You have killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead.
From the Acts of the Apostles Acts 3:11-26
In those days, while the healed cripple was holding Peter and John, all the people, beside themselves with astonishment, ran towards them in the portico known as Solomon's.
Seeing this, Peter said to the people: «Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this and why do you keep staring at us as if by our power or by our piety we had made this man walk?
The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers he glorified his servant Jesus, which you handed over and denied before Pilate, when he had decided to free him; instead you denied the Holy and the Righteous, and you asked that a murderer be pardoned.
You have killed the author of life, but God he raised him from the dead: we are witnesses. And for the faith placed in him, the name of Jesus it has given vigor to this man whom you see and know; the faith that comes from him has given this man perfect healing in the presence of all of you.
Now, brethren, I know that you have acted in ignorance, as have your leaders. But God he thus accomplished what he had foretold through the mouth of all the prophets, that is, that his Christ had to suffer. Convert, therefore, and change your life, so that your sins may be canceled and thus the times of consolation from the Lord may come and he may send the one who had destined you as Christ, namely Jesus.
Heaven must welcome him up to the time of the reconstitution of all things, of which God he has spoken through the mouths of his holy prophets since ancient times. In fact, Moses said: “Your Lord God he will raise up for you, from your brothers, a prophet like me; you will listen to everything he tells you.
And it will come to pass: whoever does not listen to that prophet will be uprooted from among the people." And all the prophets, beginning with Samuel and those who spoke afterwards, also proclaimed these days.
You are i sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God established with your fathers, when he said to Abraham: "In your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed." God, having raised up his servant, sent him first to you to bring you blessings, so that each of you may turn away from your iniquities."
R. O Lord, our Lord, how wondrous is your name in all the earth! Or: R. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.
O Lord, our Lord, how wondrous is your name in all the earth! What is man that you remember him, the son man, why do you care? R.
Really you did just under a God, you crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him power over the works of your hands, you have placed everything under his feet. R.
All flocks and herds, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea, every being that travels the ways of the seas. R.
SEQUENCE Optional [see Easter day]
Gospel acclamation
Hallelujah, hallelujah.
This is the day the Lord has made: let us rejoice and be glad. (Ps 117,24)
Alleluia.
Gospel
Thus it is written: the Christ he will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day.
The Word of April 13, 2023 4
From the Gospel according to Luke Luke 24:35-48
At that time, [the two disciples who had returned from Emmaus] narrated what had happened along the way and how they had recognized it in breaking bread.
While they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said:Peace to you!». Upset and full of fear, they thought they saw a ghost.
But he said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your heart? Look at my hands and my feet: it's really me! Touch me and see; a ghost has no flesh and bones, as you see I have.' Saying this, he showed them his hands and feet.
But since they still did not believe for joy and were amazed, he said: "Have you anything to eat here?" They offered him a portion of roasted fish; he took it and ate it in front of them.
Then he said: «These are the words that I spoke to you when I was still with you: everything written about me in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets and in the Psalms must be fulfilled».
Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and said to them: «Thus it is written: the Christ he will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and in his name conversion and forgiveness of sins will be preached to all peoples, starting from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of this."
"Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures" (Lk 24:45)
Where will we find the words of Jesus, those words that must be for us "a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (Jn 4:14)?
First of all in the Gospel. There we listen Jesus Himself, Incarnate Word; we see him revealing the ineffable in human words, translating the invisible into gestures comprehensible to our limited spirit; we just have to open our eyes, dispose our hearts, to know the truth and rejoice in it. (…) Since "Christ it is the same yesterday, today and forever” (Heb 13:8), he himself reveals it from the Old Testament.
Didn't he say that Moses spoke about himself? Has he not often revealed the prophecies concerning himself? And the Psalms do not speak abundantly of him to the point of being, according to Bossuet's beautiful expression, "a Gospel of JesusChrist in songs, delight, deeds of grace, wishful thinking? (Élévations sur les mystères, Xe sem., 3e élév.)
It is therefore all the treasure of the Scriptures that he reveals to us Christ; on each of their pages we read his name. Those pages are full of him, of his person, of his perfection, of his gestures; each tells us the incomparable of him love, his boundless goodness, his infinite mercy, his ineffable wisdom; they reveal to us the unfathomable riches of the mystery of his life and of his pain, they tell us of the supreme triumph of his glory. (…)
But for his word to be "alive and effective" in us, to really touch the soul, and truly become a source of contemplation and the principle of life, we need to welcome him with faith and humility, and with a sincere desire to know Christ and to join him in walking in his footsteps.
The intimate and profound knowledge, the supernatural and fruitful perception of the meaning of the Holy Letters is a gift of the Spirit, a gift so precious that our Lord himself, eternal Wisdom, communicated to the Apostles in one of his last apparitions (L. 24,45) .
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER
There is a detail here, in this description.
The Gospel says that the Apostles "for great joy they still did not believe".
Such was the joy they had that they could not believe that thing was true. And a second detail: they were amazed, amazed; amazed because the encounter with God it always leads you to amazement: it goes beyond enthusiasm, beyond joy, it's another experience.
And these were joyful, but a joy that made them think: no, this cannot be true!…
It is the amazement of the presence of God. Don't forget this state of mind, which is so beautiful. (…) Brothers and sisters, this Gospel passage tells us that Jesus he is not a "ghost", but a living Person; That Jesus when it approaches us it fills us with joy, to the point of not believing, and leaves us astounded, with that amazement that only the presence of God gives, why Jesus he is a living Person.
Being Christian is not above all a doctrine or a moral ideal, it is a living relationship with him, with the Risen Lord: we look at him, we touch him, we feed on him and, transformed by his love, we look, touch and feed others as brothers and sisters.
May the Virgin Mary help us to live this experience of grace. (Regina Caeli, April 18, 2021)
