THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER  –   2015

«  We continue celebrating with joy the resurrection of Jesus. 

«  In this third Sunday the liturgy offers to us the Gospel reading about Jesus making himself present to his disciples, according to the Gospel of Luke.  

«  The book of the Acts describes how the little new born community of the disciples lives its faith in the risen Lord, but they still consider themselves part of the Jewish faith.   Little by little they will  realice that they are something new, and as Jesus said “new wine in new skins.” 

«  Today John and Peter say words that the Church has to repeat to herself to be able to make them a reality: “we have neither silver nor gold… but we give to you what we have, which is our witness of the RESURRECTION OF JESUS. 

 FIRST READING – Acts 3: 13-15.17-19   

«  Peter and John go up to the Temple on a regular day for the official evening worship.  

«  They see a paralysed man, they not only see him, but observe his suffering, his sadness, in the way used to looked at people.   

«  Peter asks the man to look at them, he says that he does not have any material goods, but he will share with him what they have: the faith in the Lord Jesus risen form the dead. In the name and power of Jesus GET UP AND WALK.   

«  The liturgy of the Word of this coming Sunday offers to us the explanation which Peter gives of the work of power they have performed. It has not been done by them but by the Lord Jesus

«  It is the second missionary speech of Peter.   

o   Why are your surprised? And why do you look at us as if we had done this work by our own power?  

o   The miracle, the healing of this man is the work of Jesus. You should not be surprised since Jesus had performed so many of these works during his life among us.  

o   Peter reminds his audience how the God of Abraham… has glorified his servant Jesus.  

§  Whom they handed  over to the pagans.   

§  He reminds them also how they denied Jesus and asked for the freedom of a criminal.   

§  On looking at this people who did not know how to choose what is good and preferred death and evil,  maybe we can recognize ourselves, our present generation and all the human generations. Is it not true that we also very often choose death over life?       

§  Let us think in how many ways the present culture of death is manifested among us.  

§  But God HAS RAISED HIM FROM THE DEATH AND WE ARE WITNESS TO IT.   

§  Are we truly witnesses to the Resurrection. To the new life, with our life also new and transformed after we have encountered the Risen Lord?  Do we believe in the resurrection of Jesus and in our own resurrection?   

o    Peter continues saying that he knows that they acted in such a way by ignorance.   

o   He invites them to convert and to repent to have their sins forgiven.  

RESPONSORIAL  PSALM: Ps  4:2.4.7-8.9

LORD LET YOU FACE SHINE ON US

Ø  The tone of this psalm is of compolete trust in God because I have had the experience that he answers me when I call.   

Ø  The theme of the psalm coincides with the Ester celebration, God, the Father has liberated Jesus from death, he has raised him up to new life.  

Ø  Some of the verses of this psalm have an extraordinary beauty, through them the person who prays manifests his trust in God: You have put joy into my heart.    

When I call answer me, O just God

You who relieve me when I am in distress;

Have pity on me and hear my prayer. 

Know that the Lord does wonders for his faithful one

The Lord will hear when I call upon him.  

O Lord, let the light of your countenance shine upon us!

You put gladness into my heart 

As son as I lie down I fall peacefully asleep

For you alone, O Lord

Bring security to my dwelling.

SECOND READING  1 Jn 2:1-5 

«  Let us contemplate some aspects of this letter:  

o   The letter is addressed to a community of Asia Minor, of disciples of John. His members belong to the second and third Christian generation.   

o   They are new Christians,  their behavior is based on the witnesses who saw, heard and touched the Word of life.

o   They are faced with a heresy about Jesus:  devaluation of the historical Jesus and of the redemption in his blood.   

o   The author helps his brothers and sisters in the following way:  

§  He reminds the community the exigencies of the Christian life. 

§  Discernment between what is to be a Christian and being a fraud. 

§  He offers criteria to make this discernment.  

«  Let us meditate on the message that this coming Sunday offers to us:  

§   John writes to help the addressees of the letter to keep away from sin.   

§  But if we sin, we have an intercessor Jesus Christ, the just one.

§  John says that we will be sure that we know the Lord if we keep his commandments. 

GOSPEL OF LUKE  24:35-48

      In previous Sundays we have heard stories of the resurrection narrated by Mark and John. Today it is Luke who speaks of the resurrection.  

      This passage is found at the end of the Gospel of Luke.

       Simon (Peter) has seen Jesus and this fact has convinced the others of the truth of the resurrection.  

      The two disciples from Emmaus come and join the others. They tell the others that they also have seen the Lord and recognized him on the breaking of the bread.  

      The small community already believes in the resurrection, through the words of the witnesses, but to be themselves witnesses they need also to have the experience of the Risen Lord.   

      Jesus comes in their midst

o   They are wo joyful that they barely can believe what they see. 

o   It is me, look how I have flesh and bones, ghosts do not have them.   

o   The risen one is the same Jesus of Nazareth, their teacher and friend.   

o   Jesus wants to convince them, “give me something to eat. You know that the dead and the ghosts cannot eat.   

o   As he did for those of Emmaus, he also opens their mind so they can understand the Scriptures.   

o   Is it not true that he also does that with us?  He is the one who opens our mind? What a consolation to know that when we read, meditate and share with faith and love on the Scriptures, He is with us and explains them to us.    

o   After seeing the Risen Lord, after understanding the meaning of the events of Good Friday, they are ready to be sent on the mission: to be witnesses to all of this, what? JESUS OF NAZARETH Después de ver al Señor resucitado, después de entender el significado de los acontecimientos del viernes santo, ya están listos para ser enviados a la gran misión: ser testigos de todo esto, ¿qué es todo esto? JESÚS WHO DIED AND IS RISEN FOR OUR SAKE.   

o   To help you I will send you the promise from the Fatjer: THE SPIRIT, the strength what comes from the Father.  

      We also need to have the same experience that those men had, in order to be able to proclaim:  

o   We need to see the Risen Lord, how can we see him?   

o   Everything begins for us when we have that personal experience, which we call our experience of God. 

o   Where? In a retreat, a happy event, a great suffering, the loss of a loved one, a sickness which diminishes our activity….  That which makes us exclaim “I have encountered the Lord” and it will always be the Risen Lord, because the Lord is risen  

o   Sometimes this experience will be strong, maybe violent, some other times it will be subtle without being aware of it.    

o   From that moment on a conversion journey begins for us, in the following of the Master who journeys with us and goes before us.  

o   When  it is a real experience, even if sometimes it seems to disappear, it will always come back, it keeps transforming our life.  

o   This visible change in our is our way to announce that the Lord is risen. A second moment will come when we will have to use words to explain what has happened.  

CLARETIAN CORNER  

I also understood my extreme poverty for a work, which would cost me much. In this the Lord told me very confidentially that He had everything for me. I was so well assured of it that I never placed my confidence in anybody else.. (María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 59.)

"What is lacking then, my Mother? Would you perhaps avail yourself of some instrument with which to remedy so great an evil? Here is one who however vile and contemptible he knows himself to be, is yet assured that he will serve the better for this end, since your power will shine forth all the brighter, and all will see that it is you who are at work, not I. Come now, loving Mother, let us  

 

lose no time. Here I am: dispose of me as you will, for you know that I am wholly yours. I trust that you will do this out of your great kindness, pity, and mercy, and I ask you this through the love you bear for the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen."

Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 156.)