Word to the Wise
Sunday, April 26, 2020 - 3rd Sunday of Easter - A
[Acts 2:14, 22-33; 1 Pet 1:17-21; Luke 24:13-35]"God raised this Jesus; of this we are all witnesses. Exalted at the right hand of God, he received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father and poured him forth, as you see and hear." [Acts]
The excitement of the apostles that we have been reading about in the Acts of the Apostles at Mass for the past few days is the result of the experience of Pentecost, which we have yet to celebrate in the calendar - not until the end of May! The gospel scriptures have been taken from the Gospel According to John and express a rather "sacramental" tone, especially about baptism (the encounter with Nicodemus) and eucharist (multiplication of loaves and fishes). Thus, the sequence of events is rather confused. It is a bit like hearing a story in which all the events are recounted but not in the order in which they originally occurred. This Sunday's scriptures are no exception. The scriptures from Acts speaks to events immediately after the Pentecost experience. The gospel scripture today, from the Gospel According to Luke (who also wrote Acts!) speaks of events immediately after the resurrection. The second scripture, from the First Letter of Peter, reflects Christian interpretation many years after Luke's compositions. What do we make of all of this?
We often tell stories to remind ourselves of important events that still have an influence but can be easily lost in the NOW way of living. Thus, we are telling both the story of Jesus' death and resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit at the same time. We are witnesses to both of these important events not simply because they happened (past tense) but because they are happen-ING, (present tense). The First Letter of Peter, from which the second scripture for today is taken, says a bit further on: "Always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in you." [1 Peter 3:15] At each celebration of the Eucharist, we remember the death and resurrection of Jesus, but when we leave the church, we are witnesses to that Good News and can be confident that the Holy Spirit will guide us in that baptismal commission. We are witnesses to HOPE, especially in a time of pandemic when so many are suffering and when we may not even be able to attend in person the celebration of the Eucharist. Keeping the whole story in mind, even out of sequence, can give us that hope. AMEN