Easter Season Readings

I have a question, have you noticed what is different about the readings for the Sunday Masses during the Easter season? If you want to look at the missalette and see if you can figure it out, you can stop reading this for a few minutes and see if you can, I’ll wait… There is something a bit different in those readings, and that is where the first reading comes from. During all of the other seasons of the liturgical year, the first reading comes from the Old Testament somewhere then we have the Psalm reading, and the second reading always comes from the New Testament, and then finally, the reading from one of the four Gospels.

But during the Easter season, we have the first reading coming from the Acts of the Apostles instead of the Old Testament. This is because the Church wants us to be more specifically focused on what happened to the Apostles and other Disciples after the Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus. It was their mission to go out into the world and preach the Gospel (Good News) to the world and to share what happened. They started their ministry in Jerusalem and the surrounding region at first, but then moved out into the rest of the known world pretty quickly.

Reading the Acts of the Apostles is a wonderful thing to do, because it showed what the Apostles had to go through to get the message out. They were arrested by the leaders of the Jewish people, they were put in prison, they were beaten, threatened and persecuted so that they would stop talking about Jesus. It is one of the things that is often quoted about why we believe our faith was real, as some people talk about the life and death of Jesus, we have to ask the question about whether or not the Resurrection actually happened. The guards were given a large sum of money and were instructed to tell people that the Disciples came at night and stole the body of Jesus. So, some people believed that story.

But, if you think about what the Disciples did and had to go through this begs another question, how far would you go for a lie? Me, I know if it was something that I really did not believe, or I knew was not true, I would not be willing to be beaten, jailed, or even executed for the lie. However, I would be willing to go through those persecutions if I knew that the Resurrection was the truth and that it would lead to eternal life. That is what the Apostles and Disciples did, and the Acts of the Apostles is an account of some of the things that they went through for their faith. While it is hard to say what the most important books of the Bible are, I would argue that the four Gospels and Acts of the Apostles are right up there, because they are the words and actions of our Lord and Savior, and then the mission that he, himself gave to his followers to do. So, as we continue this Easter Season, let us use the example of the Apostles to lead us in our mission.

God bless,
Fr. Ken