Daily Readings Reflection for 4/25/11

Scripture: Lectionary # 261. Acts 2:14,22-32. Psalm 16:1-2. 5. 7-8.
9-10.11. Matthew 28:8-15

Psalms are our prayers and songs that support what we hear from the first
reading and the Gospel. Today Psalm 16 is cited in Acts 2:25-28. It is a
favorite of Luke in Acts and will be seen in Acts 2:31, and 13:35 from the
Septuaginatal version (the Old Testament translation into Greek). These
Psalms are prefaced by our response in the liturgy which helps us to join
in with others besides the one reading or singing the Psalm. These are
prayers that are filled with human emotions, desires, and demands of God
who is praised for being faithful to promises and is forgiving and merciful
and kind. Today's Psalm helps us to enter into the desires of a soul who
wants to be totally united to God.Even the body is referred to as being
part of this human desire written and prayed some two thousand and five
hundred years ago!. We all want to live beyond the grave as does this
person.

Peter cites the Psalm in his first great speech in the Acts of the Apostles
and proclaims it to us his listeners: "He said that he was not 'abandoned
to the nether world' nor did his body 'undergo corruption', thus
proclaiming beforehand the resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. This is the
Jesus God raised up, and we are his witnesses." (Acts 2:32).

This may be the first psalm that shows us the idea of a personal bodily
resurrection and it is Peter's way of confirming what he and others like
John and Mary Magdalene have witnessed: Jesus risen from the tomb. One of
the Benedictine priests who wrote about the Psalms says, "Only the one,
upon whom God's voice resounded, (saying) "This is my beloved in whom my
favor rests," died without his body being subject to decay. This is why
Christ's mother, that "most favored daughter," was saved from the decay of
her mortal body. Her death has been aptly referred to as a
"dormition." (Stanley Jaki,O.S.B., Praying the Psalms, p.59). Amen.
Alleluiah!