Catholic Mass Readings and Reflection May 13, 2026

13th May 2026 (Wednesday)

Psalter: Week 2

Readings of the Day

First Reading: Acts 17:15, 22-18:1

In those days: Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed. So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed long and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way towards him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” So Paul went out from their midst. But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.

Psalm 148:1-2, 11-12, 13, 14

R/. Heaven and earth are full of your glory or: Alleluia!

Gospel Acclamation

V/. Alleluia

R/. Alleluia

V/. I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you for ever.

R/. Alleluia

Gospel: John 16:12-15

At that time: Jesus said to his disciples, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

Daily Gospel Reflection

Wednesday – 6th Week of Easter

Main Point: The Holy Spirit constantly desires to guide us into the fullness of truth, but this profound divine revelation requires absolute intellectual humility rather than the arrogant skepticism of the secular world.

1. In the Gospel today, Jesus demonstrates His magnificent pedagogical patience with His disciples. He frankly tells them, “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.” The Lord intimately knows our human frailty and our limited spiritual capacity. He does not overwhelm us with blinding theological light, but gently prepares us to receive the Advocate, the Spirit of truth.

2. This Holy Spirit is promised to guide us into all truth. He does not invent a new, contradictory gospel to suit the changing times; rather, He glorifies Christ by taking everything that belongs to the Father and the Son and declaring it to us. However, receiving this progressive divine revelation demands a profound interior docility. We must be entirely willing to let the Spirit stretch our spiritual boundaries.

3. Tragically, we frequently suffer from a paralyzing intellectual pride. We prefer to rely solely on our worldly intelligence, arrogantly assuming that if a divine mystery does not neatly fit into our human calculations, it can be safely dismissed. We desire a comfortable faith that requires no deep conversion, no discomfort, and no surrender of our own opinions.

4. St. Paul brilliantly confronts this exact sophisticated arrogance in the first reading. He stands in the Areopagus of Athens, the absolute epicenter of worldly philosophy and intellectual debate. He observes their myriad shrines, specifically pointing out an altar dedicated “To an Unknown God.” The Athenians were highly religious in a superficial sense, perfectly content to keep the divine at a safe, uncommitted, and unknown distance.

5. Paul fiercely dismantles this comfortable, non-demanding setup. He proclaims the true, living Creator of the universe, explicitly declaring that the Lord of heaven and earth does not dwell in man-made sanctuaries and cannot be reduced to human philosophies. Furthermore, Paul introduces the uncompromising demand of the Gospel: God commands absolute repentance and warns of a coming judgment through the Resurrected Christ.

6. The immediate reaction of the sophisticated crowd is deeply instructive. The exact moment Paul mentions the resurrection of the dead, they begin to scoff. Their refined, worldly intellects cannot bear the scandalous truth of the Resurrection. They politely dismiss the Apostle, saying, “We should like to hear you on this some other time.” They indefinitely delay their conversion because the truth demands too radical a change.

7. We frequently mimic these dismissive Athenians in our own spiritual lives. When the Spirit of truth convicts our consciences regarding a habitual sin, or when the Church proclaims a moral truth that directly challenges our secular lifestyles, we quickly scoff. We politely tell the Lord that we will deal with our conversion “some other time,” preferring to keep Him as a distant, abstract concept rather than the demanding Master of our daily lives.

8. Yet, not everyone walked away in arrogance. A few individuals, like Dionysius and Damaris, completely abandoned their intellectual pride, joined Paul, and believed. They allowed the Spirit of truth to shatter their philosophical defenses and open their hearts to the profound, life-altering reality of sanctifying grace.

My Practice: Let us totally renounce the sophisticated skepticism of the modern world. We must stop treating the Gospel as a mere philosophy to be debated or a tradition to be passively observed. Let us humbly invoke the Spirit of truth today, granting Him full permission to shatter our intellectual pride and lead us into absolute, unconditional conversion.