by Bishop Thomas Gumbleton
Pax Christi USA Teacher of Peace
Now we spend a few moments listening together to God’s word so that it can form and shape our thinking and our ways of acting. And in the first lesson, I think there’s a question that all of us need to ask: What am I to do? What am I to do? You know those first disciples there on that first Pentecost Sunday, which is when Peter proclaimed the words that we heard in the first lesson, became aware of what had happened just 50 days before, when Jesus, someone whom they had come to know, and many of them … had been his followers and failed him.
They had come to know him as a friend and a teacher, rabbi, but then when it came time for him to be handed over to those who were opposed to him and to his ways, they had gone away — all the disciples except for just a handful. Now Peter is saying, “That person Jesus is the son of God, whom you allowed, or even assisted in executing. But now, he has been raised from the dead, and the Holy Spirit that he promised has come upon us. And he came to bring us the good news of God’s love. We rejected him, but now he’s been raised up and is with God in heaven.”
So at that point, these disciples understand the enormous evil that had happened. The very son of God had been put to death out of hatred, and they had failed to stand by his side. So then they asked the question, “What am I to do? Now that I realize what has happened, what am I to do?” That’s when Peter then says, “Well, you need to repent; turn your life around, and now begin to listen deeply to what he had taught us, and to begin to live out what he showed us.”…
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God shows us how to love all, even enemies