Reflection for Thursday of the Second Week of Easter

Today's readings are here: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/041912.cfm

In today's first reading, the apostles are brought before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Supreme Court; and the hight priest accuses them of bringing Christ's blood upon them.  The truth is, the Jewish religious leaders were guilty of Christ's death.  The apostles were not wrong in mentioning this in their sermons.  But guilt was not the only thing about which the apostles preached.  They also preached that God had raised Jesus from the dead so that forgiveness of sins could be granted in his name.  In other words, the Jewish religious leaders' guilt could be forgiven through faith in Christ.  They did not see this.


We, too, are guilty of Christ's death; for in some way, our sins have crucified him.  We need to be honest about this.  However, we also need to be honest about the fact that God raised Christ from the dead, so that he could offer us forgiveness through faith in Christ's name.  God wants us to see our sins, but only so we will flee to Christ for forgiveness.


Let us not, like the Jewish religious leaders, see only our guilt and not see the means of escape through Christ.  Our God loves us, and does not want to condemn us but to forgive us.