Third Sunday of Easter

We continue the Easter season.  The readings today are the beginning of our “church” as we know it today.  Much to mediate on in these readings.....

1st Reading

INTRODUCTORY COMMENTS

1. The Acts of the Apostles, the second volume of Luke’s two-volume work, continues Luke’s presentation of biblical history, describing how the salvation promised to Israel in the Old Testament and accomplished by Jesus has now under the guidance of the holy Spirit been extended to the Gentiles.6
2. In Acts, Luke has provided a broad survey of the church’s development from the resurrection of Jesus to Paul’s first Roman imprisonment, the point at which the book ends.6

WHO WAS THE AUTHOR

1.  Assumed to be Luke, a Gentile physician and traveling associate of the Apostle Paul.  He is not one of the original 12 Apostles.  Although he was an eye witness to many events.  Also must have known Mary by his writings in his Gospel.

  WHEN WAS IT WRITTEN

1. Some say about 63 AD.  Assumed by what he did not tell us of historical events after that point.  He didn’t talk about the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD.
2. The Acts (Deeds) of the Apostles were written by Saint Luke toward the end of the first captivity of Saint Paul in Rome, about 62 A.D.4

  COMMENTS

1. Notice the change worked in Peter by the Holy Spirit: he preaches and argues boldly whereas only some 50 days earlier he had trembled at the word of a servant girl. Notice that it is Peter who speaks for the whole group with no dissension from any of the other apostles.4
2. Today’s first reading tells of the formation of the early Church as we hear Peter address the people of the day of Pentecost…it proclaims that Jesus of Nazareth, whom the Jews crucified, is the Messiah promised by God and eagerly awaited by the righteous of the Old Testament; it is he who has effected God’s saving plan for mankind….“Pentecost” means “the 50th day”. It is one of three feasts mentioned in Exodus 23:14-17 where it is called simply the harvest festival, the feast of the first-fruits of the grain harvest. In Leviticus 23:15-21 the feast is reckoned by counting seven weeks from the beginning of the grain harvest; it is a day of sabbatical observance.5
   1. No, this is not Pentecost Sunday, the readings are from that time however.  It will be on Sunday May 31,2020.

READING

FOLLOW UP COMMENTS

1. Are there versus that stand out to you?  Reread them slowly.  What are they saying to you?
2.  The 1st Reading is from the first sermon preached by the Church after Pentecost (fifty days after the Resurrection of Jesus). What is the main message of the sermon, especially verses 22-33?1
   1. What can we learn from the confidence with which the Apostles spoke the message?1
3. The Christians in today’s second reading felt like ‘aliens’ in their world.  In what ways might Christians feel like aliens in today’s world?2
4. What are concrete examples of ‘futile conduct’ mentioned by Peter?2
5. What convincing support does Peter offer to prove Jesus is the Messiah?3

References:

​https://www.sundayscripturestudy.com/
https://www.ascensioncatholic.net/Commentaries-on-the-Sunday-Readings
https://emmausjourney.org/sundays_reading_nabre.php
http://scborromeo.org/biblestudies.htm
http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/readings/
http://www.usccb.org/bible/books-of-the-bible/index.cfm