Sunday Sermon for April 14, 2024, the Third Sunday of Easter, Year B
Readings: Acts 3:13-15, 17-19; I Jn 2:1-5a; Lk 24:35-48
In the first reading today, St. Peter addresses the Jewish audience in Jerusalem shortly after Pentecost and challenges them about the actions that were taken against Jesus. We note that St. Peter begins by rooting everything in God: He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In other words, there is only one God, the One Who revealed Himself to the Patriarchs and, through the Prophets, foretold everything that would happen to the Christ He would send into the world.
Of course, this is not just any man whom God raised up to be the Christ, He is God. St. Peter refers to Jesus as the Holy and Righteous One; only God can be called truly holy and righteous. But in case they missed the point, St. Peter says they put to death the Author of Life. reminding the people that Jesus had been foretold, along with the sufferings He had to endure, St. Peter calls upon the people to repent and convert so their sins could be forgiven.
What is important to note is that St. Peter was not condemning the people, but even excused them as acting out of ignorance. The mercy St. Peter shows is probably due to the mercy Jesus had shown Peter and the other Apostles just a few weeks earlier. In the Gospel we read an account of the Easter night appearance of Jesus to His Apostles who were terrified and thought they were seeing a ghost. Jesus asks why they were troubled and why questions arose in their hearts. After all, Jesus had told them what was going to happen to Him, but more than that, they had just excitedly told the two disciples who returned from Emmaus that Jesus had risen and appeared to Simon.
After hearing the two disciples recount their experience of the Risen Lord, Jesus stood in their midst and wished them peace. We do not know if everyone reacted in fear, but St. Luke does not tell us that Peter and the two disciples who had seen and spoken with Jesus on the road to Emmaus were exempt. Even if those three remained calm, the other ten, even after hearing about the resurrection from three witnesses and very excitedly speaking about our Lord’s appearance to Peter clearly panicked when Jesus appeared to them. Between this occasion and witnessing the gentleness of our Lord toward St. Thomas when the latter refused to believe, St. Peter would have seen that God did not condemn the Apostles for their lack of faith, and following our Lord’s example, Peter extends kindness to the people while, at the same time, challenging them to repent and convert.
We also notice how St. Peter speaks to the people about all that was written in the Prophets about the suffering of the Christ. Throughout the three years the Apostles spent with Jesus, there is little evidence that they understood that the Messiah would have to suffer. While it is all there in the Prophets, there are also passages about the glorious coming of the Messiah. The people of old are no different from the people of today; it was far easier to accept the Scriptures that talk about the positive things than it was to embrace the ideas of suffering and death for the forgiveness of sin.
Now, however, new understanding and insight is displayed by St. Peter, perhaps because Jesus opened the minds of the Apostles to understand the Scriptures as we read in the Gospel today. Suddenly, things began to make sense. They were able to understand and after pondering these truths and receiving the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, St. Peter was able to preach about them to his audience.
St. John shows profound insight when he speaks of Jesus as the expiation for sin. Like Peter, St. John calls Jesus the Righteous One, and then reveals Him to be God by speaking of following His commandments and having the love of God perfected in us by keeping the words of Jesus. The insight of St. John is critical for us because he says Jesus is the expiation not only for the sins of those who knew Him or from His generation, but for the sins of the whole world. Also, note that St. John does not say Jesus offered the sacrifice for the expiation of our sins; rather, he says Jesus is the expiation.
So, like the challenge St. Peter gave to his audience, we now face the challenge to repent and convert. It is not merely an idea we are accepting, it is the Person of Jesus we accept. We should have neither fear nor questions, because He is the expiation for our sins. He is the Christ, He is our God Who loves us and wants His love perfected in us!
Fr. Altier’s column appears regularly in The Wanderer, a national Catholic weekly published in St. Paul, Minn. For information about subscribing to The Wanderer, please visit www.thewandererpress.com.
