On this Maundy Thursday, let us remember that
even in the midst of betrayal and suffering, love and forgiveness can prevail. Let us follow the example of Jesus and love one another as he has loved us.
-Unknown
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Isaiah 61:1-3a, 6a, 8b-9
Psalm 89:21-22, 25 and 27
Revelation 1:5-8 Luke 4:16-21 Jesus came
to Nazara, where he had been brought up, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day as he usually did. He stood up to read and they handed him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll he found the place where it is written:
The spirit of the Lord has been given to me,
for he has anointed me.
He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor,
to proclaim liberty to captives
and to the blind new sight,
to set the downtrodden free,
to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour.
He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the assistant and sat down. And all eyes in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to speak to them, ‘This text is being fulfilled
today even as you listen.’
Reflection on the Scriptures
Isaiah had prophesied that the Messiah would be sent by God and anointed in the power of the Holy Spirit to preach "good news" and bring healing, blessing, and freedom to all who were oppressed (see Isaiah
61:1-2). Jesus awakened their hope in God's promises when he announced that this word was now being fulfilled in his very own person. Luke tells us that the people of Nazareth spoke well of him and received his "gracious word" with amazement and wonder. But they also openly questioned how the "son of Joseph" would fulfill this Messianic mission (Luke 4:21). Jesus challenged them to believe the word God had spoken through the prophets and the word he now speaks in God's name through the power of
the Holy Spirit. Jesus renews and strengthens us in faith, hope, and love
The Lord Jesus speaks this same word to each of us today - he comes to bring us healing and restoration, pardon and freedom from the oppression of sin, despair, hopelessness, and destruction. Do you believe his word with expectant
faith and trust, or with doubt and indifference? The Lord will not refuse to pour out his Spirit on all who trust in him. Ask the Lord Jesus to renew in you the joy of the Gospel and the freedom to live each day with trusting faith, joyful hope, and fervent love. Lord Jesus, you are the fulfillment of all our hopes and dreams. Through the gift of
your Holy Spirit you bring us truth, freedom, and abundant life. Fill me with the joy of the Gospel and inflame my heart with a burning love for you and a deep thirst for your word. -by dailyscripture.net
The Bodily Resurrection of Jesus, by James Arraj
https://innerexplorations.com/catchtheomor/resurrecion.htm Inner Growth Publications, 2007.
Chapter 4: The Resurrection of Jesus Seeing and Recognizing Post-Vatican Catholic theology of the resurrection of this kind and the
more radical views we saw before generated a whole atmosphere that was not confined to theological circles. Perhaps the experience of Philip St. Romain is less rare that we would like to think. When in the early 1970s he had questions about the resurrection: “Like most Catholics when confused about religious matters, I turned to my local parish priest, in this case an extraordinarily well-educated campus minister. He told me he doubted that Jesus’ corpse was transformed to new life and he
surmised that the empty tomb passages were probably mythological stories with no historical rootings.”43 For Thomas West, in Jesus and the Quest for Meaning, the views of Stephen Davis and
N.T. Wright that the appearance of the risen Jesus could have been captured on film seem too physical.44 “I think we are justified in saying that they “saw” something objective that is remarkable, but that their seeing was in part already a faith experience.” Davis on his part insists not only on the physical nature of the resurrection appearances, but writes: “Were enhanced powers of perception... necessary to have seen the risen Christ? I am arguing that the answer to that question is no. But
was a special grace necessary to see the risen Christ in such a way as to recognize him as Lord and to grasp what he was calling one to be and do? Of course.”45 While Davis in this same essay differs in emphasis on this matter from Gerald O’Collins, they are also closer than it first appears. While Evans also insists on the role of faith, O’Collins
will assemble the different elements necessary for understanding the nature of the resurrection appearances: first is the non-hallucinatory nature of the appearances. The resurrection of Jesus was not described as a dream or happening by night, or is similar to Peter’s vision (Acts 10:9ff), even though these categories were available to the evangelists.46 Secondly, he will insist on the material nature of the resurrection: “At this point let me only suggest that if our resurrection were to take us completely and utterly out of any kind of material environment, it is hard to see how that would be a bodily resurrection...”47 and thirdly he will go on to
emphasize the necessity of faith as shown in Thomas’ Summa where he says that the apostles saw Jesus after the resurrection with the eyes of faith. (III, 55, 2 ad 1) “As John presents the meeting with Mary Magdalene, the mere sight of the risen Jesus did not necessarily lead her to ‘know’ him and believe (20:14).”48 This leads us to our next challenge which is at the heart of our inquiry, which is to ask how a real body can at the same time be a transformed one.
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