Wednesday, March 30, 2016

You Are Witnesses


By Beth DeCristofaro

“Moreover, all the prophets who spoke, from Samuel and those afterwards, also
St. John's Bible
(www.stjohnsbible.org)
announced these days. You are the children of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors when he said to Abraham, in your offspring all the families of the earth shall be blessed. For you first, God raised up his servant and sent him to bless you by turning each of you from your evil ways.”
(Acts 3:24-26)

Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. And he said to them, “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, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.” (Luke 24:45-48)

Piety
Praise the LORD, all you nations!
Extol him, all you peoples!
His mercy for us is strong;
the faithfulness of the LORD is forever.
Hallelujah!
        (Psalm 117)

Study
Hallelujah!  The Easter Vigil, filled with Hallelujahs, readings that span our sacred history, the darkness blown away by lighting of candles.  Walking out of church amid all who have renewed our baptismal promises and seeing the transformed faces of the newly Baptized I get just a tiny sense of what the Apostles might have been feeling on the road to Emmaus and in the upper room when Jesus appeared.

This Easter weekend we enjoyed meals with friends from high school and grade school, catching up on our lives, sharing what is important to us now and what has been meaningful throughout the years.  Jesus’ friends mourned his leaving them.  We also miss those who have left our lives whether by distance, temperament or death.  But Jesus’ Resurrection tells us clearly that He does not need our sorrow He wants our consent to be with Him as He remains with us.  His Resurrection opened us to understanding and our consent points us to walk in His footsteps as witness and hallelujah people.

Action
How do we preach in his name?  Jesus came in accordance to fulfill the Scriptures. 

The Scriptures tell us through the mouths of prophets, poets, believers, sinners, and the Son of God to follow:  “Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.”   (Interpretive translation of Talmudic texts, from Gratefulness, Word for the Day)[i]

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