Thursday, March 31, 2016

Peace


The WORD today (see http://usccb.org/bible/readings/033116.cfm) reminds me how powerful God's peace is. 

According to Peter Pan, we can fly when we think of happy thoughts. This is similar with Happy Gilmore – he thinks of happy thoughts before making a tough shot. Their stories show us how important and powerful peace is to them. And in real life, this is what God's peace is like. 

God's peace is very powerful. 

In the gospel, we see Jesus appearing to his disciples while they gathered. It is inspiring to see that the first words he said were “peace be with you.” He did not harbor anger, nor did he get mad at his disciples for what they did – leaving him during the most painful and difficult time of his life, for Peter to deny him three times, for the others to not recognize him. There was no drama, no lecture – just peace and love.

God’s love is greater than our faults.

Instead of getting mad or lecturing them on what wrong they did, Christ instead assured them that he indeed is risen, fully alive and loving. Not only that, He opened their minds to understand the scripture. Jesus prepared his disciples for the task at hand, which is to proclaim him in all the earth. And because of his peace, we see Peter and John in the first reading not only healing someone, but passing God's peace to those who do not know Him yet. 

God is also giving us today this greeting of peace. It does not matter if we feel we did not prepare much for lent. It does not matter if we feel we could have given more. What is important to God is the present – where we are now and what we can still do for him. As he gives us this peace, he also is giving us inspiration and preparing us as we are called to proclaim him to others. Like he did to his apostles, he too is giving us a chance to proclaim Him, to serve him, and to share him with others. 

Jesus rising did not end the persecutions. But even when powerful people were against the disciples, they were faithful and continued to do God's work. They were able to do this because of God's peace in them. Peace that does not look at the people around us, or the situation surrounding us, but on God's love and power protecting and guiding us. 

May we receive the same peace the apostles did, and use it to the fullest. 


Father God,
Thank you for today. Thank you for another day to live. Thank you for another chance to love and serve you. Thank you for another year in my life. Thank you for all the blessings you continue to give me and my loved ones. Thank you for the opportunity to help others. Thank you for your peace. Thank you for looking past my sins and imperfections, and loving me instead. Thank you for forgiving me. thank you for always giving me another chance. Lord, I am sorry for the many times I fail to share you to others. I am sorry for my sins. I ask that as I experience your blessings and love, I be ready and willing to share and proclaim you to others. Use me to the fullest, and may my actions, may my life, glorify you. Amen.

Blessed day!

In Christ,
-g-

Ps
See related reflections:


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March 31, 2016
Thursday in the Octave of Easter
Lectionary: 264



Reading 1 Acts 3:11-26


As the crippled man who had been cured clung to Peter and John,
all the people hurried in amazement toward them
in the portico called “Solomon’s Portico.”
When Peter saw this, he addressed the people,
“You children of Israel, why are you amazed at this,
and why do you look so intently at us
as if we had made him walk by our own power or piety?
The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,
the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus
whom you handed over and denied in Pilate’s presence,
when he had decided to release him.
You denied the Holy and Righteous One
and asked that a murderer be released to you.
The author of life you put to death,
but God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses.
And by faith in his name,
this man, whom you see and know, his name has made strong,
and the faith that comes through it
has given him this perfect health,
in the presence of all of you.
Now I know, brothers and sisters,
that you acted out of ignorance, just as your leaders did;
but God has thus brought to fulfillment
what he had announced beforehand
through the mouth of all the prophets,
that his Christ would suffer.
Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away,
and that the Lord may grant you times of refreshment
and send you the Christ already appointed for you, Jesus,
whom heaven must receive until the times of universal restoration
of which God spoke through the mouth
of his holy prophets from of old.
For Moses said:

A prophet like me will the Lord, your God, raise up for you
from among your own kin;
to him you shall listen in all that he may say to you.
Everyone who does not listen to that prophet
will be cut off from the people.


“Moreover, all the prophets who spoke,
from Samuel and those afterwards, also announced these days.
You are the children of the prophets
and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors
when he said to Abraham,
In your offspring all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
For you first, God raised up his servant and sent him to bless you
by turning each of you from your evil ways.”



Responsorial Psalm PS 8:2ab and 5, 6-7, 8-9


R. (2ab) O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
or:
R. Alleluia.
O LORD, our Lord,
how glorious is your name over all the earth!
What is man that you should be mindful of him,
or the son of man that you should care for him?
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
or:
R. Alleluia.
You have made him little less than the angels,
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him rule over the works of your hands,
putting all things under his feet.
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
or:
R. Alleluia.
All sheep and oxen,
yes, and the beasts of the field,
The birds of the air, the fishes of the sea,
and whatever swims the paths of the seas.
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
or:
R. Alleluia.



Alleluia Ps 118:24


R. Alleluia, alleluia.
This is the day the LORD has made;
let us be glad and rejoice in it.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.



Gospel Lk 24:35-48


The disciples of Jesus recounted what had taken place along the way,
and how they had come to recognize him in the breaking of bread.

While they were still speaking about this,
he stood in their midst and said to them,
“Peace be with you.”
But they were startled and terrified
and thought that they were seeing a ghost.
Then he said to them, “Why are you troubled?
And why do questions arise in your hearts?
Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.
Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones
as you can see I have.”
And as he said this,
he showed them his hands and his feet.
While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed,
he asked them, “Have you anything here to eat?”
They gave him a piece of baked fish;
he took it and ate it in front of them.

He said to them,
“These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you,
that everything written about me in the law of Moses
and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled.”
Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.
And he said to them,
“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.”

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