Word to the Wise
Thursday, April 4, 2013 - 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 and psalms must be fulfilled...." Thus it was 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 of these things." [Luke]
The evangelist Luke is considered the author of both the gospel that bears his name and the Acts of the Apostles. The preaching that we are seeing in the Acts of the Apostles in the first scriptures of the day reflects what is said in the gospel scripture taken from Luke. Today the "argument" relies heavily on reference to the Jewish biblical sources because the first audiences were Jewish. Jesus is the messiah because he fulfills all the expectations expressed in the scriptures. In today's first scripture, there is a quotation from Deuteronomy 18:15.
The gospel for today, just before the quote above, states: "Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures..." We Catholics, accustomed now to the Lectionary style of presenting the scriptures bit by bit, may lose the "big picture" that the apostolic preaching presents. This is where a good study bible can be of help to us. By virtue of our baptism, we receive that Spirit that "opens our minds to the Scriptures." However, we have to pick up the Scriptures and read them! The preacher has a serious obligation to open the Scriptures to the audience. The audience has a serious obligation to open their minds! I recommend the spiritual practice known as "lectio divina" which is a prayerful way of encountering not only the daily passages from the Lecitonary but really to truly open our minds to all the scriptures. We have been commissioned to be witnesses. Do we know what or whom we're talking about? AMEN