MAY 4 - 5, 2019
4:30 PM (SAT), 7:30 AM, 9:00 AM ORDINARY FORM (ENGLISH) MASSES
Antiques Roadshow is a television program broadcast on PBS (the Public Broadcast Service) and has been in production for 22 years. It’s based on a British television program by the same name that has been around since 1979.
The program features regular people who bring in their antiques for appraisal by experts … who discuss provenance, history, and finally the value of the items.
The highest valued item ever on the show was a 1904 Diego Rivera oil painting titled El Albañil – The Bricklayer – painted when the artist was 18 years old. It was thought to have been lost, but was in the possession of the family in Corpus Christi, Texas – who had purchased it in the 1940s, but were originally told it was a fake, and then later determined that it was worth between 1 and 2 million dollars.
There are also plenty of spin-off shows of a similar bent, among them Pawn Stars, American Pickers, Storage Wars, and many others.
Today is the Third Sunday of Easter.
Our readings focus in on the value of our redemption in Christ Jesus.
The first reading from Acts, Peter and the apostles are ordered by the religious authorities of their day to stop talking about Jesus. In the eyes of those in charge, it’s just not worth it to cause so much trouble over one man.
Yet filled with the Holy Spirit, the Apostles reply:
We must obey God rather than men.A human appraisal of the things of God often comes up short. Only by relying on the Holy Spirit can we assess the true value of the Divine gifts of grace that we have all received.
In the Gospel, Our Lord reverses Peter’s triple denial that we heard during Holy Week – three times asking him “Do you love me?”
Two aspects of the Gospel reading may give us pause – the phrase “more than these” and the miraculous catch of fish numbering 153.
There are plenty of theories, and I won’t bore you with all of them. But one of the ideas on the number has always been the number of beads on a traditional Rosary. Another is that it is the two perfect numbers: 7 and 10 … added together … and multiplied by 3 times 3 (that is, 9). So it is “fullness” (in 7) and “perfection” (in 10) times the thrice holy three Persons of the Holy Trinity.
The phrase “more than these” has been analyzed by Scripture and biblical scholars for years. The question being, is Jesus asking Peter about his friendship with the other apostles? Or his brothers James and John? Or something else?
I would propose that it is all of these and more – namely, anything that takes us away from total union with Jesus Christ … as members of His mystical Body.
Finally, we have in the second reading, the continued vision of St. John in the Book of Revelation … where today a “countless … number” of “angels … living creatures and … elders” sing “a new hymn” declaring “the Lamb that was slain” as “worthy.”
The Greek word here is “axios” – which means “worthy” And in the branch of philosophy called “axiology” we find the study and analysis of values, ethics, conduct, beauty, and harmony.
Christ alone is “worthy” because as the Son of God – He alone shows us the value of our humanity – not only in taking it on in His own Person through the Incarnation … but also by His passion, death, and resurrection – which brings us into the fullness of redemption … buying us back from the worthless things we had given ourselves over to.
As we approach this altar to receive the Sacred Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, let us pray that through our share in His divinity – given to us in Baptism – we might strive to grow in relationship to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – and that we may be made … day by day … and more and more … worthy of our redemption in Christ Jesus our Lord.
