Thursday in the Octave of Easter

“Christ Takes Leave of His Disciples”
by Duccio di Buoninsegna, 1308-1311

Readings for Thursday in the Octave of Easter [1]
 
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible [2]
 
Readings and Commentary:[3]
 
Reading 1: Acts 3:11-26
 
As the crippled man who had been cured clung to Peter and John,
all the people hurried in amazement toward them
in the portico called "Solomon's Portico."
When Peter saw this, he addressed the people,
"You children of Israel, why are you amazed at this,
and why do you look so intently at us
as if we had made him walk by our own power or piety?
The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,
the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus
whom you handed over and denied in Pilate's presence,
when he had decided to release him.
You denied the Holy and Righteous One
and asked that a murderer be released to you.
The author of life you put to death,
but God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses.
And by faith in his name,
this man, whom you see and know, his name has made strong,
and the faith that comes through it
has given him this perfect health,
in the presence of all of you.
Now I know, brothers and sisters,
that you acted out of ignorance, just as your leaders did;
but God has thus brought to fulfillment
what he had announced beforehand
through the mouth of all the prophets,
that his Christ would suffer.
Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away,
and that the Lord may grant you times of refreshment
and send you the Christ already appointed for you, Jesus,
whom heaven must receive until the times of universal restoration
of which God spoke through the mouth
of his holy prophets from of old.
For Moses said:
 
A prophet like me will the Lord, your God, raise up for you
from among your own kin;
to him you shall listen in all that he may say to you.
Everyone who does not listen to that prophet
will be cut off from the people.
 
"Moreover, all the prophets who spoke,
from Samuel and those afterwards, also announced these days.
You are the children of the prophets
and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors
when he said to Abraham,
In your offspring all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
For you first, God raised up his servant and sent him to bless you
by turning each of you from your evil ways."
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Commentary on Acts 3:11-26
 
Following the earlier cure of the lame beggar, a crowd gathers in the temple area and Peter launches into the second kerygmatic discourse or proclamation about the nature of Christ. When Peter sees the Jews are amazed, in response to the crowd's incredulity he explains that the God anointed his "servant Jesus." In the original Greek, the word used is "pais," which is translated into Latin as "puer," which can be understood both as "slave/servant" and as "filius" - son. Peter uses the same formula: "The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" from Exodus 3:6. He also uses a new title for the Savior, “The Author of Life.”
 
"This second address by St. Peter contains two parts: in the first (vv. 12-16) the apostle explains that the miracle has been worked in the name of Jesus and through faith in this name; in the second (vv. 17-26) he move his listeners to repentance - people who were responsible in some degree for Jesus' death.  This discourse has the same purpose as that of Pentecost - to show the power of God made manifest in Jesus Christ and to make the Jews see the seriousness of their crime and have them repent."[4]
 
He concludes this discourse with a call for conversion and repentance. He cites Moses' prophecy using a paraphrase of Deuteronomy 18:15, demonstrating that the Old Testament prophecy was fulfilled in Christ.
 
CCC: Acts 3:13-14 597; Acts 3:13 599; Acts 3:14 438, 601; Acts 3:15-16 2666; Acts 3:15 612, 626, 632, 635; Acts 3:17-18 591, 600; Acts 3:17 597; Acts 3:18 601; Acts 3:19-21 674
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 8:2ab and 5, 6-7, 8-9
 
R. (2ab) O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
or:
R. Alleluia.
 
O LORD, our Lord,
how glorious is your name over all the earth!
What is man that you should be mindful of him,
or the son of man that you should care for him?
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
or:
R. Alleluia.
 
You have made him little less than the angels,
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him rule over the works of your hands,
putting all things under his feet.
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
or:
R. Alleluia.
 
All sheep and oxen,
yes, and the beasts of the field,
The birds of the air, the fishes of the sea,
and whatever swims the paths of the seas.
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
or:
R. Alleluia.
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Commentary on Ps 8:2ab and 5, 6-7, 8-9
 
Psalm 8 is another of the songs of thanksgiving.  In this selection we hear the title “son of man” used.  It is, in this instance, referring to all the faithful as opposed to Jesus.  The song reflects on the creation account from Genesis, and how God gave man dominion over the life he had created. The humility expressed in this song has the same sense of questioning humility found in Hebrews 2:5-12. It also marvels at the fact that God made his creation subject to man.
 
CCC: Ps 8:2 300, 2566; Ps 8:6 2566, 2809
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Gospel: Luke 24:35-48
 
The disciples of Jesus recounted what had taken place along the way,
and how they had come to recognize him in the breaking of bread.
 
While they were still speaking about this,
he stood in their midst and said to them,
"Peace be with you."
But they were startled and terrified
and thought that they were seeing a ghost.
Then he said to them, "Why are you troubled?
And why do questions arise in your hearts?
Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.
Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones
as you can see I have."
And as he said this,
he showed them his hands and his feet.
While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed,
he asked them, "Have you anything here to eat?"
They gave him a piece of baked fish;
he took it and ate it in front of them.
 
He said to them,
"These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you,
that everything written about me in the law of Moses
and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled."
Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.
And he said to them,
"Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer
and rise from the dead on the third day
and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins,
would be preached in his name
to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things."
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Commentary on Lk 24:35-48
This is the first appearance of the Risen Christ to the disciples immediately following his appearance on the road to Emmaus, the account of which is referenced at the beginning of this selection. No mention is made of St. Thomas’ presence or absence as in the account from St. John (see John 20:19-31). He shows the disciples his wounds, and then to prove he is corporeal, he asks for food and eats in front of them.
As with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, Jesus “opened their minds” so they could see how Mosaic Law and the Hebrew Prophets were fulfilled in him. Then, satisfied that they believe, the Lord brings them to understand the prophetic significance of what had taken place. He concludes pointedly by saying: “You are witnesses to these things.” This statement is important since later in St. Luke’s narrative in the Acts of Apostles, their witness becomes the foundation of faith for others.
 
CCC: Lk 24:36 641, 645; Lk 24:38 644; Lk 24:39 644, 645, 645, 999; Lk 24:40 645; Lk 24:41-43 645; Lk 24:41 644; Lk 24:43 2605; Lk 24:44-48 652; Lk 24:44-46 112; Lk 24:44-45 572, 601; Lk 24:44 702, 2625, 2763; Lk 24:45 108; Lk 24:46 627; Lk 24:47-48 730; Lk 24:47 981, 1120, 1122; Lk 24:48-49 1304
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Reflection:
 
The mystery of the Lord’s Supper held in the upper room is unraveled in the locked room.  Even though Jesus is quoted in St. John’s Gospel as having said “my body is true food and my blood true drink” (John 6:55), there are many who cannot accept that Jesus left us the gift of his true body and blood in the Eucharist.  If he had done that, it is argued, the bread and wine would change their outward appearance; they would taste and feel different.
 
So difficult was this to accept that, during the Reformation, most Protestants who had decided that they could interpret Sacred Scripture as well as the Church decided that the last supper was merely symbolic, and that the words of St. John were only a metaphor.  They could not bring themselves to believe that Christ would physically make himself available to all those who followed him in faith.  In essence, they put God in a box of human understanding, and would not allow the possibility of something beyond their human logic.
 
Jesus’ appearance in the locked room transforms our understanding of what is possible for God.  We must ask ourselves: “Did God violate the laws of physics in order for Jesus to physically stand in that room with the disciples?”  Did God somehow beam Jesus into the room like some Star Trek episode?  How did a physically solid Jesus get into a room without using a door or window?  There is really only one possibility.  The body Jesus showed to the disciples was a body transformed, it was a gloriously risen body which, while bearing the marks of his passion, was transformed into something real and substantial, not like anything physics has described.  In short, it is the essence of the Eucharist, real but unexplainable except by faith.
 
If we believe that Jesus walked with the disciples at Emmaus, if we believe that he came (twice) to the disciples in the locked room and to Peter on the shore, we must believe that his body is truly present in the Eucharist we share.  To deny that relationship is to deny Christ himself.
 
Pax

 

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[1] The picture used is “Christ Takes Leave of His Disciples” by Duccio di Buoninsegna, 1308-1311.
[2] S.S. Commemoratio
[3] The readings are taken from the New American Bible, with the exception of the psalm and its response which were developed by the International Committee for English in Liturgy (ICEL). This republication is not authorized by USCCB and is for private use only.
[4] The Navarre Bible, “Gospels and Acts,” Scepter Publishers, Princeton, NJ, © 2002, p.738.