Discussion Questions

First Reading

Acts 10:34a, 37-43

1. What is the significance of the word “witness,” in the sentence, “We are witnesses of all that he did”? Peter uses it both as a noun (meaning “observer”) and a verb (meaning “corroborate,” “testify”). It is something you can be (how are you a witness?) and do (what is your action to witness to truth?).

2. Should we witness with more than words? Peter bore witness in a different manner after the Resurrection than he did before Christ died. To what do you attribute this? Was he consumed by love for Christ and his Gospel? Could the source of strength for Peter be the same source for us?

Second Reading

Colossians 3:1-4

1.“Brothers and sisters: If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above.” (See later in Colossians 3 for Paul’s meaning of “above”). He says that we should put on heartfelt compassion. What does compassion look like in our immediate world and in the larger one? What cries of the poor “deeply move” you? Of dying children in Ukraine? Of people suffering from effects of global warming, unhoused people and starvation?

2. How does St. Paul’s statement, “seek what is above” relate to Pope Francis message below?

We incarnate the duty of hearing the cry of the poor when we are deeply moved by the suffering of others. …

This is why I want a Church which is poor and for the poor. They have much to teach us. Not only do they share in the sensus fidei, but in their difficulties they know the suffering Christ. We need to let ourselves be evangelized by them. The new evangelization is an invitation to acknowledge the saving power at work in their lives and to put them at the centre of the Church’s pilgrim way. We are called to find Christ in them, to lend our voice to their causes, but also to be their friends, to listen to them, to speak for them and to embrace the mysterious wisdom which God wishes to share with us through them.

Pope Francis
 Evangelii Gaudium  #193, 198

Gospel

John 20:1-9

1. The same women who came to anoint his body in the morning had been with Jesus when he died. Were they deterred from their task by fear? Compare and contrast their behavior with some of Jesus’ other disciples.

In thinking about events like the Ukrainian war and protests against injustice, do we think President Zelenskyy is stopped by fear? Were people like John Lewis, Gandhi, Doctors without Borders, and Dorothy Day stopped by fear? Where is your courage on a scale of 1 to 10? Will it look different on every person and in every situation?

2. What is it that allowed John to “see and believe,” to have this kind of clarity? Does love give you knowledge about a person, insights into their behavior? In John, Jesus said “Whoever loves me … I will love him (her) and reveal myself to him (her)” (Jn 14:21). Is there a connection between Jesus’ statement and John’s “seeing and believing”?

Anne Osdieck

**From Saint Louis University