Acts 3 : 13-15, 17-19 ;

Psalm 4 : 1,3,6,8 ;

I John 2 : 1-5 ;

Luke 24 : 35-48

In the First Reading we hear the first preaching of the first Pope, Saint Peter. He begins by pointing out to the Jews of Jerusalem their responsibility in the death of Jesus. His aim is to persuade the people to accept the recent happenings in the light of faith, and then turn the page. What Peter tells them, in sum, is this: “You have done wrong, but the past is past. Let us put the past behind us and turn to the future, for your sins can indeed be forgiven.”

Peter begins first by pointing out their faults: “You handed him over to Pilate, who had decided to release him. You rejected him. You rejected a holy and righteous man and asked that grace be shown to a murderer for your sake. You killed the chief of the living” (Acts 3 : 13-15). The charge is serious, straightforward, and founded on facts.

Luckily Peter adds some extenuating circumstances: “And now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers” (Acts 3 : 17). If Peter speaks thus, it is because Jesus himself had said on the cross: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Lk 23 : 34; see I Tim 1:13) (1). Had not Peter himself denied Jesus? Yet Jesus had appeared to Peter. Jesus did not abandon him to remorse and self-pity. He reinstated him and gave him confidence.

What Peter says next is something quite fabulous: the fact that Jesus should be handed over to death was part of the unfathomable design of Providence. “Thus God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer” (Acts 3 : 18). And Peter concludes with a call for the conversion of hearts: “Change your ways and come back to God so that your sins may be wiped out” (Acts 3:19).

Here Peter speaks from the authority that comes to him from his pascal experience. The risen Christ had breathed his Spirit on the apostles and given them the power to forgive sins in his name. It is the same Spirit that had pushed them out of the upper room in which they were hiding and launched them up to the ends of the earth. They will later describe this experience as a triumph over death and as the light that unmasked the powers of darkness.

Today’s gospel presents us with one of those Easter experiences in the version of Saint Luke, the same author who wrote also the First Reading of today. The apostles are bolted inside the cenacle because they are terrified of the Jews. Bolts not only seal the doors of a room, they also seal the human spirits inside walls of fear and helplessness. Right in the middle of the night, there is a knock at the door, making them jump. But, ouf! The startled group discovers that it is the disciples of Emmaus who arrive with new tidings: they say that they have seen the risen Lord; they recognized him in the breaking of the bread; he explained to them the meaning of his Passion; he made them understand the Scriptures. And in turn they are told, “Yes, the Lord is risen! He has appeared to Simon.”

And the Lord himself is there, in their midst! The apostles are wary. They think that it is a ghost (Lk 24 : 37). The Jews believed in ghosts and were afraid of them. What if this was also a phantom appearing in the form of Jesus? This is one of the reasons why Thomas asked for bodily identification. Jesus does not impose himself. He gives them time to settle. “Touch me and see for yourselves,” he says. Then he asks them, “Have you anything here to eat?” (Lk 24:41). “Why are you afraid? Why do you doubt? It is me!” The marks of the crucifixion are seen in his body. They can recognize him. He makes them understand that he is their very master who has risen from the dead.

Then he gives them his blessing: “Peace be with you!” That peace will invade their beings and become the source of a great missionary dynamism for generations to come. The apostles met Jesus, and that meeting never ended. Later they will say, “He is seated at the right hand of God... God has given him the name that is above every name... He is the Lord.” This means that the Lord was present even when he did not appear! The apparitions were only intense moments of realization of the real presence of the risen Lord. They were a temporary visualization occasioned by a special grace. Now it will be for them to prove his presence in Word and in Action.

“You are witnesses of these things”, says Jesus (Lk 24 : 48) (2). Then he makes them understand how everything that has happened makes sense. He puts them on the road to understanding the Scriptures (Lk 24 : 45). He makes them grasp how all that has recently taken place, acquires meaning.

When we say, “The Lord is risen!” we are not just delivering a message, we are announcing a presence. Elena, a young woman of 22 years, who was a catechumen preparing for baptism, witnessed thus: “To discover suddenly one day that you are a believer is to realize that there is one more person in your life. From now on, you have someone in whom you can have faith and whom you can trust. He drives away fear, gives you joy and transforms you. It is the beginning of a new life for you.”

Mado Maurin, French writer and actress, puts it so well when she says: “Do not tell me, Lord, that you do not exist, I will not believe you.”  Amen

(1) They acted out of ignorance. Paul will call this ignorance “a veil lying over their hearts” (II Cor 3 : 14-16).

(2) Jesus utilizes his apparitions to clarify his mission. Why did Jesus come on earth? Often we answer, “To save us from our sins”. But this is only a partial answer. Jesus had a historical mission to accomplish. He connects himself to the past (He has come to fulfil the Scriptures), and to the future (He has come to send the Spirit from on high, so that all men could become his witnesses and do the works that he did and even greater works than those – Jn 14:12). This aspect of witnessing will be the preoccupation of the Apostles when they will look for someone to replace Judas: “There are men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus was in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us – one of these must become a witness with us to his resurrection” (Acts 1 : 21-22).

Tiburtius Fernandez SMA, © Treasures of The Word, Homilies for Year B, St. Paul's, Bandra, Bombay, India, 2023, pp. 97-100.