Are We Paying Attention To Jesus? 我們在聆聽耶穌嗎？

Third Easter Sunday, Year B
Theme: Are We Paying Attention To Jesus? 我們在聆聽耶穌嗎？

The Lectionary takes The Acts for the first readings in the Easter Season instead of books in the Old Testament. However, it does not necessarily follow the chronological order. For example, the first reading today is earlier than that of last Sunday which is the Divine Mercy Sunday because the theme is specific. The context of today’s reading is an immediate follow-up of the first Easter Sunday. It is the second proclamation of the gospel by Peter. Compared with the first one on Pentecost, we are able to see a development in Peter’s message.

Like Jesus and true to being made the rock of the Church, Peter worked many healing miracles in the name of Jesus of Nazareth in Jerusalem. After healing a crippled beggar, Peter proclaimed the gospel again, but the tone was milder than the Pentecost speech in which he called the Jewish authority “lawless” (Acts 2:23). In the Pentecost speech, Peter had to defend the behaviour of the disciples who were manifesting the gift of tongues and speaking in different languages. Some people scoffed that they had had too much new wine (2:13). Peter quoted extensively from the Scriptures to prove that what the crowd witnessed was actually a fulfilment of prophecies and that God had made Jesus of Nazareth both Lord and Messiah (2:36) by raising Him from the dead. Of this, they were all witnesses (2:32). This time, Peter appealed to the crowd as “brothers” and that they acted out of ignorance, just as their leaders did (3:17). Later, he called the crowd “children of the prophets and of the covenant” (3:25). Peter was not confrontational because the Sanhedrin had not yet persecuted or imprisoned the apostles for doing good (4:9).

As for Peter’s message, don’t be offended by his calling Jesus “God’s servant” (3:13) instead of the “Son of God” (Matthew 16:16). We know that there was a development of understanding before the Church could define “the Blessed Trinity” as a Christian dogma. It was also possible that Peter adapted his language to the audience because the crowd was not yet ready to accept a Galilean carpenter to be the second Person of the Blessed Trinity. We are also able to trace a development in Peter’s proclamation. He called Jesus “God’s servant” (Acts 3:13), then the “Holy and Righteous One” (3:14), the “author of life” (3:15) and finally “God’s Messiah” (3:18)! Jesus was innocent but He took up the sins of the world. He defeated death because He is the author of life. God appoints Jesus the Messiah, not only to liberate the Jews from the Romans but all the peoples on earth from the bondage of sin. Unlike the Pentecost speech, Peter quoted the Scriptures only once (3:22-23).

The Lukan narrative of Jesus’ apparition to the apostles on the first Easter Sunday is similar to that of the Johannine. In both narratives, Jesus greeted the apostles with “Peace be with you” (Luke 24:36; John 20:19) and took the initiative to show them the Stigmata (Luke 24:39-40; John 20:20). The similarity stops there. Luke has his own agenda. First of all, he had always been sympathetic towards the failures of the disciples. For example, in the narrative of Jesus’ Agony in the Garden, Mark simply says, “When he [Jesus] returned he found them asleep” (Mark 14:37a) but Luke says, “When he rose from prayer and returned to his disciples, he found them sleeping from grief” (Luke 22:45). Again, when the disciples failed to understand Jesus’ teaching, Mark blamed the disciples for the hardness of their hearts. “He appeared to them and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart because they had not believed those who saw him after he had been raised” (Mark 16:14), whereas in Luke, Jesus was in full control of the disciples’ understanding. The disciples in Emmaus could understand only when Jesus explained the Scriptures (Luke 24:32) or when he opened the minds of those in Jerusalem to understand the Scriptures (24:45). In short, Luke wants to make the readers humble disciples of prayers.

Last week, I was arguing against using the Stigmata as an identification tag for the Risen Lord. Indeed, the fact that the Emmaus disciples were able to recognize Jesus when they saw him take the loaf, give thanks, break it and distribute it (24:31) strongly suggests that we Catholics should actively seek Jesus wherever his words and deeds could be found. The most obvious place that immediately comes to mind is the Liturgy of the Eucharist where the priest consecrates the bread and the wine. Similarly, inspired by the Parable of Sheep and Goats in Matthew 25, the Church chooses to stand by the poor, serving the Christ present among the needy, the disadvantaged and the socially marginalized. But has the Church been successful? If we take a look at the statistics published in the Vatican News for the year 2022, the numbers are not very encouraging¹. To be sure, there has been growth, but at a rate varied from continent to continent hoovering below 1%! If we put the blame on COVID, we are not courageous enough to face the truth! Worse still, we witness a decrease in the number of priests and bishops but an increase in the number of permanent deacons. This is not healthy and the Church would become unsustainable.

When Jesus spent three years to coach the apostles as well as the larger community of disciples, their minds were occupied by the anticipation of a Messiah to drive out the Romans. Therefore, they failed to pay attention to Jesus’ words that He spoke while He was still with them that the Torah and the Prophets have foretold the Passion and Resurrection of the Messiah (24:44). Now that Jesus has ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father, have we paid sufficient attention to what Jesus says before His ascension? What were His final words before ascension? And what is occupying our minds such that we miss Jesus’ words? According to Luke, Jesus spent 40 days on earth to gather 120 dispersed disciples after resurrection. He enlightened them on His previous teachings. So, the final words should be the Great Commission recorded in the Matthew, Mark and the Acts. “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them …” (Matthew 28:19); “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized…” (Mark 16:15-26a); “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Simply put, we should evangelize and bear witness to the reconciliation mission of the Son of God.

Beloved brethren. Are you paying attention to Jesus’ Great Commission? Or are you conjuring up futile excuses such as I have no time, I am not eloquent, I know no theology, this is the work of the clergy and nuns etc.? Are you aware that you are meeting Jesus who is present among the people you meet every day? This Jesus you meet, perhaps a little child next door; its single mother doing two jobs to make ends meet in a subdivided flat; or an ageing man and his wife struggling to support him together with their domestic helper; or a disillusioned young man hiding from security police etc., is hungry and thirsty for God’s righteousness, aka His salvation (Matthew 5:6; 25:35)! He is waiting for you to extend a helping hand so that both he and you may be able to reconcile the world to the Father (2 Corinthians 5:20). Beloved brethren! Pay attention to the invitation of Jesus Christ. Amen. God bless!
¹https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2024-04/vatican-central-statistical-office-church-pontifical-yearbook.html

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2021 Reflection
Picture Credit: salvationbiblecell.com