East4A23.   Acts of the Apostles 2:14a, 36-41.   When Peter spoke to the crowd there saying, “this Jesus whom you crucified,”“they were cut to the heart” that they had done such.  Then “Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’” Peter was telling them to ask for forgiveness for their godless ways and be born into God’s way of life in Jesus and receive the Holy Spirit who would enable them to live in God’s spiritual way of life.  Three thousand accepted.

John 10:1-10.  Jesus, the gatekeeper, is the owner who keeps within the gates what is his own.  Those who are his own do not follow anyone else because they recognize the one to whom they belong, Jesus.  “They do not follow a stranger.”  All the gatekeepers, who came before Jesus, were looking out for their own interest and not for the sheep, those over whom they were put in charge.  In a stark contrast, Jesus “came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”

Psalm 23: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.  In verdant pastures he gives me repose; beside restful waters he leads me; he refreshes my soul.”

1 Peter 2:20b-25.  “By his wounds you have been healed.  For you had gone astray like sheep, but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.”  The God who is love cares for us as a shepherd cares for his sheep.

Easter4A20.    Acts of the Apostles 2:14a, 36-41.   Peter “proclaimed: “Let the whole house of Israel know for certain that God has made both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified,” “Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart.” Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized.”  “Those who accepted this message were baptized, and about three thousand persons were added that day.” Jesus in Luke 8:15 said, “But for the seed that fell on rich soil, they are the ones who, when they have heard the word, embrace it with a generous and good heart, and bear fruit through perseverance.” Among the people that heard the words of Peter there were many who were like the good soil that God had prepared to be open to Peter’s words, the good seed.  The Pharisees on the other hand were hard-hearted and rejected Jesus.  The gift who prepares us daily to be good soil till the day we die is the Holy Spirit.

John 10:1-10.  Jesus said, “I am the gate for the sheep.” “Whoever enters through me will be saved, will come and go out and find pasture.”  “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”   Jesus daily helps us to grow in holiness, the good soil.  He feeds us with the life that only he has, a share in his divine life, his holiness.  “The Pharisees did not realize” that he was calling them the thieves and robbers who used their position as religious leaders to feed themselves and not the flock.  In John 14:6 Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”   By his suffering, death and resurrection he open the gate to heaven for all of us who follow him who is not only the gate but also the shepherd. (John 10:11)  He cares for us so much that despite the fact that he is gloriously almighty, each one of us is like a sheep who is dear to him, our shepherd.  The imagery of us being sheep is a call for us to be so humble and docile that we willingly and lovingly follow and obey him.

1 Peter 2:20b-25.  To be a follower of Jesus meant at the time of the first Christians to suffer and be ridiculed.  Our answer to that suffering then and now is to willingly suffer as Jesus suffered for us joining our suffering to his.  Jesus has shepherded us by offering himself up as the innocent lamb that was sacrificed for sinners.  “By his wounds we have been healed, for you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.”

E4A.  Acts of the Apostles 2:14a, 36-41.  “God has made both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”  That crowd accept the truth of the words of Peter and so, they asked, “’What are we to do, my brothers?’  Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’”  To repent is to reject everything that is not of the Will of God.  To be baptized is to accept entry into the Church, the community of God, so that together, through the work of the Holy Spirit in the Church, we may become God’s holy people.  Being conceived into the human race is the vocation to become holy through both an individual and communitarian effort.

John 10:1-10.  “Although Jesus used this figure of speech, the Pharisees did not realize what he was trying to tell them.”  This sentence is key to understanding the comparison that Jesus draws between himself as the Savior who leads us out of the motivation for what is good for us versus the Pharisees who are leaders for what they can gain for themselves.  Jesus proclaims himself to be benevolent gatekeeper, gate and shepherd who has come to save us by giving us the abundance of eternal life; whereas, the Pharisees are thieves and robbers who steal, slaughter and destroy the good things that God does and has given to those who believe in him.  Jesus says of himself, “I am the gate.  Whoever enters through me will be saved.” In John 14:6, “Jesus said to Thomas, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”  It is only if we go to God the Father that we can have salvation and the only way to him is through Jesus.  In John 15:4-5, Jesus says, “I am the vine, you are the branches.  Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.”  Without Jesus the work of the Pharisees is destructive.  In fact they block the way to God.

“The shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.  When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice.”  Jesus’ followers develop a sense of personal closeness to him because they feel they belong to Jesus and Jesus feels they belong to him and so cares for them deeply.  “But they will not follow a stranger.”  Jesus’ followers have come to trust him, i. e., put their faith in him and in him alone.

1 Peter 2:20b-25.  “Beloved: If you are patient when you suffer for doing what is good, this is a grace before God.  For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps.”  In the English language we say that verbs have an active and a passive voice.  In the active voice the subject acts, in other words, is the one who performs the action spoken of by the verb.  In the passive voice the subject receives the action spoken of by the verb.  When we speak of Jesus’ Passion, we are saying that he received the action spoken of by the verb which was torture and death, i. e. that he willingly received the suffering that was dealt to him.  In this reading from Peter (“If you are patient”) the word patient means that we willingly receive the suffering that is dealt to us.  Living life in ‘the good times and in the bad’ for one another is commonly recognized as what life here on earth is all about.  To Christianize suffering is to say that the cause for suffering is a grace from God, an opportunity to give ourselves to God’s Will as Jesus did in the Agony of the Garden (Matthew 26:38-42), when he asked that the cup of suffering that was about to be his, pass him by but God the Father rejected his plea.  It is the nature of all living things to seek what feels good and avoid what feels bad.  It is supernatural, spiritual to seek to fulfill the Will of God, no matter how it feels.  “The spirit is willing; the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:41b)  How much more merit there is to do God’s Will when it is difficult and against what we naturally would like to do.  The Shepherd gave himself for the sheep; should not the sheep be obedient to the Shepherd even unto death?

 

East3A23.   Acts of the Apostles 2:14, 22-33.  Peter said, “God had sworn an oath to him (David) that he would set one of his descendants upon his throne, he foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of Christ.”  God planned to send a descendant of David who would be enthroned to lead God’s People and who would not be subject to a death that would end his leadership of his People.  God fulfilled that plan in the person of Jesus.

Luke 24:13-35.  Jesus explained to two of his disciples on the road to Emmaus that God had revealed through the prophets his plan that the Messiah would have to suffer to achieve God’s purposes.  Jesus “then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, (he) interpreted to them what referred to him in all the Scriptures.”  In Matthew 16:21 Jesus predicted that he would suffer greatly at the hands of the Jewish authorities, “be killed and on the third be raised.”  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

1 Peter 1:17-21.  God had an eternal plan for our redemption. “He (Jesus) was known before the foundation of the world but revealed in the final time for you, who through him believe in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.” Rejoice in the salvation that is growing more and more day by day to one day bloom magnificently in our eternal life in heaven.

Easter3A20.   Acts of the Apostles 2:14, 22-33.   “Jesus, the Nazorean, was a man commended to you by God with mighty deeds, wonders, and signs, which God worked through him in your midst.”  “This man,” “you killed;” “but God raised him up, releasing from the throes of death.” David “foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ.” “God raised this Jesus; of this we all witnesses.” The once fearful Peter, hiding in the Upper Room but now burning with the fire of the Holy Spirit, fearlessly announces that the once dead Jesus is now the risen Messiah.

Luke 24:13-35.   How wonderful is this narrative of Jesus and his two disciples on the way to Emmaus.  Later the followers of Jesus were known as the people of the Way.  The Way is the journey we make daily with Jesus to heaven.  When we lose sight of this, we become wanderers in the darkness.  Not realizing that they are talking to the risen Jesus, Jesus’ companions to Emmaus tell him that Jesus was put to death on the cross.  They were despondent because they had hoped “that he would be the one to redeem Israel” from the Romans.  Yet they were astounded because “some women from our group” “reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive.”  Jesus responds, “How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!”  In speaking this to the disciples, Jesus was speaking to the whole of his followers who were so preoccupied with the thought that Jesus would deliver Israel from the Romans that they could not comprehend that his self-sacrifice on the cross and resurrection had already redeemed them not from the Romans but from sin.   Jesus was frustrated at their inability to comprehend that the redemption had just happened.  He had just redeemed them from what matters eternally.  There would be others who would oppress the Jews politically besides the Romans, such as the Moslems and the Nazis, but they could not harm them eternally as sin could.  The many appearances of the resurrected Jesus would help his followers to understand that God’s Will is different from humans’ will.  The material, physical nature of this world is only the context of our salvation but not the goal.  The goal of our life here is to take us beyond our world here and not to win wars. First our minds must understand what God’s plan is. Then our hearts must burn with the desire to accomplish God’s will.   Only the indwelling of the Holy Spirit can make our hearts burst into the flames of a spiritual fire that moves us to devote ourselves to accomplish his will.

1 Peter 1:17-21.  Peter writes, “Beloved: If you invoke as Father him who judges impartially according to each one’s works, conduct yourselves with reverence during the time of your sojourning (here on earth), realizing that you were ransomed from your futile conduct ”  “with the precious blood of Christ as of a spotless unblemished lamb.”  Realize through the day as we go about our daily routine that our souls have been purchased at a great price, so precious are we to him.  May each day be an opportunity to hold him preciously in our hearts.

E3A.

Acts of the Apostles 2:14, 22-33.  These Acts of the Apostles are a record or history of the very early days of the Church.  Peter here proclaims the truth of Jesus the Nazorean. (Jesus the Nazorean is the full human name by which the man, i. e., the citizen of Israel Jesus is known.)  God worked mighty deeds through Jesus the man.  God raised up Jesus from the dead.  Peter sees this resurrection of Jesus as predicted by David in Psalm 16.  Now Jesus sits at the right hand of God, from which seat of authority Jesus poured forth the Spirit upon his chosen followers.

Luke 24:13-35.  Luke relates this treasured event of Jesus’ appearance to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.  It helps to understand how devastated the disciples of Jesus were at his death, seeing in it the apparent termination of their hopes in the redemption of Israel.  They were bewildered by the stories of the vision of angels and the empty tomb. They were on their way out of Jerusalem because, despite those stories, they still had no hope.  Jesus said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are!  How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!”  Their hearts and minds could not get passed what was commonly held by the ordinary people of their time and place.  This same thing happens to all of us. Only by rereading the Scriptures year after year does the Holy Spirit have a chance develop in us an ongoing understanding of what God wants us to know and so help mature us in holiness.   The disciples said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?” What joy there is in growing in the Lord, in mind, heart and soul!  They return to Jerusalem to learn of Jesus’ appearance to Peter and to share their experience of Jesus’ appearance to them.  How important it is to have the eyes of faith so to experience the presence of Jesus not only in the breaking of the bread, the Mass, but also in so many times and in so many ways in our daily lives.

1 Peter 1:17-21.  “Beloved: If you invoke as Father him who judges impartially according to each one’s works, conduct yourselves with reverence during the time of your sojourning, realizing that you were ransomed from your futile conduct.”  Nothing from our past, except for “the precious blood of Christ” releases us from our sins.  In the Gospel reading, the phrase ‘on the way’ and the word ‘walk’ appear a number of times.  In this reading the word ‘sojourning’ is used.  The Church in its wisdom in the funeral liturgies uses the concept of life as a journey to the Lord and death as a transitioning to our destination, if, of course, we were on the right road.  “Jesus said (to Thomas), I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.’”   (John 14:6)  Jesus himself is the right road.  In the Gospel with the death of Jesus on the cross the hope of the disciples in Jesus died or was close to death.  Peter makes it clear at the end of his epistle that, if our faith and hope are in God, our faith and hope has been resurrected and so we have life for eternity.

East2A23.   Acts of the Apostles.    2:42-47.   The early followers of the resurrected Jesus boldly met together in the temple area but celebrated the ‘breaking bread’ or Mass in their homes.  “All who believed were together and had all things in common,” expecting that Jesus would be coming soon to take them up to heaven.  “Awe came upon everyone, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.”

John 20:19-31.   The disciples were in fear that the Jewish authorities might do to them what they had done to Jesus on the cross.  However, Jesus assures them as he says, “Peace be with you.”  Preparing them to continue his work, since he would be ascending into heaven, Jesus says, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  They are to enable people to believe in Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit, uniting themselves to Jesus as a holy people with forgiveness of their sins.  Believing in Jesus so that he was their life, they would “have life in his name,” the salvation of their souls.    By being in the physical presence of the resurrected Jesus, the Apostles knew that he was the Messiah.  It was the miracle beyond all miracles.  In our times, Jesus calls us to have the faith or belief that he is the Son of God by living in his spiritual presence without having any physical assurances.  Living in the faith that does not see, yet believes, is our being tested by fire, in a world that rejects belief in what is not seen.

1 Peter 1:3-9.  “Although you have not seen him, you love him; even though you do not see him now yet believe in him, you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, as you attain the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”  Jesus is our joy, daily giving a heavenly life to an otherwise worldly existence.

 

 

East2A20.  Acts of the Apostles 2:42-47.   The newly established community of Christians “devoted themselves to the teaching of the Apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.”  “They would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each’s needs.” Their intense focus on being wholly and thoroughly devoted to cultivating their spiritual life in Christ seems to me to offer the paragon, the ideal of Christian life for all ages to come.  However, there has been some controversy as to whether or not they were expecting Jesus to come quite soon and so they deposed themselves of only the material things  they needed up to the time that Jesus would take them to heaven.  What is known is that Paul often appealed to his converts (Acts of the Apostles 24:14; Romans 15:25-28; 1 Corinthians 16:1-3; 2 Corinthians 8:1-15; 2 Corinthians 9:11-13) “to make some contribution for the poor among the holy ones in Jerusalem.” (Romans 16:26b)

John 20:1-9.   Fear is the natural reaction to the perceived threat of danger.  In this earthly life we are always in danger of spiritual harm.  When we live each day in the almighty Lord there can be no reason for fear because he is always saying to us, “Peace be with you.”

Then he says to his disciples, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” who helps them to mature in holiness themselves as well as to enable others to be holy.  In Matthew 5:48, Jesus says, “So be perfect (holy), just as your heavenly Father is perfect (holy).”  In the synoptic parallel to that verse Jesus says in Luke 6:36, “Be merciful (loving), just as [also] your Father is merciful (loving).”  Jesus enables his disciples to be instruments of the Spirit in the Spirit’s task to bring holiness to those who live by the life of the Holy Spirit within them by giving his disciples the merciful power to forgive sins.  However, to those who reject the life of the Spirit, the disciples can retain their sins, since they have rejected the mercy of God.    In John 14:1a Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. “ (Be at peace)  Then in John 14:4 Jesus said, “Where [I] am going you know the way.” Thomas, forever the everyday day realist of this down-to-earth world, said in John 14:5, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?”  Jesus was speaking of the spiritual way and not of an earthly road trip.  In today’s gospel Thomas thinks as any ordinary down-to-earth person thinks, ‘When you’re dead, you’re dead.  That’s all there is and there is nothing else.  When the once-dead Jesus and now-alive Jesus tells Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands and bring your hand and put it into my side,” Thomas’ rock hard earthliness comes crashing down.  In this stunningly quick turn of events, he has learned that the spiritual is more real than the material.  In 2 Corinthians 4:18b Paul said, “For what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal.”  We ourselves can learn from an inner spiritual life that the Holy Spirit gives us that what is more vibrant and fulfilling is not what is seen in the outward visible world.  We can come to the realization that what feels real in the outer world will soon fade away and disappear  but what is real and true forever comes from our relationship with the invisible Christ.   “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

1 Peter 1:3-9.   From Christ we have “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you who by the power of God are safeguarded through faith, to a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the final time.”  “Although you have not seen him, you love him; even though you do not see him now yet believe in him, you will rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, as you attain the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

 

E2A.  Acts of the Apostles 2:42-47.  This Epistle reading begins with the word ‘they’ who, from the verses preceding this Sunday Epistle, were the three thousand converted to faith in Jesus by Peter’s sermon.  The Apostles continued to teach them as they all lived together sharing all their physical resources, meeting together in the temple area and “breaking bread together in their homes.”  They were meeting the temple area because at that early time they still thought of themselves as Jews.  It would appear that ‘breaking bread together’, what we call now the Mass, was done in the context of the family meal without a priest/presbyter.  There is the conjecture that the lifestyle of having all things in common arose of their commonly held assumption that Christ’s second coming, when the universe would come to an end, was near and so there was no need to provide for the future but simply use up the physical things they already had.  Later Paul would collect money from the people to whom he preached for the poor Christians in Jerusalem who were living in poverty because of the practice of not providing for the future. (Romans 15:25-28; 1 Corinthians 16:1-4; 2 Corinthians 8 & 9; Galatians 2:10)  They lived in an idyllic joy.  “Awe came upon everyone, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.”  God kept enriching his Church with many miracles which made the Church very attractive to the people of Jerusalem.  “And every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.”

John 20:19-31.  John’s gospel has a different timeline than the Synoptics’.  This gospel begins, “On the evening of the first day of the week,” which is our Easter day.  However, shortly after his greeting to the Apostles, it relates, “He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”  For John Pentecost occurs on Easter day.  With the Spirit the Apostles receive the power to forgive sins, which the Jews had reserved to only God Himself.  Of course, we believe that both the Spirit and the power to forgive sins are given to the Church because the Apostles represent the Church, the new Israel, God’s new people.  The joy of the Apostles upon seeing Jesus alive and well was very great.  On this occasion, Jesus says, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  Jesus commissions the Apostles and also the whole Church to go forth and bring all people to accept Jesus as their Christ and God.  What is written in these Scriptures is not so much a record of the past as a message to the future calling upon us to be likewise believers as those followers of the Christ in the past.

Thomas whose personality is revealed here and in other places in the Scriptures represents the down-to-earth show-me types who have a very hard time moving past the ordinary everyday material world.  He says, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, etc., I will not believe.”  In other words I will not put my trust in what I cannot physically see, especially of a man who I know is dead.  When Jesus does show himself to Thomas, Thomas recognizes in the risen Jesus not only someone human but even more importantly someone divine, “My Lord and my God!”  The belief that is the entrusting of our lives to someone goes beyond just knowing that something is true because there is something there that is a physical reality.  The faith or belief that is the entrusting of our lives to someone requires that we see in that person a quality that is greater than anything that the merely physical can reveal.  The lesson that Jesus gives us for all times is: “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

John seems to end his gospel twice: here in John 20:30-31 and in John 21:24-25, recognizing that it is impossible to get down everything in the written word of what Jesus did or said, nor is it necessary.  What is written is not written to say it all but “that you may [come to] believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of god, and that through this belief you may have life in his name.”

1 Peter 1:3-9.

“Although you have not seen him you love him; even though you do not see him now yet you believe in him, you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious faith, the salvation of your souls.”  Once again the theme of not seeing but believing is repeated.  “As we look not to what is seen but to what is unseen; for what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:18)  “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7)  To know is to see; I do not need to believe in what I see, since my eyes tell me I know it is right in front of me.  Belief or trust is to recognize something as true even though I cannot physically verify it by seeing it to be so.  The resurrection of Christ requires faith; the redemption gained for us by Jesus to eternal life requires faith, “for we walk by faith, not by sight.”

East1A23.  Originally this speech was addressed to the Roman centurion, his relatives and close friends.   The Church has placed it here to address all the People of God so to give us a narrative background for Easter Sunday.  What Jesus did on Good Friday was to offer us who receive him as our Savior the opportunity to live now and forever as faithful sons and daughters of God our Father.

John 20:1-9.  I imagine that Mary Magdalene was drawn to the tomb when it was so early that Sunday morning though it was still dark since Jesus was everything to her, even though she could only expect that the stone over the tomb would still be in place.  However, Mary, seeing the stone removed from the tomb, did not even think to peek inside, imagining that the tomb could well have been robbed; but immediately ran to tell the disciples.  She said to them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.”  The disciples saw that the tomb was empty but apparently did not comprehend what had come to pass, “for they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.”   Believing, even we do not yet understand, is the way of faith.

Colossians 3:1-4.  The traditional symbolism of baptism is to be immersed in the water as a sign of being buried and dying to our sinfulness so then to rise to our new life in Christ Jesus.  Paul wrote in Romans 6:5: “For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection.”  While we live physically in this world, this world easily becomes what life is all about for us.  To live in Christ is to live passively to this world but interiorly active to the God who is really our life.  Life in Christ demands that we draw upon his love as our life in complete submission to his will.  God, and God alone, is life.  Everything else is passing.