The readings for mass today are about two miracles that the people had trouble accepting were real. The first reading from the Book of Acts is about the crippled man from the beautiful gate that Peter and John cured. Everyone rushed up to question the apostles in amazement at what had happened and treated Peter and John like they were miracle workers. Peter and John could have let everyone think they had special powers of their own and take the credit for the miraculous cure of the crippled man but they didn’t. Peter and John let the crowd know it would be wrong for them to take credit for this miracle. They gave all the credit to God, acknowledging that He wanted to glorify His son Jesus, by this miracle.
Miracles are not given to people on demand though. The crippled man at the beautiful gate received this miracle as a pure gift from God. Miracles are usually given to people to show God’s true presence among them and for the benefit of a group of people or for the church itself. The crippled man was cured in today’s gospel so that everyone would understand that Jesus Christ really was the son of God. Jesus himself had given this power to his disciples. The disciples were more concerned over the peoples’ disbelief though.
And that is the case with the disciples in the gospel today as well. Jesus was concerned with their disbelief too. Sometimes it works both ways. Leaders are not always perfect people but, neither are the people they lead. We should pray more for Christ’s representatives on earth, for God to strengthen their faith in Him though. Especially right now when the church is under a lot of criticism from our secular world.
However, Jesus did not want it to be this way. He did not want his disciples to be afraid, or to question his true presence among them. The first words he said was “Peace be with you”. These are the same words the priest tells us at mass too, “Peace be with you”. Jesus asks his disciples, “Why are you troubled?” When we come to mass, many people have troubles and worries on their hearts too and Jesus does not want this. He wants us to trust him and be at peace in our lives, because he really doesn’t expect us to be perfect people and he knows our own faith is weak sometimes.
Jesus also said to his disciples “And why do questions arise in your hearts?” We have many questions we are thinking about too when we arrive for mass each week. Sometimes we may be asking why God doesn’t cure someone we love, why did we lose our job, or a relationship ended or we may even ask ourselves at times if God is really real? We may doubt God too. Anyone is susceptible to doubting God at some point in their lives, but it is ok. Jesus knows this.
In the gospel today, Jesus was able to show his hands and feet and his flesh and bones to his disciples. He even ate some fish to prove he was real. Unfortunately for us, we do not have Jesus’ physical body to touch and to prove to us that he is real. But, well yes, actually we do. Jesus left a piece of himself here for us so that we would never doubt him and to show us that he would remain with us the rest of our lives. We can touch, taste and see Jesus in the Eucharist we receive every week at mass. About a third of all Catholics doubt that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist though, just like the disciples doubted that Jesus had really risen from the dead and was physically standing in front of them.
However Jesus once again, refers them to the scriptures, to see the truth in the words of the scriptures. Everything written about him from the very beginning, when Moses recorded God’s laws, came true. They only needed to read the scriptures to understand that the prophets foretold his coming and what would happen to him. He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. “Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations.”
It is hard for many of us to understand the fullness of the scriptures too. We can listen to the scriptures, reflect on them and discuss how they have meaning in our lives, but our priests understand the fullness of the books of the bible. Jesus opened their minds while they were in the seminary to understand the fullness of the scriptures in the bible more deeply than any of us probably ever will. That doesn’t mean we can not discuss them and reflect on them in our everyday lives, but we should still rely on our parish priests as the ultimate authority on the meaning of the readings in the bible. They are Christ’s representatives and act “in persona” for us, which means they act in place of Christ when we receive the sacraments from them.
A good thing to think about doing today, is to pray for our priests. Not just in a general way, but to pray for them by name and pray for God to strengthen their faith in Him and keep them safe in his care. We do not want to lose any of them. And we should pray for new priests so that the church will continue to exist for future generations as well. And don’t forget to pray for Pope Francis and our bishops too. Our leaders need all the support and prayers we can give them right now. May God bless you if you do this.
Daily Mass Readings:
Acts 3: 11-26 / Psalm 8: 2ab, 5, 6-7, 8-9 / Luke 24: 35-4
