\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
A message of repentance!\u00c2\u00a0 Even during the Octave of Easter, our readings tell us to repent?\u00c2\u00a0 I quote:\u00c2\u00a0 “Repent and be converted”.\u00c2\u00a0 These are Peter’s words to the people.\u00c2\u00a0 And they echo down through the ages to us.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, Jesus suffered, died, and was buried, and then rose from the dead and appeared to the Apostles.\u00c2\u00a0 And yes, the joy of the resurrection and life everlasting belongs to all of us.\u00c2\u00a0 But, we must first repent, be converted, and show that we believe.\u00c2\u00a0 This is the essence of Peter’s message.<\/p>\n
He gives the example of Jewish History, about how God’s word was available throughout Jewish history through the prophets.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 They just didn’t get it; they didn’t understand.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
The story in the Gospel echoes a similar theme.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 They were probably asking- what does it all mean?\u00c2\u00a0 Then Jesus appeared to them in the Risen state, and explained it bit by bit, abd sent them off to convert the world.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
About this time in our Easter experience, the joy of the Resurrection has taken hold\u00c2\u00a0 But that joy should be followed by the same kind of sobering question.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, Jesus rose, but what does it all really mean?\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
And who is it that needs conversion?\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 Why is it important?\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 And how do we do it?\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00c2\u00a0 Thursday in the Octave of Easter Acts 3: 11-26; Luke 24: 35-48 Dc. Larry Brockman A message of repentance!\u00c2\u00a0 Even during the Octave of Easter, our readings tell us to repent?\u00c2\u00a0 I quote:\u00c2\u00a0 “Repent and be converted”.\u00c2\u00a0 These are Peter’s words to the people.\u00c2\u00a0 And they echo down through the ages to us.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}