We hear in today’s celebration of the Roman Catholic liturgy an emphasis, the scriptures have been fulfilled with the death and resurrection of Jesus.
During these next weeks of Eastertide, we will be watching the early growth of The Way, or Christianity as it was to be called. Peter, now emboldened by the Holy Spirit will give many great talks to his Jewish listeners. Today he recounts to them the events of the death of Jesus, “You put to death the author of life.” Peter then recounts the story of His rising and how, “God has brought to fulfillment by this means what He announced long ago through the prophets…”
In the Gospel, Jesus does some recalling Himself, “Everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms had to be fulfilled.” He showed His followers His hands and asked for some food to prove to them and the readers of the Gospel, that He was truly risen. He is His Own proof and presents to them and to us, that He continues His presence through to the completion of His mission, the resurrection or return of all to God’s kingdom.
It is our Easter as well as the celebration of His rising. “Thus may a season of refreshment be granted you by the Lord…” He has risen to raise us and our spirits even now. Refreshment is offered us and through us to others. Peter was refreshing the minds of his listeners. Jesus was refreshing the spirits of His followers. The Holy Spirit, these days of our early spring, is sent upon us and all the people of all the Christian communities who are on “The Way.”
We are meant to come alive as do the flowers and trees. The Church is enlivened to bring forth the fruits of charity, generosity and prayer. We are to be agents of refreshment as were Peter and Jesus; recalling in our own minds and those around us, that He has risen and so have we.
We are those who have come to know Jesus in the “breaking of the bread,” and we are those through whom others will come to know Him in the breaking of the bread of our lives. The image of little baby chicks coming out of their shells is the cute picture of a very challenging invitation to rise with Jesus and live beyond our confinements and barriers. “When God raised up His Servant, He sent Him to you first, to bless you by turning you from your evil ways.”
Our “evil ways” are the ways we refuse to be untombed by the resurrectional call of Jesus to break out by means of our living and remembering Him, in the breaking of the Bread.
Rev. Larry Gillick, SJ
I entered the Society of Jesus in 1960, after graduating from Marquette University High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and attending St. Norbert College for two years. I was ordained in 1972 after completing theological studies at the Toronto School of Theology, Regis College. I presently minister in the Deglman Center for Ignatian Spirituality at Creighton and give retreats.
I enjoy sharing thoughts on the Daily Reflections. It is a chance to share with a wide variety of people in the Christian community experiences of prayer and life which have been given to me. It is a bit like being in more places than just here. We actually get out there without having to pay airlines to do it. The word of God is alive and well.
