Deacon Larry

 

Thursday in the Octave of Easter

Acts 3: 11-26; Luke 24: 35-48

Dc. Larry Brockman

A message of repentance!  Even during the Octave of Easter, our readings tell us to repent?  I quote:  “Repent and be converted”.  These are Peter’s words to the people.  And they echo down through the ages to us.  Yes, Jesus suffered, died, and was buried, and then rose from the dead and appeared to the Apostles.  And yes, the joy of the resurrection and life everlasting belongs to all of us.  But, we must first repent, be converted, and show that we believe.  This is the essence of Peter’s message.

He gives the example of Jewish History, about how God’s word was available throughout Jewish history through the prophets.  But people did not listen, they did not really believe, and as evidence of their disbelief, they weren’t following the Word of God as proclaimed by the prophets.  They just didn’t get it; they didn’t understand. 

The story in the Gospel echoes a similar theme.  The two Emmaus brothers are telling an incredible story to the other Apostles, some of whom, namely Peter and John, saw that the Lord was not in the tomb.  But despite their first hand exposure to Jesus, and all the words he used to describe how he would fulfill the prophesies, they didn’t get it; they didn’t understand what the empty tomb meant.  They were probably asking- what does it all mean?  Then Jesus appeared to them in the Risen state, and explained it bit by bit, abd sent them off to convert the world. 

About this time in our Easter experience, the joy of the Resurrection has taken hold  But that joy should be followed by the same kind of sobering question.  Yes, Jesus rose, but what does it all really mean?  It means that we, too, have got to really believe, even though we didn’t see it happen, and we have to follow that belief by a commitment to spread the joy of the Resurrection throughout our world by converting our fellow man. 

And who is it that needs conversion?  It’s our neighbors and friends who pay lip service to Easter and it’s meaning; and it’s our business associates and schoolmates who do the same.  Why is it important?  Because God wants us to help him bring all people into his heavenly Kingdom,by preaching forgiveness through repentance of sins and by spreading the good news, the Gospel.  And how do we do it?  By accepting our responsibility to repent- by changing our ways; by the way we live our lives- our example to others as a witness to our faith; and by our enthusiasm for our faith- by living out our Easter joy despite the trials of life. 

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 8th, 2010 at 6:09 am and is filed under Holy Family Weekday Homilies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.