In today’s first reading, Acts 5: 27-33, we encounter the
Apostles boldly proclaiming Jesus’ resurrection and witnessing to His Messiahship,
that he is the one sent by God to redeem us.
When confronted by the Sanhedrin, which arrested them and reiterated its
command that they stop talking about Jesus, their response is: “We must obey
God rather than… [human beings].” And
then go on to say: “The God of our
ancestors raised Jesus… [from the dead]… [and] “exalted him at his right hand
as leader and savior to grant Israel [and all of us] repentance and forgiveness
of sins. We are witnesses of these things, as is the Holy Spirit whom God has
given to those who obey him.” They were being obedience to the commission Jesus gave them just before His
ascension into heaven to return to His
Father: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature”
(Mark 16: 15).
Since that very time, for 2000+ years, in obedience to the
Holy Spirit guiding them, people throughout the ages have been and continue
proclaiming this Gospel and all of Jesus’ teaching. Because of the faithfulness
of our parents, parish priests, family members and friends, our catechists, you
and I have come to know about Jesus. It
is our responsibility to get to know Jesus personally, not just about Him. We do that in the same way that we get to
know our best friend/s. We spend a lot of time with Jesus, visiting Him in
prayer, in the Eucharist, at Mass, reading the Scriptures and talking with Him
throughout the day as issues arise. We share our hopes and our fears, our
disappointments, our sadness, joy, anger and serenity, fear and security—all of
our feelings—with Him. We reveal our
thoughts to Jesus and listen to His. As
we get to know and love Jesus, just as when we grow in knowledge and love of
our best friend/s, spouses, companions on the journey of faith, we grow in
trust and share everything about us and our lives with Jesus and Jesus with us.
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