Third Sunday of Easter (C)

Acts 5:27-32, 40b-41
Ps 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11-12, 13
Rv 5:11-14
Jn 21:1-19 or Jn 2:1-14

Hello, I’m Franciscan Father Greg Friedman, and this is the "Sunday Soundbite" for the Third Sunday of Easter. Sharing a meal does more than just nourish our bodies. It helps to forge relationships and create intimacy. And so we take care to make the meals we share with families and friends special, with good food, atmosphere and conversation.

It's no wonder then, that today's Gospel—like some of the other Easter stories—shows the risen Lord and his friends sharing a meal. These accounts remind us of the Church's celebration of the Eucharist—with good reason. Christians down through the ages have come to recognize the risen Christ in their midst, as the Scriptures are proclaimed and the eucharistic meal is shared. What we are celebrating in this Easter Season, the Paschal sacrifice of Christ—his dying and rising—is present to us in each Mass, with its saving power.

Do we take the Sunday Mass for granted? At our eucharistic gatherings this weekend, let's allow this Easter story to recharge our celebration. Imagine the thrill of encountering Jesus in a new way, marveling at the wondrous things he can do in our sight, gratefully accepting the forgiveness we need.

Scripture:

•So they left…, rejoicing that they had been found worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name. (Acts 5:41)

•You changed my mourning into dancing. (Psalm 30:12)

•…to the Lamb be blessing and honor, glory and might… (Revelations 5:12)

•“…Cast the net over the right side of the boat and you will find something.” (John 21:6)

Reflection:

•What are disciples called to do?

•What can a disciple expect to receive?

•What do you hope to find from the resurrected Jesus?

•Where do you look for Jesus?

What will we be then and what will remain of us, whose life was nothing but the business of the day, idle talk and vain pretense? What will be the outcome of our life when at the last judgment the true essence of our hollow life and the many days and long years that have remained empty, will be relentlessly revealed? Will anything remain beyond those moments in which the grace of love or an honest prayer to God shyly found a corner of our life otherwise filled with ephemeral rubbish.

It is of extreme importance to escape from this empty routine. Through the humdrum of our daily life we must find our way to Him who alone is the Lord. Our everyday life must become a hymn of praise, indeed it must become in itself a prayer.…God must be sought and found in the things of the world. By regarding our daily duties as something performed for the honor and glory of God, we can convert what was hitherto soul-killing monotony, to the living worship of God in all our actions.