Spiritual Reflection 4/23/23

+Dear Saint David Parishioners,

              On this Third Sunday of Easter, in our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Peter tells the crowds that they crucified Jesus. The truth, that we contributed to Jesus’ crucifixion because of our sins, is not easy to hear. However, we need not lose hope because Jesus’ unconditional love and mercy have freed us from the power of sin. Because of His resurrection, He has forgiven us, and with His life in us, we have the power to say “No” to sin and “Yes” to the new life that His death and resurrection have won for us. As the song goes, “What wondrous love is this!” It surely is wondrous, and awesome, too! Jesus will indeed “show us the path of life.”

We, like the disciples on the way to Emmaus, can read, discuss, and be enlightened by Jesus’ words in the Scriptures. As Biblical scholar Scott Hahn states, “God gave us the Scriptures not just to inform or motivate us; more than anything He wants to save us.” He continues, “God’s Word is thus saving, fatherly, and personal. Because it speaks directly to us, we must never be indifferent to its content; after all, the Word of God is at once the object, cause, and support of our faith. Because Christ is the subject of all the Scriptures, Saint Jerome insists, ‘Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.’”

Therefore, just as Jesus explained the Scriptures to the two disciples, we too need to sit and listen to Jesus as we meet Him in His Word and in the breaking of Bread. Like the disciples, we will be able to set out and exclaim to others, “Were not our hearts burning within us … as He opened the Scriptures to us?”

In Mary’s Immaculate Heart, I am,
Sister Mary