Benito was so excited that he started talking the minute he exited his classroom. “Mary, last Sunday was First Communion. And I was sitting in church and having all these bad thoughts. I couldn’t sit still. I couldn’t forget things. I couldn’t pay attention. Then, I received Jesus, AND THE THOUGHTS WENT AWAY!”
Did Jesus heal Benito of trauma we’ve been working on for months in that instant? Likely so. The Holy Spirit does that frequently.
While Pentecost is more than a month away, the Easter season is filled with opportunities for outpourings of the Holy Spirit: First Communions, Confirmations, Baptisms, Ordinations. There is even the admonition that every Catholic should receive the Eucharist at least once a year “in the Easter season,” and instructions for taking communion to the sick include that they should receive even DAILY in the Easter season.
Today’s readings remind us of this great outpouring of grace the Church fosters during the weeks right after Easter. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! AND He is risen IN DEEDs. Plentiful grace freely given is everywhere. That plentiful grace makes all things new. All three readings are snapshots of how this grace freely given becomes mercy and new life. They are all three snapshots in the middle of larger stories. Seeing them in the context of their stories can help us see the power of the Holy Spirit for us today.
Acts 3:13-15, 17-19
The first reading from Acts is part of the story in Acts 3 of Peter and John healing the crippled man who begged “by the gate called Beautiful” of the temple. The man called out for alms. Peter said to him, “I have neither silver nor gold, but what I have I give you! In the name of Jesus Christ, the Nazorean, walk!” The man walked. In fact, he jumped and danced around and told everybody about it. As a crowd gathered, Peter spoke the words today, “The author of life you put to death, but God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses. Now I know, brothers, that you acted out of ignorance, just as your leaders did; but God has thus brought to fulfillment what he had announced beforehand through the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer. Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away,” The whole story is a good one. Read it in Acts 3 and 4.
I John 2:1-5a
The healing and power of the Spirit in I John is focused on struggling Christian communities several decades after the Resurrection. Many scholars think the letter was written to the community at Ephesus. Things are not so unified and gloriously clear now. There has been persecution, as the world has reacted to the thought of a whole new way and understanding of life that the reality of the Resurrection provides. In Chapter 1, John begins that he is writing that the community may “share life with us, this fellowship of ours with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ…that your joy may be complete.” He goes on to write lines we have often heard, “God is light, and in him there is no darkness.” “If we walk in the light, and he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of his Son Jesus cleanses us from all sin.”
Today’s reading then focuses on what we do as the world closes in on us at times and our faith waffles. “The way we can be sure of our knowledge of him is to keep his commandments.” As John goes on to write, these commandments include both the old (of the 10 commandments) and the new, “Love one another as Christ has loved you.”
Luke 24:35-48
The very first verse of this reading is the last verse of the story of what happened on the road to Emmaus. It is evening of Easter day. Two disciples had left Jerusalem, hearing of the Resurrection, but not quite believing it. Jesus met them on the road and explained the prophesies the helped the Resurrection make sense. Then, as they “broke bread” they realized they had been walking and talking with the resurrected Jesus. They immediately turned around to return to Jerusalem and tell the other disciples what had happened.
Now, in this reading, Jesus comes into the upper room. It must be well into the night toward Monday morning. Jesus admonishes the disciples, “Why are your troubled? What do you have questions in your hearts?” Then, to prove he is physically risen, he asks for something to eat. They give him some baked fish.
There are only 4 more verses to the Gospel of Luke. They describe how the disciples are to stay in the city until they are “clothed with power” and Jesus’ Ascension.
Applications
All three of these snapshots of life with grace are easy ones to pray with Ignation contemplation—prayer in which we imagine ourselves as an observer or participant in the story. The Beautiful Gate healing is a long time favorite of mine. I go back into it and remember how it was the center of a college ethics paper when I was beginning to move toward becoming Catholic. The Road to Emmaus story reminds me of Cursillo and ACTS retreats I have made and the fire of faith that flames up at retreat times. I John makes me think of a meeting I will attend next week to explore how we can work together to heal divisions within the Church today.
Thinking, too, of the outpourings of grace that happen all around us during the Easter season helps me recall my own confirmation (I came into the church before RCIA was set up, so I was confirmed with the high school students), the Baptisms, First Communions, and Confirmations of my children.
And I am filled with gratitude for our church who understands our human need to party and rejoice!
Perhaps such thoughts are yours, too. Perhaps your prayer sends you in other directions. I conclude, though, with Benito running out of his classroom with such great joy on his face!
This contemporary Easter hymn sings in me.
Prayer
Join in the dance of the earth’s jubilation! This is the feast of the love of God. Shout from the heights to the ends of creation: Jesus the Savior is risen from the grave!
Wake O people; sleep no longer. Greet the breaking day! Christ, Redeemer, Land and Lion, turns the night away!
