The apostles rejoiced that they had
been found worthy to suffer dishonor at the hands of men for the sake of Jesus’
name. The disciples left the Temple area
after they had been flogged and after they had been ordered by the Sanhedrin to
stop preaching the word of Jesus amongst the people of Israel. However, Peter and the other apostles
continued their preaching with even more zeal and enthusiasm. This really struck me when I read the reading
from the Acts of the Apostles. The
apostles rejoice at the dishonor they suffered because they had suffered for
the honor they were giving Jesus and for living out their faith. So often, so many of us think that we
shouldn’t suffer at all for our faith, that we shouldn’t have to make any
sacrifices for the faith. We don’t want
to give up our free time to go to mass.
We don’t want to be inconvenienced or made to suffer. Yet, what an amazing example we have from
Scripture this morning. Yes, indeed,
what does it mean to proclaim the presence of the risen Christ during this joyful
Easter season? What ways are we being
called to live out our faith and to proclaim Christ to the world, to give honor
to his name? During one of the stations
of the cross in the Lenten season, one of the altar servers told me that it was
difficult hold the cross up during the entire 14 stations, but that he did not
want to have it rest on the ground. He
said he thought of the sacrifices that Christ made for us, and he felt inspired
by those sacrifices to endure the discomfort in holding up the cross for so
long. How are we helping Jesus hold up
his cross?
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