Word to the Wise
Thursday, April 21, 2022 - 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." 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 of these things." [Luke]
There are three important things in today's gospel passage that merit our careful attention. First, in these last words of his gospel account of Jesus, the evangelist Luke provides an introduction to the second volume of his account, known as the Acts of the Apostles! He is describing what has happened in the years (roughly 40 or so) after Jesus' death and resurrection. The first preaching after the Pentecost event would take place in Jerusalem and, impelled by the Spirit and persecution in Jerusalem (of which St. Paul was a part before his conversion), spread throughout the Mediterranean area.
Second, in two places in Chapter 24, Jesus "opens the minds of disciples to understand the scriptures." In order to make sense of the traumatic loss of Jesus in a gruesome execution, the first disciples - all of whom were Jews - turned to the highest religious authority they could: the Scriptures. We should recall that they did not have the New Testament! Jesus' life, death and resurrection had to be understood in the light of Moses, the prophets and the psalms! We should remember this in our own efforts to understand the Scriptures. We cannot dismiss the Old Testament in favor of the New!
Third, the last line of the gospel passage today points the finger at everyone of us and says, "You are witnesses of these things!" Every one of us baptized Christians have received the same Holy Spirit that inspired the first preaching in Jerusalem. But we have the additional resource of the witnesses in the New Testament. In the rite of Baptism, the celebrant touches the ears and mouth of the one being baptized and says, "The Lord Jesus made the deaf hear and the dumb speak. May he soon touch your ears to receive his word, and your mouth to proclaim his faith..." This is our commission. We are witnesses of these things. AMEN