Now encounter others

“What now?” This may be the question which arises in the people who witness the events in the texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary. Pope Francis asks us to reflect on the question asked of those who came to the tomb “Why do we seek the living among the dead?” The Acts of the Apostles tells of the exhortation of Peter to a Jewish audience to see that the Law and the Prophets are fulfilled in Jesus. Friar Jude Winkler describes Peter’s actions as enculturation of the kerygma (The Kerygma Enigma.) In our witness to the living Christ we need to share our encounters with Him in the ordinary events of our lives.Tom Shanahan, S.J. invites us to recall the deep intimacy of our encounters with Christ and radiate the experience of care, forgiveness and love given and received which becomes the light to the nations which Peter reminds his audience is their ancient mission from God and which Jesus expresses as “and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47). The mission may begin with two action plans. We hear Pope Francis and move away from those pursuits of self satisfaction, aggrandizement and success which bring us among the dead and we encounter the people in our daily lives with greater respect and expectation of seeing Jesus in them.