Daily Thought For April 21, 2022

 Proclaim To All The Nations

First Reading: Acts 3:11–26

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 8:2ab and 5, 6–7, 8–9

Gospel: Lk 24:35–48

In today’s first reading, Peter and John act on the commission that Jesus gave them in today’s Gospel. “Repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his [Christ’s] name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Lk 24:47). So Peter preaches to his fellow Israelites in Solomon’s Portico. His sermon is thoroughly “Jewish.” He says that the God who raised Jesus is “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers” (Acts 3:13). He further claims that the suffering of the Messiah was “announced beforehand through the mouth of all the prophets” (v. 18). Jesus is the “prophet like Moses” (v. 22) to whom Moses himself bore witness. But by citing the promise God made to Abraham—“In your offspring all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (v. 25; see Gn 12:3)—Peter hints that the good news is meant for all the nations.

Just as the miracles of Jesus were often misconstrued, the miracle that Peter and John work in Jesus’ name is also misinterpreted. So Peter hastens to explain that faith in the name of the risen Jesus has made the lame man whole. Such faith can do the same for us.

Celia Sirois, Word of Life: Daily Scripture Companion (Boston, MA: Pauline Books & Media, 2008), 160.