April 30, 2026
Acts 13:13-25 | John 13:16-20
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Today's
Readings
Acts
13:13-25 Paul
stood up in the synagogue and traced the entire history of Israel, the
patriarchs, the Exodus, the judges, Saul, David, and then said: from David's
descendants God has brought to Israel a savior, Jesus, as He promised. John the
Baptist prepared the way. Now the time has come.
John
13:16-20 At the
Last Supper, Jesus said: no slave is greater than his master, no messenger
greater than the one who sent him. Whoever receives the one I send receives me;
and whoever receives me receives the One who sent me.
Today's
Thread: The whole story was pointing here.
Paul's sermon in
the synagogue is a masterpiece of sacred history. He takes his listeners from
Abraham to David, then draws a straight line to Jesus. He is not announcing
something new; he is revealing what the whole story was always building toward.
Every patriarch, every judge, every king was a preparation for this moment.
And Jesus, at the Last Supper, says: whoever receives
the one I send, receives me. The mission is not separate from the sender. When
Paul stands up in that synagogue, he carries Christ with him. When you go where
God sends you, you carry the same.
Living
It Today:
Saint Pius V is remembered
today; he was the pope who standardized the Roman Rite and led the Church
through one of its most turbulent centuries. He was a man who understood that
the Church was the continuation of the long story Paul preached, and that every
generation is responsible for carrying it forward.
April ends today. The Easter season continues for
several more weeks. Do not let the momentum of Resurrection fade into routine.
Paul preached the whole story. from the beginning to now. You are living in
that story. Live accordingly.
Something
to sit with today:
Just
as Paul traces an unbroken line from Abraham to Jesus, God has been quietly and
faithfully writing a story in each of us as well. From your earliest memory to
this very moment, there is a thread, sometimes hard to see, sometimes painfully
clear, but always held in His hands.
And somewhere along that thread, you were placed. A family you were born into
or chose. A neighborhood you landed in. A workplace, a ministry, people who
simply became your
people. Not by chance, but by a grace that saw something in you worth sending.
Jesus said it so simply, and yet so seriously: Whoever receives the one I send, receives me.
Which means the people in your life are not just encountering you. So, while they
are standing at a door, they might be wondering what they might find on the
other side; it could be you leading them to Jesus. That is not meant to burden
us. It is a gentle but honest question worth carrying into our ordinary days: Am I making it easier or harder for the
people around me to find their way to Jesus?
Not through grand gestures or the right words, but through the small and quiet
ways we love, and the way we listen, and the way we forgive. Also, the way we
give without keeping score. These are the things that make people listen, and
it makes them curious about the source of something they can see but cannot
quite name.
So what is your story, from the beginning to right now? And in
the places where you have been sent, is the life you are living pointing
quietly, humbly, toward His?
Rosary Man Jim 🌹
