Eucharistic Readings for Monday of Easter Week: All Years
Acts 2:14,22b-32; Psalm 16:8-11 or Psalm 118:19-24; Matthew 28:9-15
“When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.”So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.” (Matthew 28: 12 – 15)
Our Lord Jesus walked into human history not too many years after coin money made its way into our trading markets. While money has some good qualities insofar as having a long shelf-life while food (vegetable or animal) can’t be kept for trade for very long. On the downside however, money quickly became the ends rather than the means of maintaining life. So the chief priest and elders gave the soldiers a large sum of money, which is in addition to their pay as soldiers, to perpetrate a lie.
For me, the saddest part is that these men (chief priest and elders) are supposed to be the faith and moral leadership of their community. These clergy study and maintain the Ten Commandments of Moses, one of which says, “Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor.”
Being a person of religious responsibility I must keep my eyes and ears open to other faith traditions and always ask if my own tradition could learn something from another faith walk. None of our religions are perfect. But each of us, clergy or not, has a personal responsibility to monitor our own integrity. We should not devise schemes that lie about others nor should we become a party to such a scheme if it is proposed.
Our Lord Jesus was moved however, that is, Raised!, not by disciples or soldiers or any human being, but by God, as a way of keeping an unbreakable covenant with us, forever.
Let us pray:
Dear Raised and eternal Lord Jesus, please keep each of us ever mindful of the trust placed on us to be faithful to the truth no matter what situation we might find ourselves in. Help us dear Lord to be a people of integrity and honesty after the example you set for us, You who now live in unity with God Almighty, Amen.
Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Palestine, and our schools including St. Augustine in Raleigh, North Carolina.
As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and serve, and to teach others to love and serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John
onewhoponders 