Healing Presence

 The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today, Wednesday of the Easter Octave, challenge us to review our walk in life with openness to the events which may have brought us close to the Presence of Christ as we assess our impatience with the Way God is revealing His Love to us.

Healing People

The Reading from the Acts of the Apostles presents the Healing of a lame beggar as Peter approaches the Temple.

* [3:1–4:31] This section presents a series of related events: the dramatic cure of a lame beggar (Acts 3:1–10) produces a large audience for the kerygmatic discourse of Peter (Acts 3:11–26).…

* [3:1] For the three o’clock hour of prayer: literally, “at the ninth hour of prayer.” With the day beginning at 6 A.M., the ninth hour would be 3 P.M.

* [3:6–10] The miracle has a dramatic cast; it symbolizes the saving power of Christ and leads the beggar to enter the temple, where he hears Peter’s proclamation of salvation through Jesus. (Acts of the Apostles, CHAPTER 3 | USCCB, n.d.)

Psalm 105 invites us to praise and seek the presence of God.

* [Psalm 105] A hymn to God who promised the land of Canaan to the holy people, cf. Ps 78; 106; 136. Israel is invited to praise and seek the presence of God (Ps 105:1–6), who is faithful to the promise of land to the ancestors (Ps 105:7–11). (Psalms, PSALM 105 | USCCB, n.d.)

In the Gospel, Luke presents the Appearance of Resurrected Jesus on the Road to Emmaus.

* [24:13–35] This episode focuses on the interpretation of scripture by the risen Jesus and the recognition of him in the breaking of the bread. The references to the quotations of scripture and explanation of it (Lk 24:25–27), the kerygmatic proclamation (Lk 24:34), and the liturgical gesture (Lk 24:30) suggest that the episode is primarily catechetical and liturgical rather than apologetic.

* [24:13] Seven miles: literally, “sixty stades.” A stade was 607 feet. Some manuscripts read “160 stades” or more than eighteen miles. The exact location of Emmaus is disputed.

* [24:16] A consistent feature of the resurrection stories is that the risen Jesus was different and initially unrecognizable (Lk 24:37; Mk 16:12; Jn 20:14; 21:4).

* [24:26] That the Messiah should suffer…: Luke is the only New Testament writer to speak explicitly of a suffering Messiah (Lk 24:26, 46; Acts 3:18; 17:3; 26:23). The idea of a suffering Messiah is not found in the Old Testament or in other Jewish literature prior to the New Testament period, although the idea is hinted at in Mk 8:31–33. See notes on Mt 26:63 and 26:67–68. (Luke, CHAPTER 24 | USCCB, n.d.)

Rev. Larry Gillick, SJ, tells of a walk with a close person that was kind of a sweet/sour relating of all the bumps and bruises encountered, endured in our recent days. Sweet, because we enjoy self-righteous sufferings and judgments. Sour, because we cannot do anything in retribution in reality except pout.

Well, of course, Jesus came alongside and butted in on our conversation and began untangling the threads of our self-centered prayer or whatever it was.

He went with me and started to talk about worthy/unworthy. He reminded me that He was my worthiness. When I allowed Him to embrace my real, true poverty which accompanies my acceptance of my humanity, my poverty. Unworthiness is the destructive invitation of the Corruptor. “I am in a constant battle between His Creative Spirit and my own subtle seduction of my creating my richness, my own image, my own worthiness, my little self-kingdom.”

With this little shot across my floundering deck, He went on His way, leaving me worthy to be myself more gratefully and less occupied with, hmm, I forgot. Omaha never looked so welcoming as my home. (Gillick, n.d.)

Don Schwager quotes “The Easter Alleluia,” by Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.

"Now therefore, brethren, we urge you to praise God. That is what we are all telling each other when we say Alleluia. You say to your neighbor, "Praise the Lord!" and he says the same to you. We are all urging one another to praise the Lord, and all thereby doing what each of us urges the other to do. But see that your praise comes from your whole being; in other words, see that you praise God not with your lips and voices alone, but with your minds, your lives and all your actions." (excerpt from commentary on Psalm 148) (Schwager, n.d.)

The Word Among Us Meditation on Acts 3 :1-10 comments how appropriate that we hear this passage during the Octave of Easter! Jesus’ resurrection is the perfect example of how God not only honors the physical world but is committed to working in it and through it. God didn’t simply send an angel to tell us that his Son had overcome death. He raised Jesus’ body from the dead to demonstrate that his kingdom is a place where brokenness of any kind can be transformed into wholeness. Similarly, by grasping the beggar’s hand while healing him, Peter reveals that Jesus has transformed our world—and that he will continue to transform it.

So this Easter week, praise the Lord who heals and restores. And find ways to demonstrate his healing love. Reach out to those close to you and offer them the grace of Jesus’ healing touch. You never know what might happen! 

“Jesus, make me an instrument of your healing!” (Meditation on Acts 3 :1-10, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler comments the reading from Acts when Peter and John enter the Temple area indicates they are still attending the Temple worship as Jews. This healing marks the continuation of Jesus' ministry that His disciples have taken over. Luke presents this  in Acts as Jesus ministry through the Apostles. In the Gospel, Luke presents the second resurrection narrative, a walk where Jesus is not recognized as He joins two disciples consumed with their thought. This is the second of three times, in the Gospel of Luke, where the Resurrected Jesus is not immediately recognized. The third appearance occurs when the apostles are fishing on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus teaches them, on the walk, about Scripture and how His mission is foretold. Friar Jude notes Jesus is recognized and remembered at the breaking of the bread and, as they recall, His Presence on the walk, in the sharing of the Word.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, introduces womanist theologian Yolanda Pierce who reminds us that the resurrection and its promise of new life doesn’t erase the pain of what has been lost. Pierce notes that to Thomas, Jesus speaks the words, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side” (John 20:27)….

There is an intimacy to Jesus’s command to Thomas, a closeness that we cannot overlook. Christ invites him to touch the unhealed wounds—to feel the places where nails and spear had pierced his body. It is a proclamation that the physical body still matters…. Wounds, too, are a part of the divine story. By sharing his wounds, Jesus reveals that our wounds are places for God’s healing presence and love.

This is a theology for the wounded, for those who are still healing, and even for those who aren’t quite ready for healing. The risen Savior insistently welcomes the doubting, the uncertain, and the grieving to touch and see that he is real and present and here with us. The risen Savior, who had been abandoned, denied, betrayed, and crucified, doesn’t hide his wounds or rush their healing. As wounded people encased in the frailties of human flesh, can we, too, summon enough grace and kindness to acknowledge that our own very human wounds need time to heal?…

This is an embodied theology. In these stories, the physical body and the tangible world are consistently presented as ways of intimately knowing God. Some saw and believed; others have not seen and still believed. At the center of both experiences is God-in-flesh, loving us in our own wounded places. (Rohr, n.d.)

We invite the Spirit to come on our journey and reveal to us the connection we have to Jesus walking with us transforming the wounds and hurts that life inflects.

References

Acts of the Apostles, CHAPTER 3 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved April 8, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/acts/3?1 

Gillick, L. (n.d.). Daily Reflections. Creighton Online Ministries: Home. Retrieved April 8, 2026, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/daily-reflections/daily-reflection-april-8-2026 

Luke, CHAPTER 24 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved April 8, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/24?13 

Meditation on Acts 3 :1-10. (n.d.). Word Among Us. Retrieved April 8, 2026, from https://wau.org/meditations/2026/04/07/1539149/ 

Psalms, PSALM 105 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Bible Readings. Retrieved April 8, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/105?1 

Rohr, R. (n.d.). Hope for the Wounded. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved April 8, 2026, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/hope-for-the-wounded/  

Schwager, D. (n.d.). Did Not Our Hearts Burn While He Opened to Us the Scriptures. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved April 8, 2026, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/ 

Recognize Jesus in Joy

 The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today, Tuesday of the Easter Octave, exhorts us to accept the change of attitude that is presented to us in Jesus Resurrection.

The Word of Easter Joy

In the Reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Luke presents baptism as the expected response to the apostolic preaching.

* [2:38] Repent and be baptized: repentance is a positive concept, a change of mind and heart toward God reflected in the actual goodness of one’s life. It is in accord with the apostolic teaching derived from Jesus (Acts 2:42) and ultimately recorded in the four gospels. Luke presents baptism in Acts as the expected response to the apostolic preaching about Jesus and associates it with the conferring of the Spirit (Acts 1:5; 10:44–48; 11:16). (Acts of the Apostles, CHAPTER 2 | USCCB, n.d.)

Psalm 33 presents God’s choosing a special people.

* [Psalm 33] A hymn in which the just are invited (Ps 33:1–3) to praise God, who by a mere word (Ps 33:4–5) created the three-tiered universe of the heavens, the cosmic waters, and the earth (Ps 33:6–9). Human words, in contrast, effect nothing (Ps 33:10–11). The greatness of human beings consists in God’s choosing them as a special people and their faithful response (Ps 33:12–22). (Psalms, PSALM 33 | USCCB, n.d.)

The Gospel of John presents the Appearance of the Resurrected Christ to Mary of Magdala.

* [20:11–18] This appearance to Mary is found only in John, but cf. Mt 28:8–10 and Mk 16:9–11.

* [20:16] Rabbouni: Hebrew or Aramaic for “my master.”

* [20:17] Stop holding on to me: see Mt 28:9, where the women take hold of his feet. I have not yet ascended: for John and many of the New Testament writers, the ascension in the theological sense of going to the Father to be glorified took place with the resurrection as one action. This scene in John dramatizes such an understanding, for by Easter night Jesus is glorified and can give the Spirit. Therefore his ascension takes place immediately after he has talked to Mary. In such a view, the ascension after forty days described in Acts 1:1–11 would be simply a termination of earthly appearances or, perhaps better, an introduction to the conferral of the Spirit upon the early church, modeled on Elisha’s being able to have a (double) share in the spirit of Elijah if he saw him being taken up (same verb as ascending) into heaven (2 Kgs 2:9–12). To my Father and your Father, to my God and your God: this echoes Ru 1:16: “Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” The Father of Jesus will now become the Father of the disciples because, once ascended, Jesus can give them the Spirit that comes from the Father and they can be reborn as God’s children (Jn 3:5). That is why he calls them my brothers. (John, CHAPTER 20 | USCCB, n.d.)

Greg Dyche comments that Mary is crying, wailing as only the broken-hearted, or those without hope or consoling can weep. In such grief, Mary of Magdala doesn’t even fear the angels.

Overcome with tears, grief, and confusion, she doesn’t even know it’s Jesus and not the gardener who asks, “Whom are you looking for?” Switching to Aramaic, He calls her by name, Mariam. A single word, a name, her name. Staying in Aramaic, the language of home, she answers in full recognition, Rabbouni. Not a tender nickname, not the diminutive of Rabbi, the highest honor in the hierarchy of teaching titles.

Clinging to Jesus, hope restored, she tries to continue what was before, and Jesus tells her, “Stop holding on to me…” (Noli me tangere); things are different now. He tells her to go tell the others, be the apostle to the apostles. Finishing what had started with Eve, Per feminam mors, per feminam vita — “Through woman, death; through woman, life.”, Augustine.

Mariam is still telling me too. Jesus is going to His Father, my Father; His God, my God. I can’t wait to meet her and hear this story firsthand, from the first apostle. (Dyche, n.d.)

Don Schwager quotes “The Easter Alleluia,” by Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.

"Because there are these two periods of time - the one that now is, beset with the trials and troubles of this life, and the other yet to come, a life of everlasting serenity and joy - we are given two liturgical seasons, one before Easter and the other after. The season before Easter signifies the troubles in which we live here and now, while the time after Easter which we are celebrating at present signifies the happiness that will be ours in the future. What we commemorate before Easter is what we experience in this life; what we celebrate after Easter points to something we do not yet possess. This is why we keep the first season with fasting and prayer; but now the fast is over and we devote the present season to praise. Such is the meaning of the Alleluia we sing." (excerpt from commentary on Psalm 148, 1-2) (Schwager, n.d.)

The Word Among Us Meditation on John 20:11-18 comments that when Jesus reveals himself to Mary, he tells her, “Stop holding on to me” (John 20:17). He is not rejecting Mary; he wants her to see that he’s so much more than what she perceives. She needs to let go of her previous ideas of what it means to follow him. She needs to see Jesus no longer as just her “rabbouni” (20:16). She needs to see him as the risen Lord, the Son of God who overcame death and is ready to ascend to his Father.

The resurrection has changed everything! So let’s allow Jesus to broaden our perspective so that we can see him more clearly, as he is. Let’s allow him to expand our relationship with him. He is our brother who is enthroned at God’s right hand. And he is the Lord, the One who conquered death and calls each of us to be with him in his heavenly glory.

“Jesus, Lord, open my eyes to see your glory!” (Meditation on John 20:11-18, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler comments that the passage from Acts is the culmination of the kerygma of Peter, a first preaching that proclaims “Repent and be baptized”. The number of baptized in the text is likely a bit exaggerated as it is greater than the number of baptized that lived in Jerusalem. Friar Jude notes that Peter runs to the balcony to proclaim the mission impetuously, a weakness now used as a strength to proclaim in God’s way. Mary of Magdala looks into the tomb and is told of His rising. Jesus is not immediately recognized by those close to Him three times after resurrection. He and we are to be changed but we are the same. The sheep recognizes being called by the Shepherd. Friar Jude asserts Jesus and our loved ones will always be with us in a spiritual way even as we recognize them and allow them their freedom.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, introduces theologian and podcaster Kate Bowler who frames Easter as a feast of joy that doesn’t erase the pain that has come before it. Joy is one of the most powerful experiences we can have because it is an emotion that can co-exist with our actual lives. Unlike happiness, joy can live alongside sadness, boredom, fear, or despair. It expands our capacity to hold contradictory truths at the same time—and because we know joy, we recover a strange, steady confidence that life is still worth loving, even when it hurts.

This is where Easter joy lives.

It is not joy instead of grief. It is joy with grief. Not joy that rushes us forward, but joy that allows us to remain human in the meantime.… This joy is more totalizing than optimism. It is truer than plain happiness. It is the deep assurance that the story is not finished, even when our lives feel painfully incomplete.

Easter joy is the grace of being able to say: This is hard. I am still waiting. And God is still good.

Not because everything has changed—but because, one day—poof—God promises everything will. (Rohr, n.d.)

An article in the India Times Business News Magazine Panache offers a synopsis in a quote often attributed to John Lennon. 

“Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end,” shows his belief in hope and patience. The quote explains that this thought came from his own life experiences, including fame, personal loss, creative challenges, and family struggles. (Quote of the Day, n.d.)

We contemplate and seek the guidance of the Spirit to live with the Joy of Easter that will reassure us that our “rabbouni” supports our mission to live in His Way.

References

Acts of the Apostles, CHAPTER 2 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved April 7, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/acts/2?36 

Dyche, G. (n.d.). Daily Reflection. Creighton Online Ministries: Home. Retrieved April 7, 2026, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/daily-reflections/daily-reflection-april-7-2026 

John, CHAPTER 20 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved April 7, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/20?11 

Meditation on John 20:11-18. (n.d.). Retrieved April 7, 2026, from https://wau.org/meditations/2026/04/07/1539149/ 

Psalms, PSALM 33 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved April 7, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/33?4 

Quote of the Day. (n.d.). Business News Live, Share Market News - Read Latest Finance News, IPO, Mutual Funds News. Retrieved April 7, 2026, from https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/quote-of-the-day-by-music-legend-john-lennon-everything-will-be-okay-in-the-end-if-its-not-okay-its-not-the-end/articleshow/127932447.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst 

Rohr, R. (n.d.). A Different Kind of Joy. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved April 7, 2026, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/a-different-kind-of-joy/ 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). I Have Seen the Lord! Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved April 7, 2026, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/