[LA] Tuesday of the Octave of Easter continues the highest solemnity of the Catholic liturgy, prolonging the ineffable joy of the Resurrection of the Lord. In the immemorial tradition of the Church, the entire octave is considered as a single day of feast, the "day that the Lord has made." This period was fundamental for the neophytes, the newly baptized at the great Easter Vigil, who participated daily in the liturgy clothed in their white garments, receiving the profound mystagogical catechesis on the sacraments they had received. Today’s sacred liturgy reminds them of the heavenly "water of wisdom" that they drank from the baptismal fonts. Traditionally, the Roman station of this day takes place at the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls. It is especially significant that the Church militant turns to the glorious tomb of the Apostle of the Gentiles on this Tuesday, for the Epistle of the Mass presents precisely the first great discourse of Saint Paul, delivered in Antioch of Pisidia, where he vigorously proclaims the resurrection of Christ Jesus as the definitive and perfect fulfillment of all the divine promises.
🎵 Introit (Ecclus 15:3-4 | Ps 104:1)
Aqua sapiéntiæ potávit eos, allelúia: firmábitur in illis, et non flectétur, allelúia: et exaltábit eos in ætérnum, allelúia, allelúia. Ps. Confitémini Dómino, et invocáte nomen ejus: annuntiáte inter gentes ópera ejus. V. Glória Patri.
The Lord gave them to drink the water of wisdom, alleluia: it shall be established in them, and they shall not be moved, alleluia: and He shall exalt them forever, alleluia, alleluia. Ps. Praise the Lord, and call upon His Name: declare His works among the nations. V. Glory be to the Father.
📖 Epistle (Acts 13:16, 26-33)
In those days, Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand for silence, said: Men, brethren, sons of the stock of Abraham, and those among you that fear God, to you the word of this salvation has been sent. For the inhabitants of Jerusalem and their rulers, not knowing Jesus, nor the voices of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath, by condemning Him, fulfilled them. And finding no cause of death in Him, they desired of Pilate that they might put Him to death. And when they had fulfilled all things that were written concerning Him, taking Him down from the tree, they laid Him in a sepulchre. But God raised Him up from the dead on the third day; and He was seen for many days by those who had come up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who to this present are His witnesses to the people. And we declare unto you that the promise which was made to our fathers, God has fulfilled for our children by raising up Our Lord Jesus Christ.
📖 Gospel (Luke 24:36-47)
At that time, Jesus stood in the midst of His disciples and said to them: Peace be to you. It is I, do not be afraid. But they, being troubled and frightened, supposed that they saw a spirit. And He said to them: Why are you troubled, and why do such thoughts arise in your hearts? See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have. And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. But while they still did not believe, for joy and wonder, He said to them: Have you here anything to eat? And they offered Him a piece of broiled fish and a honeycomb. And when He had eaten before them, taking the remains, He gave it to them. And He said to them: These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written of Me in the law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms. Then He opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures. And He said to them: Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead on the third day: and that penance and remission of sins should be preached in His Name to all nations.
🕊️ The peace of the risen one and the water of wisdom
The Gospel of Saint Luke transports us to the interior of the Cenacle, where the Risen Christ, passing through closed doors, stands in the midst of His fearful disciples and offers them the supreme gift of His victory over death: "Peace be to you." As Saint Cyril of Alexandria teaches in his commentaries, the peace left by Christ is not a mere human greeting, but the very communication of the divine nature and sanctifying grace, for God Himself is Peace, who unites hearts, healing the deep divisions and wounds caused by sin and unbelief. Faced with the profound disturbance of the apostles, who for a moment imagined they were seeing a ghost, Jesus acts with infinite condescension toward human weakness. He not only allows them to touch His glorious wounds, but deigns to eat before them a piece of fish and a honeycomb. Saint Bede the Venerable reflects beautifully on why the Redeemer retained the wounds in His glorified body: He did not erase the signs of His Passion for a threefold design of love and justice. The sacred wounds were preserved to confirm definitively the faith in the resurrection of the true flesh, to be continually presented before the Father in His priestly intercession for us, and to engrave perpetually before the eyes of the Church the inconceivable immensity of the charity by which we were redeemed from hell.
The Epistle, taken from the Acts of the Apostles, publicly testifies to the efficacy of this grace and the unshakable courage that springs from direct experience with the Risen One. We see Saint Paul, in the synagogue of Antioch of Pisidia, rise to preach not with the doubts that once paralyzed the apostles, but with the divine authority of one whose understanding has been opened to the Scriptures. Paul announces to the children of Abraham that the shameful death and radiant glory of the Messiah are the exact fulfillment of the promise made to the patriarchs. Saint Augustine, deepening this liturgical mystery, emphasizes that the resurrection of Christ not only consolidates and gives meaning to all the prophecies of the Old Testament, but establishes the solid foundation upon which the Church stands as an immortal witness. The blindness and ignorance of the rulers of Jerusalem, who in condemning the Just One merely fulfilled the sacred oracles, served wonderfully the mysterious and unfathomable plans of Providence for the consummation of our redemption. It is this immovable certainty that God fulfilled the promise by raising His Son that becomes the driving force of all apostolic preaching and the anchor of our salvation.
The harmonious connection between the strengthening of apostolic faith and the grand mission of the Church finds its most sublime and expressive theological key in the chant of the Introit of this Paschal liturgy: "The Lord gave them to drink the water of wisdom." This pure and life-giving water, which symbolizes the gift of the Holy Spirit poured out in holy Baptism and the light of understanding of the Scriptures granted in today’s Gospel, floods the Christian soul. When we drink from the fountains of this inexhaustible wisdom, the divine promise is fulfilled in us: "it shall be established in them, and they shall not be moved." All childish fear, astonishment, and hesitation that initially haunted the Cenacle are eradicated and replaced by the missionary zeal that we see shining in the voice of Saint Paul. The true peace communicated by the Savior does not exempt us from temporal afflictions, but strengthens our interior like an invincible wall, preventing the devil or the world from bending us. Nourished by this grace and instructed by the lips of the Master Himself, each baptized person becomes a visible instrument and living witness of penance and the divine remission of sins, glorifying the Name of the Lord forever among the nations.