Bright Saturday. Repose of Our Holy Father Methodius, Teacher of the Slavs (885) and our Holy Father Eutychius, Archbishop of Constantinople (587).
Bright Week. All-Night Vigil Feast. No fasting or abstention from foods.
Acts 3:11-16. Hebrews 7:26-8:2. John 3:22-33. John 10:9-16.
Read Acts 3:11-16
Christ is risen! Truly, He is risen!
We see the beginning of the fulfillment of our Lord’s words, that the disciples would do similar and even greater miracles than He Himself did during His earthly ministry. Having just healed a man lame from birth, St. Peter addresses the crowd to preach to them the gospel message.
Notice three things about the way St. Peter proceeds: Firstly, he immediately uses this miracle not to bring attention to himself, but to God. How easy could it have been to leave this part silent and even implicitly take the credit? Yet he points to the real source of blessing- God Himself. Secondly, he builds a bridge with his hearers by establishing a common bond: he appeals to “the God of their fathers”- they are brothers and sisters. Thirdly, and finally, he does not pull punches with what is required: repentance. His hearers had a part in the death of the Lord and must repent in order to join themselves to His saving gospel.
Brothers and sisters, we too can follow this program of evangelization in our places of work, with our families or wherever. By pointing immediately to Christ, establishing common ground and calling others to repentance (beginning with ourselves!) we too can point a hurting world to the truth that Christ is Risen!