On the day of Pentecost, Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice, and addressed the crowd:
3RD SUNDAY OF EASTER
ACTS 2:14, 22-23
On the day of Pentecost, Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice, and addressed the crowd:
– Listen to me, Israelites, I speak to you about Jesus of Nazareth, the man attested to you by God through the miracles…
You killed him by nailing him to a cross, but God raised him up, breaking the bonds of death…
God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.
The astonishment of the people of Jerusalem at the behavior of the disciples (on the day of Pentecost and later) requires Peter’s explanation. And Peter explains: you are seeing the effects of the resurrection.
Thus, the testimony of the Resurrection has two complementary dimensions. First, the disciples present themselves as “witnesses of the risen Jesus.” “We have seen him, we have eaten with him.”
But, secondly, and more importantly, the new, different life of these witnesses is what shows the presence of the power of the Spirit of Jesus, the Resurrection of the whole Body of Christ, of the total Christ, which is taking place.
Peter’s words offer us a perfect summary of Christology, of a type of Christology that we have somewhat forgotten. We condense it into a few phrases:
· Jesus of Nazareth, the man whom God attested to in your midst by performing miracles through him…
· Jesus of Nazareth, the man whom God raised up, breaking the bonds of death.
· Exalted at the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit, and has poured it out.
This is what you are seeing
In short, the first faith of the community: Jesus, the man filled with the Spirit, who works wonders through him, who proves to be stronger than death and sin, and through whom the Spirit is poured out into the community.
Therefore, our faith in Jesus is concretized thus: “the man through whom the Spirit of God invaded the world.” That is why Jesus said at the beginning of his preaching: “The Kingdom of God is already here, among you.” The Kingdom, the presence of the Spirit of God, the Saving Wind, is already here, in Jesus.
The community makes the spirit of Jesus visible. It makes it visible because, as we read last Sunday, “they lived in unity and had everything in common…”. This is the ecclesiology of Peter and the Acts: the Church is the community of people in whom the Spirit of Jesus blows. And it is felt, the wind is felt, in their way of living. And it amazes, and it draws in.
Precious Christology, precious Ecclesiology, simple to understand, more symbolic than conceptual. First-hand, without intermediaries from cultures far from The Word.
1 PETER 1:17-21
If you call on him as Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear.
For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.
Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.
Just by reading these expressions we can be sure that Simon Bar Iona, the fisherman from Gennesaret, cannot be its author, unless he has taken hurried courses in Theology. On the other hand, we find the terrible presence of a concept of redemption by blood, very much from the Old Testament but discordant with Abbá. But it is a topic we have already discussed many times.
However, it is worth highlighting that expression, so revolutionary and so defining of the Christian being: Through Christ you believe in God.
José Enrique Galarreta, S.J.