We Must Obey God

We hear the story of the Apostles being questioned by the Sanhedrin for preaching that Jesus was the Messiah. The Apostles had been arrested by the Jewish authorities for teaching about Jesus and healing the sick. However, during the night, an angel had opened the doors and instructed them to continue to tell the people about Jesus. The next morning, when the Jewish authorities sent for the Apostles, they were dumbfounded to explain their absence until someone reported they were teaching by the temple.

Absent from the reading today is the passage regarding the anger of the authorities and their desire to put the Apostles to death. It was Gamaliel, the teacher of the law, (the person who taught Saul) who convinced the Jewish authorities that if this movement was from God, they would not be able to stop them. The authorities had the Apostles flogged and gave them a stern warning to stop preaching about Jesus, but we hear they did not stop, rather taught all day long. There are times when we simply must obey God and ignore the authority of men!

What courage these Apostles had! They were filled with the Holy Spirit and could not stop speaking about Jesus. This same Holy Spirit fills us and inspires us to speak of Jesus. Oh, if only we could find the courage to imitate the Apostles in this way!

Today we celebrate our second graders receiving their First Holy Communion. They will be filled with the grace of this blessed sacrament. I had the opportunity to sit with them at their religious education class and listen to their dedicated teachers, Angel and Ben Gebeau, teach them the Bread of Life Discourse from John’s Gospel. I was able to speak with them briefly, reminding them the reading already have the passage Trinity at their baptism, but soon they would become to put, taking put the It was them. How beautiful, how special, that we are allowed to receive Jesus in this way! We know it’s never been easy to be a follower of Jesus, not in the early The authorities the Church, and certainly not today. had the pray for these young people, that they may always stay close to Jesus and have the courage to obey God, rather than men.