Bust of Christ,
Catacomb of Pontianus (9th c.)

Readings
Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48
Psalm 98:1-4
1 John 4:7-10
John 15:9-17

God is love, and He revealed that love in sending His only Son to be a sacrificial offering for our sins.

In these words from today’s Epistle, we should hear an echo of the story of Abraham’s offering of Isaac at the dawn of salvation history. Because Abraham obeyed God’s command and did not with-hold his only beloved son, God promised that Abraham’s descendants, the children of Israel, would be the source of blessing for all nations (see Genesis 22:16-18).

We see that promise coming to fulfillment in today’s First Reading. God pours out His Spirit upon the Gentiles, the non-Israelites, as they listen to the word of Peter’s preaching. Notice they receive the same gifts received by the devout Jews who heard Peter’s preaching at Pentecost—the Spirit comes to rest upon them and they speak in tongues, glorifying God (see Acts 2:5-11).

In his love today, God reveals that His salvation embraces the house of Israel and peoples of all nations. Not by circumcision or blood relation to Abraham, but by faith in the Word of Christ, sealed in the sacrament of baptism, peoples are to be made children of Abraham, heirs to God’s covenants of promise (see Galatians 3:7-9; Ephesians 2:12).

This is the wondrous work of God that we sing of in today’s Psalm. It is the work of the Church, the good fruit that Jesus chooses and appoints His apostles for in today’s Gospel.

As Peter raises up Cornelius today, the Church continues to lift all eyes to Christ, the only one in whose name they can find salvation.

In the Church, each of us has been begotten by the love of God. But the Scriptures today reveal that this divine gift brings with it a command and a duty. We are to love one another as we have been loved. We are to lay down our lives in giving ourselves to others—that they too might find friendship with Christ, and new life through Him

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St. Ignatius of Antioch (d. 110)
from Letter to the Romans, 4-8

I write to all the churches and charge them all to know that I die willingly for God provided you do not hinder me. I entreat you, spare me from importunate good will. Allow me to belong to the wild beasts through whom I may attain God. I am God's grain and I am ground by the teeth of wild beasts that I may become pure bread...

The furthest bound of the universe and the kingdoms of this world will profit me nothing. It is better for me to die for the sake of Jesus Christ than to reign over the boundaries of the earth. Him I seek who died for us; him I desire who rose for our sakes. My labor pains draw near. Forgive me, brethren: do not hinder me from entering into life... Allow me to receive the light that is pure. When I have won through, then shall I truly be a man. Suffer me to be an imitator of the Passion of my God...

My Love has been crucified and there is not within me any fire of earthly desire, but only water that lives and speaks in me and says from within me: 'Come to the Father.' I have no pleasure in the food of corruption nor in the pleasures of this material life. I desire God's bread, which is the flesh of Christ, who is of the seed of David; and for drink I desire his blood, which is love incorruptible.