«
We continue to
celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus.
«
Jesus comes in
the midst of his friends.
«
The book of Acts
describes the way in which the first community of disciples lived their faith. They
still considered themselves part of the Jewish religion. Little by little they
will discover the newness of Jesus and of his preaching, and eventually they
will separate themselves from the synagogue to walk on their own in the
following of Jesus. Jesus had already said “new wine in new skins”
«
Today Peter and
John say words which the Church of all times should wish to be able to repeat:
“we do not have silver or gold, but what we have we give it to you … are
witness of the RESURRECTION OF JESUS. The
power is in Jesus not in our material means.
¡ALLELUIA, JESUS, THE LORDS IS RISEN!!!
FIRST
READING – ACTS 3:13-15. 17-19
«
Peter and John go
up to the Temple for the evening prayer.
«
They see a paralytic
man begging. They see the suffering of the man, his lack of mobility, his
humiliation.
«
Peter asks the
man to look at them, and says to the man that they do not have gold
or silver, but they will share him what they have: the faith in the Risen Lord,
their faith in the power of Jesus. STAND UP AND WALK!
«
In the liturgy of
the third Sunday we read the explanation that Peter gives of this act of power
done by their means. It is not them it is the Lord who has done it.
«
Peter gives his
second missionary speech:
o
Why are you
surprised? Why do you look at us as if we had done this miracle?
o
The miracle, the
healing of this man is the work of Jesus. And you should not be surprised since
during his earthly life he did many of these miracles. He went about doing good to all.
o
Peter reminds his
audience how the God of Abraham… has glorified his servant Jesus.
§
They handed him
over to the gentiles
§
They chose a
criminal over the man that had done so many good things for all.
§
Looking at this
people that did not know how to choose well, that preferred death and evil,
maybe we can see ourselves, we can see all the human generations since the
beginning of time.
§
They say that our
culture is the culture of death. Let us think the different manifestations of
this culture of death
§
But GOD HAS RAISED HIM FROM THE DEATH AND WE
ARE WITNESSES OF ALL OF THIS.
§
Are we also witnesses of the resurrection, of the new
life? With our life which has been
changed after we have encountered the Risen Lord. Do we believe in the
resurrection of Jesus and in our resurrection?
o
Peter says to them that he knows that they
acted by ignorance.
o
He invites them
to repent, to change their lives.
RESPONSORIAL
PSALM Ps 4:2.4.7-8.9
LORD LET YOU
FACE SHINE ON US
Ø
Psalm 4 is a
psalm of complete trust in God because the psalmist has had the experience of
being heard and defended by God.
Ø
Some of the
verses have an extraordinary beauty of trust on the part of the praying person:
You put gladness into my heart. As soon as I lie down, I fall peacefully asleep
for you alone, O Lord, bring security to my dwelling.
Ø
The dwelling may
be my home, my family, but it can also be my most inner being, my heart.
Ø
I TRUST IN YOU
FOR YOUR ARE MY GOD.
SECOND
READING 1 Jn 2:1-5
«
Let us reflect on
some aspects of this letter:
o The readers of this letter are new Christians, who are
far in time and place from the events related to Jesus, far from the members of
the first generation even of the second.
o Their behavior is based on the witnesses who saw and
touched the Word of Life, and they proclaimed it to the next generation, and
these to the present generation, so the joy of the one who proclaims shall be also
the joy of those who hear the proclamation.
o These Christians have to endure the threats of the
heresy about Jesus: the heresy taught that the historical Jesus was not
important, and minimized also the value
of the shedding of his blood
o The author uses different ways to help his brothers
and sisters:
§ He helps the community to be aware of the demands of
the Christian Life
§ Discernment between what it means to be a Christian
and what it means not to be a Christian.
§ He offers some criteria to make the discernment. Those who follow the teachings of the Lord are
in communion with the Father, and with the Son, and with the Holy Spirit
«
Let us meditate
on next Sunday’s reading.
§
John writes his letter to help the addressees
of the letter to keep themselves far from sin.
§
But if we sin, we
have an intercessor with the Father, Jesus Christ the Just one.
§
John tells us
that to be sure that we know Jesus (to know means to have a knowledge based on
love) if we keep his commands, we could say also if we are faithful to the new
covenant sealed with his blood.
GOSPEL OF
LUKE 24:35-48
On Easter Sunday
and on the Second Sunday of Easter we have read from the gospels of Mark and
John. Today we will read from the end of the Gospel of Luke.
Let us see the
message it has for us
Simon (Peter) has
seen the Lord, and this has convinced the little community of believers of the
truth of the resurrection.
The two from Emmaus
come, they tell those in the upper room what has happened to them and how they
recognized him on the breaking of the bread.
The little
community believes because it has heard from the witnesses, but to become
witnesses themselves they need to have the experience of the Risen Lord.
Jesus comes
suddently and stands in their midst
o
But they cannot believe because of their joy. They had
seen him dead on the cross. All of them
left him in the moment he needed them the most. How can he come and speak
to us?
o
It is me, look
that I have flesh and bones, ghosts do not have flesh and bones as I have.
o
These words from
the Gospel of Luke make us think that they are seeing the same Jesus with whom
they shared the life and ministry before his crucifixion. The Risen Lord is the same Jesus of Nazareth, his Teacher and
friend.
o
Jesus wants to
convince them, give me something to eat. You know that the dead and the ghosts
do not eat.
o
He opens their
minds to understand the Scriptures. He does for them as he did for those on the way to Emmaus.
o
Is it not what he
also does for us? He opens our minds to understand the Scriptures, what a
consolation it is to know that when we read, meditate and share the Scriptures
with love and faith, He is with us, and explains them to us.
o
After seeing the
Risen Lord, after understanding the meaning of the events of Good Friday, they
are ready to be sent on mission: to be witnesses of all of this. What does it
mean “this”? it means JESUS OF NAZARETH DEAD AND RISEN FOR US.
o
To help them, to
help us He will send the promise from the Father: THE SPIRIT, the strength that
comes from the Father.
We need to have
the same experience that these men had, if we are to proclaim our faith:
o
To see the Risen
Lord, how?
o
Everything begins
for us when we have that special experience in our life; we call it the
experience of God.
o
Where? In a
retreat, in a happy event of our life, in a deep suffering, when we have lost some
one dear to us, in sickness… In anything that makes us say with enthusiasm “I
have found the Lord” and it will always
be the risen Lord.
o
Sometimes it will happened so suddendly that it might
even be violent. Some other time it will
be as quiet as the breeze that Moses heard. We will realize that something has
happened, probably after some time.
o
From this moment
a journey of “conversion” begins for us. The Master goes before us, we have
only to follow him.
o
When the
experience has been real, even if we have ups and downs in our spiritual life,
the experience will always come back to us, and will continue to change our
life.
o
And this change
which can be seen by all, is our first
means of proclaiming our faith in the Risen Lod. And whenever we are asked we will explain the
meaning of our faith.
CLARETIAN CORNER
My
God Triune and One: Father, Son and Holy Spirit; I ask you, that in your
infinite wisdom, you illuminate me, so
that I shall know you and I shall know me, and I shall know all that you want
me to do, to serve and love you with the perfection which is possible in this
life, with your divine help. Let me know my God, what is the best for the whole
family you have entrusted to me, and for each one of my dear sisters: grant
them your light so they all will know what you want from each one of them, thus we
will be docile, and will not oppose your inspirations and most holy
will . (Venerable María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian
Missionary Sisters. Morning prayer which she recited every morning)
What is lacking then, my Mother? Would you perhaps avail
yourself of some instrument with which to remedy so great an evil? Here is one
who however vile and contemptible he knows himself to be, is yet assured that
he will serve the better for this end, since your power will shine forth all
the brighter, and all will see that it is you who are at work, not I. Come now,
loving Mother, let us lose no time. Here I am: dispose of me as you will, for
you know that I am wholly yours. I trust that you will do this out of your
great kindness, pity, and mercy, and I ask you this through the love you bear
for the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen."(Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the
Claretian Missionary Sisters. Autobiography 156. This
prayers comes after another prayer in which he asks Mary to destroy all the
heresies which existed in his time)
No comments:
Post a Comment