
You are witnesses of these things - 09-04-2026
Thursday of Easter week
First Reading
Acts 3,11-26.
As the crippled man who had been cured clung to Peter
and John, all the people hurried in amazement
toward them in the portico called "Solomon's Portico."
When Peter saw this, he addressed the people,
"You Israelites, why are you amazed at this,
and why do you look so intently at us as if we had
made him walk by our own power or piety?
The God of Abraham, (the God) of Isaac, and (the God) of Jacob,
the God of our ancestors, has glorified his servant Jesus
whom you handed over and denied in Pilate's presence,
when he had decided to release him.
You denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked
that a murderer be released to you.
The author of life you put to death, but God raised him
from the dead; of this we are witnesses.
And by faith in his name, this man, whom you see and know,
his name has made strong, and the faith that comes through
it has given him this perfect health, in the presence of all of you.
Now I know, brothers, that you acted out of ignorance, just as your leaders did;
but God has thus brought to fulfillment what he had announced
beforehand through the mouth of all the prophets,
that his Messiah would suffer.
Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sinsmay be wiped away."
and that the Lord may grant you times of refreshment
and send you the Messiah already appointed for you, Jesus,
whom heaven must receive until the times of universal restoration
of which God spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old.
For Moses said: 'A prophet like me will the Lord, your God,
raise up for you from among your own kinsmen;
to him you shall listen in all that he may say to you.
Everyone who does not listen to that prophet will be cut off from the people.'
Moreover, all the prophets who spoke, from Samuel
and those afterwards, also announced these days.
You are the children of the prophets and of the covenant
that God made with your ancestors when he said to Abraham,
'In your offspring all the families of the earth shall be blessed.'
For you first, God raised up his servant and sent him
to bless you by turning each of you from your evil ways."
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 8,2a.5.6-7.8-9.
O LORD, our Lord,
how glorious is your name over all the earth.
What is man that you should be mindful of him,
or the son of man that you should care for him?
You have made him little less than the angels,
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him rule over the works of your hands,
putting all things under his feet.
All sheep and oxen,
yes, and the beasts of the field,
The birds of the air, the fishes of the sea,
and whatever swims the paths of the seas.
Gospel
Luke 24,35-48.
The disciples of Jesus recounted what had taken place
along the way, and how Jesus was made known
to them in the breaking of bread.
While they were still speaking about this, he stood
in their midst and said to them, "Peace be with you."
But they were startled and terrified and thought
that they were seeing a ghost.
Then he said to them, "Why are you troubled?
And why do questions arise in your hearts?
Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.
Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh
and bones as you can see I have."
And as he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.
While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed,
he asked them, "Have you anything here to eat?"
They gave him a piece of baked fish;
he took it and ate it in front of them.
He said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you
while I was still with you, that everything written about me
in the law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled."
Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures.
And he said to them, "Thus it is written that the Messiah
would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day
and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins,
would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things."
YOUCAT Reflection
71 Why are the reports about Jesus called "the Gospel", "the Good News"?
Without the Gospels we would not know that God sends his Son to us men out of his infinite love, so that despite our sins we might find our way back to eternal fellowship with God.
The reports about the life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus are the best news in the world. They testify that the Jew who was born in Bethlehem, Jesus of Nazareth, is "Son of the living God" (Mt 16,16) made man. He was sent by the Father so that "all men might be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth" (cf. 1 Tim 2,4).
