Today on the Saturday of the octave of Easter, in our first reading and in our Gospel, we continue to hear the members of the early Church preach the Gospel message and give testimony and we hear about the post resurrection appearances of Jesus. Both of these readings emphasize the importance of our faith in Jesus and how we have the responsibility to bear witness to that faith. Even when there is great opposition to us bearing witness to the Gospel message, we still bear responsibility to testify to his resurrection and his teachings. These readings also stress the importance of the authority of God over the authority of man. Peter and John disobey the order they have from the Jewish authorities to bear witness to Christ, asserting their obligation to obey God. These readings reflect the theme at the end of Matthew’s Gospel, of our mission to preach the Gospel message to the whole world and to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Today, we also celebrate the feast day of Our Lady of Good Counsel, a wonderful story about Mary that takes place in Genazzano, Italy, where the Augustine friars had a monastery and where they ministered in the parish church of Our Lady of Good Counsel. As the Augustinian brothers were renovating the church in 1467, a marble figure of Mary was removed. At that site, there miraculously appeared an image of Mary and the child Jesus. That image took on the title of the parish church, Our Lady of the Good Counsel. According to an old tradition, that same icon was venerated in Albania under the name Our Lady of the Albanians. It is said that this image disappeared from a church as Albania after it was being invaded by infidels. Legend says that it was miraculously relocated by divine intervention to the church in Italy. This church became the site of pilgrimage. Pope John XXIII was a pilgrim to the shrine there on the eve of the Second Vatican Council. Pope John Paul II visited it before going to Albania to re-establish the hierarchy there following the collapse of communism. Mary is known under the title of Mother of Good Counsel for the good advice she gave, especially at the wedding of Cana. Mary is blessed for not only being the Mother of our Lord, but also for being his first disciple. May we unite our prayers with Mary’s prayers today.
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