Word to the Wise
Monday, April 5, 2021 - Octave of Easter - Mon
[Acts 2:14, 22-33 and Matt 28:8-15]"You who are children of Israel, hear these words. Jesus the Nazorean was a man commended to you by God with mighty deeds, wonders, and signs, which God worked through him in your midst, as you yourselves know. This man, delivered up by the set plan and foreknowledge of God, you killed, using lawless men to crucify him. But God raised him up, releasing him from the throes of death, because it was impossible for him to be held by it......God raised this Jesus; of this we are all witnesses!" [Acts]
The reason we are Christians, especially Catholic Christians, is because of that last line of the quote. "God raised this Jesus, of this we are all witnesses." Peter spoke these words on Pentecost Day, which we will celebrate later liturgically, but which we celebrate by our very existence as Christians. Our children and their children and all generations of Christians after us will be Christians because we are faithfully bearing witness just as Peter and the first disciples did, often at the cost of their lives!
There was another narrative [cf. today's gospel], that the Jewish authorities of the time tried to circulate, of a body removed by followers who made up the story of the resurrection. And there are people to this very day who accept that narrative! Thanks to the witness of faithful Christians, the narrative of secular skepticism has not prevailed. Billions of faithful Christians for more than 2000 years have kept alive the message of truth: CHRIST IS RISEN! ALLELUIA!
When we gather to celebrate the Eucharist or simply when we pray alone, we owe a profound debt of gratitude to those who have gone before us in faith and have handed on the message to us. We, in turn, can give the same life-giving message to those who come after us: CHRIST IS RISEN! ALLELUIA! AMEN!