In our reading from the Acts of the Apostles today, we hear about 3,000 people who were baptized in response to the message that they heard from Peter. We can interpret this story in the context of the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus, in the context of our commemoration of the Easter season. Some of those in the crowds who cried out in the midst of Christ’s passion, “Crucify him, Crucify him!” may have also been the same people who responded to Peter’s call of repentance and baptism. The Acts of the Apostles tells us that the people “were cut to the heart” when they realized that Jesus, who was just crucified, was made Lord and Christ by God.
The call to repentance that Peter makes to the crowd, and his proclamation of what God is all about, is so radical when compared to the message that so many people cling to in our modern society. I don’t think we want to realize how radical the Gospel message is. We want to water it down and to make it something easy. As a missionary, there were many mission sites in rural areas that did not have a mass even once a year. An Anglican priest I know in England reported that the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Anglican Church had forbidden the Anglican priests from entering their church, not for their own private prayers and not even to stream their masses on the internet for the faithful. Maybe what we are experiencing now may teach us that we should not take our faith for granted, that we need to be more appreciative for the gift of our faith and the opportunity to practice our faith in the sacraments of the Church.
Like the crowd that Peter addressed, may we be cut to the heart ourselves as to what our reality is right now. May we give thanks for the presence of the resurrected Christ in our lives and the opportunity to live out our faith.
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