Reading 1
Acts 3:11-26
As the crippled man who had been cured clung to Peter and John,
all the people hurried in amazement toward them
in the portico called “Solomon’s Portico.”
When Peter saw this, he addressed the people,
“You children of Israel, why are you amazed at this,
and why do you look so intently at us
as if we had made him walk by our own power or piety?
The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,
the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus
whom you handed over and denied in Pilate’s presence,
when he had decided to release him.
You denied the Holy and Righteous One
and asked that a murderer be released to you.
The author of life you put to death,
but God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses.
And by faith in his name,
this man, whom you see and know, his name has made strong,
and the faith that comes through it
has given him this perfect health,
in the presence of all of you.
Now I know, brothers and sisters,
that you acted out of ignorance, just as your leaders did;
but God has thus brought to fulfillment
what he had announced beforehand
through the mouth of all the prophets,
that his Christ would suffer.
Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away,
and that the Lord may grant you times of refreshment
and send you the Christ already appointed for you, Jesus,
whom heaven must receive until the times of universal restoration
of which God spoke through the mouth
of his holy prophets from of old.
For Moses said:
A prophet like me will the Lord, your God, raise up for you
from among your own kin;
to him you shall listen in all that he may say to you.
Everyone who does not listen to that prophet
will be cut off from the people.
“Moreover, all the prophets who spoke,
from Samuel and those afterwards, also announced these days.
You are the children of the prophets
and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors
when he said to Abraham,
In your offspring all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
For you first, God raised up his servant and sent him to bless you
by turning each of you from your evil ways.”
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 8:2ab and 5, 6-7, 8-9
R. (2ab) O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
or:
R. Alleluia.
O LORD, our Lord,
how glorious is your name over all the earth!
What is man that you should be mindful of him,
or the son of man that you should care for him?
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
or:
R. Alleluia.
You have made him little less than the angels,
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him rule over the works of your hands,
putting all things under his feet.
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
or:
R. Alleluia.
All sheep and oxen,
yes, and the beasts of the field,
The birds of the air, the fishes of the sea,
and whatever swims the paths of the seas.
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
or:
R. Alleluia.
Gospel
Luke 24:35-48
The disciples of Jesus recounted what had taken place along the way,
and how they had come to recognize him in the breaking of bread.
While they were still speaking about this,
he stood in their midst and said to them,
“Peace be with you.”
But they were startled and terrified
and thought that they were seeing a ghost.
Then he said to them, “Why are you troubled?
And why do questions arise in your hearts?
Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.
Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones
as you can see I have.”
And as he said this,
he showed them his hands and his feet.
While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed,
he asked them, “Have you anything here to eat?”
They gave him a piece of baked fish;
he took it and ate it in front of them.
He said to them,
“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.”
REFLECTION
SOURCE: One Bread One Body
THEME: A GHOST WRITER
"They thought they were seeing a ghost." –Luke 24:37
"The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us" (Jn 1:14). God became a human being so that we could have a flesh-and-blood, deeply personal relationship with Him. After Jesus' death, His Incarnation seemed finished. When Jesus bodily rose from the dead, His Incarnation was restored.
However, the apostles still lost touch with the incarnate Jesus because they found it hard to believe in His resurrection. "In their panic and fright they thought they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, 'Why are you disturbed? Why do such ideas cross your mind? Look at My hands and My feet; it is really I. Touch Me, and see that a ghost does not have flesh and bones as I do' " (Lk 24:37-39). Jesus even ate a piece of fish to prove He was still incarnate (Lk 24:42-43). Finally, "He opened their minds to the understanding of the Scriptures" (Lk 24:45).
Jesus obviously wants us to relate to Him as incarnate and risen. Yet even the presence of His physical body does not guarantee we will relate to Him that way. We need faith, and "faith comes through hearing, and hearing by God's word" (Rm 10:17, our transl.). Therefore, the incarnate, risen Jesus spent the first afternoon (Lk 24:27) and evening of His risen life by opening His disciples' and apostles' "minds to the understanding of the Scriptures" (Lk 24:45).
What Christ's resurrection didn't do, His Word can do (see Lk 16:31). Love, learn, and live in God's Word (Jn 15:7; 8:31). Then you will relate to Jesus as a Man, not as a ghost.
PRAYER: Father, make my relationship with Jesus the most real and substantial relationship in my life.
PROMISE: "Such faith has given him perfect health, as all of you can observe." –Acts 3:16
PRAISE: Alleluia! Jesus is risen in glory! "Thanks be to God Who has given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor 15:57).
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