The Octave Day of Easter
A Word about the Readings
by Father Gethin
(The readings may be found here)
Our Lord’s Easter appearances focus our attention on His risen presence as the fulfillment of God’s work of Salvation, that the risen Christ is the source and location of all our peace and beatitude: “Jesus came and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.” He comes and shares His story with us, and in the new light of the Resurrection we begin to apprehend there the fullness of the message of God’s love for us. Think of the disciples on the road to Emmaus: “beginning at Moses, and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. And they drew nigh unto the village whither they went; and he made as though he would have gone further: but they constrained him, saying, Abide with us.” We meet Him in His resurrected goodness and glory, and learn to understand that goodness as the account of our own passage into a new and heavenly way, we learn to have our love renewed and restored by His triumph over our sin and darkness. We, who were the cause of His suffering, constrain Him to stay with us so that we may learn the meaning of His abiding glory. We learn to trust that the story of His gracious life, and the story of our wretched life, is in fact one story. That is what we mean when we say that in Christ is the unity of the Scriptures—that Jesus is the location of God’s good purpose for all things, fulfilled, and the Bible reveals the working out of that story. So, let us find in this Eastertide a time when we are encouraged in our hearing of Holy Scripture. Perhaps by reading a book of the Bible that we are not familiar with all the way through; perhaps by careful reflection on the readings for each Sunday or the lessons for Morning and Evening Prayer, or some combination of these: the point for us is that as we are freed from earthly fears by this season of Resurrection, so we may turn with growing devotion to our Lord, knowing that His life is our blessing, “Peace be unto you.”
Rules for how we read Scripture: (From St. Augustine of Hippo)
- No interpretation of Holy Scripture shall be considered correct that does not build up the love of God and neighbour
- No part of Scripture shall be interpreted so that it be held to be in contradiction of any other part
- The clear parts of Scripture shall be used to help interpret the obscure or difficult parts.