...It is I myself. Touch Me and see... Third Sunday of Easter (B)

Third Sunday of Easter (B)

Acts 3:13-15, 17-19

Ps 4:2, 4, 7-8, 9

1 Jn 2:1-5a

Lk 24:35-48

In Luke's Gospel, we find the Apostles again terrified as Jesus appears in their midst.  Both Luke and John report this fear in their gospels.  Disbelief that Jesus could truly be in the same room with them.  Is he a ghost?  Or is he real?  Did Jesus truly rise from the dead as he told them he would?

Jesus convinced his Apostles that he was truly alive by the simple and beautiful action of eating with them...  just as he had done earlier with the disciples in Emmaus.  And he invited them to touch him and see that he wasn't a ghost.

Their experiences with the Risen Lord certainly were such powerful and personal ones that in the future, after they had received the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, the Apostles were able to go out among the people and preach the Good News.  They knew for certain that their Lord and Savior was the Anointed One of God and they were willing to face prison, torture and death for the Name.

We see in the reading from Acts, that Peter minced no words in reminding the Jews : "The author of life you put to death, but God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses." (Acts 3:15)  He also reminded them that Jesus had fulfilled everything that had been announced beforehand by the prophets and urged his listeners to repent and be converted.

Today, we also are encouraged to repent and be converted; to live our lives in conformity with him.  By doing so, we receive with joy, the promise found in the First Letter of John:  "...whoever keeps his word, the love of God is truly perfected in him." (1 Jn 2:5a)


 ~ Duccio diBuoninsegna:  Appearence while the Apostles are at table (1308-11)