Let’s try to find a common thread for all of our readings at Mass this weekend. There is first of all the sermon of Saint Peter on the occasion of a miracle of healing performed upon a cripple in Christ’s Name.
“Peter, when he saw it, addressed himself to the people; ‘Men of Israel,’ he said, ‘why does this astonish you? Why do you fasten your eyes on us, as if we had enabled him to walk through some power or virtue of our own? It is the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the God of our forefathers, who has thus brought honour to His Son Jesus. You gave Him up, and disowned Him in the presence of Pilate, when Pilate’s voice was for setting Him free. You disowned the Holy, the Just, and asked for the pardon of a murderer, while you killed the Author of life. But God has raised Him up again from the dead, and we are here to bear witness of it. Here is a man you all know by sight, who has put his faith in that Name, and that Name has brought him strength; it is the faith which comes through Jesus that has restored him to full health in the sight of you all. Come then, brethren, I know that you, like your rulers, acted in ignorance; but God has fulfilled in this way what was foretold by all the prophets about the sufferings of His Christ. Repent, then, and turn back to Him, to have your sins effaced, against the day when the Lord sees fit to refresh our hearts. Then He will send out Jesus Christ, Who has now been made known to you, but must have His dwelling-place in heaven until the time when all is restored anew, the time which God has spoken of by His holy prophets from the beginning.”
The Acts of the Apostles, 3: 12-21
Peter declares that those same people gathered to celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem – that is, the liberation of the Hebrew people from Egypt – had unthinkingly handed over the God (Who had liberated their ancestors) over to the Romans for execution, collaborating with the Temple priests and their party of the Sadducees to do so. They were guilty of this great sin, said Peter, but they had also unwittingly fallen in with God’s plan, by which the dead Christ had been raised to life and had thereby drawn not only the Hebrews but all humanity united with Him out of the darkness and death of this world and into the light of God’s presence. Repent, cried Peter, and join yourselves to Christ, through Whom alone true freedom is to be had.
Then, in our second reading, another Apostle, this time S. John, is keeping on about repenting and avoiding sin. But, he says, if we should sin, Christ the Just One advocates for us before God the Father, taking our sins upon Himself. But not without conditions: we are to unite ourselves to Christ in love, through our observance of His commandments, by which we can claim to know Him. If we ignore the commandments and claim to know Christ and God, we are either extremely foolish or liars. Hopefully, only foolish…
“Little children, the purpose of this letter is to keep you clear of sin. Meanwhile, if any of us does fall into sin, we have an Advocate to plead our cause before the Father in the Just One, Jesus Christ. He, in His own person, is the atonement made for our sins, and not only for ours, but for the sins of the whole world. Have we attained the knowledge of Him? The test is, whether we keep His commandments; the man who claims knowledge of Him without keeping His commandments is a liar; truth does not dwell in such a man as that. No, if a man keeps true to His word, then it is certain that the love of God has reached its full stature in Him; that is what tells us that we are dwelling in Him.”
First letter of the Apostle S. John, 2: 1-5
So, here’s our thread so far: the necessity of allegiance to Christ, Who comes not as a judge but as an advocate for those who love Him. For those who do not love Him, who even reject Him, judgement is already made by their own words and deeds, and condemnation follows. I am convinced this means that our words and deeds should be deliberately intended to derail the work of Christ and His Church to condemn us, and this implies a real malevolence, even if this is sometimes hidden behind a façade of humanism and equity.
And that takes us down to the gospel reading. The two men on the road to Emmaus had returned in a hurry to Jerusalem to tell the disciples there that they had seen the risen Christ, and that He had been revealed to them in the breaking of the bread. In Luke’s narratives, the ‘breaking of the bread’ is a direct reference to the holy Eucharist, which we of the Latin West call ‘the Mass.’ While the community was excitedly discussing this implication of the presence of Christ in the Eucharist, suddenly the Holy One is standing right there among them. How they must have jumped! Alarm and fright, says Luke. The two men from Emmaus had said that He had vanished from their sight when they had recognised Him. He must be a ghost! So, He holds out His arms so they can feel muscle and sinew, bones and joints, and know that He is standing before them, body and soul, and even ready afterwards for a bit of grilled fish. In what follows, we may draw a connection to the other readings this weekend.
“‘This is what I told you,’ He said, ‘while I still walked in your company; how all that was written of Me in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, must be fulfilled.’ Then He enlightened their minds, to make them understand the scriptures; ‘So it was written,’ He told them, ‘and so it was fitting that Christ should suffer, and should rise again from the dead on the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His Name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. Of this, you are the witnesses.'”
Gospel of S. Luke, 24: 44-48
What does Christ say? The Law of Moses spoke of Him, the Prophets spoke of Him, the Psalms spoke of Him. What is the Law of Moses? The guidance of God, embodied by the Ten Commandments and the associated rituals of the people, the observance of which S. John in the second reading connected with the love of God and knowledge of Him. What were the prophecies? The condemnation of sin and the recalling of the people to the observance of the Commandments of the Law. Repent, S. Peter had cried out in our first reading, and turn back to God and His guidance – His commandments. What are the psalms of the Hebrew liturgy? A joyful singing of the glory of God and His guidance and protection for the people He loved.
All of these spoke of Christ, of His Passion and death, and how this would bring repentance and the forgiveness of sins. ‘I gave Moses the Old Testament,’ Christ says, ‘and behold I have written the New Testament in My blood. And you, My Apostles and My Church, are witnesses to this.’
Catholic Louth and Mablethorpe 