Cycle B - Year II:

15 April 2018: Third Sunday of Easter

(Liturgical Color: White)

Readings:

First Reading: Acts 3:13-15, 17-19

Second Reading: 1 John 2:1-5a

Gospel:Please Read Luke 24:35-48

Witnessing the risen Christ!

The universal Church rejoiced as we celebrated Easter Sunday two weeks ago. The Lord is risen, we proclaim, Alleluia! In the Sundays of Easter, we will be hearing of Jesus' appearances to His disciples.

This Sunday's Gospel narrative is a continuation of the story of the two disciples who earlier encountered the risen Lord on the road to Emmaus. They were overjoyed of that experience and decided to return to Jerusalem to share their experience with the risen Christ with the rest of the disciples.

In the midst of their conversations, Jesus appears again, offering peace.

Something is worth noting in the way Jesus reveals Himself to His followers after His Resurrection. The risen Christ usually made Himself known to His disciples when they were gathered together as a group or community. There is a message that Jesus wants to convey in this. Easter is a good season for us to realize that followers of Jesus are called as a community of believers, the new People of God or the new Church.

Going back to the Gospel narrative in this appearance of Jesus to His disciples, He commissioned them to be witnesses to what God has dome to His people through the death and resurrection of Jesus, and opened their minds to understand fully the Scriptures in the context of Jesus' Paschal Mystery.

That means, everything that Jesus Christ said and did during His public ministry pointed to the Paschal Mystery, meaning His passion, death and resurrection. Every miraculous healing, every powerful sermon,, and every life-changing encounter with our Lord Jesus was in fact pointing to and drawing power from these saving events. Jesus conquered sin and death by offering His life on the cross in complete obedient to the Father and rising again on the third day.

Thus, our Lord won victory in the most important war that we all face as humans, achieving forgiveness from the Father, reconciling us to God, and restoring us to a life of grace.

What do we make of the Gospel reading for this Sunday? How does it impact on us today?

Well, we are the new Easter people of our generation. It means, we, too are sent to preach the Good News of the Easter event in our world today. St. Peter makes it clear in the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles that the crucial role of an apostle, and so every Christians in our own generation is precisely to bear witness to the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. Thus, the Easter event is our "commissioning" to also become witnesses of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ to all who live on the face of the earth. And we should not be afraid to do that, because the risen Lord has shown us the way and gives us the power to overcome sin, despair, and even death.

In practical life, do we become witnesses of the joy of the Gospel to those around us? Do we live our lives like Easter or liberated people, who reconciled one more with our heavenly Father through the sacrificial death of Jesus and His resurrection on Easter?

So let us pray: Lord Jesus, open our minds, too, to be able to understand the fullness of the Scriptures, so that we may comprehend the truth of Your word. Anoint us with power to be Your witnesses to all nations, even at the expense of our very own lives.Amen.

A blessed Sunday to us all. And thank you for a moment with God.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!