Risen Source of our Commission

In the texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today we are called to live in testimony to Jesus and the commission of the Risen Christ to His disciples.

Commission

In the Acts of the Apostles, Peter notes the ignorance of authorities who crucified Jesus as He calls for them to repent, convert and have their sins washed away.

* [3:18] Through the mouth of all the prophets: Christian prophetic insight into the Old Testament saw the crucifixion and death of Jesus as the main import of messianic prophecy. The Jews themselves did not anticipate a suffering Messiah; they usually understood the Servant Song in Is 52:13–53:12 to signify their own suffering as a people. In his typical fashion (cf. Lk 18:31; 24:25, 27, 44), Luke does not specify the particular Old Testament prophecies that were fulfilled by Jesus. See also note on Lk 24:26.

In the First Letter of John, we are exhorted to go beyond intellectual knowledge to live in obedience to God’s commandments.

* [2:3–6] The way we may be sure: to those who claim, “I have known Christ and therefore I know him,” our author insists on not mere intellectual knowledge but obedience to God’s commandments in a life conformed to the example of Christ; this confirms our knowledge of him and is the love of God…perfected. Disparity between moral life and the commandments proves improper belief.

The Gospel from Luke details the encounter with the Resurrected Jesus in which they are commissioned for their future ministry.

* [24:36–43, 44–49] The Gospel of Luke, like each of the other gospels (Mt 28:16–20; Mk 16:14–15; Jn 20:19–23), focuses on an important appearance of Jesus to the Twelve in which they are commissioned for their future ministry. As in Lk 24:6, 12, so in Lk 24:36, 40 there are omissions in the Western text.

Larry Gillick, S.J. hears many Catholics define themselves by the confident statement, “Yes, I go to mass”. He explains how that hurts his ears.

Every encounter that Jesus had with persons after the Resurrection was a “mission-meeting”. Jesus did not tell His little show-and-tell congregation to relax, talk things over and then see what’s going to turn up next.
As with any experience of intimacy, with God or with other humans, there will be implications.

Don Schwager quotes Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D. on living The Easter Alleluia.

"We are praising God now, assembled as we are here in church; but when we go on our various ways again, it seems as if we cease to praise God. But provided we do not cease to live a good life, we shall always be praising God. You cease to praise God only when you swerve from justice and from what is pleasing to God. If you never turn aside from the good life, your tongue may be silent but your actions will cry aloud, and God will perceive your intentions; for as our ears hear each others voices, so do God's ears hear our thoughts. " (excerpt from commentary on Psalm 148)

Friar Jude Winkler uses the kerygma of Peter to the Temple authorities to note the choice to repent, convert, and have sins wiped away that should lead us to practice a pastoral response to do the best we can to be consistent with what we say we are. One of our main ministries is to preach the forgiveness of sins and spend resources on the unchurched, those who need it.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, declares that Jesus is the great synthesis, the icon of the whole mystery—all at once. “In his body lives the fullness of divinity, and in him you too find your own fulfillment” (Colossians 2:9, JB).

We are clearly not very at home in our bodies, yet Jesus came to show us that we can and must trust our human, and thus body-based, experience. The material world is the privileged place for the divine encounter. Many of us seek “higher states of consciousness” and moral perfectionism, while Jesus simply comes “and lives among us.”

The pastoral action of living as people aware of being the Body of Christ is a response to our commission.

References


(n.d.). CHAPTER 3 Cure of a Crippled Beggar. 1 Now Peter and John were .... Retrieved April 15, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/acts/acts3.htm

(n.d.). 1 John, chapter 2 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved April 15, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/bible/1john/2:1

(n.d.). Luke, chapter 24 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved April 15, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/luke/24

(n.d.). Creighton University's Online Ministries. Retrieved April 15, 2018, from http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/online.html

(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved April 15, 2018, from http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/

(2017, December 30). 2018 Daily Meditations - Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved April 15, 2018, from https://cac.org/2018-daily-meditations/