Ø
On the third
Sunday of Easter the liturgy, through the readings, invites us to see how a follower of Jesus
lives the resurrection. This coming Sunday 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 Zecchariah,
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 themselves 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 all the 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 our 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 done to them and that they did not know how to appreciate it
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That Jesus is the
fulfillment of the promises made by God to his people Israel.
« On reading these 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 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. Aas 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
LORD YOU
WILL SHOW ME 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.
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.
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.
You will show me the path to life
Abounding joy in your presence
The delight at your right hand forever.
Ø
What a beautiful
psalm, we perceive in it the trust that its author had and his/her complete
abandonment in the hands of God.
Ø
The liturgy puts
these words in the mouth of Jesus
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O, if we had
these absolute trust in our God and Father!
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Jesus has taught
this during his life
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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 the disciple of Jesus.
And also of the
Eucharistic celebration (Word and Body of the Lord)
It presents to us
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 invite 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 saw 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?
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Do we listen to
his Word with the same attention that we had the first time we listen to it?
.
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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?
In this
occasion, when I needed this hope so much, the Lord enlivened it in my soul
to such a degree that it was reflected in my body, and people around me in
those last days were amazed to see the calm with which I acted in everything, a clear sign of the peace that my soul enjoyed in that occasion when all was a motive for
disturbance and fear, but for those whose faith is dead, and hope more in
powerless men than in God who rules and sustains the whole world with just an
act of his will. And neither the earth nor the sea with all the elements will
ever surpass their limits without the divine disposition. (Venerable María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary
Sisters, Autobiography 136)
Overwhelmed by the nomination, I had no desire to
accept it because I considered myself unworthy and incapable of such a great
dignity, for which I lacked both the necessary knowledge and virtue. Even
after prolonged reflection on the matter, I concluded that, even if I had the
required knowledge and virtue, it would be wrong for me to abandon the
Religious Library and the Congregation, which were just coming into being. Therefore I forcefully rejected all the
overtures of the Papal Nuncio, Monsignor Brunelli, as
well as those of the Attorney General of Spain, Don Lorenzo Arrazola. When
both of these gentlemen, the Nuncio and the Attorney General, saw that they
were getting nowhere with me, they decided to work through my superior, the
Bishop of Vich, whom I always obeyed blindly, and he, in turn, formally
commanded me to accept. (Saint
Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters,
Autobiography 495.)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BROWN,
Raymond, A Risen Christ in Easter Time.
CLARET,
Antonio María, Autobiography.
PARIS,
María Antonia, Autobiography.
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