Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Thursday within Easter Octave, 20-04-17

Acts 3:11-26 / Luke 24:35-48

To cling on to something or to someone means to hold on tightly to that something or to that someone.

It is more than just being attached to something or to someone. It is more like a possessiveness over something or someone.

In the 1st reading, everyone came running towards Peter and John in great excitement, and the crippled man who was healed was clinging on to them.

It was a rather strange way to describe the man as clinging on to Peter and John. In whatever way we might want to visualise it, the healed man probably couldn't quite believe the healing that he experienced and hence, he clung on to Peter and John for assurance in the midst of all that excitement.

It was quite a different picture in the gospel when Jesus appeared to His disciples and stood among them.

In a state of alarm and fright, they thought they were seeing a ghost. Even after Jesus had assured them that it was really Him, their joy was so great that they still couldn't believe it, and they stood there dumbfounded.

We would have thought that the disciples would be so excited that they would crowd around Jesus to cling on to Him.

We would have done that, wouldn't we? But Jesus would want us to do more than that. Because in Holy Communion, He comes into our hearts so that our hearts would not only embrace Him but cling on to Him tightly.

Let us cling on tightly to Jesus. To cling on to other things or to other persons is certainly not worth it.