THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER – CYCLE A - 2020
INTRODUCTION
Ø
On the third
Sunday of Easter the liturgy, through the readings, invites us to see how a
follower of Jesus lives the resurrection. We will have two readings from Luke,
one from Acts, and the other from the Gospel.
Ø
Raymond Brown in
his book A Risen Christ in Easter Time,
explains that Luke puts the two volumes of his work within a geographical
framework.
o
The narrative
begins in the Temple of Jerusalem (Lk 1:5-8. When Zechariah, John Baptist’s father offered
the incense) and the narrative ends in Rome (Acts 28:28) with an evangelization
oriented towards the gentiles.
o
The connection between
both, the story of Jesus of Nazareth and the story of the Holy Spirit who guides
the Church is “all the things that have happened in Jerusalem” which are the
passion, death, resurrection and sending of the Holy Spirit.
§ The passion and death
Lk 22-23 are narrated in the
first volume of Luke’s work: the Gospel
§ The sending of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2) is found in
the second volume of the work: The Acts
of the Apostles.
§ But the resurrection, being so central for our faith, is
narrated twice. We find the apparitions
of the Risen Lord at the end of the Gospel and at the beginning of the Acts. (Lk
24; Acts 1:3-9)
o
The Gospel begins
in the Temple of Jerusalem (1: 5-8) and
ends also in the Temple of Jerusalem (24:53)
o
Acts begins in Jerusalem and ends in Rome (28:28);
from there the Gospel will be preached to the whole world.
In the Old Testament
the prophet Isaiah describes how the nations invite one another to go up to
Jerusalem to receive instruction from the Lord, because from Zion will come the
Law and from Jerusalem the Word of the Lord. (Is 2:1-3). According to the Work of Luke, the
Good News of Jesus begin in Jerusalem and from Jerusalem they are preached
to whole world.
FIRST READING – Acts 2: 14. 22-28
« In the book of Acts we find this text after the coming
of the Holy Spirit in Pentecost.
« However, the liturgy of the Church offers this text on
the third Sunday of Easter because, in his proclamation, Peter announces the
Paschal Mystery of Christ, which we celebrate during Easter Season.
« The first verse introduces the proclamation
« Verses 22-24 are the kerygma or first proclamation of the
Gospel of Christ.
« Peter is presented here as a prophet in the style of
the Old Testament prophets. He denounces, “you crucified him” and announces, “but God raised him up.”
« Peter tells the people:
o
That Jesus is the
gift that God had made to them and that they did not know how to appreciate it
o
That Jesus is the
fulfillment of the promises made by God to his people Israel.
« On reading the texts it is consoling to realize that
God always fulfills his promises and, that none of us is able to prevent them
for being fulfilled, God is always faithful.
« Jesus is the great gift from God, not only to his
people but also to the whole human race, but we continue to crucify him in the
millions of our brothers and sisters who suffer because of our lack of love, our
ambition, our avarice and our indifference. As St Peter puts it “you have
crucified him” and we could rephrase this sentence saying: you continue to
crucify your brothers and sisters today.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM: Ps 16
R. Lord,
you will show us the path of life.or:
Keep me, O God, for in you I take refuge;
I say to the LORD, "My Lord are you."
O LORD, my allotted portion and my cup,
you it is who hold fast my lot.
R. Lord, you will show us the path of life.or:
I bless the LORD who counsels me;
even in the night my heart exhorts me.
I set the LORD ever before me;
with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.
R. Lord, you will show us the path of life.
Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices,
my body, too, abides in confidence;
because you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld,
nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption.
R. Lord, you will show us the path of life.
You will show me the path to life,
abounding joy in your presence,
the delights at your right hand forever.
R. Lord, you will show us the path of life.
Keep me, O God, for in you I take refuge;
I say to the LORD, "My Lord are you."
O LORD, my allotted portion and my cup,
you it is who hold fast my lot.
R. Lord, you will show us the path of life.or:
I bless the LORD who counsels me;
even in the night my heart exhorts me.
I set the LORD ever before me;
with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.
R. Lord, you will show us the path of life.
Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices,
my body, too, abides in confidence;
because you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld,
nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption.
R. Lord, you will show us the path of life.
You will show me the path to life,
abounding joy in your presence,
the delights at your right hand forever.
R. Lord, you will show us the path of life.
Ø
What a beautiful
psalm, we perceive in it the trust that its author had and his complete
abandonment in the hands of God.
Ø
The liturgy puts
these words in the mouth of Jesus
Ø
O, if we had
these absolute trust in our God and Father!
Ø
Jesus has taught
this during his life
Ø
May we be able to
say to God the Father as Jesus did “my heart rests in you.”
SECOND READING 1Pt 1:17-21
We continue to read
the First Letter of Peter, which we began on the Second Sunday of Easter.
Ø The Father judges us according to our own behavior.
Ø Peter invites us to live during our earthly life, as a
sojourn in a strange land, remembering that we have been liberated from our old
ways of life, not by money, but by the blood of the lamb.
Ø During the first Passover celebrated in Egypt before
leaving the country; the blood of the lamb that had been sacrificed, and was going to be
eaten during the Passover meal, smeared on the doors, would be a sign for the
angel to spare the household members. Peter uses this image to remind us that
the true lamb whose blood saves and redeems us is the blood of Christ the true
lamb, sacrificed on the cross, and raised from the dead by the Father.
GOSPEL Lk 24,13-35.
This passage is the image or representation of the
journey of faith of a disciple of Jesus.
And also of the Eucharistic celebration (Word and Body
of the Lord)
It describes the journey of faith based on Scriptures,
which the Lord clarifies for us on the way
(vv.17; 25-23)
Journey of faith that has its ups and downs (vv.
21-24)
Their heart was enkindled as the Lord was speaking to them, but they were not aware of it, until
the breaking of the bread (v.33)
Faithful to the precept of hospitality that God had
given in the law, they invited the foreigner to stay for the night since it was
already dark. (v.29)
The action of Jesus together with the fire that had
been enkindled in them on the way, through the words of the traveler, prepared
their hearts to recognize him in the “breaking of the bread.” (v.30)
When the man on the road joined them, they were tired
and sad; now after discovering that the man on the road was Jesus, the same
Jesus whom the women had seen they got the strength to go back to Jerusalem.
When they
arrived, all the others told them that the Lord was risen indeed, because Peter
had seen him.
Let us reflect and meditate:
o
When we come to
the Eucharistic Celebration, do we allow the Lord to enkindle our heart with
his love?
o
Do we listen to
his Word with the same attention that we had the first time we listen to it?
o
Do we receive the
Bread of the Eucharist, his body and blood, with the same enthusiasm and joy of
the first time?
o
Do we ask the
Lord to explain to us the meaning of what is going on in our life, in our
family, in our community, in our society, in our world? Do we listen to what he says?
Rev. Dionisio González, in a letter
to S. Anthony M. Claret written from Cuba on July 31st 1858 says,
I write to your Excellency
about the sisters’ business, on which occasion I have read again very carefully
the Plan for the Renewal. I like it very much, and it is clear that
they address the main problem. On reading it again, and on thinking about those
written by your Excellency for the Bishops, I realize that Maria Antonia’s Plan prepares
the ground to accomplish the Renewal proposed in yours in such a way that on comparing them, I think that a same spirit is guiding both
pens.
Rev.
Dionisio considers that María Antonia’s Plan prepares the way to realize the
Renewal proposed by Claret. He expresses this with a very beautiful comparison:
a same spirit has guided both pens.
In the
correspondence between Claret, Currius, D. Dionisio González and María Antonia,
whenever we find the phrases our Project,
the main goal or our main purpose, they are speaking about the Renewal of the
Church, with which they identify and to which they commit themselves.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BROWN,
Raymond, A Risen Christ in Easter Time.
MUÑOZ, Hortensia & TUTZO, Regina Claretian Missionary Sisters. Two Pens
Guided by the Same Spirit. 2010
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