5/5/2014 - Monday of third week of Easter – Acts 6:8-15

        Easter does not take place just on Easter Sunday, but it is celebrated for an entire season.  So, we are in the midst of the Easter season, and today we celebrate Monday of the third week of Easter.  We have been hearing about the establishment of the Early Church in the first readings during the daily masses, about how the disciples served as missionaries to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ throughout the world.  Today, we hear Stephen preaching the Good News, but rather than receiving a warm reception from the crowds and from the authorities of his day, he is met with resistance and fear.  We know how this reading is going to end in just a couple of chapters further along in the Acts of the Apostles, as we know Stephen as the first martyr of Jesus’ disciples in the Early Church.  The reading of Stephen and the story of his martyrdom may seem odd to us in the spirit of the joy of the resurrection that we celebrate during the Easter season.  However, in many ways, we see events in this part of Stephen’s life mirroring the events that occurred in the life of Jesus as he made his way to his death on the cross.  Although we celebrate the joy of the resurrected Lord, we know that the cross is always part of the story. As we think of Stephen today, to the crosses he bore while proclaiming the Gospel of Christ to the world, we think of the crosses so many in our community are bearing as they try to recover from the destruction of the tornado.  Some of those crosses are removing fallen trees and repairing torn-up roofs and destroyed houses.  However, other crosses lie in the trauma that we bear.  Easter joy does rests in the faith that we profess and the presence of the risen Christ in our midst.   Even in the midst of what we are going through, there is a sense of Easter joy.