5 April 2018 - made witnesses

Today's Readings (Audio)

You are witnesses of these things.

In this holy season of Easter we too are meant to become the witnesses of these things. We become witnesses to the dying and rising of Christ. This is our new identity, just as for Peter and John.

The author of life you put to death,
but God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses.

We receive the healing that comes from Jesus and cling to the pillars of the Church just as the crippled man clings to Peter and John. We put the author of life to death. But this was done in ignorance. It was allowed so that we could come to know this healing power that wipes away sin and grants times of refreshment.

Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones
as you can see I have.

We are witnesses to the risen Christ. This is not simply an idea. He is not a subjective ghost with no true impact in the physical realm of matter in science. He is not a mutual hallucination. The resurrection is not the disciples consensus about what Jesus stood for now represented in the abstract. He is truly risen, he is no ghost.

And as he said this,
he showed them his hands and his feet.
While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed,
he asked them, "Have you anything here to eat?"
They gave him a piece of baked fish; 
he took it and ate it in front of them.

We are witnesses to the LORD who is truly risen. This being the case, are we indeed receiving the times of refreshment Jesus died to provide? Are we living the fullness of the promise of the fifty days of Easter? The 40 days of Lent have given way. We are meant to celebrate. If this joy has not fully taken hold of us, let us ask the risen LORD to visit us and bring our hearts a deeper revelation of who he is and what this season means.

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.

Now we are refreshed. Now we are made true witnesses.

O LORD, our Lord,
how glorious is your name over all the earth!