Third Sunday of Easter

Readings:
Acts 3:13-15, 17-19
1 John 2:1-5a
Luke 24:35-48

 

Thoughts for your consideration: by John Gonzalez

I find the readings during the Easter Season fascinating. Here the disciples of Jesus just experienced an amazing tragedy with the death of the Messiah at the hands of the authorities. Afterwards they experience the amazing intervention by God in raising Jesus from the dead. The disciples and followers of Jesus have been shaken to their very core, now they struggle to make sense of all this.

 

In Luke’s gospel Jesus helps his disciples understand what took place and what this means for the mission that God is giving the early Christian community. This week we take a break from Paul’s epistles to hear about how John and Peter came to understand this mission of being witness to the reconciliation of God and humanity.

 

Peter continues the miraculous power of Jesus by healing a cripple beggar. The Jerusalem community is again mystified but this time they nervously have to contend with their collaboration in having the Messiah crucified. Peter announces God’s message of mercy and reconciliation but he also corrects them for acting out of ignorance and again invites them to repent.

 

Likewise John also preaches on how Jesus has forgiven the sins of the whole world and how he is now our advocate as we struggle to atone. But if we are to accept Jesus as our advocate in this worldly struggle we “ought to walk just as he walked.” We must struggle to follow the commandments in the spirit of love as we journey to reach the state perfection that God calls us to.

 

The message of scripture is that God loves all of creation and he invites us to repent in order to abide in his love. Because we struggle with our own self-interest God breaks into human history with powerful moments that shake us all to the very core so that we can reassess ourselves based on these amazing moments of divine revelation. Peter and John share this powerful intervention by Jesus Christ in giving us a template for incarnational living. Now we are called to free ourselves from the same social ignorance which blinded the Jerusalem community and which continues to blind many of from the love of God. This love is expressed in the compassion that God has for all of humanity, especially for the poor and marginalized members of our society. From this compassion flows justice which God asks us to provide to all members of creation through the application of the commandments in the Spirit of divine love.

 

Questions for Reflection in your Faith Sharing Group:

• Are you aware of any social ignorance you may have had or that you may be struggling with now? Consider your own Easter journey, when have you allow the love of God to break into some aspect of ignorance during the Lenten and Easter season.
  
• Can you identify some aspect of social ignorance that blinds society from the love of God? What social institutions promote this blindness, and why? What can we do to move our society and our community towards the love that God has for all of creation?