Easter Week 3: Saturday 24 April 2021
Reading 1 Acts 9:31-42
During the early years of Christianity, the Church was focused on God and number of believers was rising. Peter was in Lydda and there he healed a paralytic named Aenas bedridden for 8 years. The people there praised God and became believers. At Joppa, there was a virtuous disciple named Tabitha, who fell sick and died. Peter went there upon invitation. He prayed and asked Tabitha to rise up. Tabitha opened her eyes and sat up. Many who witnessed this became believers in the Lord.
Gospel Jn 6:60-69
Many of Jesus disciples’ left him because of what he was saying. They could not accept his teaching on the bread of life. Jesus told them that he will ascend to his Father in heaven and that his teaching was life and spirit. He knew that some of his disciples will not believe him and some would betray him too. He asked the 12 disciples whether they too wished to leave him. Peter replied, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”
Reflection
In the first reading today we observe that Peter performs miracles similar to that of Jesus. And this same person in the Gospel expresses his conviction that Jesus was the holy one of God and that Jesus has the words of eternal life. We need to ignore Peter’s denial of Jesus as an unfortunate incident. What we need to emphasize is his bouncing back to be an ardent disciple of Jesus. Not only this, he begins to do things like the Master. In life, many things demand our commitment. There are moments when we have a fall. What is important is the way we deal with our failures. What are we really doing to bounce back? Bouncing back is a very difficult experience. It involves a lot of suffering. First of all, we need to overcome the shame of falling. We need to back ourselves saying that it is fine to make mistakes and now we have the future ahead of us. We need to tell ourselves, “Let me now start again and pick the pieces of my brokenness.” Life is not all over just because we had a fall. There is always a Restart button available for us. There is no shut down button as long as God provides it to us on the day of our death. Peter is a striking example for each one of us. We are amazed at the miracles he performs – all after making a mistake. Interestingly, the Lord did not take it amiss. He understands that we are weak. He gives us strength to get back. He backs us up. With God, we shall do valiantly (Ps 60:12). An important lesson that we can take home today is, when we see someone downcast, crestfallen, let us help them to bounce back. And, when we have fallen due to our weaknesses, even if no one is there to encourage us, let us remember that God is 24×7 available to back us up. With God, we shall indeed do valiantly.
(By S Peter)