Today’s Scripture selections continue the Easter instructions for the newly-baptized. The “First Letter of Peter” encourages those fearful of persecution to remember that Christ also suffered persecution.

We need to know the Holy Spirit–Christ’s gift to the Church–is present to teach us what’s needed today and unite us to Christ.

On the Sundays of Easter the liturgy offers instruction for the newly baptized. The chosen scriptures suggest how a community rooted in Christ witnesses to the world.

In the midst of human life Christians gather to share their common needs and gifts. We break open the scriptures, we break the bread, and we go out ready to witness.

Most of us are used to a scientific approach to the world around us. However when we hear this Gospel proclaimed we can take heart from our fellow believers who “have not seen, and yet believe.”

The first followers of Jesus witness that he was risen; they had experienced him alive in their midst. Today our Easter Gospel is a story of living faith in which we are participants, and to which we are now witnesses.