Thursday of the Octave of Easter
(Acts 3:11-26; Luke 24:35-48)
During the years of Communist rule in Russia the peasants
were controlled by local commandants. Once
the commandant of a village gathered the people for a lecture on the benefits
of Communism. After speaking for a long
time, the commandant gave the parish priest an opportunity to say something in
response. He told the priest that he
might speak no more than five minutes.
The priest said that he wouldn’t need so much time. Standing before the people, the priest said, “The
Lord is risen.” The people duly responded, “Yes, he is truly risen!” The priest
sat down after making a more than satisfactory rebuttal to the commandant.
In today’s first reading Peter speaks in a similar vein to the
people who witnessed the cure of the paralytic.
He says that the man was not healed by any inherent power of his but
through invoking Jesus’ name. He then
boldly accuses the people of delivering Jesus for execution. But, he says, they may be forgiven the sin if
they too invoke Jesus’ name.
The Lord is waiting for us to call on his name in
faith. He will come to our aid when we
are in need. More important than that, the
invocation of his name in faith will prepare us for eternal life.
