Thursday of the 5th week of Eastertide
First Reading — Acts 15:7–21
I rule that we do not make things more difficult for the pagans who turn to God
After the discussion had gone on a long time, Peter stood up and addressed the apostles and the elders.
‘My brothers,’ he said ‘you know perfectly well that in the early days God made his choice among you: the pagans were to learn the Good News from me and so become believers. In fact God, who can read everyone’s heart, showed his approval of them by giving the Holy Spirit to them just as he had to us. God made no distinction between them and us, since he purified their hearts by faith. It would only provoke God’s anger now, surely, if you imposed on the disciples the very burden that neither we nor our ancestors were strong enough to support? Remember, we believe that we are saved in the same way as they are: through the grace of the Lord Jesus.’
This silenced the entire assembly, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul describing the signs and wonders God had worked through them among the pagans.
When they had finished it was James who spoke. ‘My brothers,’ he said ‘listen to me. Simeon has described how God first arranged to enlist a people for his name out of the pagans. This is entirely in harmony with the words of the prophets, since the scriptures say:
After that I shall return
and rebuild the fallen House of David;
I shall rebuild it from its ruins
and restore it.
Then the rest of mankind,
all the pagans who are consecrated to my name,
will look for the Lord,
says the Lord who made this known so long ago.
‘I rule, then, that instead of making things more difficult for pagans who turn to God, we send them a letter telling them merely to abstain from anything polluted by idols, from fornication, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. For Moses has always had his preachers in every town, and is read aloud in the synagogues every sabbath.’
Responsorial Psalm — Psalm 95(96):1–3,10
O sing a new song to the Lord,
sing to the Lord all the earth.
O sing to the Lord, bless his name.
Proclaim his help day by day,
tell among the nations his glory
and his wonders among all the peoples.
Proclaim to the nations: ‘God is king.’
The world he made firm in its place;
he will judge the peoples in fairness.
Gospel — John 15:9–11
Remain in my love
Jesus said to his disciples:
‘As the Father has loved me,
so I have loved you.
Remain in my love.
If you keep my commandments
you will remain in my love,
just as I have kept my Father’s commandments
and remain in his love.
I have told you this
so that my own joy may be in you
and your joy be complete.’
Reflection
Acts reveals a decisive moment where the Church confronts a subtle but critical danger—adding weight to what God has already given freely. The question is not whether obedience matters, but whether it is being misplaced as the source of salvation rather than its response.
Peter is direct: the burden was never meant to be carried that way. Salvation comes through grace. The Catechism affirms this clearly—justification is not achieved by human effort, but received through God’s initiative (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church 1996–2001).
This is where distortion easily enters.
We do not reject grace—we complicate it. We layer expectations, conditions, and quiet measures of worth. And over time, what was meant to be received becomes something we try to secure.
The Gospel corrects the order.
“As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.”
Love comes first. Not as reward, but as origin. And from that place, Christ calls us to remain. Not to achieve belonging, but to live within it.
But remaining is not passive. It takes shape in obedience—not as pressure, but as alignment. The Catechism teaches that love of Christ expresses itself in keeping His commandments (CCC 1822–1824). Not to earn love, but to remain within it.
This is where joy emerges.
Not from control, or from getting everything right, but from being grounded in the right place. When the foundation is grace, obedience no longer feels like weight—it becomes response.
So the work is not to add more.
It is to stop adding what was never required.
One line to carry today:
Grace is not something you complete—it is something you remain in.
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