In today’s first reading, Acts 5: 27-33, the high priest
says to the Apostles, “We gave you strict
orders, did we not, to stop teaching in that name. Yet you have filled
Jerusalem with your teaching and want to bring this man’s blood upon us.”
To this the Apostles replied: “We must
obey God rather than men. The God of our ancestors raised Jesus, though you had
him killed… God exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior to grant
Israel 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.”
To this very day, as I write this, Christians are being
persecuted and forced to leave their homeland by Islamic extremists and others against our faith. Those who do not believe in Jesus are putting
forth every possible means “to stop teaching in that name,” that is, to stop
teaching about Jesus by words, deeds or the way we live our faith as
disciples of the Lord. People who
believe in Jesus are being martyred, tortured, taunted, and humiliated every day.
Last year, while visiting a Catholic high school, some students spoke
about how they are taunted by students from public high schools. Being Christian is not popular, accepted or
respected in the world of today, a world that promotes narcissistic, materialistic,
relativistic, and consumeristic beliefs; in short, that encourage a person to
do whatever one pleases with no regard for the laws of God, for morality,
justice or truth. However, those who believe in Jesus and do what is right know
that the Lord shields them, as He did the Apostles before the Sanhedrin, and that Jesus will answer them when they call upon Him
(cf Psalm 3). We know “that the Lord works wonders for his faithful one; the
Lord hears when…[we] call out to him….Many say, ‘May we see better times! Lord,
show us the light of your face” (Ps4: 7).
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