Overcoming the Obstacles to our Faith

Acts 4:13-21, Mk 16:9-15. The Sanhedrin, the ruling body of the Jews, absolutely denied that Jesus could be the Messiah, or that He had really risen from the dead. To believe this would turn their belief-system upside down. It would need nothing less than a total reinterpretation of their Scripture and traditions. Like Most institutions, they were fiercely opposed to change. Yet two Galilean fishermen, Peter and John, stood before the council in today's first reading insisting that the crucified Jesus was alive again and now present for everyone as a living force for healing and renewal. They made this claim on peril of their lives, heedless of the Sanhedrin’s prohibition who “ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.” However, Peter was so assertive to hold strongly that the message of the good news is so important to be repressed by any human authority: "You must judge whether in God’s eyes it is right to listen to you and not to God."

Just as the Sanhedrin was enjoined to accept the hope in the resurrection, we are challenged to accept the resurrection of Jesus and re-evaluate all that we previously thought we knew. Are we willing to allow the love of Jesus to cast its bright rays on our understanding, so that we shape our whole future in relation to Him. If He has risen at the core of our existence, then our lives will be as transformed as that of the disciples at the beginning. Easter is the season when we let ourselves be touched by the almost unbelievable good news that the Lord is alive and that we are destined to share in His risen life, not only beyond this earthly life but already, by the power of faith.

May the Lord help us to live as children of light and strengthen us to bear witness before the world to the resurrection of Christ and turn our sorrow into joy! Amen!! Good morning and happy weekend!!!

Revd Fr Samuel Frederick.