Word to the Wise
Friday, April 6, 2018 - Octave of Easter - Fri
[Acts 4:1-12 and John 21:1-14]FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 2018. FRIDAY IN THE OCTAVE OF EASTER [Acts 4:1-12 and John 21:1-14] 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.” The Acts of the Apostles, which tradition and scholars attribute to the evangelist Luke, as a kind of second volume to his gospel, gives us a sample of the early preaching by Peter and the other apostles. This comes shortly after the Pentecost event, so in terms of the sequence of events, we are ahead of ourselves in the first scripture, while the gospel scripture is dealing with the immediate after-effect of Jesus’ resurrection. Nevertheless, Peter’s statement about Jesus being the only name by which humanity is to be saved has caused some good people to reject Christianity because they may find very good men and women of other religious traditions who are finding their way to God without reference to Jesus! On the other hand, those who take Peter’s statement too literally simply consign all these good people to hell! Our Catholic teaching is that Jesus is the means by which God saved the human race, but not everyone will know this directly for various reasons. We are called to proclaim as best we can the truth about Jesus, but we are not in the position of judging anyone’s ultimate relationship with God. Our job is to live Christian faith and give an example of the truth about Jesus. We cannot “relativize” this truth, but we are not the final judge about anyone. Arrogance about Christ is the best way to keep other people from coming to him. AMEN
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