"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Third Sunday of Easter - Year B
Saints of the day:
SAINT ELPHEGE
Archbishop, Martyr
(954-1012)
Archbishop, Martyr
(954-1012)
St. Elphege was born in the year 954, of a noble Saxon family. He first became a monk in the monastery of Deerhurst, near Tewkesbury, England, and afterwards lived as a hermit near Bath, where he founded a community under the rule of St. Benedict, and became its first abbot.
At thirty years of age he was chosen Bishop of Winchester, and twenty-two years later he became Archbishop of Canterbury. In 1011, when the Danes landed in Kent and took the city of Canterbury, putting all to fire and sword, St. Elphege was captured and carried off in the expectation of a large ransom. He was unwilling that his ruined church and people should be put to such expense, and was kept in a loathsome prison at Greenwich for seven months.
While so confined some friends came and urged him to lay a tax upon his tenants to raise the sum demanded for his ransom. "What reward can I hope for," said he, "if I spend upon myself what belongs to the poor? Better give up to the poor what is ours, than take from them the little which is their own." As he still refused to give ransom, the enraged Danes fell upon him in a fury, beat him with the blunt sides of their weapons, and bruised him with stones until one, whom the Saint had baptized shortly before, put an end to his sufferings by the blow of an axe.
He died on Easter Saturday, April 19, 1012, his last words being a prayer for his murderers.
His body was first buried in St. Paul's, London, but was afterwards translated to Canterbury by King Canute. A church dedicated to St. Elphege still stands upon the place of his martyrdom at Greenwich.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]Third Sunday of Easter - Year B
Acts of the Apostles 3:13 The God of Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov, the God of our fathers,[a] has glorified his servant Yeshua — the same Yeshua you handed over and disowned before Pilate, even after he had decided to release him. 14 You denied the holy and innocent one, and instead asked for the reprieve of a murderer! 15 You killed the author of life!
“But God has raised him from the dead! Of this we are witnesses.[Footnotes:
Acts 3:13 Exodus 3:6, 15]
17 “Now, brothers, I know that you did not understand the significance of what you were doing; neither did your leaders. 18 But this is how God fulfilled what he had announced in advance, when he spoke through all the prophets, namely, that his Messiah was to die.
19 “Therefore, repent and turn to God, so that your sins may be erased;
Psalm 4:2 (1) O God, my vindicator!
Answer me when I call!
When I was distressed, you set me free;
now have mercy on me, and hear my prayer.
4 (3) Understand that Adonai sets apart
the godly person for himself;
Adonai will hear when I call to him.
7 (6) Many ask, “Who can show us some good?”
Adonai, lift the light of your face over us!
8 (7) You have filled my heart with more joy
than all their grain and new wine.
9 (8) I will lie down and sleep in peace;
for, Adonai, you alone make me live securely.
First Epistle of John 2:1 My children, I am writing you these things so that you won’t sin. But if anyone does sin, we have Yeshua the Messiah, the Tzaddik, who pleads our cause with the Father. 2 Also, he is the kapparah for our sins — and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world.
3 The way we can be sure we know him is if we are obeying his commands. 4 Anyone who says, “I know him,” but isn’t obeying his commands is a liar — the truth is not in him. 5 But if someone keeps doing what he says, then truly love for God has been brought to its goal in him. This is how we are sure that we are united with him.
Holy Gospel According to Saint Luke 24:35 Then the two told what had happened on the road and how he had become known to them in the breaking of the matzah.
36 They were still talking about it when — there he was, standing among them! 37 Startled and terrified, they thought they were seeing a ghost. 38 But he said to them, “Why are you so upset? Why are these doubts welling up inside you? 39 Look at my hands and my feet — it is I, myself! Touch me and see — a ghost doesn’t have flesh and bones, as you can see I do.” 40 As he said this, he showed them his hands and feet. 41 While they were still unable to believe it for joy and stood there dumbfounded, he said to them, “Have you something here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 which he took and ate in their presence.
44 Yeshua said to them, “This is what I meant when I was still with you and told you that everything written about me in the Torah of Moshe, the Prophets and the Psalms had to be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds, so that they could understand the Tanakh, 46 telling them, “Here is what it says: the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day; 47 and in his name repentance leading to forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed to people from all nations, starting with Yerushalayim. 48 You are witnesses of these things.
Third Sunday of Easter - Year B
Commentary of the day:
Blessed Guerric of Igny (c.1080-1157), Cistercian abbot
1st Sermon for the Lord’s Resurrection, 4
“Why are you distressed?”
When Jesus came to his apostles while “the doors were locked,” and he “stood in their midst”, they “in their panic and fright thought they were seeing a ghost.” (Jn 20:19; Lk 24:37) But when he breathed on them saying: “Receive the Holy Spirit” (Jn 20:22), and when he then sent them that same Spirit from heaven as a new gift, this gift was an indubitable proof of his resurrection and new life. For the Spirit testifies in the hearts of the saints and through their mouths that Christ is the truth, the true resurrection and the life. That is why the apostles, who had first doubted even when they saw his living body, “bore witness to the resurrection with power” (Acts 4:33) once they had tasted that Spirit who gives life. It is much more to our advantage to welcome Jesus into our heart than to see him with our eyes or hear him speak. The Holy Spirit’s action on our interior senses is much more powerful than the impression made by material objects on our external senses…
Now, brethren, what is the testimony that the joy of your heart is giving to your love of Christ? ... Today, so many messengers are proclaiming the resurrection in the Church, and your heart exults and cries out: “Jesus, my God, is alive; they have proclaimed that! At this news, my discouraged, tepid spirit, made drowsy through grief, has come back to life. The voice that is proclaiming this good news awakens even the guiltiest from death…” Oh brethren, this is the sign by which you will recognize your spirit has come back to life in Christ: if it says: “If Jesus is alive, that is enough for me!” O Word of faith, so fitting to Jesus’ friends! ... “If Jesus is alive, that is enough for me!”_____________________________
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