Easter Th

April 5, 2018:  Easter Thursday

See about 2 dozen connections with today?
Legend below

Listen

• At the Lamb’s high feast/ tr. Campbell

• Celebrate (He Lives)/ Hammond

• Psalm 8 settings

• Good "Emmaus tunes" (beginning of gospel)

Read

• Acts 3:11-26  Peter at Solomon's Portico after cripple's healing:  “Why are you amazed, and why do you look at us as if we cured him?  God glorified Jesus; you killed him, but God raised him.  Faith in Jesus cured the man.  God fulfilled the prophecies that his Christ would suffer.  Repent and be converted so your sins may be wiped away and God may send you Jesus, and in your offspring all shall be blessed.”

• Ps 8:2ab, 5-9  "O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!"  You've crowned him and given him dominion over created things.

• Lk 24:35-48  They recounted how they recognized Jesus in the breaking of bread.  Jesus came:  “Peace!” but they thought him a ghost.  “Look at my hands and feet, and touch me; a ghost has no flesh or bones.”  They were joyful and amazed.  “Have you anything to eat?”  They gave him fish, and he ate it.  “I told you everything about me in the law, prophets, and psalms must be fulfilled....  It is written the Christ would suffer and rise, and that repentance would be preached to all.  You're witnesses.”

Reflect

• Fr. Chidi Ekpendu homily video:  Give God the credit, like Peter did.  We're restless for Easter peace.

• Creighton:  As Easter people we walk with the apostles.  Our readings tell of miracles performed by the apostles as they try to explain the implications of what just happened.  Our gospel recounts Jesus returning to the apostles after his resurrection and sharing a meal with them.  In the readings after Easter many witness incredible things and see the apostles' acts resulting in healing, but don't get it.  How often do we look for a “savior” in the wrong places?  Feeling at home with who and where you are and what you're doing is worth more than all that money can buy; the challenge is not the quest for success but the quest to create inner peace by being faithful to who we truly are, created wonderfully by God (Matthew Kelly Perfectly Yourself).  Our greatest gift is that God loves us in ways we can't begin to understand....

• One Bread, One Body:  When Peter preached after Pentecost, the Lord led many to believe. Peter proclaimed that God healed the lame man to glorify Jesus, his fellow Israelites disowned and killed the Author of life, God raised him, we're his witnesses, faith strengthened the cripple, they condemned Jesus out of ignorance, Jesus' death fulfilled the prophecy that the Messiah would suffer, we must reform and turn to God, Jesus will return to establish the "universal restoration," and God sent you Jesus to bless you by turning you from evil.

The appearance of Christ at the Cenacle/ Tissot

• Passionist:  The Emmaus story, begun yesterday and concluded today, is about the discovery of Christ and coming to faith, starting camly and subtly and gradually illumining blindness.  The awareness changes the heart before the mind can process what's happening.   They wake up to say, “Jesus has been walking with me and I didn’t even realize it!”  They were trying to make sense of the cross, as many still do.  “Everything written about me in the Law, prophets, and psalms had to be fulfilled.”  For Jesus to move from dialogue to fulfillment must have rocked some people’s world.  Luke portrayed Jesus as knowing he was fulfilling what was written about him.  The Word made flesh was to build on the integrity of the written Word.  The Risen Christ opened their minds to the understanding of Scripture.  Thank God for those who have opened our minds....

• DailyScripture.net:  Jesus opened their minds to understand the Scriptures":  We can be like the apostles, not believing unless we see with our own eyes.  Jesus assures his disciples he's not a ghost, showing them the marks of his crucifixion, eating, and explaining how the Scriptures foretold his rising.

"As he showed them real hands and a real side, he ate with his disciples, walked with Cleophas, conversed with men, reclined at supper, with real hands broke and offered bread...  Don't put the Lord's power on the level of magic tricks, so he may appear to have been what he wasn't, and may be thought to have eaten without teeth, walked without feet, broken bread without hands, spoken without a tongue, and showed a side that had no ribs" (Jerome, Letter to Pammachius against John of Jerusalem 34).

The gospel doesn't end with the cross:  Through the cross Jesus defeated our enemies and won pardon for our sins, opening heaven to us.  The cross led to life, victory, power to overcome everything that would stand in the way of God's love and truth.  As the first disciples were commissioned to proclaim the good news, so are we called to be witnesses of the resurrection....

• Trumped saint, from Universalis:  Vincent Ferrer, Dominican preacher; see also New Advent.

Dress legend

• 'Butterfly' pin:  "God raised Jesus from the dead" (1st reading)

• 'Car with mouth' pin:  God brought to fulfillment what he'd announced through the prophets' mouth (1st reading)

• 'Olympics' tie pin:  Repentance will be preached to all nations (1st reading)

• 'Eyeball' pin:  "Why do you look so intently at us?" (1st reading)

• 'Angel' pin:  "You made people little less than the angels..." (psalm)

• 'Crown' tie bar:  "...and crowned them with glory and honor,..." (psalm)

• 'Feet' pin:  "...putting all things under their feet,..." (psalm); "look at my... feet" (gospel)

• 'Sheep' tie bar, 'beast' and 'bird' pins:  "Sheep, beasts, birds..." (psalm)

• 'Wheat' pin:  Jesus' disciples recognized him in the breaking of the bread (gospel)

• 'Peace sign' tie bar:  “Peace be with you.” (gospel)

• '?', 'heart' tie pins:  "Why do questions arise in your hearts?" (gospel)

• 'Skeleton' tie pin:  "A ghost doesn't have flesh and bones as you see I have." (gospel)

• 'Hands' pin:  "Look at my hands" (gospel); "You gave him rule over the works of your hands" (psalm); "You 'handed' Jesus over and denied him" (1st reading)

• 'Fishes' tie: "They gave him a piece of fish" (gospel); The Lord gave people... fish (psalm)

• 'Walker' tie pin:  Cripple who now walks (1st reading)

• White shirt (and socks):  Color of day and season

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