5th Sunday of Easter - 2026 - Year A

Jeff Bagnall • 1 May 2026

In the reading from Acts ( Acts 6:1-7 ) we have an example of the early development of the institutional aspect of the Church. The instigation for this was the increase in the number of Christians from among the Hellenists – Jews who lived in the Diaspora, that is, outside of the Jewish homeland. The need for development resulted from a complaint from these Hellenists that the pastoral care of the members of their community was not being met because of a shortage of staff who might provide this. There was a general meeting and the Twelve leaders said that their particular responsibility was for prayer and preaching the word of God, and so they suggested that seven other people should be selected for the pastoral work that was needed. Those selected should have the appropriate qualities: good reputation, wisdom, and a life with God’s Spirit. They were selected by the people, and the Eleven laid their hands on them to commission them for this task. The passage concludes with Luke again telling us of the increase in numbers – the growth and development of the Christian communities was the main instigation for the writing of the Acts of the Apostles. We learn from this that the Church needs to develop and adapt to the different needs and circumstances that arise; this is much more complex and yet also more urgent now, for the church as we know it now is not only broken into different denominations but also is spread worldwide and the most numerous of all religions.

The second reading is again from the First letter of Peter. It is still part of the address about the meaning and responsibilities of being Christian – an instruction for those newly baptised. As all new-born babies and even young children, the instinct for survival is basically selfish, and those who have newly joined the Christian community, like all of us, can sometimes focus on our own spiritual growth rather than on the community in which we live. The aim of the Christian is to become more like Christ, and our passage begins, “But as you come to him…” But after this introduction, it draws on an image familiar to those who know the Old testament well – this may well not be any of us. The passage tells us that the community that Christians should be is like the temple, the house of God, and in any worthwhile building there is an important foundation stone upon which the rest depends; but there must be other stones as well, connected to this key stone and to each other. It is like this for Christians, Christ is the basis, and the Christians must work together on this foundation to build up a good spirit of community where, like priests in a temple, honour and glory and praise are given to God. We are this community and must try to live up to this ideal. There are a number of quotations from the Old Testament, but the passage concludes that we are God’s choice people, worshipping Him as priests and like a national group who support each other but also must praise God in what we do and how we live, so as to strengthen and maintain the community.

The gospel is part of a farewell speech from John’s gospel. It reads as an attempt to explain to the disciples the deeper significance of the forthcoming events: arrest, execution and resurrection. But it is also a message for us – the gospels are good news – helping us to enter into the mystery of what it is to be a follower of Jesus and of Who Jesus is. Like much of John’s gospel it has a deep meaning which is not easy to grasp. Jesus is always in close union with God the Father, and the Father is always with Him in all that He does, even as a human being. By facing His death He completes His life here on earth and from His place within the godhead He is there waiting for the rest of us to join Him. We must trust in Him and in the Father: believe that as we live now we should be getting closer to our life with Him, with God. And God is with us in our lives whenever we are living as we should. Chapters 15-17 in John are also in this same vein, and different sections may have been used in the early church as Sunday lessons according to the number of weeks before Easter, which is still for us a moveable feast set by the lunar calendar.

see Jeff’s Jottings – Who are we

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Jeff Bagnall was a lecturer for many years at Craiglockhart College teaching RE to many future Catholic Primary teachers.

4th Sunday of Easter 2026 - Year A

by Jeff Bagnall • 21 April 2026

The first reading repeats the introduction from last week so as to make sense, for there follows a continuation of the previous words spoken to the crowd by Peter. The people have been moved by the accusation of putting Jesus to death, and they want to know what they can do. Peter calls upon them to be baptised. As John the Baptist seems to have preached to his listeners, Peter begins with the need for repentance and the need for baptism. You could feel sorry for the past but this repentance means ‘change your attitude to life.’ Baptism is a washing symbolic of starting with a clean sheet; here it is for starting a new life caught up in the life of the risen Christ. In his life our past is transformed; those baptised will have the forgiveness of past sins. The words translated ‘forgiveness of’ could equally well be translated as ‘release from,’ meaning a freedom from the debilitating affects of past sins. Those baptised will share in the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit of God. God wants people of all kinds to come into this communion with Him.

3rd Sunday of Easter - 2026 - Year A

15 April 2026

In Luke’s Acts of the Apostles, today’s first reading is the first sermon from Peter after the resurrection. The literary style is not that of a Galilean Jew, but the content is believable as a very early expression of the initial preaching about Jesus. In this first century account of the beginnings of Christianity, Peter is a key figure in the growth of the early church, together with Paul, the missionary to the Gentiles. It is significant that it is a Jewish audience in Jerusalem that Peter is addressing. Jesus is referred to as the Nazarean and there is uncertainty whether this means a man from Nazareth or one specially dedicated to God, as for example, Samson in the Old Testament, called a Nazirite. The understanding of Christian beliefs develops over time, so Peter speaks about God working through Jesus where we might be clear that Jesus is Himself God; but he does see Jesus as the fulfilment of the hopes of the Old Testament and quotes Psalm 16 verses 8 to 11, which was a song originally about someone faithful to the Lord, maybe king David, being looked after by Him; (it is used for the responsorial psalm this day). In the sermon Peter accuses the Jews of engineering the death of Jesus in an anti-Semitic way; this attitude was decried by the Church most noticeably in the 20th century in the Second Vatican Council initiated by Pope Saint John XXIII, with the words: “Furthermore, in her rejection of every persecution against any person, the Church, mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the Gospel’s spiritual love, decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.” (The Church and non-Christian religions, Nostra Aetate, Oct. 1962). But for us the positive message from Peter’s sermon is that the Spirit of God is now poured out into creation because of the resurrection of Jesus destroying the deadliness of death and the power of evil in our lives. The second reading is part of an address to early Christians, probably Gentile converts. It is about what it means to be a Christian, noting that it is brought about by Christ – the writer uses the word ‘ransomed’, but no words can really capture the mystery of it. The mystery is that the final age has been initiated thanks to the work of God in Christ, through His life and death. The imagery of the sacrificial lamb which is used is derived from the bloody sacrifices of the Jewish Temple which at the time of this letter had been destroyed. And those addressed are living like people in exile and are urged to conduct themselves reverently in this situation; this reflects how the Jews were when they were in exile in Babylon, they had to work at it to keep themselves true to their calling. So, though we are elevated in our being through the work of God in Christ, we are for the time being in this world and must live here in a way becoming of our status.