Celebrating Life And Growth In The Resurrection

Acts 3:1-10
Luke 24:13-35

Today’s readings celebrate life and growth in living the power of the Risen Lord.

Peter and John though are of the same profession as fishermen and fishers of men were opposites.It used to be Peter and Andrew, James and John. Now it is Peter and John. It seems as if the event of the Last Supper to the Resurrection of our Lord have brought these men into closer fellowship with each other.

By nature and temperament, they were different. Peter was a motivator, John was a mystic;

Christ is the Cornerstone and made Simon Peter His Vicar and the Head of the Church John had his head on the Savior’s chest. Peter confessed faith and love in Jesus while John was the beloved who was entrusted by the Lord to take care of His Beloved Mother and for her to be our mother also. John would outrun Peter to the tomb; Peter would push past John and rush right in; Peter would dash on out again, his mind in a whirl; John would walk away thinking deeply over the significance of those strangely ordered grave clothes (John 20:3-4).

In today’s first reading, we read, “Now Peter and John went up together into the temple.” Before they had been mutual disciples of Jesus, now they were members of a common body; not only in friendship but also in fellowship…

As Peter and John made their way to the temple, they encountered a beggar who was crippled from birth at the Beautiful Gate. Peter healed the man in Jesus’ name and the man’s joyful response created quite a stir. Imagine the reaction of the orthodox Jews who had come from afternoon prayer! He is healed physically and spiritually.

As scripture tells us, he was leaping with joy. It means he was in a state of complete healing and great joy…

This description of the lame who will leap is found earlier in the Bible in Isaiah 35:6 in which describes that during the Jubilee year of the Lord, the lame will leap like the deer. Jesus’ first coming gave a foretaste of that future day (Matthew 12:22; Mk7:37) as did the leaping of this blind man Acts 3:8. The joy of the miracle leads them to the joy of worshipping and praising God in the temple.

One very important message is this; the miracle of the beggar who was a cripple from birth became possible because the peer believed in the name of Jesus…

The command was not in Peter’s authority but in the authority of Jesus Christ. “In the Name,” means everything that Jesus is now and forever, and in context speaks especially to His authority, in His power, to be demonstrated for His glory. They immediately acknowledge that it is not by power of their own. 
In the next chapter of Acts, the religious leaders asked Peter and John “By what power, or in what name, have you done this?” (Acts 4:7) and that name permeates the Acts of the Apostles(Acts 4:10;6:14, 10:38; 22:8;26:9).

In today’s gospel, the name of Jesus of Nazareth has become the major story of the day during the feast of the Passover and strange things are happening…

This same Jesus was condemned by the leaders of the people to death. He died on the cross and now He rises as heralded by some women and some of His disciples. In fact, the two disciples on their way to Emmaus were still talking about it when Christ comes along the way, though they thought Him to be a stranger only to recognize Him at the breaking of the bread. The poignant words of the two disciples, as they looked back on their strange experience of Jesus’ explanation about himself on the road to Emmaus. “Did our hearts not burn within us”. and now he has vanished from their sight.

Perhaps these words find an echo in our own spiritual lives…

At Mass, the life of God floods our spirit, yet so often, at the time that it is happening, we later come to realize it. If truly our hearts burn within us we must open our hearts and mind in thanksgiving for the marvelous deeds of the Lord from ages past and to generations yet to come. When we feel dry and earthbound just thank the Lord, and then get on with the task at hand. Hearts that burn do not necessarily get to Heaven any quicker. For not everyone that says Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of Heaven but he that does the will of the Father.
Could we build a better world, and be instruments of God’s reign? We are part of life and growth. It’s worth a try.

Fr Joseph Osho