April 8, 2021 Thursday in the Octave of Easter (Lectionary: 264)
Reading I Acts 3:11-26
As the crippled man who had been cured clung to Peter and John,
all the people hurried in amazement toward them
in the portico called “Solomon’s Portico.”
When Peter saw this, he addressed the people,
“You children of Israel, why are you amazed at this,
and why do you look so intently at us
as if we had made him walk by our own power or piety?
The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,
the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus
whom you handed over and denied in Pilate’s presence,
when he had decided to release him.
You denied the Holy and Righteous One
and asked that a murderer be released to you.
The author of life you put to death,
but God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses.
And by faith in his name,
this man, whom you see and know, his name has made strong,
and the faith that comes through it
has given him this perfect health,
in the presence of all of you.
Now I know, brothers and sisters,
that you acted out of ignorance, just as your leaders did;
but God has thus brought to fulfillment
what he had announced beforehand
through the mouth of all the prophets,
that his Christ would suffer.
Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away,
and that the Lord may grant you times of refreshment
and send you the Christ already appointed for you, Jesus,
whom heaven must receive until the times of universal restoration
of which God spoke through the mouth
of his holy prophets from of old.
For Moses said:
A prophet like me will the Lord, your God, raise up for you
from among your own kin;
to him you shall listen in all that he may say to you.
Everyone who does not listen to that prophet
will be cut off from the people.
“Moreover, all the prophets who spoke,
from Samuel and those afterwards, also announced these days.
You are the children of the prophets
and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors
when he said to Abraham,
In your offspring all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
For you first, God raised up his servant and sent him to bless you
by turning each of you from your evil ways.”
Responsorial Psalm 8:2ab and 5, 6-7, 8-9
R. (2ab) O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
or:
R. Alleluia.
O LORD, our Lord,
how glorious is your name over all the earth!
What is man that you should be mindful of him,
or the son of man that you should care for him?
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
or:
R. Alleluia.
You have made him little less than the angels,
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him rule over the works of your hands,
putting all things under his feet.
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
or:
R. Alleluia.
All sheep and oxen,
yes, and the beasts of the field,
The birds of the air, the fishes of the sea,
and whatever swims the paths of the seas.
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
or:
R. Alleluia.
Alleluia Ps 118:24
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
This is the day the LORD has made;
let us be glad and rejoice in it.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel Lk 24:35-48
The disciples of Jesus recounted what had taken place along the way,
and how they had come to recognize him in the breaking of bread.
While they were still speaking about this,
he stood in their midst and said to them,
“Peace be with you.”
But they were startled and terrified
and thought that they were seeing a ghost.
Then he said to them, “Why are you troubled?
And why do questions arise in your hearts?
Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.
Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones
as you can see I have.”
And as he said this,
he showed them his hands and his feet.
While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed,
he asked them, “Have you anything here to eat?”
They gave him a piece of baked fish;
he took it and ate it in front of them.
He said to them,
“These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you,
that everything written about me in the law of Moses
and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled.”
Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.
And he said to them,
“Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer
and rise from the dead on the third day
and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins,
would be preached in his name
to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things.”
By Michael Cabrera
My favorite part of the day is a one hour window in the afternoon, when I close my laptop, stop whatever I am working on, and leave my apartment for a walk. These walks take me through a beautiful neighborhood a couple of streets from my building.
For as long as I could remember, I have held a strong affinity for looking at pretty houses, whether that be via design magazines or casual strolls. On the first street of my walk, there is a handsome colonial style with dark brown shingles and white trim. Up the hill, there is a Spanish style with smooth white walls that serve as a canvas for the shadows of the tree in its front yard. Just around the corner, there is a sleek mid-century modern that frames sweeping views of the bay.
I’m not here to fully nerd out about architecture and pretty houses (although I could go on and on), but I am here to share this one hour window of my day.
This one hour window that, for a fleeting moment, takes me away from the unending list of things I need to do and allows me to just be still and appreciate the goodness.
While it is unsurprising, it is funny to me how much joy a pretty neighborhood brings me everyday. Normally, I would describe my walks as just a “pleasant” or “nice” part of my day. But I am realizing more and more that these “pleasant” and “nice” parts of my day are no coincidence. Rather, they are intentional moments in which God is pursuing me, desiring to wrap me in the joy of His presence.
I love thinking about how God strives to love me in these small, palatable moments, in moments that are easy for me to understand.
I love how He appears to me so intentionally in forms that my human heart gravitates towards. I love meditating upon the idea that He knew just how much I would enjoy these walks, and so He orchestrated everything so I could spend this brief, intimate time with Him everyday.
In the Gospel today, Jesus again strives to make Himself known to the disciples in a form they can understand. When the disciples are in disbelief at His presence, Jesus beckons them to “touch me and see”. He beckons them to touch His hands, to touch His feet. He even eats in front of them to show them that He is real. That His resurrection is real.
God constantly, in every moment, lowers Himself to help us fathom the mystery of His love in ways we can grasp.
For the disciples, Jesus knew that they would understand physical touch. He knew that they would relate to the universal act of eating. It goes without saying that these forms and small moments in which He strives to love me could never be worthy symbols of His glory, yet He associates Himself with smallness to love me more deeply.
He does so in everything, if only I look for it. In walks in pretty neighborhoods, in home cooked meals from my mom, in the chorus of a song I have on repeat, He tells me: “see how I am real, see how much I love you.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michael Cabrera is a current student at UC Berkeley and is active at the Newman Center, which is the Catholic center for the university. Originally from Southern California, Michael loves architecture, all things design, boba, and encountering Beauty itself in every moment