Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as we continue to proceed through this joyful period of this Easter Octave, we are all continuously being reminded of what we believe in the Resurrection, that Our Lord Jesus Christ has truly risen from the dead, has not remained in the tomb, and as the Church has always preserved and taught it, that the Risen Lord has led us all to triumph against the power of sin and death by His glorious Resurrection, and we truly rejoice because of this great and triumphant victory that we have gained through the Risen Christ, Our Lord and Saviour. Each and every one of us as Christians have the important mission of proclaiming this same truth and Good News of God’s salvation to everyone all throughout the whole world, to all those whom we encounter each day and moments of our lives.

In our first reading today, we heard the continuation of the account from the Acts of the Apostles in which St. Peter and St. John miraculously healed a crippled man from birth at the gate of the Temple of God in Jerusalem. They offered the crippled man God’s healing, His love and mercy through the power and authority of the Name of the Risen Lord, Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world. Through His Name, they made the crippled man whole again, and made many people who witnessed the event to become astonished at the power of God. St. Peter and St. John as we heard in that passage from the Acts of the Apostles today testified courageously about the Risen Lord, proclaiming the salvation of God which had been accomplished through everything that His Son had done in this world, in the Crucifixion and Resurrection of the Lord.

They spoke about the events that had recently happened with the Lord’s Crucifixion, when He suffered with the persecution and oppression by the Jewish authorities, the chief priest and all those who refused to believe in Him, condemning Him to death and handing Him over to the Romans, only for Him to rise again on the third day, just as He had predicted before all those events were to happen. Those chief priests and many of the members of the Jewish High Council, the Sanhedrin, attempted to silence the Apostles and the other disciples, bribing the Roman guards and others to spread a false story of how the disciples stole the Body of the Lord from His tomb and hid the Body, and claiming that the Lord had risen from the dead. But this event showed that St. Peter and St. John, like the other disciples of the Lord, empowered and strengthened by the Holy Spirit, were no longer willing to remain silent and idle.

They therefore testified before everyone about the Risen Christ, not fearing the repercussions and oppressions that they might be facing, as they knew that the Lord was with them, and no matter what they might encounter, they were God’s chosen disciples and missionaries, to proclaim forth His truth. They called on all the people of God to heed to His call and to embrace His message of truth, His salvation and love, by walking in the path that the Lord has shown them, and turning away from their sinful ways, having the Lord Jesus, Who has risen from the dead, as their Lord and Saviour. They told the people to believe in the One Whom God has sent into their midst to save them all, firstly for the Jewish people, to whom St. Peter and St. John were addressing to at that time, and then for all the other, non-Jewish people as well.

In our Gospel passage today we then heard of the aftermath of the encounter between the Risen Lord and His two disciples who were on their way to Emmaus. The Risen Lord Himself appeared before the assembled disciples in Jerusalem who had just heard from those two disciples who hastened back on their way from Emmaus after they themselves witnessed in person the Risen Lord revealing Himself to them. The Risen Lord appeared before them miraculously, showing them that His Resurrection was indeed the truth and not a story that was brought up by those women who went to the tomb of the Lord in the early Easter Sunday morning. He showed Himself to them to remind all of them that the Resurrection is not just a myth but a reality, that had indeed happened precisely as He had predicted it.

He encouraged and strengthened them much as He had done so with the two disciples on their way to Emmaus earlier on, teaching them and reassuring them, reminding them that the prophets of God had been prophesying about all that had happened earlier on, but many were unable to see the truth of what they had preached and spoken about, that neither the disciples nor even the teachers of the Law and the chief priests were able to comprehend the fact that the Lord was indeed the One Whom God had promised to the whole world as the One through Whom everyone would be saved, and how all that entailed the suffering, the Passion and the death of the same Saviour, and ultimately through His glorious Resurrection from the dead.

All of us as Christians are reminded today that each one of us are the same witnesses of the Lord’s Resurrection, His truth and Good News much as the Apostles and disciples of the Lord then had been entrusted with this same truth and revelation. They had seen the Risen Lord, suffered and many of them died in martyrdom in defending that truth, but that never stopped them from continuing to go forth and proclaim the Risen Lord to the best of their abilities, so that by their great dedication and courage, many more had come to know of the Risen Lord and the salvation which had been given to them through the same Risen Christ. Thus, all of us have also received this same truth, and we are entrusted with the same mission as members of the same Church of God, to proclaim Him faithfully.

Let us all hence go forth and do our very best, in whatever opportunities that God had provided to us so that we may continue to do what we can in order to proclaim the Risen Lord at all times. Let us all be good role models of our lives and faith to everyone, so that by our every words, actions and deeds, we will be able to share the joy of the Resurrection to everyone, especially to our brethren who are still suffering in the darkness of sin and evil, that they too may come to see the Light of the Risen Christ. May God be with us always, and bless us all in our every good efforts and endeavours. Amen.