Then Peter took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles grew strong. – Acts 3:7

        He seemed like he had some bottled-up personal issues. I listened as he opened up his concerns and frustrations, even if we didn’t know each other well. In turn, I shared my experiences with him, introduced him to a mentor and to a group who may be able to help him.

       Months later, he sent me a message telling me that he was doing loads better. He thanked me profusely, saying how big a help I was and how his newfound friends were such a blessing to him. I think I didn’t do anything extraordinary. But for this person, it meant a lot.

       How many times do we brush off listening to people who ask us for help or advice? How often do we make light of the problems of others and even make it worse by joking about them?

       Offer your right hand just as Peter did. Raise others up instead of putting them down. It might be exactly the help they need to live a life for the Lord. Jun Asis (mabuting.balita@gmail.com)

Reflection: Do you help and pull others up, or push and keep others down?

Lord, give me the grace to be Your Hand that helps, raises and cares for the people I encounter today.

St. Julie Billiart, pray for us.

One of the main goals of Blessed Mother Teresa was to bring Jesus to the people. This is what Peter and James did for the cripple in this reading. They brought Jesus to him in the form of healing. The love of God is the greatest healing we can ever receive. His love can heal the loneliness in our hearts and transform our lives.

1 Peter and John were going up to the temple area for the three o’clock hour of prayer. 2 And a man crippled from birth was carried and placed at the gate of the temple called “the Beautiful Gate” every day to beg for alms from the people who entered the temple. 3 When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked for alms. 4 But Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” 5 He paid attention to them, expecting to receive something from them. 6 Peter said, “I have neither silver nor gold, but what I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, rise and walk.” 7 Then Peter took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles grew strong. 8 He leaped up, stood, and walked around, and went into the temple with them, walking and jumping and praising God. 9 When all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 they recognized him as the one who used to sit begging at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, and they were filled with amazement and astonishment at what had happened to him.

Psalm 105:1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8-9

R: Rejoice, O hearts that seek the Lord.

1 Give thanks to the Lord, invoke his name; make known among the nations his deeds. 2 Sing to him, sing his praise, proclaim all his wondrous deeds. (R) 3 Glory in his holy name; rejoice, O hearts that seek the Lord! 4 Look to the Lord in his strength; seek to serve him constantly. (R) 6 You descendants of Abraham, his servants, sons of Jacob, his chosen ones! 7 He, the Lord, is our God; throughout the earth his judgments prevail. (R) 8 He remembers forever his covenant which he made binding for a thousand generations, 9 which he entered into with Abraham and by his oath to Isaac. (R)

The Risen Jesus walked with the two men and they did not realize who He was at first. Jesus walks with all of us, all the time, and too often we do not realize this. Let us make a conscious effort to open our eyes, feel His presence, and welcome Him into our lives daily. This will strengthen our faith and enable us to see Jesus and believe that He is always with us.

This is the day the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it.

13 That very day, the first day of the week, two of Jesus’ disciples were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, 14and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred. 15 And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus himself drew near and walked with them, 16 but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. 17 He asked them, “What are you discussing as you walk along?” They stopped, looking downcast. 18 One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?” 19 And he replied to them, “What sort of things?” They said to him, “The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him. 21 But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel; and besides all this, it is now the third day since this took place. 22 Some women from our group, however, have astounded us: they were at the tomb early in the morning 23 and did not find his Body; they came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive. 24 Then some of those with us went to the tomb and found things just as the women had described, but him they did not see.” 25 And he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the Scriptures. 28 As they approached the village to which they were going, he gave the impression that he was going on farther. 29 But they urged him, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them. 30And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. 31 With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight. 32 Then they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?” 33 So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem where they found gathered together the Eleven and those with them 34who were saying, “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!” 35 Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

think: The love of God is the greatest healing we can ever receive.

READ THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR Leviticus 7-9

FROM SEEING TO RECOGNIZING

My friend swears his mother’s style of cooking remains to be an endearing element that binds him to her. He knows her cooking and can tell the difference from that of others. I also could tell the difference between my grandmother’s puto (rice cake) and that bought from vendors.

       Food — the way it is prepared, how it is offered and shared, and who prepares it — has a lot to do with one’s feelings of well-being, relatedness, and at-homeness. There is more to food than just seeing it with your eyes. Food always has to do with warm feelings — of being loved, being cared for, and being the object and recipient of someone’s act of sacrificing love.

       My mother’s nilaga or adobo were never culinary masterpieces. I didn’t see anything special in them. But I miss them every time I went back to the seminary from home visit. For I recognized in them a mother’s care and love. I saw more than the bland, ordinary fare that wouldn’t merit a second look from any gourmet.

         The Eucharist, understood as the Lord giving of Himself as food to His beloved disciples, is partly what today’s Gospel passage is all about. He offered the two disciples bread and wine. But He did so in a manner that only people whose hearts were burning with love could recognize. The two disciples saw nothing more than what ordinary diners would have seen. But there was more than just food being offered. There was more than just a fleeting encounter involved between the three.

         There was love — the fruit of a supreme sacrifice. And it spelled the difference between merely seeing and recognizing. “It is the Lord!” Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB

REFLECTION QUESTION: How well do you recognize the love of the Lord for you?

Thank You, Lord, for the gift of the Eucharist. Help me to hunger for It all the days of my life.