30/04/2006 - 3rd SUNDAY of EASTER
- Year B
First Reading Acts 3:13-15; 17-19 Psalm 4
Second Reading 1John 2:1-5a Gospel Luke 24:35-48
Honour your father and mother because you will live longer, in the city of
the Lord, your God. The fourth Commandment is the first that tells us of our
responsibility towards others, and the first people that the Word of God places
before us are our parents. They gave us life and they are the first that God
sees beside us; they, who were instruments of His love and of His omnipotence.
Why honour them? We honour them because God, Himself, made use of their love
to give us life. How do we honour them? We honour them by becoming instruments
of God's love for them! The Commandment does not say "obey your father
and mother" because mothers and fathers are human and so, they, too, are
tempted by selfishness and by worldly power. God does not want us to satisfy
wrongful inclinations, even though they might be our parents' wishes. How, then,
do we honour our parents? We observe the Word and the example of Jesus: He,
too, had parents. He honoured His parents, in His youth, though they suffered,
by making them understand that He was not their property. He was called by God
to be faithful to Him. He later honoured them by being submissive to them for
many years, while preparing to fulfill His true vocation. He honoured His Mother
when He let everyone understand that her greatness was not her physical maternity,
but her meekness towards the Word of God! He honoured her, even at His death,
when He entrusted to her the task of loving His disciple, and gave the disciple
the task of caring for her!
All of today's Readings speak of sin; better yet, of the forgiveness of sin.
This is possible, thanks to the Resurrection of Jesus! Peter, speaking for the
first time in public, invites those who chose death for the Lord, to repent
and change their ways so that they might be forgiven. In fact, what is our life
without forgiveness? People are unhappy because they had the need to be forgiven.
They are angry and stressed because they are weight down by the load in their
hearts. People can easily look at themselves suspiciously because they have
something to hide. Fear reigns over men and women because they fear death, and
they fear death because they don't have an clear, serene relationship with God
because it has been spoiled by their sins!
Jesus welcomed death as act of love for us because He knew that we, believing
in His Resurrection, would be forgiven, and in being forgiven, would have life!
Forgiveness is necessary in our families, with husband and wife, brothers and
sisters, parents and children. It is necessary in society, among colleagues
at work, with all whom we enjoy spending time with. It is necessary everywhere,
even among friends. Forgiveness is life, it is peace, it is joy; it is the first
step to true communion. Where there is no forgiveness, there is no mutual trust,
there is no serenity; there is no freedom. If there is no forgiveness within
a family or in society, a person will shut him/herself within him/herself and
loneliness and desperation will grow.
Is it possible to be forgiven? Saint John presents Jesus as defence counsel
between us and God, the Father, between us sinners and the Father, who is holy
and just. The Father does not wear our sins because the One who puts Himself
in the middle is Jesus, to whom we are united because we believed in Him and
because we have been baptized in His name! This is the reason we love Him, and
we love Him by obeying "His Commandments", by observing His Word.
Observing His Word brings perfection to our love; thereby, our resemblance to
God!
In the Gospel we heard the Jesus' last words to His Apostles, words which pertained
to their mission in the world: "Repentance and the forgiveness of sins
is to be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem."
Jesus appeared to His disciples, after He had risen, to give them this task:
invite all peoples to conversion and tell them of God's willingness to forgive!
Starting from Jerusalem; that is, starting with those who were His enemies.
To them, first, conversion is proposed and forgiveness is announced! There should
not be a place of resentment or antipathy in the heart of a Christian; only
the will of the Father to see His children gathered around His Son! First of
all, men must realize that they are sinners; therefore, different from what
the Father would like, by excluding love from our behaviour, by not behaving
as His children. Who can claim not having sinned?
If someone disobeys God, he does not love Him; thus, his knowledge of God is
ruined! Instead, when we fulfill His Word, He lives in us with His perfect love!
We will, then, also have the joy and the strength to invite our brothers, and
those who don't yet know the Father, to convert so that they might have His
forgiveness!
Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you reveal to us the possibility to be forgiven,
and that You, Yourself, give us the courage of asking to be forgiven, and to
forgive others; in so doing, we are collaborators with the love of the Father!