IN JESUS’ NAME, REPENTANCE FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS SHOULD BE PREACHED TO THE WHOLE WORLD

III SUNDAY OF EASTER - Luke 24:35-48

In the first reading (Act 3:13-15,17-19), we have Peter addressing the people after the healing of the lame beggar. It is a short speech that goes straight to the basics. What happened with Jesus is an essential part of God’s plan of salvation and of the history of His actions to fulfil that plan. It is “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our ancestors, who has glorified his servant Jesus”. God has proved right this Jesus who was rejected and crucified at the hands of the Romans by the instigation of the Jewish authorities. And Peter confronts the crowd with their sin: “It was you who accused the Holy One, the Just One, you who demanded the reprieve of a murderer while you killed the prince of life.” Peter speaks as if all his listeners were involved in Jesus’ condemnation to death and, most probably, they were not. Jesus’ arrest, condemnation and crucifixion were done in a hurry, in such a way that most of the residents of Jerusalem had no time to realise what was happening. Arrested late in the evening, by nine o’clock, Jesus was crucified. However, Peter wants to make it clear that with our sins - all of us - we are part and parcel of those who rejected Jesus and caused his death on the cross. With our sins, we are guilty of Jesus’ death. Most probably, like those who heard Peter’s speech, we are not aware of our sin and we don’t accept the sinfulness of our nature. We need to be called to repentance: “Now you must repent and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out.”

In the second reading (1 John 2:1-5), John tells us that Jesus offered his life in sacrifice to take away our sins and the sins of the whole world. Thus Jesus reconciles us with God and becomes our advocate, always interceding for us with the Father.

In this Sunday’s gospel (Luke 24:35-48), we find the disciples walking on a difficult path, taking them from unbelief to belief. Being the risen Jesus, the disciples remained “in a state of alarm and fright” and Jesus had to call on them to look closely at him. And “they still could not believe” that Jesus rose from the dead and that he was with them. To prove to them that he was real and not any kind of ghost, he took a piece of grilled fish “and ate before their eyes.” Then, Jesus explained to them that what was written in the Scriptures - “the Law of Moses, in the Prophets and in the Psalms” - had “to be fulfilled”. And he “opened their minds to understand the scriptures”. The Christ should “suffer and on the third day rise from the dead”, thus reconciling us with God and opening for us the gates of heaven. The disciples are witnesses of his passion and death and then his resurrection. Being witnesses, they must proclaim the Good News to the whole world: in Jesus’ name, “repentance for the forgiveness of sins” must be preached, so that we may live as a reconciled community.