Fourth Sunday
of Easter
Ir-Raba Ħadd tal-Għid
Messalin A pg 199
Lectionary:
49
Reading 1 ACTS of the apostles 2:14A, 36-41
Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his
voice, and proclaimed: “Let the
whole house of Israel
1 Qari - AtTi tal-appostli 2:14A, 36-41
Imma Pietru, flimkien mal-Ħdax, qam u qal lil-Lhud
b'leħen għoli: "Nies
tal-Lhudija, u intom ilkoll li toqogħdu f'Ġerusalemm, kunu afu dan u isimgħu
sewwa x'se ngħidilkom jien. Mela ħa jkun jaf fiż-żgur il-poplu kollu ta' Iżrael li
lil dan Ġesù, li intom sallabtuh, Alla għamlu Mulej u Messija." Dan
il-kliem li semgħu laqtilhom qalbhom, u qalu lil Pietru u lill-appostli l-oħra: "L-aħwa, x'għandna nagħmlu aħna?" U
Pietru weġibhom: "Indmu, u
jitgħammed kull wieħed minnkom fl-isem ta' Ġesù Kristu għall-maħfra ta'
dnubietkom; u intom tirċievu d-don ta' l-Ispirtu s-Santu. Għax il-wegħda qiegħda għalikom u għal
uliedkom u għal dawk kollha li huma fil-bogħod, dawk kollha li l-Mulej Alla
tagħna sejjħilhom." U b'ħafna kliem
ieħor tahom xhieda u wissiehom billi qalilhom:
"Salvaw lilkom infuskom minn dan in-nisel ħażin." Għalhekk dawk li
laqgħu kliemu tgħammdu u dak in-nhar ingħaqdu mad-dixxipli madwar tlitt elef
ruħ.
.................................
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not
want.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose;
beside restful waters he leads me;
he refreshes my soul.
R/ Alleluia.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose;
beside restful waters he leads me;
he refreshes my soul.
R/ Alleluia.
He guides me in right paths
for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side.
With your rod and your staff
that give me courage.
R/ Alleluia.
for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side.
With your rod and your staff
that give me courage.
R/ Alleluia.
You spread the table before me
in the sight of my foes;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
R/ Alleluia.
Only goodness and kindness follow me
all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.
R/ Alleluia.
Il-Mulej hu
r-ragħaj tiegħi,
xejn ma
jonqosni;
f'mergħat
kollha ħdura jqegħedni.
Ħdejn l-ilma,
fejn nistrieħ, jeħodni;
hemm hu
jrejjaqni.
R/ Alleluia.
Imexxini
fit-triq tas-sewwa
minħabba
l-isem tiegħu.
Mqar jekk
nimxi f'wied mudlam,
ma nibżax
mill-ħsara, għax inti miegħi.
Il-ħatar
tiegħek u l-għasluġ tiegħek,
huma
jwennsuni.
R/ Alleluia.
Int tħejji
mejda għalija
quddiem
l-għedewwa tiegħi.
Biż-żejt
tidlikli rasi,
u l-kalċi
tiegħi tfawwarli.
R/ Alleluia.
Miegħi, iva,
jimxu t-tjieba u l-ħniena
il-jiem kollha
ta' ħajti.
U ngħammar
f'dar il-Mulej
sakemm indum
ħaj!
R/ Alleluia.
.............................................
Beloved,
If you are patient when you suffer for doing what is good, this is a grace
before God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for
you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps. He
committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.
When he was insulted, he returned no insult; when he suffered, he did not
threaten; instead, he handed himself over to the one who judges justly. He
himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross, so that, free from sin, we
might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you had
gone astray like sheep, but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian
of your souls.
X'mertu jkollkom li tieħdu
bis-sabar is-swat meta tkunu għamiltu l-ħażen? Imma jekk tagħmlu t-tajjeb u
ssofru t-tbatija bis-sabar, din tkun grazzja quddiem Alla. Għal dan intom kontu
msejjħa għax Kristu wkoll bata għalikom u ħallielkom eżempju biex timxu fuq
il-passi tiegħu. "Hu li ma kien għamel ebda dnub, meta għajjruh ma weġibx bit-tagħjir; meta bata
ma heddidx imma ħalla f'idejn l-Imħallef ġust. Hu tgħabba bi dnubietna
sa fuq is-salib, biex aħna mmutu għad-dnubiet u ngħixu għall-ġustizzja.
Bil-ġrieħi tiegħu intom fiqtu. Intom
kontu bħal nagħaġ mitlufa, imma issa rġajtu lura għand ir-Ragħaj u l-Għassies
ta' ruħkom.
...........................................
Jesus said: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not
enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a
robber. But whoever enters through the
gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The
gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name
and leads them out. When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them,
and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. But they will not
follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize
the voice of strangers.” Although Jesus
used this figure of speech, the Pharisees did not realize what he was trying to
tell them. So Jesus said again, “Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for
the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did
not listen to them. I am the gate.
Whoever enters through me will be saved,
and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and
destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it
more abundantly.”
"Tassew tassew ngħidilkom, min ma jidħolx
fil-maqjel tan-nagħaġ mill-bieb imma
jaqbeż ġewwa minn naħa oħra, dak hu ħalliel u brigant. Imma min jidħol
mill-bieb hu r-ragħaj tan-nagħaġ. Min
ikun mal-bieb lilu jiftaħ, in-nagħaġ minn leħnu jisimgħu, u hu jsejjaħ
in-nagħaġ tiegħu waħda waħda b'isimhom u joħroġhom barra. U meta joħroġ
in-nagħaġ tiegħu, huwa jmur quddiemhom u n-nagħaġ jimxu warajh, għax jisimgħu
leħnu. Imma wara wieħed barrani ma
jimxux, anzi jaħarbu minnu, għax leħen barrani ma jafuhx." Din
il-parabbola qalhielhom Ġesù, iżda huma ma fehmux x'ried jgħidilhom biha. Għalhekk Ġesù raġa' qalilhom: "Tassew tassew ngħidilkom li l-bieb
tan-nagħaġ huwa jien. Dawk kollha li
ġew sa issa qabli huma ħallelin u briganti. Iżda n-nagħaġ lilhom ma semgħuhomx.
Jiena hu l-bieb; jekk xi ħadd jidħol
ġewwa permezz tiegħi jsalva, u jidħol u joħroġ u jsib fejn jirgħa. Il-ħalliel
ma jidħolx jekk mhux biex jisraq u joqtol u jeqred. Jiena ġejt biex ikollkom
il-ħajja, u ħajja bil-kotra.
//////////////////////////////////
COMMENTARY:
Father Cantalamessa on Easter Faith -
"The Lord Is Risen and Was Seen Alive"
There
are men -- we see this in the phenomenon of suicide bombers -- who die for a
misguided or even evil cause, mistakenly retaining, but in good faith, that the
cause is a worthy one. Even Christ's
death does not testify to the truth of his cause, but only the fact that he
believed in its truth. Christ's death is the supreme witness of his charity,
but not of his truth. This truth is adequately testified to only by the
Resurrection. "The faith of Christians," says St. Augustine
Keeping to the purpose that has guided us up to this point, we must leave faith aside for the moment and attend to history. We would like to try to respond to the following question: Can Christ's
resurrection be defined as a historical event, in the common sense of the term,
that is, did it "really happen"?
There are two facts that offer themselves for the historian's
consideration and permit him to speak of the Resurrection:
First, the sudden and inexplicable faith of the disciples, a faith so tenacious
as to withstand even the trial of martyrdom; second, the explanation of this
faith that has been left by those who had it, that is, the disciples. In the
decisive moment, when Jesus was captured and executed, the disciples did not
entertain any thoughts about the resurrection. They fled and took Jesus' case
to be closed.
In the meantime something had to intervene that in a short time not only provoked a radical change of their state of soul, but that led them to an entirely different activity and to the founding of the Church. This "something" is the historical nucleus of Easter faith.
The oldest testimony to the Resurrection is Paul's:
"For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: That Christ died for our sins, according to the
Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again according to the
Scriptures; and that he was seen by Cephas, and after that by the eleven.
"Then he was seen by more than 500 brethren at once, of whom many are still with us and some are fallen asleep. After that, he was seen by James, then by all the apostles. And last of all, he was seen also by me, as by one born out of due time" (1 Corinthians 15: 3-8).
These words were written around A.D. 56 or 57. But the core of the text is constituted by an anterior faith that Paul himself says he received from others. Keeping in mind that Paul learned of these things immediately after his conversion, we can date them to about A.D. 35, that is, five or six years after the death of Christ. It is thus a testimony of rare historical value. The accounts of the Evangelists were written some decades later and reflect a later phase in the Church's reflection. But the core of the testimony remains unchanged:
The Lord is risen and was seen alive. To this a new element is added, perhaps
determined by an apologetic preoccupation, and so of minor historical value: The insistence on the fact of the empty tomb. Even
for the Gospels, the appearances of the Risen Christ are the decisive facts.
The appearances, nevertheless, testify to a new dimension of the Risen Christ, his mode of being "according to the Spirit," which is new and different with respect to his previous mode of existing, "according to the flesh." For example, he cannot be recognized by whoever sees him, but only by those to whom he gives the ability to know him. His corporeality is different from what it was before. It is free from physical laws: It enters and exits through closed doors; it
appears and disappears.
According to a different explanation of the Resurrection, one advanced by Rudolf Bultmann and still proposed today, what we have here are psychogenetic visions, that is, subjective phenomena similar to hallucinations. But this, if it were true, would constitute in the end a greater miracle than the one that such explanations wish to deny. It supposes that in fact different people, in different situations and locations, had the same impression, the same halucination.
The disciples could not have deceived themselves:
They were specific people -- fishermen -- not at all given to visions. They did
not believe the first ones; Jesus almost has to overpower their resistance: "O foolish men, and slow of heart to
believe!" They could not even want to deceive others. All of their
interests opposed this; they would have been the first to feel themselves
deceived by Jesus. If he were not risen, to what purpose would it have been to
face persecution and death for him? What material benefit would they have drawn
from it?
If the historical character of the Resurrection -- that is, its objective, and not only subjective, character -- is denied, the birth of the Church and of the faith become an even more inexplicable mystery than the Resurrection itself. It has been justly observed that "the idea that the imposing edifice of the history of Christianity is like an enormous pyramid balanced upon an insignificant fact is certainly less credible than the assertion that the entire event -- and that also means the most significant fact within this -- really did occupy a place in history comparable to the one that the New Testament attributes to it."
Where does the historical research on the Resurrection arrive? We can see it in the words of the disciples of Emmaus:
Some disciples went to Jesus' tomb Easter morning and they found that things
were as the women had said who had gone their before them, "but they did
not see him." History too must take itself to Jesus' tomb and see that
things are as the witnesses have said. But it does not see the Risen One. It is
not enough to observe matters historically. It is necessary to see the Risen
Christ, and this is something history cannot do; only faith can.
The angel who appeared to the women Easter morning said to them: "Why do you seek the living among the
dead?" (Luke 24: 5). I must
confess that at the end of these reflections I feel that this rebuke is also
directed at me. It is as if the angel were to say to me:
"Why do you waste time seeking among dead human and historical arguments,
the one who is alive and at work in the Church and in the world? Go instead and
tell his brothers that he is risen."
If it were up to me, that is the only thing I would do. I quit teaching the history of Christian origins nearly 40 years ago to dedicate myself to proclaiming theKingdom of God
Keeping to the purpose that has guided us up to this point, we must leave faith aside for the moment and attend to history. We would like to try to respond to the following question
In the meantime something had to intervene that in a short time not only provoked a radical change of their state of soul, but that led them to an entirely different activity and to the founding of the Church. This "something" is the historical nucleus of Easter faith.
The oldest testimony to the Resurrection is Paul's
"Then he was seen by more than 500 brethren at once, of whom many are still with us and some are fallen asleep. After that, he was seen by James, then by all the apostles. And last of all, he was seen also by me, as by one born out of due time" (1 Corinthians 15
These words were written around A.D. 56 or 57. But the core of the text is constituted by an anterior faith that Paul himself says he received from others. Keeping in mind that Paul learned of these things immediately after his conversion, we can date them to about A.D. 35, that is, five or six years after the death of Christ. It is thus a testimony of rare historical value. The accounts of the Evangelists were written some decades later and reflect a later phase in the Church's reflection. But the core of the testimony remains unchanged
The appearances, nevertheless, testify to a new dimension of the Risen Christ, his mode of being "according to the Spirit," which is new and different with respect to his previous mode of existing, "according to the flesh." For example, he cannot be recognized by whoever sees him, but only by those to whom he gives the ability to know him. His corporeality is different from what it was before. It is free from physical laws
According to a different explanation of the Resurrection, one advanced by Rudolf Bultmann and still proposed today, what we have here are psychogenetic visions, that is, subjective phenomena similar to hallucinations. But this, if it were true, would constitute in the end a greater miracle than the one that such explanations wish to deny. It supposes that in fact different people, in different situations and locations, had the same impression, the same halucination.
The disciples could not have deceived themselves
If the historical character of the Resurrection -- that is, its objective, and not only subjective, character -- is denied, the birth of the Church and of the faith become an even more inexplicable mystery than the Resurrection itself. It has been justly observed that "the idea that the imposing edifice of the history of Christianity is like an enormous pyramid balanced upon an insignificant fact is certainly less credible than the assertion that the entire event -- and that also means the most significant fact within this -- really did occupy a place in history comparable to the one that the New Testament attributes to it."
Where does the historical research on the Resurrection arrive? We can see it in the words of the disciples of Emmaus
The angel who appeared to the women Easter morning said to them
If it were up to me, that is the only thing I would do. I quit teaching the history of Christian origins nearly 40 years ago to dedicate myself to proclaiming the
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