With the universal Catholic Church, we rejoice in our celebration of Christ’s resurrection during this joyful Easter season. Early Church Father St. Athanasius stated that “the fifty days from the Sunday of the Resurrection to Pentecost Sunday are celebrated in joy and exultation as one feast day, indeed as one ‘great Sunday.’“ However, the first eight days or octave specifically celebrate the solemnity of Easter every day. I always enjoy celebrating the Octave of Easter at my parish with the Catholic faithful.
In our reading from the Acts of the Apostles today, we hear about 3,000 people who were baptized in response to the message that Peter preached. Some of the crowd during Christ’s passion who wanted to crucify him might have also been the same people who were baptized that day. Our reading tells us that the people “were cut to the heart” when they realized that Jesus, who was just crucified, was made Lord and Christ by God.
The call to repentance that Peter makes to the crowd, and his proclamation of what God is all about, is a radical message compared to the messages people receive in our secular world today. Sometime we forget about the radical nature of Christ’s Gospel. We can often take our faith for granted. Unfortunately, we can mistakenly approach our faith and the Church like a consumer in society, looking to what we can get out of it, not looking at our responsibilities as disciples of Christ. Like the crowd that Peter addressed that day, may we be cut to the heart. May we give thanks for the presence of the resurrected Christ in our lives and the opportunity to live out our faith.
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