Daily Retreat 04/20/06

2006 Apr 20 Thu: Easter Thursday

Acts 3: 11-26/ Ps 8: 2ab and 5. 6-7. 8-9/ Lk 24: 35-48

From today’s readings: "For you first, God raised up His servant and sent Him to bless you by turning each of you from your evil ways.... O Lord, our God, how wonderful Your Name in all the earth!... Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in His Name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things!"

Thinking Things Through

Many find the Acts of the Apostles more difficult to read than the Gospels because of the spectacular speeches (particularly by Peter and Paul) which proffer profound insights about the implications of various aspects of Christian belief. In other words, faith, which is an act of the will (to decide to believe in God), also implores, invites, and embraces the participation of the intellect - faith and reason are not opposed; rather, as Pope John Paul the Great remarked in the beginning of his encyclical Fides et Ratio, "Faith and reason are like two wings on which man’s spirit rises to the contemplation of truth!"

Thus, there’s much to be gained in thinking things through about our faith, and so, we should never just skim over scriptural texts that invite and implore us to take the time to embrace more fully, meditate and delve deeply into the mysteries of our faith.

So, here are just a few points to get you started: In the first verses of his speech (3:12-16), Peter contrasts the Israelites’ rejection of Christ with God’s exultation of Him. This insight was not just meant for the first century Jews in Jerusalem - as is often brought up in Stations of the Cross meditations, our own sinful choices have echoed the disastrous decision of those who stood before Pilate and "denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released" instead.

Hence, in light of Christ’s second coming ("the times of universal restoration"), Peter next (v. 17-21) urges his listeners (and us, who are also "the children of the prophets and of the covenant"!) to "Repent, therefore, and be converted!" And such is the fulfillment of God’s eternal plan of salvation (v. 22-26). Peter implies that, with or without us, God pushes forward with this plan of salvation which is for the benefit of all, so it only makes sense to go along and share in the benefits of faith in Christ (such as the miraculous healing of the crippled man)!