Humble And Teachable Faith

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Easter Feria

Today's Readings:
[ Acts 18:23-28; Ps 47:1-2, 7-10; Jn 16:23b-28 ]

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus speaks words of extraordinary intimacy: “The Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God”. So often we imagine prayer as an attempt to persuade God to care, to listen, or to act. Yet Jesus turns that assumption upside down. We do not begin in distance from God, pleading to be noticed. We begin already beloved.

This promise echoes through the other readings. In Acts, we meet Apollos, a man “eloquent” and “well-versed in the scriptures”, fervent in spirit but still incomplete in understanding. Rather than dismiss him, Priscilla and Aquila gently take him aside and explain “the Way of God to him more accurately”. Faith is not a solitary achievement. God often teaches us through humble companions on the journey.

A Franciscan perspective invites us to see this as the quiet work of grace in community. St. Francis was no great scholar, yet he trusted that God speaks through brothers and sisters, through correction offered in charity, and through simple faithfulness. Apollos reminds us that zeal is good, but humility makes zeal fruitful. To follow Christ is to remain teachable.

The psalm calls all peoples to clap their hands and shout for joy because “God is king of all the earth”. This kingship, however, is not domination but loving presence. In Christ, God does not reign from afar. Jesus says, “I came from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world and am going to the Father”. God enters our human life and draws humanity back toward divine love.

Today, perhaps the invitation is to simply pray with confidence. Ask boldly. Trust deeply. And remain humble enough to let God teach you through unexpected people. The Father already loves you. Prayer is not knocking on a locked door—it is learning to enter a house whose welcome has already been prepared.

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