Second Sunday of Easter
1st Reading Notes
The stone which the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
The salute ‘Peace be to you’ must have sounded like a general pardon
FIRST READING
They were of one heart and mind.
A reading from the Acts of the Apostles (4:32–35)
The community of believers was of one heart and mind,
and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own,
but they had everything in common.
With great power the apostles bore witness
to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus,
and great favor was accorded them all.
There was no needy person among them,
for those who owned property or houses would sell them,
bring the proceeds of the sale,
and put them at the feet of the apostles,
and they were distributed to each according to need.
The word of the Lord.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM (Ps 118:2–4, 13–15, 22–24)
℟.(1) Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, his love is everlasting.
or:
℟.Alleluia.
Let the house of Israel say,
“His mercy endures forever.”
Let the house of Aaron say,
“His mercy endures forever.”
Let those who fear the LORD say,
“His mercy endures forever.”
℟.Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, his love is everlasting.
or:
℟.Alleluia.
I was hard pressed and was falling,
but the LORD helped me.
My strength and my courage is the LORD,
and he has been my savior.
The joyful shout of victory
in the tents of the just:
℟.Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, his love is everlasting.
or:
℟.Alleluia.
The stone which the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
By the LORD has this been done;
it is wonderful in our eyes.
This is the day the LORD has made;
let us be glad and rejoice in it.
℟.Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, his love is everlasting.
or:
℟.Alleluia.
SECOND READING
Whoever is begotten by God conquers the world.
A reading from the first Letter of Saint John (5:1–6)
Beloved:
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God,
and everyone who loves the Father
loves also the one begotten by him.
In this way we know that we love the children of God
when we love God and obey his commandments.
For the love of God is this,
that we keep his commandments.
And his commandments are not burdensome,
for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world.
And the victory that conquers the world is our faith.
Who indeed is the victor over the world
but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
This is the one who came through water and blood, Jesus Christ,
not by water alone, but by water and blood.
The Spirit is the one that testifies,
and the Spirit is truth.
The word of the Lord.
ALLELUIA (Jn 20:29)
℟.Alleluia, alleluia.
You believe in me, Thomas, because you have seen me, says the Lord;
Blessed are those who have not seen me, but still believe!
℟.Alleluia, alleluia.
GOSPEL
Eight days later Jesus came and stood in their midst.
+ A reading from the holy Gospel according to John (20:19–31)
On the evening of that first day of the week,
when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,
for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood in their midst
and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
“Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained.”
Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve,
was not with them when Jesus came.
So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”
But he said to them,
“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands
and put my finger into the nailmarks
and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
Now a week later his disciples were again inside
and Thomas was with them.
Jesus came, although the doors were locked,
and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”
Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands,
and bring your hand and put it into my side,
and do not be unbelieving, but believe.”
Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me?
Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples
that are not written in this book.
But these are written that you may come to believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that through this belief you may have life in his name.
Roman Missal
God of everlasting mercy,
who in the very recurrence of the paschal feast
kindle the faith of the people you have made your own,
increase, we pray, the grace you have bestowed,
that all may grasp and rightly understand
in what font they have been washed,
by whose Spirit they have been reborn,
by whose Blood they have been redeemed.
Commentaries (Criticism)
one heart and soul: The presence of the Hellenistic topos on friendship is obvious (see notes on 2:42–47). The idea that “friends are one soul (mia psychē)” is attested as early as Euripides, Orestes 1046, and is quoted as proverbial by Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics 1168B. See also Plutarch, On Having Many Friends 8 [Mor. 96F], and generally for the theme of “likeness” in friendship, see Plato, Lysis 214B; Cicero, On Friendship 14, 50; 19, 69; 21, 80. This distinctive way of envisaging friendship, with its implications for sharing possessions, is for the most part absent from the Old Testament. The phrase mia psychē does appear as the translation of the Hebrew leb yaḥad in 1 Chr 12:38, and the phrase, “heart and soul” is frequent enough (see Deut 6:5; 10:12; 11:13, etc.), but the connection of “one soul” with “holding all things in common” is so frequent in the Hellenistic literature, that there can be no doubt Luke is appropriating that tradition; indeed, the addition of “heart” in this case may serve to provide a more biblical feel.
bearing witness to the resurrection: The verse is not misplaced, as we might at first think, for Luke intends to place the apostles into the middle of the community’s life, so that “authority” and “possessions” will again reinforce each other. The “great power” of their proclamation is matched by their place in the collection and distribution of the community goods. The translation here reflects the most likely text, although the word order of the Greek is unusual, leading to several textual variants (compare 4:2).
4:32. The text stresses the importance of “being one”: solidarity, unity, is a virtue of good Christians and one of the marks of the Church: “The apostles bore witness to the Resurrection not only by word but also by their virtues” (St John Chrysostom, Hom. on Acts, 11). The disciples obviously were joyful and self-sacrificed. This disposition, which results from charity, strives to promote forgiveness and harmony among the brethren, all sons and daughters of the same Father. The Church realizes that this harmony is often threatened by rancour, envy, misunderstanding and self-assertion. By asking, in prayers and hymns like Ubi caritas, for evil disputes and conflicts to cease, “so that Christ our God may dwell among us”, it is drawing its inspiration from the example of unity and charity left it by the first Christian community in Jerusalem.
Harmony and mutual understanding among the disciples both reflects the internal and external unity of the Church itself and helps its practical implementation.
There is only one Church of Jesus Christ because it has only “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Eph 4:5), and only one visible head—the Pope—who represents Christ on earth. The model and ultimate source of this unity is the Trinity of divine Persons, that is, “the unity of one God, the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit” (Vatican II, Unitatis redintegratio, 2). This characteristic work of the Church is visibly expressed: in confession of one and the same faith, in one system of government, in the celebration of the same form of divine worship, and in fraternal concord among all God’s family (cf. ibid.).
The Church derives its life from the Holy Spirit; a main factor in nourishing this life and thereby reinforcing the Church’s unity is the Blessed Eucharist: it acts in a mysterious but real way, incessantly, to build up the mystical body of the Lord.
God desires all Christians separated from the Church (they have Baptism, and the Gospel truths in varying degrees) to find their way to the flock of Christ—which they can do by spiritual renewal, and prayer, dialogue and study.
4:34–35. St Luke comes back again to the subject of renunciation of possessions, repeating what he says in 2:44 and going on to give two different kinds of example—that of Barnabas (4:36f) and that of Ananias and Sapphira (5:1f).
The disciples’ detachment from material things does not only mean that they have a caring attitude to those in need. It also shows their simplicity of heart, their desire to pass unnoticed and the full confidence they place in the Twelve. “They gave up their possessions and in doing so demonstrated their respect for the apostles. For they did not presume to give it into their hands, that is, they did not present it ostentatiously, but left it at their feet and made the apostles its owners and dispensers” (St John Chrysostom, Hom. on Acts, 11).
The text suggests that the Christians in Jerusalem had an organized system for the relief of the poor in the community. Judaism had social welfare institutions and probably the early Church used one of these as a model. However, the Christian system of helping each according to his need would have had characteristics of its own, deriving from the charity from which it sprang and as a result of gradual differentiation from the Jewish way of doing things.
4:32 This is the second summary of the life of the early Christian community in Jerusalem. Like the first (Acts 2:42–47), it emphasizes the members’ unity and sharing of possessions. Although these two passages have inspired the communal ownership of goods in religious communities, their original meaning does not seem to be that the Jerusalem Christians were obligated to share their goods, since those who owned property were free to sell it or not (Acts 5:4). The absence of a requirement makes the Christians’ free choice to share their possessions all the more powerful a sign of the presence of the Spirit in their midst.
Because of Luke’s Hellenistic background, he uses an expression familiar in Hellenistic literature for sharing among friends: they had everything in common. Another common expression was that friends were of “one mind” (literally, “one soul”). Luke’s addition of the heart makes the expression one heart and mind a more biblical phrase (see 1 Sam 2:35; 1 Chron 29:18; Ps 26:2). Luke’s description has both Hellenistic and biblical resonances, thus appealing to his mixed audience of readers.
The remark that no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own was another common Hellenistic way of describing friendship. The Latino expression of hospitality Mi casa es tu casa (“My house is your house”) has similar connotations, without literally meaning that the host’s house actually belongs to the guest. What Luke’s expressions indicate is the early Christians’ genuine sense of being brothers and sisters who joyfully care for one another’s needs. They shared not only material goods, but also spiritual goods such as faith and love, joys and sufferings, and the charisms and fruits of the Holy Spirit. Such sharing was an important witness in the first century and remains so today.
§ d 32–35 Summary Description of the Life of the Community—Charity and miracles are the work of the Spirit, cf. 2:43–47. These vv prepare for the accounts of Barnabas and Ananias. 32. Sharing of goods is due to the unity produced by the Holy Spirit, the soul of the Church, cf. Encyclical Mystici Corporis, 55 (CTS). 33. The Apostles gave ‘their witness to the Resurrection’, now confirmed by miracles. 34–35. The Gk participles here, and the imperfect tense in 2:45 show that property was sold, from time to time, by the owners of it, according as the Church’s need dictated. The sharing of goods was always voluntary. ‘All things’ in Lucan parlance has no absolute sense, and in 32 a general picture is being given. The story of Ananias and Saphira, cf. 5:4, makes it clear that they were not bound to sell, and that after they had, the price was still theirs. When Barnabas gave all his property, such exceptional generosity was chronicled. There are examples of houses held privately at Jerusalem, 12:12; 21:16. St James, in his Epistle, reveals the existence of rich and poor there. The community of goods does not seem to have been very successful, 6:1, and other churches had continually to send alms, voluntarily, ‘each man according to his ability’, to Jerusalem, 11:29.
INTERPRETATION
This is the third statement (5:1) in the form of “everyone who” (pas ho + a present participle) that affirms, “has been begotten of God.” “Everyone who does righteousness has been begotten of him (God)” (2:29); “everyone who loves has been begotten of God” (4:7); “everyone who believes Jesus is the Christ has been begotten of God” (5:1). These three statements provide support for Robert Law (The Tests of Life, 1909), who argued that there are three tests of the claim to have eternal life in 1 John. Since Theodor Häring’s argument (“Gedankengang und Grundgedanke des ersten Johannesbriefes,” 1892) that love and righteousness form a single ethical test, the recognition of just two tests has been common. (See 3:10–11.)
All thirteen statements in this form (“everyone who …”) are related positively or negatively to these three: believing, loving, and doing righteousness. (See the notes on 3:23.) The three examples are presented as evidence of the children of God (having been begotten of God). Probably because of the orientation to provide such tests, the author has not made clear whether belief precedes begetting (supported by John 1:12, 13 if receiving him is understood as a metaphor for believing, and by 20:31) or whether begetting precedes belief. His aim is to show the necessary connection between the two so that it becomes evident that correct belief, along with loving and doing righteousness, reveal the children of God while their opposites reveal the children of the devil (3:10, and see 2:29–3:3).
It is notable that in 5:1, as evidence of being begotten of God, 1 John uses “believing” followed by hoti to indicate the content of belief. The confession “Jesus is the Christ” is paired with a similar construction (without pas) in 5:4. The content of believing is “Jesus is the Son of God,” indicated by hoti. In each case the construction makes clear that the confessions “the Christ” and “the Son of God” concern known figures. What is controversial is the identification of Jesus with those figures. The content of correct belief is filled out further by reference to 4:2–3 and 2 John 7. The confession is claimed to be a manifestation of the Spirit of God. The refusal to confess manifests the Spirit of Error.
The argument that follows 5:1 shows that the claim “I love God” (4:20) is still in mind. Consequently there is a close connection between the theme of love in the previous section and the focus on the christological confession in the present section. The argument runs: if everyone with correct belief is begotten by God, the one who claims “I love God,” that is, “I love” the one who has begotten all true believers, ought to love those who are begotten by him, who are God’s children and the believer’s brothers. The argument used here may be illuminated by Plutarch, Moralia: “Excellent and pious (dikaios) children will not only love each other the more because of their parents, but will also love their parents more because of each other.… To love one’s brother is a more immediate proof of love for both father and mother” (“On Brotherly Love” 6.480def).
From this we can see that the argument used in 1 John was widespread in the Mediterranean world. There is a familial logic to it. To love the Father implies loving those the Father loves. In loving each other they will love the Father more. 1 John does not take this step, but affirms that to love one’s brother is an immediate proof of love for the Father. In the case of 1 John it is more immediate because the author seems at a loss to know what other kind of proof he might find to verify the claim, “I love God.”
The final (eighth) and most problematic use of the “by this we know …” construction appears in 5:2. (For this construction see above on 2:3.) The problem is that it seems to make loving God and doing God’s commandments the test of loving the children of God. Such a reading runs contrary to all that 1 John has argued in 3:16–18; 4:11–12, 20–21; 5:1. Certainly “by this” makes good sense as a reference back to 5:1b. The problem is that the construction of 5:2 seems to imply a reference forward to the conditional hotan construction. We can say that the test of 5:2 arises out of the conclusion arrived at by 5:1. Can the sense of 5:1b (perhaps even of 4:20–5:1) be discerned in the test of 5:2 without straining the syntax of what is written? Or is the specific reference of “by this” in 5:2a to the hotan clause of 5:2b?
Raymond E. Brown (The Epistles of John 539) notes that the temporal aspect of hotan implies that the two actions go together: “The idea is not that only after (or if) we love God and obey his commandments, do we then love God’s children, but that the two actions go together and are simultaneous.” Thus “we love the children of God when we love God and do his commandments.” The function of the hoti is epexegetical, to signal the content of what we know. (See BAG 592, no. 1.a.) What we know follows hoti in the two clauses in the rest of the verse. This means that there is nothing in 5:2 to indicate how we know. Thus “by this” refers to nothing in 5:2 and must refer back to 5:1 (rightly Dodd, The Johannine Epistles 125). Because “every one who loves the one who begat loves the one begotten of him,” it follows that we know that “we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments.” As Brown notes, loving the children of God is not a consequence of loving God and keeping his commandments; the actions are simultaneous. Dodd’s rearrangement of the English makes the sense clearer and is probably the more common Greek order also: “By this we know that, when we love God, we love the children of God” (The Johannine Epistles 125). Dodd omitted “and do his commandments” to make clear that the basis of this knowledge is in 5:1, which makes no mention of doing the commandments. This then means that a hidden ground has been made explicit for knowing that those who love God at the same time love the children of God. Thus “doing his commandments” explicates what love of God involves. (See John 14:15, 21, 31 for the connection.) There is no second and independent element to which “by this” refers. Nevertheless, the addition of “and do his commandments” indicates that this is an important element of loving God in connection with loving the children of God.
This reading of 5:2 tells us what we know. “We love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments.” But 5:2 does not tell us how we know, to which “by this” points. From this point of view Dodd (The Johannine Epistles 125) is right in arguing that the basis for drawing the conclusion that “we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments” (5:2) is to be found in 5:1. Thus because “by this” refers to “everyone loving the begetter loves the one begotten of him,” “we know that we love the children of God when we love God and do his commandments.” Dodd rearranged 5:2 to make the meaning clear in English, adopting a more common Greek order (see the Notes and cf. 2:28). He does not show how the precise reading of the text justifies his meaning. My reading of the Greek of 5:2, set out more fully in the Notes, shows that this is precisely what the Greek text means. Evidently the early scribes found no problem with the reading, because they have not emended this part of 1 John. Emendations are common where the text was unclear to them.
Here and in 5:3 there is reference to the commandments (plural), last mentioned in 3:22. There, as here, the reference to “his commandments” means God’s commandments, which is true of the plural “commandments” throughout 1 John (2:3, 4; 3:22, 24; 5:2, 3). A case can be made for reading the singular “commandment” as a reference to the love command given by Jesus in John 13:34 (cf. 15:12). But the first use of the singular in 3:23 is clearly a reference to a commandment given by God. This is less clear in the second use in 3:23, which could be a reference to Jesus’ command to “love one another” (see 2:7, 8; 3:23; 4:21).
Given that the discussion of loving God was initiated by the claim of the opponents in 4:20, “I love God,” it is notable that everything from that point to this has been a test of the claim and a qualification of what it means. The claim is falsified if the person making it hates his brother (4:20). The one who claims to love God is commanded to love his brother also (4:21). Those born of God not only love the one who begat them, but also those begotten by God (5:1). Those who love God and do his commandments love the children of God (5:2). Certainly 1 John does not and could not repudiate outright the claim to love God, but nowhere in 1 John is there any indication as to what this means beyond loving one another (the brothers) and keeping God’s commandments. Of course one version of the commandments includes the command to love God absolutely (Deut 6:5) and Jesus’ twofold summary of the Law builds on that with the Levitical command “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev 19:18): see Matt 22:37–40; Mark 12:29–31. Interestingly, in Luke 10:25–37 it is the lawyer who gives the summary of the Law in these terms, but it is the command to “love your neighbor as yourself” that becomes controversial and the occasion for telling the parable of the Good Samaritan. There too it was recognized that testing love for God in itself was impossible.
Our reading of 1 John 5:2 in its context accentuates the necessity that all those who claim to love God and do his commandments should love the children of God. It does not define loving the children of God in terms of loving God and doing God’s commandments any more than loving God can simply be defined as keeping the commandments. In addition there are the gratitude, thankfulness, and bonding (menein) that express the relationship out of which doing the commandments arises. Loving the children of God is a response to the commandments (5:2; 4:21) but is also an expression of bonding with the one who begat the children of God (5:1) and kinship (koinōnia) with the children of God (5:1; 1:3, 6–7).
Thomas’ doubting moves our Lord to give him special proof that his risen body is quite real. By so doing he bolsters the faith of those who would later on find faith in him. “Surely you do not think”, St Gregory the Great comments, “that it was a pure accident that that chosen disciple was missing; who on his return was told about the appearance and on hearing about it doubted; doubting, so that he might touch and believe by touching? It was not an accident; God arranged that it should happen. His clemency acted in this wonderful way so that through the doubting disciple touching the wounds in his Master’s body, our own wounds of incredulity might be healed. […] And so the disciple, doubting and touching, was changed into a witness of the truth and of the resurrection” (In Evangelia homiliae, 26, 7).
Thomas’ reply is not simply an exclamation: it is an assertion, an admirable act of faith in the divinity of Christ: “My Lord and my God!” These words are an ejaculatory prayer often used by Christians, especially as an act of faith in the real presence of Christ in the Blessed Eucharist
20:29. St Gregory the Great explains these words of our Lord as follows: “By St Paul saying ‘faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen’ (Heb 11:1), it becomes clear that faith has to do with things which are not seen, for those which are seen are no longer the object of faith, but rather of experience. Well then, why is Thomas told, when he saw and touched, ‘Because you have seen, you have believed’? Because he saw one thing, and believed another. It is certain that mortal man cannot see divinity; therefore, he saw the man and recognized him as God, saying, ‘My Lord and my God.’ In conclusion: seeing, he believed, because contemplating that real man he exclaimed that he was God, whom he could not see” (In Evangelia homiliae, 27, 8).
Like everyone else Thomas needed the grace of God to believe, but in addition to this grace he was given an exceptional proof; his faith would have more merit had he accepted the testimony of the other apostles. Revealed truths are normally transmitted by word, by the testimony of other people who, sent by Christ and aided by the Holy Spirit, preach the deposit of faith (cf. Mk 16:15–16).
As risen Lord he further gifts his disciples with the Spirit that they may be to the world what he has been. The reader is aware that the Spirit is with the community and in the community and will remain with the community forever (cf. 14:16–17), but the community must reach beyond its own borders to continue the mission of Jesus, so that the world might know and believe that he is the Sent One of the Father (cf. 17:21, 23).
As Raymond Brown observes, the Holy Spirit “consecrates” the disciples for their mission, as Jesus himself was “consecrated and sent into the world” by the Father (10:36). Through the Spirit, the disciples are united to the risen Jesus and receive a share in his own life, and thus in the divine communion. The indwelling Holy Spirit is a sign of their having a share in God’s eschatological salvation, for the Spirit makes the disciples a “new creation” (see sidebar on p. 47). The Greek verb for “breathed” recalls Gen 2:7 and Ezek 37:9, which speak of God breathing life into his creatures at the first creation and in the eschatological new creation.
There are not two “gifts of the Spirit.” As there is only one hour of Jesus there is only one Spirit, given to the members of the community (cf. 19:30) so that they might be witnesses to Jesus (20:22). At the hour of the cross and resurrection Jesus pours down the Spirit upon the community of his followers (19:30) and breathes the Spirit into its members that they might be in the world as he was in the world (20:22). The oneness of the hour and all that is achieved by and through it is nowhere clearer to the reader than in these two episodes that take place at the hour: the founding gift of the Spirit (19:30; cf. 14:16–17) and the commissioning of the disciples to be his witnesses empowered by the Spirit (20:22; cf. 15:26–27).
The disciples, who have been with him from the beginning (cf. 15:27), will continue the presence of Jesus to a later generation. The message of the story is less concerned with those who have had the physical experience of the risen Lord than with those who have not. The disciples have failed to believe and commit themselves unconditionally to the one whom the Father sent. However much they have failed Jesus they have never been failed by the love of God made manifest in Jesus. This author’s presentation of Jesus’ unfailing love for both Peter and Judas makes this point most dramatically. The immensity of the love of God has shone forth in Jesus’ loving gift of self in the midst of their failure (cf. especially 13:19). Yet there is a positive side to the disciples who have been with him from the beginning. Jesus describes them as having received the manifestation of the name of God, having kept God’s word and knowing that everything Jesus had came from God. They know he is the sent one of God (cf. 17:6–8). It is for this group whose story has been marked by a mixture of success and failure that Jesus prays to his Father, asking that the Father keep them in his name (cf. 17:12) and make them holy as Jesus is holy (cf. 17:19). Their experience in the locked room encapsulates their response throughout the Gospel. They are at the same time full of fear yet joyful in the presence of the risen Jesus.
Mary was commissioned by Jesus to announce the message of a new situation initiated by Jesus’ return to the Father. She goes to the disciples, now the brethren of Jesus (vv. 17–18). Despite their fear the disciples are blessed with the peace of Jesus and respond with joy when their crucified and risen Lord appears in their midst. The story of a journey of faith did not recommence with the introduction of a new set of characters, as these characters conclude Mary’s journey. They are the ones who will bring the holiness of Jesus to a further generation, thus enabling the ongoing experience of the peace and joy that only faith in Jesus can bring (cf. 14:27; 16:33). Despite the struggle of foundational characters in the Christian story to move from no faith through partial faith into unconditional belief they stand at the beginning of a further generation of believers. The readers of the Gospel have come to belief in the resurrection of Jesus. They do so through the Scripture, including the Johannine Gospel (v. 9), and through the holiness, peace, joy, and judgment made possible by the Lord’s gift of the Spirit and Jesus’ sending disciples to bring forgiveness of sin to a later generation (v. 23).
Words
CORNERSTONE A foundation stone placed at the bottom corner of a building. The cornerstone was fundamental to the construction of a stable building, and hence it was used metaphorically in Scripture to describe a key person or figure (Isa 19:13; Jer 51:26; Zech 10:4). In Isa 28:16 the Lord proclaims, “See, I am laying in Zion a foundation stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation.” Paul, following one strong current of Jewish tradition, interpreted this passage as a prophecy of the Messiah. Psalm 118:22 reads, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.” In the New Testament, Jesus used this Psalm to declare himself the foundation stone for a new temple (Matt 21:42; Mark 12:10; Luke 20:17), a connection reiterated by Peter (Acts 4:11; 1 Pet 2:7). Christ is the cornerstone for the Church, which is a living temple of the Spirit (Eph 2:20; 1 Pet 2:4).
These friendly words dispel the fear and shame the apostles must have been feeling at behaving so disloyally during his passion
The salute ‘Peace be to you’ must have sounded like a general pardon
