But how do we respond?  It is easy to listen to only one side of this message.  We might hear Jesus say “If anyone hears my words and does not observe them, I do not condemn him” as a kind of carte blanche to ignore the demands of the Christian life.  On the other hand, we might hear Jesus say “Whoever rejects me and does not accept my words has something to judge him: the word that I spoke, it will condemn him on the last day” and leap to self-righteous judgement about who is and is not favored by God.  The Catholic tradition has always emphasized the balance that exists between God’s mercy and God’s judgement and between God’s call and our response. Still, there remains the question, how do we respond?

The reading from the book of Acts insists that a response must come from a call.  The early Christian community, attempting to respond to the Gospel and spread the news of the resurrection, was trying to discern who to send forth in mission.  The decision, though, is not theirs; it is the Holy Spirit who decides who to send.  In the end, the community described in Acts trusted that God would show them how to proceed and, to return to the image offered in today’s Gospel, how to respond to the word that Jesus offered.

The juxtaposition of the reading from John and the reading from Acts evokes for us a message of confident trust. When we gather together in prayer as a community and in faith, the Spirit of God is with us, showing us how to listen to the words of Jesus and how to follow them.