St. Norbert's Church - Sunday Reflections

Today's readings continue to deepen our understanding of the death and resurrection of Jesus our Lord. They also help us understand the response of the early Christians to this incredible happening and can help us respond in our daily lives to Christ's Resurrection.

The Acts of the Apostles in the reading for today speaks about Peter trying to preach to others about the events of the life, death and resurrection of the Lord. It does not always work to tell others that they have killed someone and should repent. It does not always change people to tell them that they are in sin and need to repent. Only God's grace can bring about the inner change that is necessary for true repentance. Yet the early Church felt constrained to preach the truth, clearly with love, but clearly the truth.

The reading from the First Letter of Saint John is also clear that the Righteous One is expiation for our sins, and not for our sins only but for those of the whole world. Today's world is not different from that of our ancestors. It is not easy for us to admit that we are sinners and that there is sin in the world. Today we speak of mistakes, of faults, of misunderstandings - but sin is a reality that is still unpopular, even though we are all sinners.

The Gospel from Luke brings us back to the reality that we can only understand Jesus Christ if we begin to understand the Jewish Scriptures, our Old Testament. Somehow even today we shy away from really wanting to know the Old Testament. It has lots of images that leave us uneasy. We might be happy with an edition that left out all the difficult parts, but that would not help us understand Jesus as the Christ.

So today, my sisters and brothers, we are invited to look into our hearts and to know that we need salvation. We are invited to recognize that our own choices against God are part of the sins in our world. We can then accept that Jesus came to die for us and for our sins and that in Him we are redeemed. All of this becomes more profound the more we understand Jesus as our Lord through understanding the Jewish Scriptures.

This is not an easy road! To follow Christ and to know Him is not about making us feel good. It is about being saved by the Man - God who took on our nature so that He could share the nature of God with us. Alleluia! That is an incredible message of hope and love. Let us rejoice because Christ is risen!