A Homily - The Third Sunday of Easter (Year B)

First Reading – Acts 3:13-15, 17-19 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 4:2, 4, 7, 9 ©

Second Reading – 1 John 2:1-5 ©

Gospel Acclamation – Luke 24:32

The Gospel According to Luke 24:35 – 48 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

When you encounter royalist language in scripture depicting God, the creator of the universe, as a king, you are reading cult propaganda.

God is not a king, and prophecy is not concerned with prescience , divinations, auguries, the prediction of future events or any other form of con. None of the things Jesus said or did were said or done in fulfillment of prophecy. The prophet’s role is to serve as the voice of justice, true justice in an unjust world. Jesus fulfilled the mandate of this office and because of his commitment to justice that he was made to suffer.

Be mindful.

The author of Acts speaks of repentance and the forgiveness of sins, about wiping sin out as if it a mechanical or operation, or like balancing a ledger, as if the forgiveness of sins was equivalent to discharging a debt.

This is not the way of it…salvation is not redemption; God’s children are not traded like commodities between some fictional heaven and a make-believe underworld. The divine spirit that dwells within each of us is not a thing that can be bought and sold, and as such, no human being should be treated as such.

The grant of grace is not transactional; divine grace is free, it is fulsome and always present in our lives. When we are asked to repent, which simply means to turn around, we are being asked to examine the work of grace already active in our lives.

Consider the wisdom of the psalmist and place your trust in God; this is the essence of faith.

Believe that your life, that all-lives have meaning and purpose; if you claim to be a Christian you are called to trust God and reach out to the marginalized, to aid the disenfranchised, to the stranger among you, to be a living witness to the providence of God.

Let humility and mercy be the sacrifice you bring to the altar, these will make you holy; let you sacrifice be compassion, fairness and mercy.

Know this.

The apostles and their disciples were often confused about Jesus’ ministry, which was much different from what is depicted in the reading for today in John’s letter.

It is proper to view Jesus as an advocate, as the son of God who interceded on our behalf,  but is improper to view his death on the cross as the offering of a holy victim to a blood thirty deity; insofar as Jesus’ death was an act of compassion, insofar as he gave himself up, went to trial and accepted the outcome in order to protect his followers it was a sacrifice, in every other respect it was an political murder.

Be mindful.

It is true that you may come to the knowledge of God by following the commandments, if you follow this path, the way Jesus taught, then you must interpret the law and the prophets through the wisdom of the Shema, as Jesus did:

Hear this, God is one.

Love God with all your strength and all your heart and all your mind…and love your neighbor as yourself.

Serve God through the service you give to others. Do unto them as you would have them do unto you.

Do not do unto others what you would not have done to you.

Be mindful.

A person may also come to the knowledge of God through sin and suffering and the experience of grace; any and every point in time and space may serve as a nexus of grace and for the encounter with the eternal and infinite God.

Remember the prodigal son; do as God does and seek out the suffering in others; care for them. Remind them that they are loved.

God dwells in all people, regardless of what anyone might say about their probity and propriety, God is with them. God is with even those people whom we fear and hate…if we fear and hate anyone. God is with you and your family and everyone you love, God is also with those who wish to harm you. God is with your enemies and those whom you most despise.

Some people are able to manifest the presence of God in their life through an emulation of the love that Jesus himself demonstrated through the way. They show us this though self-emptying, kenosis and the outpouring of good that follows.

Other people find God through their encounters with those by whom they have been hurt, in situations where they are called on to be merciful, to forgive them and thereby acknowledge the need for mercy in themselves.

Remember.

God is present in every person, some are able to demonstrate the divine will and show us the way. Others call us to a Christ-like response, to demonstrate for them a heart of love and the blessings of mercy. Our faith instructs us that all things redound to the good in the end…and yet it remains the task of the living to assist with that transformative process.

Do not emulate the author of John’s letter, who is quicker to judge than to express humility, who seems to have misplaced the core conviction that everyone has fallen short of the glory of God.

Be mindful.

It is God’s will that God’s love comes to perfection in every person; we are co-creators with the divine in the determination of that narrative. God is the author of the script, God directs the stage and us toward our end, we are merely players, created in freedom, with the ability to improvise and ad lib.

Consider the Gospel reading for today.

The unfortunate truth is this, the myths the Gospel writers wove in order to narrate the story of Jesus’ resurrection, the structure of those myths and the values they uphold, serve to undermine the teaching and ministry of Jesus and his articulation of the way.

We are not called on to be good in exchange for eternal life; we are called on to love the good for the sake of the good itself, to love justice for the sake of justice. As followers of Jesus we are called on to serve the truth, to be truthful and to depend it, which cannot be done so well when the foundation myths of the Church are predicated on a lie.

There was nothing about the death of Jesus that was preordained, if Jesus ever even lived. There was nothing written about Jesus in the “Books of Moses,” books which Moses, if he ever even lived, did not write. There was nothing foretold about Jesus in the Books of the Law or in the writings of the Prophets, because prophecy is not a prediction of future events, which prognostications are called divinations and auguries and all fantastically absurd.

The prophets were not prognosticators, they did not augur, they were not diviners; they were critics of the social order, as Jesus was, they spoke about the times he lived in and the powers he and his followers faced in the world.

Every effort that has ever been made by Christians to read into the Hebrew scriptures references to the life, mission, and person of Jesus, has been an exercise in vanity and the mission of fools; it is the work of the faithless.

The truth is much better.

Jesus was killed by the unjust for exemplifying true-justice through the quality of his life; he was an example to us all. He showed us the way to free ourselves from sin, he showed us how to live an authentic life…and his death did not end him.

First Reading – Acts 3:13-15, 17-19 ©

You Killed the Prince of Life: God, However, Raised Him from the Dead

Peter said to the people: ‘You are Israelites, and it is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our ancestors, who has glorified his servant Jesus, the same Jesus you handed over and then disowned in the presence of Pilate after Pilate had decided to release him. It was you who accused the Holy One, the Just One, you who demanded the reprieve of a murderer while you killed the prince of life. God, however, raised him from the dead, and to that fact we are the witnesses.

‘Now I know, brothers, that neither you nor your leaders had any idea what you were really doing; this was the way God carried out what he had foretold, when he said through all his prophets that his Christ would suffer. Now you must repent and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out.’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 4:2, 4, 7, 9 ©

Lift up the light of your face on us, O Lord.

Alleluia!

When I call, answer me, O God of justice;

  from anguish you released me, have mercy and hear me!

Lift up the light of your face on us, O Lord.

It is the Lord who grants favours to those whom he loves;

  the Lord hears me whenever I call him.

Lift up the light of your face on us, O Lord.

‘What can bring us happiness?’ many say.

  Lift up the light of your face on us, O Lord.

Lift up the light of your face on us, O Lord.

I will lie down in peace and sleep comes at once

  for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety.

Lift up the light of your face on us, O Lord.

Alleluia!

 

Second Reading – 1 John 2:1-5 ©

Jesus Christ is the Sacrifice that Takes Our Sins Away, and the World's

I am writing this, my children, to stop you sinning; but if anyone should sin, we have our advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, who is just; he is the sacrifice that takes our sins away, and not only ours, but the whole world’s.

We can be sure that we know God only by keeping his commandments.

Anyone who says, ‘I know him’, and does not keep his commandments, is a liar, refusing to admit the truth.

But when anyone does obey what he has said, God’s love comes to perfection in him.

 

Gospel Acclamation – Luke 24:32

Alleluia, alleluia!

Lord Jesus, explain the Scriptures to us.

Make our hearts burn within us as you talk to us.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Luke 24:35 – 48 ©

It is Written that the Christ would Suffer and on the Third Day Rise from the Dead

The disciples told their story of what had happened on the road and how they had recognised Jesus at the breaking of bread.

  They were still talking about all this when Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you!’ In a state of alarm and fright, they thought they were seeing a ghost. But he said, ‘Why are you so agitated, and why are these doubts rising in your hearts? Look at my hands and feet; yes, it is I indeed. Touch me and see for yourselves; a ghost has no flesh and bones as you can see I have.’ And as he said this he showed them his hands and feet. Their joy was so great that they still could not believe it, and they stood there dumbfounded; so he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ And they offered him a piece of grilled fish, which he took and ate before their eyes.

  Then he told them, ‘This is what I meant when I said, while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets and in the Psalms has to be fulfilled.’ He then opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, ‘So you see how it is written that the Christ would suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that, in his name, repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses to this.’

 

The Third Sunday of Easter (Year B)