3rd Sunday of Easter-Cycle B-2000
Cycle B
2000

First Reading
Acts of the Apostles 3:13-15,17-19

Peter said to the people: "The 'God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers,' has glorified his Servant Jesus, whom you handed over and disowned in Pilate's presence when Pilate was ready to release him. You disowned the Holy and Just One and preferred instead to be granted the release of a murderer. You put to death the Author of life. But God raised him from the dead, and we are his witnesses. "Yet I know, my brothers, that you acted out of ignorance, just as your leaders did. God has brought to fulfillment by this means what he announced long ago through all the prophets: that his Messiah would suffer. Therefore, reform your lives! Turn to God, that your sins may be wiped away!"

Second Reading
1 John 2:1-5

My little ones, I am writing this to keep you from sin. But if anyone should sin, we have, in the presence of the Father, Jesus Christ, an intercessor who is just. He is an offering for our sins, and not for our sins only, but for those of the whole world. The way we can be sure of our knowledge of him is to keep his commandments. The man who claims, "I have known him," without keeping his commandments, is a liar; in such a one there is no truth. But whoever keeps his word truly has the love of God made perfect in him.

Gospel
Luke 24:35-48

The disciples recounted what had happened on the road to Emmaus and how they had come to know Jesus in the breaking of bread. While they were still speaking about all this, he himself stood in their midst [and said to them, "Peace to you."] In their panic and fright they thought they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, "Why are you disturbed? Why do such ideas cross your mind? Look at my hands and my feet; it is really I. Touch me, and see that a ghost does not have flesh and bones as I do." [As he said this he showed them his hands and feet.] They were still incredulous for sheer joy and wonder, so he said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?" They gave him a piece of cooked fish, which he took and ate in their presence. Then he said to them, "Recall those words I spoke to you when I was still with you: everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and psalms had to be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds to the understanding of the Scriptures. He said to them: "Thus it is likewise written that the Messiah must suffer and rise from the dead on the third day. In his name, penance for the remission of sins is to be preached to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of this."

Text from Lectionary for Mass
© 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine
© 1969 International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc.
All rights reserved

My dear friends in Christ,

We continue to celebrate the great mysteries of the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Acts of the Apostles is trying to understand how people could ask for a murderer to be released and ask for the condemnation to death of a man only for his religious beliefs. We live in a time when people are still murdered for having different religious beliefs so we should not be very surprised about such happenings. The author of the Acts of the Apostles can accept that those who wanted Jesus condemned acted out of ignorance. And we must also learn that many of the bad things that happen do so out of ignorance. This does not make the bad things good, but saves us from condemning others and thus doing the same thing that those who condemned Jesus did!

How easy it is to see the wrong that others do! How difficult to see our own sins and defects of character!

The letter of John speaks of the authors desire to keep us from sin. The author recognizes that we will have sins and thus we need forgiveness. We Catholics accept a Sacrament of the Forgiveness of Sins but that should not keep us from confessing our sins to the Lord personally. We need always to turn to God when we find ourselves not living the way that God invites us; we need to ask His help and the strength of His Holy Spirit.

The Gospel invites us to reflect on the way that God has been in our lives up to the present. It was only after the disciples began to reflect on Christ that they grew into a deeper awareness of His identity and how he had been speaking to them about many things that they had not recognized. So we also, if we meditate on the presence of God in our lives historically, we shall see many signs of the presence of God and we shall come to know God more deeply.

May our Lord draw us deep into His mysteries in the joyous time of Easter!

© 2000 The Monastery of Christ in the Desert