Acts 4:13-21
Observing the boldness of Peter and John
and perceiving them to be uneducated, ordinary men,
the leaders, elders, and scribes were amazed,
and they recognized them as the companions of Jesus
. Then when they saw the man who had been cured standing there with them,
they could say nothing in reply.
So they ordered them to leave the Sanhedrin,
and conferred with one another, saying,
“What are we to do with these men?
Everyone living in Jerusalem knows that a remarkable sign
was done through them, and we cannot deny it.
But so that it may not be spread any further among the people,
let us give them a stern warning
never again to speak to anyone in this name.”
So they called them back
and ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
Peter and John, however, said to them in reply,
“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.”
After threatening them further,
they released them,
finding no way to punish them,
on account of the people who were all praising God
for what had happened.
Responsorial Psalm
118:1 and 14-15ab, 16-18, 19-21
R. (21a) I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his mercy endures forever.
My strength and my courage is the LORD,
and he has been my savior.
The joyful shout of victory
in the tents of the just.
R. I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me.
or:
R. Alleluia.
“The right hand of the LORD is exalted;
the right hand of the LORD has struck with power.”
I shall not die, but live,
and declare the works of the LORD.
Though the LORD has indeed chastised me,
yet he has not delivered me to death.
R. I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Open to me the gates of justice;
I will enter them and give thanks to the LORD.
This is the gate of the LORD;
the just shall enter it.
I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me
and have been my savior.
R. I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Gospel
Mk 16:9-15
When Jesus had risen, early on the first day of the week,
he appeared first to Mary Magdalene,
out of whom he had driven 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.
But later, as the Eleven were at table, he appeared to them
and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart
because they had not believed those
who saw him after he had been raised.
He said to them, “Go into the whole world
and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.”
My Thoughts
Jesus appears! Even when we doubt. He appears. How can this be? My mind does not really grasp this. This is a great mystery to meditate on. Jesus appears to Mary and then the two disciples on the road and then the Apostles when they were at table. I'm sure the reason they were at table was because Jesus said "do this in remembrance of Me". In other place it says they recognized Him in "the breaking of the bread". To most protestant minds this just means they were having a meal. To the Catholic this surely was the Eucharist. Why else would the scripture say Jesus appeared to them when they were "breaking the bread" after He had just instituted the Lord's Supper before he was crucified?
Sometimes I wonder, why doesn't Jesus visibly appear more often in our world? In our normal everyday life we don't visibly see Jesus. But we are called to see Him in others. He says "as you do it to least of these...you do it to me". So we are to see Him in others. But in another place Jesus says to Thomas "blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed". So we are blessed if we believe Him without seeing him as Thomas did. My kids sometimes wonder why they can't see Jesus. James Patrick thinks he lives in the sky. I try to tell him that Jesus is in the room with us right now and he usually says "But I can't see him". How do we see Jesus today? I believe the scriptures and the example of others throughout history teaches that in order to see Him I must desire Him more than life. I must die to myself. We must love Him and others as He commanded. We must be consumed by His Love.
And even if I never experience a personal appearance of Jesus in the natural order, as was the case with Mother Teresa and so many other saints, I am still blessed because of the witness of the Holy Spirit in my inmost being. O sure Jesus can break through the natural order at any time and appear to us, as He did with the disciples, and He has does this on many occasions , but He chooses to not do this most of the time.
I'm sure to the atheist and agnostic this is probably a child's imaginary mind game but to the Christian it just reaffirms the words of Jesus. "unless you repent and become like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven".
We should love as he commanded us to love and call to mind His words, "as you have done unto the least of these...you have done it to me". This is the only way to true happiness in this world.
I believe that He will reveal himself to us when we are completely at the end of ourselves. When we trust Him more than our own eyes. Surely his followers were at their end. The sadness of what they had just witnessed was just too much.
At every Catholic church there is a tabernacle and inside the tabernacle and sometimes displayed on the Monstrance is the host. What looks to us like bread is actually Jesus Christ. My former protestant mind thinks. Thats impossible. Thats childish. Thats ridiculous. Why should I believe that? But the Kingdom of God is a very mysterious place. Its always been a paradox. A combination of flesh and Spirit. How do I transcend the natural and see the spiritual? How do I not deny the natural while I enter the spiritual realm? I can't wrap my mind around this.
God has put us in a place where we have the evidence of Him in our hearts and lives. We have the evidence in others. We have the evidence in our experience of this world. We have the evidence in our struggles with our flesh. We have evidence in our chastisements that He send us. We have evidence in the Church he has established. We have evidence in all of His Creation. All Creation cries out - God Loves Us.
An honest person who reads the scriptures must see this. The scriptures are full of the impossible. Why choose to believe only some of the impossibilities?
Another thought:
The scripture says that Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene first. She is the woman who was freed of 7 demons. I'm pretty sure that 7 demons means that she was under complete control of demons because the number 7 is used in scripture over and over to mean full or complete. Surely this was a temptation for the Apostles. Why would their Master appear first to her? A former demon possessed woman? After all they were the chosen leaders of His Church. And the women in that day were considered 2nd class citizens. But after the women at the well in Samaria and the attempted stoning of the woman caught in adultery they should have realized that Jesus wasn't tied to their cultural prejudices. Amazing how Jesus flips our understanding of the world. He humbles us. He is making things right that we have made so wrong.
