1 May 2019 – Wednesday of the 2nd week of Easter – Acts 5:17-26

    We know from history and from the accounts of the Early Church that Peter, Paul, and many of the other apostles were imprisoned many times for the way that they publicly preached the Gospel to the world in the years right after Christ’s death and resurrection. This time, as recounted in today's first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, when Peter and a group of apostles are imprisoned, they are miraculously set free and they go out into the Temple area where they once again preach publicly about Jesus and his proclamation of God's kingdom.  

      We can imprison God’s word in the world just as the chief priest and the Jewish authorities imprisoned it when they put Peter and the other apostles in prison. The Gospel message needs to be more than just words to us.  Christ's message needs to be more than words that fascinate us or touch our imagination.  We need to put those words into action.  We need to practice our faith each day in the reality that faces us.  We need to have God’s word in our lives to inspire us and motivate us and lead us along our journey.  It is difficult to live out our faith sometimes, that is for sure.  Sometimes our lives seem so busy that we do not make time for God or for Church in our hectic, chaotic lives.  But God always meets us in our reality and helps us with the ups and downs of life.  If God’s words are not able infuse our thoughts and our actions, if God’s word does not have a place in our reality, then his word will be imprisoned just as at was when the first apostles were put into jail. 

      I also wanted to mention that today, May 1, we celebrate St Joseph the Worker.  This feast day goes back to the time in the middle of the 20th century when Communism dominated many of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe for decades.  In those Communist countries that were allies with Russia, May 1 was traditionally celebrated as the Communist Day of the Worker.  To put the worker in the context of our Christian values, Pope Pius XII established the feast of St Joseph the Worker in 1955, which we celebrate on May 1 in our liturgical calendar.  To celebrate Joseph as the archetype of the worker makes a lot of sense. We know from Scripture that Joseph was a carpenter, that he probably taught Jesus this trade as well.  The Church teaches us that no matter what work we undertake in life, we are to do so with dignity and in a manner that allows us to contribute to both God’s kingdom and to human society as well.  We can find dignity in all human work – no matter what kind of work it is – and we can lift that work up for the glory of the Lord.