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.
 

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