and the crowds are growing. The high priest and the Sadducees, “filled with jealousy,” arrest them and lock them in the public prison. But at night “an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors, brought them out, and said, ‘Go, stand in the temple and tell the people the whole message about this life.’” The angel does not send them to safety; he sends them straight back to the place where they were arrested. At daybreak they are teaching again. Luke tells the rest almost with a smile: the council meets, the guards are sent, and they report a prison “securely locked” with the guards at the doors and nobody inside. The authorities are perplexed; the captain fetches the apostles “without violence,” afraid of the people. The same Lord who left the tomb sealed and empty opens the prison of his witnesses. Luke is describing a struggle with particular leaders of the Temple in that hour, not with the Jewish people, who in this very scene hold the apostles in honour. The Psalm sings what the apostles had just lived: “The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.”
The Gospel gives us perhaps the best known verse of the Bible: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” And the next verse tells us what kind of love it is: “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” Judgment is not God's wish; it is what happens when people prefer darkness to light, “because their deeds were evil.” Today the Church remembers a man who spent his life bringing light to children who lived in darkness: St John Baptist de la Salle (1651–1719). Born into a wealthy family in Reims, a canon of the cathedral at sixteen and a priest at twenty-seven, he was drawn almost against his will into helping a few poor schoolmasters. Step by step he took them into his own house, gave away his fortune to the hungry in the famine of 1684, resigned his canonry and founded the Brothers of the Christian Schools, lay religious devoted entirely to teaching the poor without fees. He taught in French instead of Latin, grouped pupils in classes, opened schools for working youths on Sundays and trained teachers in what were among the first teacher-training colleges. He met lawsuits, slander and opposition even from churchmen, and he died on Good Friday, 7 April 1719. He was canonized in 1900, and in 1950 Pius XII named him patron of all teachers. He used to tell his Brothers, in substance, that they could work miracles by touching the hearts of the children entrusted to them: that is John 3:17 in a classroom.
Theme: “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world.”
Prison doors opened, the love that saves, and a saint who touched hearts in the classroom.
“The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.” Psalm 34:7
“But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors, brought them out, and said, “Go, stand in the temple and tell the people the whole message about this life.”” Acts 5:19–20
Apply: Ask the Lord to open one door of fear in you, and then go and speak of him where you were afraid to.
“For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.” Psalm 36:9
“But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.” John 3:21
Apply: Make a good confession before the Third Sunday of Easter, and bring into the light what you have kept hidden.
“Train children in the right way, and when old, they will not stray.” Proverbs 22:6
“But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.”” Mark 10:14
Apply: Spend time this week teaching a child something of the faith: a prayer, a Bible story, the sign of the cross done well.
The risen Lord opens prisons and sends his witnesses back to speak.
God sent his Son to save, and St John Baptist de la Salle spent his life bringing children into that light.
Take-home resolution: Pray each day this week for one teacher who formed you.
Dear friends, the apostles are locked in prison, and in the night an angel opens the doors. Does he tell them to run away? No. He says: go, stand in the temple and tell the people the whole message about this life (Acts 5:20). God frees us not for our comfort but for our mission.
In the morning the guards find the prison locked, the doors guarded, and nobody inside. It sounds like Easter morning: a sealed tomb, and nobody inside. The risen Lord cannot be locked away, and neither can his word.
Then Jesus says to Nicodemus: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son; God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him (John 3:16–17). God is not waiting to catch us. He is waiting to save us. The only thing that keeps us from the light is our own preference for darkness.
Today we remember St John Baptist de la Salle. He was rich and comfortable, but he saw poor children growing up in darkness, without school and without faith. He gave away his fortune, gathered teachers, and opened schools without fees. He said to his Brothers, in substance: you can work miracles by touching the hearts of children. Let us pray today for every teacher, and let us be people who bring others into the light. Alleluia. Amen.
Children, today is the day of St John Baptist de la Salle, the friend of all teachers. He opened schools for poor children so that they could learn to read and learn about Jesus. Let us say a prayer for our teachers today, and say thank you to them tomorrow!
O God, who chose Saint John Baptist de la Salle to educate young people in the Christian life, raise up teachers in your Church ready to devote themselves with all zeal to the human and Christian formation of the young. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen. Lord, you so loved the world that you gave your only Son: open the prisons of fear in us, and send us back to tell the whole message of this life. Amen.