Homily for 3d Sunday of Easter

Homily for the
3d Sunday of Easter

April 14, 2024
Acts 3: 13-19
1 John 2: 1-5
Scouts NYLT, Putnam Valley (with slight adaptations)
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx

“The author of life you put to death, but God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses” (Acts 3: 15).

Jesus appears to the Apostles
(Duccio di Buoninsegna)

St. Peter is addressing a crowd of people in the Temple right after he and St. John cured a crippled man.  He attributes the healing to the power of Jesus, risen from the dead.  But he speaks bluntly about not only Jesus’ resurrection but also about how Jesus died:  put to death by a decision of Pontius Pilate and the people of Jerusalem.  They chose to kill “the author of life,” the Son of God who shares with his Father in creating and sustaining the universe.  But God the Father raised him back to life and offers forgiveness to the sinful men and women responsible for his death.

Not only to those immediately responsible for killing Jesus, but also to those remotely responsible for Christ’s death.  That means everyone who has sinned.  It means you and me.  All of us who are sinners have contributed to Christ’s suffering and death.

But, St. John assures us, “He is expiation for our sins, and not only for our sins but for those of the whole world” (1 John 2:2).  Jesus Christ the righteous one (2:1) obtains forgiveness for repentant sinners:  “Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away,” Peter urges the crowd in the Temple (Acts 3:19).

What does repentance mean?  1st, acknowledging our sinfulness; not only in a kind of general way, but in specifics.  How have I sinned against God and my brothers and sisters?  Perhaps by an arrogant attitude, by a controlling attitude, by lying, by cheating, by taking what isn’t mine, by lusting for someone, by resentment or vengeance, by gossip, by laziness, by greed.

2d, repentance means changing that bad behavior:  “The way we may be sure that we know [Jesus Christ] is to keep his commandments.  Whoever keeps his word, the love of God is truly perfected in him” (1 John 2:3,5).

When we keep the commandments we are witnesses to Jesus Christ, the risen one who forgives our sins and redeems the world.  St. Peter told the crowd that he and St. John were witnesses of the resurrection.  Jesus himself told all the apostles the same thing:  “It is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the 3d 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” (Luke 24:46-49).

They were witnesses that the same Jesus who died on the cross—“Look at my hands and my feet” (24:39) that were pierced by Roman nails; the same Jesus condemned by Pontius Pilate, the historical governor of Judea from 26 to 36 A.D.—this Jesus has been raised from the dead by the power of God; this Jesus now lives forever and saves us from our sins.  The Catholic Church continues to bear witness to this faith of the apostles, the eyewitnesses; this is the apostolic faith handed down to us.  You and I are charged, by the fact of our Baptism, to be witnesses that Jesus Christ lives, forgives our sins, and leads us “in confident hope to the rejoicing of the day of resurrection,” as we prayed in the collect—the day of our own resurrection.  “I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come” (Creed).