Word to the Wise
Thursday, April 12, 2012 - Octave of Easter - Thurs
[Acts 3:11-26 and Luke 24:35-48]"These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and in the prophets must be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. And he said to them, "Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses to these things." [Luke]
To make sense of the two scripture passages today, one really needs to reverse the order of the reading. Both passages are from the hand of the evangelist, Luke, but from different works. The sequence of events, historically, would place the events in the gospel passage prior to the ones from the Acts of the Apostles. The preaching in Acts comes after the event of Pentecost, but arises both from the influence of the Holy Spirit and the "opening of the mind" to the scriptures. Notice how Moses is mentioned in both passages. Notice, too, how the word "witnesses" also appears in describing the preachers.
Disciples must be open to the message of the scriptures concerning Jesus, and must be witnesses to what they learn. From a very small beginning in Jerusalem, the Christian message has spread around the world. It was not as easy to do as in our day of "twitter," "tweet," cell phones, e-mails and faxes. We stand on the shoulders of men and women whose preaching and witness to the gospel meant considerable suffering and effort. What are we doing to continue their work? Do we recognize that by virtue of our baptism we have that same Spirit? Are our own minds "open to the scriptures?" Do we have the courage to be "witnesses to these things?" AMEN