Thursday within the Octave of Easter
Solemnity
- Feast Day
- April 9
Thursday within the Octave of Easter is celebrated as a Solemnity of the Lord. The Gospel is Luke 24:35-48, immediately following the Emmaus account, in which the risen Christ appears to the assembled apostles, shows them his hands and feet, and eats a piece of broiled fish in their presence to confirm that he is not a spirit. He then opens their minds to understand the Scriptures, sending them to be his witnesses to all nations.
The first reading is Acts 3:11-26, in which Saint Peter, after the healing of the lame man, proclaims to the people in the Portico of Solomon that they have killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead.
The Gospel of Easter Thursday emphasizes the bodily reality of the Resurrection. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (645) teaches that Christ's risen body is the same body that was crucified and that bears the marks of his Passion, while also possessing the new properties of a glorified body. This carnal realism is essential to the Catholic faith: the Resurrection is not merely the survival of a soul but the transformation of the whole human person.
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