Thursday after Quasi modo geniti Sunday
Posted on April 20, 2023 by under
Scripture: St. John 20:19-23 (NKJV)
20:19 Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20 When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.
21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” 22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
Devotion
With this reading we are taken back to the Gospel reading for Sunday. The Apostles were assembled with the doors shut. Their Lord had been crucified. It was a death that everyone who passed by could witness. They feared that they would be next. They had already heard the first reports from the women who went to the tomb early in the morning and found the stone rolled away, the tomb empty. An angel had declared that He had risen, He was no longer there.
Saints Peter and John ran to the tomb to see if what they said was true, and they found it just as the women had said. There was also the report of the two men who saw the Lord Jesus on the road to Emmaus. They had talked with the Lord Jesus and their hearts burned within them. When He was revealed in the breaking of the bread, they ran back to Jerusalem and told the Apostles. Now the Lord Jesus appears to them in the place where they were hiding. He gives them the one thing they need: peace.
The peace that the Lord Jesus gives is the peace that is found in the forgiveness of sins. This is forgiveness for sins confessed in humility and contrition. There is peace in forgiveness because it means that a person has been declared right with the Lord God.
Prayer: Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that we who have celebrated the solemnities of the Lord’s Resurrection, may, by the help of Thy grace, bring forth the fruits thereof in our life and conversation; through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
