The Easter mystery produces witnesses. There are at least two aspects to being a witness. Both are illustrated by today's readings. First, a witness is someone to whom something happens. So the disciples, in the Gospel passage, encounter the crucified and risen Christ. By showing them His hands and feet and allowing them to touch Him, Christ brings them to a deeper understanding of the significance of His life and death. He enables them to "see how it is written that the Christ would suffer and on the third day rise from the dead ¡K" But a witness is also someone who makes things happen. Their experience of the risen Christ impels Peter and John to preach "repentance for the forgiveness of sins" to the people of Jerusalem, both in deed and word.

This Easter experience - of encounter and evangelization - is not only an historical event to be remembered nostalgically. It is primarily a mystery to be lived daily. For Christ continues to encounter us both in the ordinary and extraordinary circumstances of the everyday. Through the desires and disappointments of human hearts and society, He continues to show us His scars, and calls us to go on making things happen in our world. If a tree is to be judged by its fruit, then perhaps Easter will be judged by its witnesses. What kind of witnesses are we?