Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: Welcome. Today is the third Sunday of Easter, May 4th.
Let's begin by considering the term Little Easter. As we hear from the documents of the Second Vatican Council, every seven days the church celebrates the Easter mystery.
This is a tradition going back to the apostles, taking its origin from the actual day of Christ's resurrection, a day thus appropriately designated the Lord's Day.
In the Catholic Church, every Sunday is like a little Easter.
That's because the resurrection of Jesus isn't something we celebrate just once a year.
Every Sunday is a celebration of Jesus rising from the dead. He is the ultimate victory over sin and death.
This understanding has deep roots in both Scripture and sacred tradition.
From the earliest centuries, Christians chose Sunday, the day of the resurrection, the first day after the Sabbath, and the first day of the week as their primary day of worship.
The Book of Revelation points to the practice of referring to the first day of the week as the Lord's Day.
Sacrosanctum Concilium, or the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy from the Second Vatican Council emphasizes that Sunday is the foremost holy day of obligation.
It's the day we gather as a community to celebrate Christ's victory over death, giving us new life through our participation in the Eucharist. We enter into the mystery of Christ's resurrection not just on Easter, but every single week.
When we say every Sunday is Easter, it's a joyful reminder of the risen Christ's constant presence as much today as 2,000 years ago, and of our hope to share in his resurrection today. In the Gospel, we look at St. Peter's denial of Jesus.
Let's go to that now.
Do you love me?
In today's Gospel, often called the Gospel of the Rehabilitation of Peter, Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves him.
Jesus enables Peter to undo his three denials by saying three times that he loves him.
This wasn't easy for Peter, who seems to struggle a little bit. It's not that he doesn't love Jesus. It's just that his love isn't as perfect as he wanted it to be.
It's also a bit painful since he denied Jesus. And Peter would rather just think about his love for Jesus rather than say it.
As a matter of fact, he explicitly says, lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.
We sometimes wonder why we have to pray to God.
After all, God knows everything and doesn't have to hear our thoughts or our needs.
But as this gospel points out, it's important for Peter to say to Jesus that he loves him.
Jesus felt it would be good for Peter to say it out loud.
Somehow, when we say things, we it involves much more of our person than just thinking them. And Jesus wanted to give Peter the chance to put his whole self into it.
Christianity is not simply a religion of thoughts and abstractions. There's a genuine interpersonal relationship between us and the Lord.
God treats us as human beings, not as mere spirits.
That means it's important to include our feelings and our whole selves in our relationship with God.
That's why we pray. We tell the Lord what our needs are, even though God knows them.
We tell the Lord how we feel sorry, happy, confused, even though God knows.
And we tell the Lord of our love for him, even though he knows.
