Word to the Wise
Sunday, April 14, 2024 - 3rd Sunday of Easter - B
[Acts 3:13-15, 17-19; 1 John 2:1-5a; Luke 24:35-48]"But God has brought to fulfillment what he had announced beforehand through the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer." [Acts] "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 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 many ways to "witness" to something. We may be an eye witness or someone repeating the testimony of an eye witness. The latter form may be oral or written. In biblical times, the majority of the people in the area of what we call the Holy Land were illiterate. Communication was oral and tradition was memorized from oral proclamation. This explains the power of the scribes that Jesus criticized for abuses. They could read and write. It also explains the amazement some people had about Jesus, when he visited Nazareth. He actually read to them from the prophet Isaiah in the synagogue. Respect for the scriptures as a written testimony, inspired by the Holy Spirit, has its roots in the respect shown to the Law of Moses in Jewish synagogues. It is almost like our respect for the Eucharist which we keep in a tabernacle. The scroll of the Torah is kept in an "ark" in the synagogue. But that respect is one thing, understanding the content is another. This requires faith, study and thought. The disciples on the road to Emmaus had already had their minds opened to understand the scriptures. They returned to Jerusalem to bear witness to this. In today's gospel it is the turn of the disciples in the upper room. What the evangelist Luke does is to establish the broad narrative of salvation to which the disciples would bear witness throughout the Roman Empire, beginning from Jerusalem.
The Second Vatican Council (1962-65), in contrast to Catholic practice dating from the Council of Trent and earlier, encouraged all of us Catholics to read and study the scriptures. Previously, this task was left to church authority and clergy. Our minds are capable of understanding the scriptures on a level that we can bear powerful witness to if we undertake the task of reading and meditating on it. Our Protestant brothers and sisters have been way ahead of us on this. There are many resources available now that did not exist prior to Vatican II. If we are to be capable witnesses to Christ, we have to know the testimony of the scriptures. We don't have to be scholars, but we can read from a good "study bible" all that we need ordinarily to communicate the "Good News" of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we can open our minds to understand the scriptures so that we can be effective disciples. AMEN