Word to the Wise
Saturday, March 29, 2008 - Saturday in the Octave of Easter
[Acts 4:13-21 and Mark 16:9-15]It is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard. (Acts) Later, as the Eleven were at table, he appeared to them and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart because they had not believed those who saw him after he had been raised. He said to them, "Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature."(Mark)
The gospel accounts of Jesus' resurrection and subsequent appearances to disciples are uniform in depicting the apostles as not believing the story when they first hear it. This "unbelief and hardness of heart" earns them a "rebuke" from Jesus when he appears to them "at table." However, as the Acts of the Apostles shows, once they got "on message," they also got "on task." The job description is simple: "Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature." We're not talking about "super humans" here. The scripture from Acts today notes: "Observing the boldness of Peter and John and perceiving them to be uneducated, ordinary men, the leaders, elders, and scribes were amazed...." Tradition tends to clothe the apostles with all kinds of characteristics that take them out of the realm of mortal being. We tend to forget their humble origins (unlike St. Paul) and quickly remove ourselves from the job description of evangelization! That is not the picture of them presented in the gospels. They were sinners and doubters and betrayers. The words of Mary Magdalen and the disciples on the road to Emmaus seemed like a wild tale. They probably first believed the body had been stolen. (Remember the two disciples on the road to Emmaus saying that some disciples went and saw the empty tomb but "him they did not see.") The Church contains many different kinds of people. Some of them are like the leaders, elders and scribes, who, as Jesus reminds us, "sit on the throne of Moses." But most are like the apostles. Yet, the job description is the same. The first preachers did not go out with a copy of the catechism in hand. They went out and spoke of what they had seen and heard! As far as scripture was concerned, they had less than we do. They had what they knew by heart from the Old Testament. We profit from their experience and what they wrote or handed down to those who did write about it. The job description for the church remains the same no matter what our background and education. We must "go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature." It's a lot more convincing if it's something we have each "seen and heard." AMEN
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