THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER
(Acts 3.13-15.17-19; I John 2:1-5; Luke 24:35-48)
Perhaps you have noticed how the Old Testament is not used
in masses during the Easter season. Now the Church highlights readings from the
Acts of the Apostles or the Apocalypse where in the masses of the rest of the
year readings from the Pentateuch, the prophets, or other writings of the Old
Testament appear. This year we read from Acts six Sundays in a row!
Today's reading focuses on the preaching of the apostles. Peter
and John have just cured a paralytic. The people are amazed by the miracle when
Peter speaks up to explain how it was done. Under the influence of the Holy
Spirit, he speaks up boldly. He says it was done in the name of Jesus whom his
hearers handed over to Pilate for execution. He then moderates his tone by giving
a pretext. He says that the Jews did not know what they were doing when they sought
Jesus’ death.
However, the Jews still must repent. Peter says, in effect,
that it was their pride that prevented them from recognizing what they were
doing. Their exaggerated trust in their leaders prevented them from seeing the
truth that Jesus taught and the goodness he showed. Peter might have added that
they did not resist the lust for violence, which remains in the human heart as
a primitive impulse. His call to conversion includes the dozens of ways in
which humans fail to do God’s will: disrespect for the Almighty, greed, lust,
lying, etc.
We need to hear Peter's sermon as directed to us as much as
to the Jews. Although we have the Holy Spirit to help us, sometimes we fail.
The attractions of fortune and fame that we see in notorious criminals like
Pablo Escobar or scandalous Hollywood stars drive us to betray the virtues that
our mothers and fathers taught us. Instead of obeying the voice of God in our
consciences, we ignore it. We think we are limited only by civil law and, even
then, by the police's ability to catch us doing something criminal.
Peter's call is no different from that of Jesus Christ. Neither
threatens us with the fires of hell. Rather, they both want us to know the
infinite mercy of God. He is not going to scold us for having sinned but rather
gift us for having finally discerned the light of truth. It is true that those
who insist that they do not care about God will be left in the darkness. There
they will experience the remorse of having chosen the fantasy of self-aggrandizement
over the love of God. But the real shame
is what will be missed.
Saint Augustine lived for himself until one day he looked into
a Bible he found. By chance he opened the book to where Paul writes:
"...no more excesses in eating and drinking, no more lust and debauchery,
no more quarreling or envying. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and do
not worry about satisfying the desires of the flesh." Later Augustine had
to admit how he barely achieved life's greatest treasure. He wrote in his Confessions:
"Late did I love you, Beauty so ancient and so new, late did I love you!
And you were inside me and I was outside ...You called me and cried out, and
broke my deafness; you shone and shone, and cured my blindness; you exhaled
your perfume, and I inhaled it, and now I long for you; I tasted you, and now I
feel hunger and thirst from you; you touched me, and I longed for the peace
that comes from you.
Perhaps we are not as great sinners as Saint Augustine in
his youth. But it is true that most of us think so much of ourselves that we
forget the goodness of God. We have to repent of this pride in order to know
his love.
