29 April 2027 · Latin Rite
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“As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.” John 15:9
The council in Jerusalem reaches its decision. “After there had been much debate, Peter stood up.” He reminds the assembly that God chose him to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles in the house of Cornelius, and that God “who knows the human heart, testified to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us; and in cleansing their hearts by faith he has made no distinction between them and us.” Then comes the sentence that sums up the whole matter: “we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.” Salvation is not earned by keeping a list of customs; it is a gift received in faith, for Jew and Gentile alike. The assembly falls silent and listens to Barnabas and Paul tell of the signs God has worked among the nations. Then James, the leader of the church in Jerusalem, speaks. He reads the prophet Amos, “I will rebuild the dwelling of David, which has fallen,” so that “all other peoples may seek the Lord,” and gives his judgment: “we should not trouble those Gentiles who are turning to God,” asking only a few things that would let Jewish and Gentile believers share one table in peace. Peter speaks first, James confirms, the whole assembly listens: this is how the Church discerns. James also honours the Law of Moses, “read aloud every sabbath in the synagogues”; the decision does not despise Israel's heritage but opens its promises to all.
In the Gospel Jesus tells us where the grace that saves us comes from: “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.” The love between the Father and the Son is poured out on the disciples, and the commandments are simply the way to stay in it. And the goal is joy: “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.” Few saints show this joy on fire more clearly than St Catherine of Siena (1347 to 1380). The twenty-third or twenty-fourth child of a dyer in Siena, she joined the Dominican lay women called the Mantellate, nursed the sick through plague, made peace between feuding families and cities, and, though she had little schooling, dictated The Dialogue and hundreds of letters. She loved the Church so much that she wrote to the Pope as “sweet Christ on earth,” and she also told him plainly to return from Avignon to Rome, which Gregory XI did in 1377. She died in Rome on 29 April 1380, aged thirty-three. Paul VI named her a Doctor of the Church in 1970. She wrote to a disciple (in substance): if you are what you ought to be, you will set the whole of Italy on fire. And she prayed (in substance): eternal Trinity, you are a deep sea; the more I enter, the more I find, and the more I find, the more I seek you.
Theme: “Abide in my love.”
Salvation by the grace of the Lord Jesus, the Father's love poured out on us, and the fire of St Catherine of Siena.
“It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you—for you were the fewest of all peoples. It was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath that he swore to your ancestors,” Deuteronomy 7:7–8
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” Ephesians 2:8
Apply: Stop trying to earn God's love this week: begin each prayer with thanks for what you have received.
“I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.” Jeremiah 31:3
“As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.” John 15:9
Apply: Choose one commandment you find hard and keep it this week as a way of staying in his love, not as a rule.
“for love is strong as death, passion fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it.” Song of Songs 8:6–7
““I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!”” Luke 12:49
Apply: Pray each day this week for the Pope and for one person who has drifted from the Church.
The Church learned at Jerusalem that we are all saved by grace.
That grace is the Father's love for the Son poured into us; St Catherine shows what happens when a heart abides in it: joy, truth and fire.
Take-home resolution: Read a few lines of St Catherine's prayers or letters this week and pray for the Church.
Dear friends, after a long debate in Jerusalem, Peter stands up. He has seen the Holy Spirit fall on the Gentiles in the house of Cornelius. God made no distinction between them and us, he says, cleansing their hearts by faith. And then: we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will (Acts 15:9–11). James confirms it, and the Church opens its doors wide.
Grace means gift. We do not earn God's love by a list of achievements, customs or good works. We receive it, and then our good works flow from it like fruit. The first Christians had to learn this together, and we have to learn it again every day.
Jesus tells us where that grace comes from: as the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love (John 15:9). The love between the Father and the Son is offered to us. His commandments are not a heavy yoke; they are the walls of the house in which we abide in his love. And the purpose is joy: so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete (John 15:11).
St Catherine of Siena lived in that love. A dyer's daughter with little schooling, she prayed for hours, nursed plague victims, made peace between enemies, and spoke the truth even to the Pope, out of love for the Church. She told her friends (in substance) that if they were what they ought to be, they would set Italy on fire. Let us ask her to pray that we may abide in Christ's love, and let that fire spread. Amen.
Children, St Catherine had more than twenty brothers and sisters! When she was small she loved to pray and to tell Jesus everything. When she grew up she looked after sick people when no one else would, and she even wrote letters to the Pope. Jesus says: I love you as my Father loves me; stay in my love. When we stay close to Jesus, we are full of joy, like Catherine!
Father, as you have loved your Son, so he has loved us; keep us in his love. You set St Catherine of Siena on fire with love for Christ crucified and for his Church: grant that, through her prayers, we may be saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus, speak the truth with courage and charity, and find in your love the joy that is complete. 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.