Word to the Wise
Saturday, April 6, 2024 - Octave of Easter - Sat
[Acts 4:13-21 and Mark 16:9-15]"Whether it is right in the sight of God for us to obey you rather than God, you be the judges. It is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard." [Acts] When Jesus had risen, early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven demons. She went and told his companions who were mourning and weeping. When they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe. After this he appeared in another form to two of them walking along on their way to the country. They returned and told the others, but they did not believe them either. [Mark]
The skepticism of the Eleven was understandable but it earned them a rebuke from Jesus for their failure to believe Mary Magdalene, to whom Jesus first appeared, and the two disciples to whom Jesus appeared on the road to Emmaus. There would be a vivid example of the skepticism when the apostle Thomas shows up after Jesus' first appearance to the Eleven! Another sample of the skepticism is on display in the reaction of the Athenians to Paul's preaching. [Acts 17:32]. But once Peter and the rest of the disciples believed and received the Holy Spirit, they began preaching in Jerusalem, which got them in trouble with the Jewish religious authorities, especially the Sadducees, who did not believe in resurrection. Peter's reply to them is quoted above. Once the disciples received the Holy Spirit, it became impossible for them NOT to believe.
The simple point is that the resurrection of the Lord is at the center of everything we believe. Without the resurrection, the Eucharist would only be a nice memory of a great guy but not the powerful transformation that our faith proclaims. The Sermon on the Mount would be good advice but not a matter of divine revelation. The preaching of St. Paul would be the delusional claims of a former Pharisee. He gave us the best statement of all of this when he wrote to the Corinthians: [I]f Christ has not been raised, your faith is in vain; you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all." AMEN