Thursday, April 05, 2018
Octave of Easter, Thursday
1st Reading: Acts 3:11-26
Gospel: Luke 24:35-48
As they went on talking about this, Jesus himself stood in their midst. (And he said to them, “Peace to you.”) In their panic and fright they thought they were seeing a ghost, but he said to them, “Why are you upset and why do such ideas cross your mind? Look at my hands and feet and see that it is I myself.
Touch me and see for yourselves that a ghost has no flesh and bones as I have.” (As he said this, he showed his hands and feet.)
In their joy they didn’t dare believe and were still astonished. So he said to them, “Have you anything to eat?” and they gave him a piece of broiled fish. He took it and ate it before them.
Then Jesus said to them, “Remember the words I spoke to you when I was still with you: Everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms had to be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.
And he went on, “You see what was written: the Messiah had to suffer and on the third day rise from the dead. Then repentance and forgiveness in his name would be proclaimed to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. Now you shall be witnesses to this.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
When the disciples couldn’t recognize Jesus and they panicked as they took him for a ghost, Jesus showed them the marks of his Passion. Because Jesus established his identity on the marks of his sufferings, we cannot anchor our identity on better grounds than sufferings. Suffering is the distinguishing mark of a Christian.
We do not embrace suffering for the heck of embracing it. We do so as expression of self-denial. This virtue is important to us Christians, because this came first in the triple requirements Jesus demanded of his disciples when he said, “You must deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me”(Matt. 16:24). Since it is for self- denial that we embrace sufferings, we must examine if our sufferings are the kind that perfects our self-denial.
Some suffer the consequences of their own wrongdoings, others by the wrongdoings of fellowmen. Still others suffer because God is preparing them for something greater or perhaps God is purifying them for a particular mission. In the first of the foregoing scenarios, the person bears sufferings derived from comeuppance. In the second, the person suffers from the misuse of freedom by others. In the third, the person suffers as a result of the loving concern of the Father (Proverbs 13:24). Whichever of the three you bear right now, take care that it disposes you to follow Christ. By this mark you are known as genuine Christians. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.
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