It is a remarkable thing that many of the Gospel scenes revolve around the theme of eating or else feature a meal. Several of the post-resurrection appearances, in fact, have a meal as their setting. Maybe the reason for this is to remind us that Christ is present in the eucharistic meal. Noted spiritual writer Louis Evely writes in his book Suffering (p. 42): “A meal is a time when people learn to love each other. It is around a table that friends perceive best, without having to explain it, the warmth of being together. It is at table that fraternity expresses, creates or strengthens itself.” Let us try to make of all our meals a moment of special encounter with our brothers and sisters, a moment when we touch God.

After the crippled man had been cured, while Peter and John were still speaking to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple guard, and the Sadducees confronted them, disturbed that they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. They laid hands on Peter and John and put them in custody until the next day, since it was already evening. But many of those who heard the word came to believe and the number of men grew to about five thousand.

On the next day, their leaders, elders, and scribes were assembled in Jerusalem, with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly class. They brought them into their presence and questioned them, “By what power or by what name have you done this?” Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, answered them, “Leaders of the people and elders: If we are being examined today about a good deed done to a cripple, namely, by what means he was saved, then all of you and all the people of Israel should know that it was in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead; in his name this man stands before you healed. He is the stone rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved.”