A Reflection for Saturday of the Seventh Week of Easter
Find today’s readings here.
The great paschal season of Lent and Easter comes to an end this weekend, and with it, the church’s study of the book of the Acts of the Apostles and the Gospel of John, both of which have played a prominent role in celebrating Lent and Easter.
Christians have long noted the abrupt way both of these works come to an end. John’s Gospel breaks off after an odd interchange between Jesus and Peter, in which Jesus foretells the death of the beloved disciple. John’s Gospel is filled with lengthy and dense dialogues that receive extensive explication, and this passage feels like the beginning of another such exchange. Before it can receive any commentary, however, the sacred author brings the narrative to an end: “It is this disciple who testifies to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true. There are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written” (Jn 21:24-25).
Similarly, Acts of the Apostles, so rich in detail throughout, rushes to a close. Luke gives a full quarter of the book––over seven chapters––to Paul’s arrest, trial, sentence, appeal and journey to Rome. Reading these chapters one might think that Luke is setting up an account of a dramatic trial before Emperor Nero. Just after Paul arrives in Rome, however, Luke brings the book to a close: “He remained for two full years in his lodgings. He received all who came to him, and with complete assurance and without hindrance he proclaimed the Kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 28:30-31). Luke provides no mention of the outcome of the appeal, of Paul’s work in Rome or of his eventual martyrdom.
Scholars have puzzled over these endings. Some have suggested that, because writing materials were so expensive, they concluded their narrative at whatever point papyrus or parchment ran out. Other scholars point to the abrupt endings of other ancient texts to show that brief concluding summaries, sometimes in the middle of the action, were in fact the norm. The Iliad, for example, concludes with a mention of Hector’s funeral and then breaks off with the war still underway and the Greeks no closer to their goals than they were at the beginning of the poem.
There is a third possibility. Although Christians may have drawn on Greco-Roman literature to craft their abrupt endings, Christians used them to inspire discipleship. When Acts ends with Paul proclaiming the Kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ, it invites readers to do the same. Likewise, the Gospel of John ends with an implicit exhortation to testify, as the Beloved Disciple did, to everything one has seen and heard. The narratives are not complete until succeeding generations of Christians add their own testimony to the Good News that begins with Christ and his Apostles.
The church soon will return to the green days of Ordinary Time, where we have the opportunity to reflect continuously on our discipleship in everyday life. The abrupt endings of the scriptures of the paschal season propel us into these new days with new insights and new questions, seeking ways to add our own story to the great history of salvation won for us in Christ.
