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WORD FOR MISSION Every week CIAM offers
to lay, religious people and priests an itinerary of reflections on the
Sunday Liturgy in a missionary prespective. These are elements for a
missionary meditation, individual or in community, on the Word of God ,
which constantly and surprisingly continues to enlighten, strengthen
and sustain the missionary journey of the Church, for the life of the
World
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The marks
of
the Crucified-Risen Lord and of Mission
Year B – 30.4.2006
Acts 3:13-15:17-19 Psalm 4 1John 2:1-5 Luca 24:35-48
Reflections The presence of Jesus, who accompanied the two disciples on their journey to Emmaus (Lc 24:13f), ended in discovering the identity of that mysterious traveller who had explained the Scripture to them, warmed their heart, broken the bread… “Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he disappeared from their sight… They got up at once and went back to Jerusalem” (Lc 24:31-33). Today’s text of Luke begins at this point (Gospel), with the Eleven disciples and the Two of Emmaus who are exchanging their experiences regarding the Risen Lord’s apparitions (v. 34-35). Finally, at the end of that day – the first of the new calendar of human history! – Jesus himself appears to the whole group and says: “Peace be with you!” (v. 36).
The Easter experience of the disciples, who see and recognize the Risen Lord, becomes the proclamation, rather, the foundation itself of the mission of the apostles and of the Church of all time and of all places. Today’s text of Luke begins and ends with the same Easter message: the Two of Emmaus tell of their encounter with the Risen Lord and the Eleven are sent to preach to all nations repentance and the forgiveness of sins (v. 47).
The apostles were not naive believers; they took their time before accepting that Jesus was truly risen. Luke insists in saying that at first they were amazed, terrified, upset, filled with doubts, believing they were seeing a ghost (v. 37-38); then the Gospel begins to give concrete proofs of the corporeity of the Risen one. For his part, Jesus insists in saying: “It is I myself!” (v. 39) and gives palpable proof that it is He, the same Jesus “in flesh and bones”: he eats in their presence some cooked fish (v. 43), he invites them to look and touch his hands, feet and side (v. 39). Finally the disciples surrender themselves and believe: the wounds of the passion are now the visible and tangible marks that there is identity and continuity between the historical Christ and the risen Christ.
Normally, apart from special circumstances, people are recognized by their faces. Jesus instead asks his disciples - Thomas in particular – to recognize him by his hands, feet and side. “The attention is drawn to the wounds impressed by the nails and by the cross, the height of a life offered in love. Even after his resurrection the body of Jesus shows the marks of the total gift of himself… The Christian, too, will be recognized by his hands and feet… The witness of Christ’s resurrection is effective and credible only if the disciples, like their Master, are able to show to people their hands and their feet marked by works of love” (F. Armellini).
The three New Testament readings of this Easter Sunday have a common underlining purpose: repentance and the forgiveness of sins. Both – repentance and forgiveness – are rooted in the Easter mystery of Christ and are an essential part of the missionary proclamation of the Church. Peter (I Reading) declares so in the public square on the day of Pentecost: “Repent then and turn to God, so that he will forgive your sins” (v. 19). And John (II Reading) encourages by a loving expression (he says: “my children”) not to sin, but if anyone does sin, there is always a safety plank for us to hang on: “we have someone who pleads on our behalf… Jesus Christ, the righteous one… the victim of the sins of everyone” (v. 1-2). (*)
This good news of salvation is given us as a gift of the Holy Spirit, who, for Luke as well as for John, is linked with the forgiveness of sins. Such a link is emphasized also by the new formula of sacramental absolution, as well as in a prayer of the Mass in which the Holy Spirit in invoked, because “He is the forgiver of our sins” (see the prayer on the offerings, on Saturday before Pentecost).
In John’s Gospel the institution of the sacrament of reconciliation for the forgiveness of sins happens on the day of Easter: “If you forgive people’s sins, they are forgiven” (Jn 20:23). The forgiveness of sins is, therefore, Jesus’ Easter gift. Rightly the great theologian and moralist Bernhard Häring calls the sacrament of reconciliation the sacrament of Easter joy. For Luke “repentance and forgiveness of sins”, then, are the good news the disciples will have to proclaim “to all nations”, in the name or, rather, on the mandate of Jesus (Lc 24:47). They are the signs of Jesus Crucified and Risen, the marks of his mission.
The Pope’s Word (*) “It (the Church) is a net with good fish and bad fish, a field with wheat and darnel… It is actually consoling to realize that there is darnel in the Church. In this way, despite all our defects, we can still hope to be counted among the disciples of Jesus, who came to call sinners. The Church is like a human family, but at the same time it is also the great family of God, through which he establishes an overarching communion and unity that embraces every continent, culture and nation. So we are glad to belong to this great family that we see here; we are glad to have brothers and friends all over the world.” Benedict XVI Youth Vigil, Cologne 20.08.2005
In the steps of missionaries - 30/4: Bl. Mary of the Incarnation Guyart Martin (1599-1672), mystic and foundress, together with some Jesuits was among the first (from France to Canada) to plant the Church in Canada. - 30/4: St. Joseph Benedict Cottolengo (1786-1842), priest in Turin; trusting in Divine Providence he founded groups and Institutes to assist the most needy and derelict people. - 1/5: St. Joseph the Worker, who taught Jesus to work. – World Workers Day. - 2/5: St. Athanasius (295-373), bishop of Alexandria of Egypt and doctor of the Church; he was persecuted and repeatedly sent into exile by Arian heretics. - 3/5: The Apostles Philip and James, the later was the first bishop of Jerusalem. - 3/5: Bl. Marie Leonia (Alodia) Paradis (1840-1912), Canadian religious, foundress of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family of Sherbrooke, in Quebec (Canada). - 4/5: Bl. John Martin Moyë (+1793), priest of the Society for the Foreign Missions of Paris, missionary in China, a founder, died in Treviri (Germany). - 6/5: St. Peter Nolasco (+1245 in Barcelona), founder, together with St. Raymond of Peñafort and king James I of Aragon, of the Order of Ransom for the rescue and salvation of the slaves. - 6/5: Bl. Francis of Montmorency-Laval (1623-1708), French missionary, bishop of Quebec. - 6/5: Bl. Rosa Gattorno (1831-1900), mother of a family and widow, founded in Piacenza the Institute of the Daughters of St. Anne, which soon (1878) went to the missions in other continents.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Edited by Fr. Romeo Ballan, mcci - Former Director of CIAM, Rome Website: www.ciam.org “Word for the Mission” ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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