April 19, 2022

Bright Tuesday
Acts 2:14-21; Luke 24:12-35
No fasting or abstention from foods.

Read Luke 24:12-35

Christ is risen! Truly, He is risen!

As we begin the reading of the Acts of the Apostles in this bright and powerful time of the resurrection we notice in this text how the resurrected Christ can transform us if we allow him entry and kingship over our hearts and lives. We have Peter, who is the head of the apostles, giving us the first example of the amazing power of the resurrection. Here is a man uneducated, weak, cowardly, the only apostle that Jesus rebuked as ‘Satan’—for Peter tried to persuade him to abandon the cross— and the one who denied Jesus in his great time of need. The world would consider his lack of qualifications and poor behaviour as certain grounds for a revocation of his held position. Yet the Lord has other plans. The Lord saw in him something more because he saw deeper into his heart and knew that Peter was lacking “the Divine Grace, ever healing the weak and fulfilling all that is lacking…” (Ordination prayer). St. John Chrysostom says it this way: “For wherever the Holy Spirit is present, people of clay are changed into people of gold.” (Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles 4). Regardless of who we are and our calling in life one thing is certain, we are all created to be filled with the Divine Grace of the resurrected Christ and we are all in need of this transformation. This Bright week we are given the gift of renewing ourselves in the risen Christ and bringing our life to him. Christ is Risen!