The readings for Eastertide

The readings in the weekdays following Easter include some I particularly love. From Easter Monday to the eve of Pentecost Sunday, we are taken through most of the Acts of the Apostles, beginning with Peter addressing the crowd in Jerusalem. What a contrast we see here between the Peter who boldly declares the truth about Jesus, His death and Resurrection and the Peter who denied Him three times seven weeks earlier, and who, along with the other apostles, hid in the Upper Room through fear until the Holy Spirit came down upon them. Peter and the other apostles are witnesses to the Resurrection, and, as such, fearless in pursuit of spreading the Good News.

As well as their being fearless, through the words and actions of the Apostles, the Holy Spirit is seen as being mightily effective – 3,000 being added to their number on Day 1 (cf. Acts 2, 41). And what was their message: one of repentance, baptism and salvation, and the warning to “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” (Acts 2, 40). One might say – then as now!

The scene that appears in the first reading of the Wednesday of Easter Week is a real gem. Peter and John are going up to the Temple and a beggar, crippled from birth, sees them and begs for alms from them. Even allowing for the fact that Jesus had sent twelve and later seventy-two disciples on a mission that included working miracles, the certainty of Peter’s approach to the beggar is striking:

“I have neither silver nor gold, but I will give you what I have: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, walk!”

Such assuredness was indeed brave – another way of saying it was that the Holy Spirit made it clear to Peter that the man would indeed walk. In fact, he not only walked, but was “jumping and praising God” (Acts 3, 8). It obviously caused quite a commotion, indeed, it led to the apostles being apprehended by the authorities and imprisoned and subsequently being warned never to speak or teach in the name of Jesus. Peter and John’s answer to that is worth quoting:

“Whether it is right in the sight of God for us to obey you rather than God, you be the judges. It is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard.” (Acts, 4, 19-20).

From the first time I came across these brave and inspirational words, probably in RE class in 5^th Year in the mid 1960s, and for many decades, I would never have imagined that in an Ireland that had emerged as a free nation after a long struggle, I would feel that there was any danger of not being free to speak the truth freely about Jesus Christ and his teachings. Yet in today’s Ireland, anyone presenting His teaching about marriage and the family, to give an example, is bound to kowtow to aberrations that have been introduced, and one is left to face ridicule or derision at best, and possibly further sanction, from the ever present thought police of the new orthodoxy. We must pray earnestly for the church leaders of the coming decades, who will have to face much more than just derision, that they will have the faith and courage of the apostles.

The Gospel readings of Easter Week contain even more nuggets. I love the one that is read on the Wednesday after Easter, which tells the story of the two disciples on the way to Emmaus. These men had been disciples but they had lost all hope on seeing Jesus crucified, to the extent that, although they heard the stories of the women claiming to have found Jesus alive, they were not able to get their heads around the possibility of Jesus being alive. Then,

“….Jesus walked by their side, but something prevented them from recognizing him.” (Luke 24, 15-16.)

What was that something? Was it that they weren’t as familiar with Jesus as some, e.g. the Twelve? Or was it simply that their faith wasn’t up to it? Either way, Jesus is using their predicament to teach us all an example, indeed the truth of His resurrection.

As we know, Jesus leads them on, then explains how the scriptures referred to Him, and so captures their attention that when they reach their village, they constrain him to stay: “it is evening and the day is far spent” (Luke 24, 29.) They still had no idea who the stranger in their midst was – that epic moment came when Jesus was sitting at table with them and he broke bread: “And their eyes were opened and they recognized him.” (Luke 24, 31.)

The scene is wonderfully captured in the 1602 painting, Supper at Emmaus, by Caravaggio, which for me was the high point of the National Gallery of Ireland’s exhibition, Beyond Caravaggio, last year. It shows the utter amazement when it finally dawns on the two men that they have Jesus in their midst.

Of course, Jesus disappears from their sight at this stage, but the effect on our two friends is that they drop everything and hightail it back to Jerusalem to meet the other disciples who, of course, already knew that the Lord had risen.

We can all relate to these men – we can lose our appreciation that Jesus is always near, even at this exciting Liturgical time. Many people have the custom of going to Mass on the weekdays of Lent and that is wonderful, but, in the days after Easter, there are some real jewels in the readings: I’ve only mentioned a few but they are a taste of the many lovely surprises in store for those take up the habit of going to Mass daily after Easter, or even of reading a Gospel e.g. that of Luke and/or the Acts of the Apostles.