Acts 3:11-26 / Luke 24:35-48
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Octave of Easter
Thursday: Liturgy
Introduction
Jesus instructs
his disciples: “You are to be my witnesses.”
Jesus underscores three things in
this reading:
(1)
the reality
of the resurrection,
(2)
the necessity
of the cross, and
(3)
the urgency
of the task of preaching the Good News to all nations.
First, the reality of the
resurrection. Jesus says in effect, “Look at me eat! Touch me! I’m not a
phantom or a ghost. I am really Jesus; I have risen!”
Second, the necessity of the
cross. Jesus says, “It is written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from
the dead.”
Third, the urgency of preaching
the Good News. Jesus says that repentance must be preached in the Messiah’s
name to all nations.
****
What are we doing, personally? to
help preach repentance to all nations? “Every believer in this world must
become a spark of light.” John XXIII
in
Pacem in Terris
****
Nobody likes to look at wound,
because the sight of wounds gives us a squirmish feeling, especially grievous
wounds. We could also feel the pain of the wounds and the suffering that they
cause. When Jesus showed His disciples His hand and feet, they would have
certainly seen one thing. They would have certainly seen the grievous wounds in
His hands and feet, wounds that were caused by the nails, wounds that were the
signs of His crucifixion. But after Jesus showed them His wounds, their fear
turned to joy!
Indeed, by His wounds and by the
sight of His wounds, they were healed of their fear and their anguish of having
deserted and abandoned Jesus in His darkest and loneliest moment. As we look at
the wounds of the Risen Lord, Jesus in turn also wants to look at the wounds of
our hearts. He wants us to show Him our wounds, to tell Him what is troubling
and disturbing us, to tell Him our hurts and pains, as well as our anger and
resentment. Because Jesus is the Risen Lord; He is also our Saviour and our
Healer.
As the 1st reading puts it: It was
for you in the first place that God raised up His servant and sent Him to bless
you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways. Indeed, by the wounds of
the Risen Lord, we are healed and saved. We only need to turn to Jesus and show
Him our wounds for healing and salvation.
***
WITNESSES TO THE
RISEN LORD
Introduction
We gather for our Eucharist because we firmly believe that
Christ died for us and he is risen from the dead. We gather around the risen
Lord to open our hearts and minds to his word and to let him fill us with his
living presence. He tells us, as he told his apostles: “Look, it is really I;
listen to me; touch me in the food and drink of the Eucharist.” Thus, in our
assemblies, we proclaim the risen Christ and bear witness to him. But this
faith must find expression in our everyday Christian living: since Christ is
risen, he must rise in us; we must become a new people in whom Christ is alive.
We must bear witness to him with the whole of our lives.
Opening Prayer
Almighty God and Father, Jesus died for us on the cross and
you raised him from the dead. We have not seen the marks of the nails in his
hands nor touched the wound in his side, but we believe that he is alive and
present here among us. Open our hearts to his Word and let us touch him in the
bread of the Eucharist, that he may raise us up above our sins and change us
into new people. May we thus, bear witness to your risen Son, Jesus Christ, our
Lord.
Commentary
The curiosity seekers who rush to see the cured lame man are
addressed by Peter in a speech of reproach as well as forgiveness. The Jews in
the audience had turned Jesus over to the authorities and were thus accomplices
in his execution. But forgiveness can still be theirs. They must first
recognize Christ as the healer of the crippled man and repent of their sins.
Peter recognizes that they had acted out of ignorance, but with repentance
forgiveness can still be theirs. In his first appearance to the apostles in
Luke’s Gospel, Jesus highlights more than personal immortality. His visible
form is not a vision or a phantasm; rather it involved his whole physical
makeup. Jesus’ resurrection would not necessarily have had to include his body,
but the Gospels are at pain to show that it did. The disciples are invited to
touch his hands and feet. Jesus asks for something to eat and then consumes it
in their presence. Although totally transformed in indescribable ways, this is
the same Jesus who had spent his earthly ministry in their company. The risen
Christ is a Spirit-filled presence, a Spirit that Christ communicates to his
followers. There is no sin that cannot be remitted. What is necessary is to
recognize that Jesus of Nazareth is truly Lord and Messiah and then to accept
the forgiveness of sins. It is impossible for us to understand fully what a
true resurrection entails. For Christ it meant a totally different form of
existence. But it did include the body that had been given to him. There were
Christian heresies that disdained the physical and saw the human body as
ignoble. But authentic faith teaches that we share a common nature with our
Messiah and Lord. Totally human, we desire to make holy that which comes from
God.
Points to Ponder
Forgiveness for the death of Jesus
The corporeality of Jesus
Sanctity of the whole person.
Intercessions
– That in the name of the Risen Lord, the Church may raise
up its members and even outsiders to a new and better life, we pray: – That the
Risen Lord may give us peace and serenity of heart, that in him, we have
someone to live for and to make our lives meaningful, we pray:
– That the Risen Lord may give peace to our Christian
communities through the certainty, that he stays with us and breaks for us the
bread of the Eucharist, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
Living Father, with bread and wine, we celebrate the
presence of your Son in our midst here around this table and in the life of
every day. Let us experience him here as your great gift to us and let him stay
with us in our never-ending quest to be your people trying to live the risen
life of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Prayer after
Communion
God of life and saving love, we have enjoyed the presence of
your Son among us for we have been together in his name, he has spoken to us
his words of life and we have shared his table. May he live on in our community
by our attentive presence to one another, by our common faith expressed in
deeds of love and service, of gratitude and compassion and by our efforts to
create a better world where there is justice and hope for all. May we thus,
journey together to you and bear witness that Christ is our Lord, now and for
ever.
Blessing
“Peace be with you,” says Jesus to us. It is really he who
lives among us. Let us touch him in our prayers, in our closeness to him, and
may Almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
