The Third Sunday of Easter – B – April 14 2024
Disabled from birth, he couldn’t imagine what it was like to stand. But now he was walking and jumping and praising God! When he saw Peter and John at the temple, he had been begging for change, as he did every day. What he got instead was a changed life. It wasn’t what he asked for, but it was what he truly desired.
The Lectionary unfortunately omits this context for Peter’s speech in today’s first reading. So his words to the crowd gathered in awe sound to us more like a reprimand than an enthralling invitation to a new life in Christ.
May our lives bear full witness to what we can only dare imagine is possible in Christ.
But remember, this was Peter speaking, the one who had boasted of his faithfulness then hid from fear and guilt; who heard the incredulous news from the two on the road—“We have seen the Lord!” Peter, who, moments later, would never have dreamt that Jesus whom he had denied could ever forgive him.
During the Easter season, those who had come to our parishes asking for the sacraments are now celebrating them in our midst. They ask to baptize their baby or confirm their child, to receive Communion or marry their beloved. But what God desires to give them—and us—is so much more. May our lives bear full witness to what we can only dare imagine is possible in Christ.
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