April 14, 2024
In our complicated and confusing world, St. Peter shows a simple, clear path. Even when we have sinned gravely.
Key Points
- St. Peter is preaching to a crowd not long after Pentecost.
- Our world tries to hide the gravity of sin.
- St. Peter does not. He convicts them of their sin.
- But then he announces the good news of Jesus and His Mercy.
- And he calls them to act: repent and believe in Jesus.
This is a computer-generated transcription that has been included to make the homily searchable. It has not been verified by the author.
The first reading today from the Acts of the Apostles is at a very critical time for the new Church. This is just a couple of months after Jesus has been crucified. And so there’s been a lot of hostility which had become mortal hostility to Jesus in His message in Jerusalem. And now Jesus is no longer with them, and visibly. So they, how are they going to act. And this is Peter; Peter, who, just a couple months before on that night, when Jesus was being arrested, Peter, to a servant girl, Peter did not have the strength to confess that he believed in Jesus, he denied Jesus. And so now it’s that same Peter, who is having to face, not just a servant girl, but this big crowd. A big crowd has gathered because they’ve just healed a person in the name of Jesus. And so what is Peter going to say? How is he going to handle this very difficult situation? And you know, there’s, we’re looking back at this from 2000 years later, but this was just beginning. And so, a lot of the people, there listening to Peter were part of the crowd who had shouted “crucify him.” So how do you handle a situation like this? It’s a very difficult situation, he had a very difficult situation to try to evangelize. We just heard the gospel of Jesus giving His apostles the mission to evangelize. And now they’re facing that situation, what are they going to do? What do you say, in a situation like this. And so Peter is giving us a model of evangelization. And I see two key parts. One is he’s going to announce the truth. And then he’s going to call them to action. And we need both of those. Because if you call to action without announcing the truth, then people don’t know what they’re really responding to. But if you just announced the truth without calling to action, then lives aren’t really changed. And so we’re going to see these two parts, a truth, announcing the truth proclaiming the truth and a call to action. And each one of those is going to have two parts itself. So first of all the truth. So what, what is Peter going to say? Or it’s interesting to see what he doesn’t say. He doesn’t ignore the fact that what these people have done, being responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus. And he also doesn’t say, it doesn’t matter. It’s okay. He doesn’t say, “Who am I to judge?” He doesn’t say “everybody sees things differently. You thought that He should be crucified, we didn’t think He should be crucified. You know, everybody has their own morality, their own truth.” He doesn’t say that. What does he say to this crowd? He says, “The God of our fathers has glorified His servant, Jesus, whom you handed over and denied in pilot’s presence, when he had decided to release Him.” So Peter is not avoiding the issue. He’s proclaiming it. He said, God has glorified His servant Jesus, that you handed over, when Pilate, the Roman governor that you despise, was ready to release Him. You denied the Holy and Righteous One. So he says very clearly, “you denied,” not just some guy, but “the Holy and Righteous One,” the most righteous person that has ever existed is the one that you denied and asked that a murderer be released to you. “The author of life,” the one who is the source of all our lives, “you put to death.” So Peter is announcing the truth. The same Peter, who had denied Jesus a couple of months earlier, is announcing the truth. In this very dangerous situation. This is the same crowd that’d be responsible for Jesus death. So this is very dangerous for him to do this. But he’s saying it so boldly, he’s proclaiming, clearly the sin that they have committed, not avoiding it, but proclaiming it. We’re reading right now from the first letter of John. And we had a reading from the first letter of John. In John’s first letter, because John, of course, was here present with Peter when he was doing this. In John’s first letter, John says, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” So part of this announcement of Peter is making them aware of their sin, of the truth of their sin. That’s not a message that they wanted to hear. That’s probably the last thing that they wanted to hear. But they had to hear it. And so that might not sound like a good way to start evangelization. But that’s what Peter had to do, had to proclaim the truth of their sin. Make it very clear to them. The Catechism says, “to receive God’s mercy, we must admit our faults. To do its work, Grace must uncover sin, so as to convert our hearts.” So for true, true mercy, for true mercy to happen, we have to recognize our sin. It it’s like a diagnosis. It might be bad news. But it’s much better to get the bad news so that something can be done about it, than pretend that there is no problem and just be destroyed by it. So that’s the first part of the truth, that he announces the truth of sin. And that’s very important, because there’s a danger today, to think that mercy means covering over sin. But covering over sin is like a doctor, who doesn’t, you know, who ignores the diagnosis. For there to be real mercy, we have to see the truth of sin. But he really doesn’t stop there. If he just stopped there that would just, they could just feel like, well, we’re condemned forever. It’s true, we killed our Savior, there’s no hope for us. But Peter doesn’t stop there, of course, so that the first part is he announces the truth, the first part of the truth is the sin. But then the second part is the good news of Jesus. He goes on to say, “by His name,” by Jesus – the same Peter, who denied Jesus a couple of months ago now is proclaiming Jesus – “by His name, by faith in His name has made this man strong, whom you see and know. And the faith which is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.” So he’s making it very clear that the man you see healed before you is healed, because of faith in Jesus. So these are the two key truths, the truth about sin, which is a hard truth to hear, but we need to hear it. And then the much greater truth about the forgiveness through Jesus Christ, that the truth about Jesus, the good news of Jesus. And St. Peter will go on to say, “Now I know brothers, that that you acted out of ignorance, just as your leaders did. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that this Christ should suffer, He thus fulfilled.” So those two parts, the sin and the mercy that comes through Jesus Christ, so that’s the announcement about truth. And then, but he doesn’t stop there; then what are they supposed to do? And this is now the call to action. And we’re going to see also that the call to action also has two parts. Because now he’s told them the truth about sin. And he’s also told them the good news about Jesus. So that’s good. But if they don’t do anything about it, then nothing changes in their lives. They could have come heard this about sin, heard this about Jesus, and then just gone about their lives as if nothing happened. So for those truths, to change their lives, they have to do something. And so this is the call to action. and it has as I said, two parts. The first part is to repent. Peter says, “Repent, therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out. And the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, that He may send the Christ appointed to You, Jesus.” So they have to renounce. The first part is repent, renounce your sin, turn away from your sin. And then the second part is, believe in the good news. If they recognize their sin, that’s good, but that’s not enough. That’s the beginning. But that doesn’t free them from their sins. Just recognizing my sins, that’s a very important first step, but it doesn’t liberate me from those sins. What can free me from those sins? And that is the belief in Jesus Christ, believing the good news of Jesus Christ. He goes on to say, “You are the sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God gave to your fathers,” saying to Abraham, “and in your posterity, shall all the families of the earth be blessed? God, having raised up his servant, his servant, Jesus, sent Him to you first to bless you.” So what he’s saying is this Jesus that you crucified, and that God has raised up, He raised them up, and He sent Him to bless you. That is, after His resurrection. It’s not like God saying, Well, you, you crucified my son. So he’s going to abandon you no, the very Jesus that you crucified, has now been raised up, has come to bless you, but in turning every one of you from your wickedness, so His blessing will be upon you, if you believe in Him, and turn away from your wickedness. So again, we see these two parts announcing the truth, and then call into action, and each one, so the call to action is repentance, and believe the good news. Those are the words of Jesus that the Gospel says He began is ministry, saying, preaching repent, and believe in the gospel, believe in the good news. The bad news makes us aware of our sin. It’s bad news, but it we need to hear it, and the good news of Jesus. So, again, we need both these parts, we need the truth about sin. Because if we don’t hear the truth about sin, we won’t realize that we need God’s mercy. How can I know that I need God’s mercy if I don’t realize that I have sinned. But we need more though, than just the truth about sin because sometimes people preach a lot about sin. But without revealing the good news of God’s mercy. And if we just hear the message about sin, by that itself, that can just lead to discouragement and despair. And so we see these two key parts, and we see them in today’s Gospel, when Jesus appears to the apostles. It says, “When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet.” And so what do the hands and feet of Jesus show, they show the wounds of Jesus, how He has suffered for our sins. So the wounds of Jesus are a revelation of our sinfulness. But then he says to them, “thus it is written that the Christ should suffer, and on the third day be raised from the dead, in that repentance.” So here again, we see these two elements, “repentance, and forgiveness of sins should be preached in His name to all the nations.” So again, proclaim the truth and call to action, the truth about sin, and the greater truth about the good news of Jesus Christ. And so, this requires on our part both humility, and trust, humility and trust, humility, and faith. Some people need one more than the other. Some people especially need some humility. And some people have humility, but they need to grow in trust in God’s mercy. And so, notice how God has arranged in the Church, this time of lent, and then this time of Easter. And Mother was talking to us at the beginning of Mass about that, before Mass about the special time of Easter. So Lent is a time to repent of our sins. So that’s very important to prepare. But Easter is even much more important, because it’s a time to believe in the good news of Jesus Christ. So it’s good to be aware of, take advantage of Easter to become aware of our sins and repent of our sins. But this time of Easter is much more important. It’s about growing in faith, growing in faith. Growing in faith in the good news. And you know, and so growing in faith, faith is hard, right? Faith is sometimes hard, especially when things are difficult. Sometimes we don’t feel God’s presence. So faith can be hard, right? And this faith, this is often hard. But there’s something we can do about it. There’s things we can do to grow in faith. So some people say, Well, I feel like I’m losing my faith. Yes, faith can be lost, we know a lot of people lose their faith. But there’s things that we can do to grow in faith. For instance, reading scripture can help us grow in faith. There’s things that we can read, there’s things that we can do like praying, like coming together on a Sunday for Mass. Things that we can do that help us grow in faith. And so we don’t, if we feel our faith is getting weak, we don’t have to say, well, there’s nothing I can do about it. It’s like if a person was losing their health, well, or is there something I can do? Can I change the stuff I eat? Can I get more exercise? Can I stop doing some things to change my health. And so there’s a lot that I can do, and much more in faith, there’s a lot that I can do. And so this Mass brings all this together. Jesus said, “this is the blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” At the core of the Mass, we have the offering of His sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. And so we begin Mass by saying “I confess to Almighty God that I have sinned,” and right before Holy Communion, what do we say, “Lord, I am not worthy.” I’m not worthy to receive you. So we’re recognizing our sinfulness. But that’s not so that we stay away. We say that before Holy Communion, “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you,” so I’m leaving. Right? We could do it like that, because if I’m not worthy to receive you, I’m leaving. There may be like two or three people who are left, maybe, in the Church after that. We say I’m not worthy to receive you, and of course, if we’ve committed mortal sin, we should go to Confession first. But even if we haven’t committed mortal sin, even if we’re not in a state of mortal sin, we’re still sinners. But it doesn’t end there. Right. That’s to lead us, that recognition of my sinfulness is to lead us to Holy Communion, to union with Jesus Christ. And so, what St. Peter is announcing today is a great path of liberation. Because all of us are oppressed by satan and oppressed by sin. And so what St. Peter is showing us is the path of liberation, recognizing the truth of sinfulness, but of who Jesus is. And so then responding to that, by turning away from sin, and believing in Jesus, Repent, and believe, in the good news. And so these 50 days of Easter is an opportunity to strengthen our faith. And so you can decide yourself, people make a lot of resolutions, which is good for lent, right? What am I going to do for lent? I’m going to give this up, I’m going to make these special efforts. Well, what about Easter time? What are you doing for Easter time? I don’t know, I’m not doing anything. Right. So I’m going to Mass. But that’s good. But you can also do some things for Easter time to grow in faith. Like for instance, you know, like I said, reading scripture is a good way. Reading, for us, I think, one of the things we found extremely helpful to grow in faith is you know, there’s a for instance, we’re sharing messages. We’re sharing messages which we think the Lord is giving. I think those are very helpful to grow in faith. Oh yeah, I just recorded yesterday, a message which God willing we will be releasing this week. And one of the things that message is talking about is to not despise the gifts that God has given us, to receive the gifts that God has given us. Like I think these messages He’s given us are some of these gifts. And one way to grow in faith is to receive the gifts that God has given us, like these messages. And another one I think, which is the Lord has often spoken to us about are the revelations He gave to Maria Val Torta that has been gathered in a book called “The Gospel As It Was Revealed to Me,” and one of the most beautiful, those of you came on Good Friday and Holy Saturday and Holy Thursday know we were reading excerpts from that book, painful, actual, very painful excerpts. But the most beautiful part is when it talks about His resurrection. And so that’s one thing you could do, for this time of the Easter season is read those. There’s a lot more than our account that’s in the Gospel, there’s a whole bunch more, but I’m not going to tell you, you’re going to have to find out for yourself. So that’s just one suggestion. But you can decide, but you also ask the Lord, Lord, what would you like me to be doing so that I can grow in faith, so that my faith can be stronger in You, so that your graces can flow more in me during this special Easter, since because this is a special Easter season. This is the Easter season or the first Easter season after the reconquest, of this new time, this great critical time that we’re called to live. And where faith is so important and so difficult, the devil is attacking it so much. So this will be, this Easter season, this blessed Easter season of this critical moment of Church history, of human history is a key time to grow in faith. And so you could ask the Lord during this Mass, Lord, what would you like me to be doing to grow in faith right now in this Easter season. To grow in trust, in the good news of how much God loves you, and how powerful is His saving mercy in your life? Jesus, we trust in You. Amen. And we can ask our Blessed Mother to help us like with the rosary. That’s a beautiful way to go and faith. I’m just going to say a few words in Spanish. Amen
KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
Acts 3:13-15, 17-19
1 John 2:1-5
Luke 24:35-48