God Will Prevail

God Will Prevail

April 10, 2013

Wednesday in the Second Week of Easter

By Colleen O'Sullivan

The high priest rose up and all his companions, that is, the party of the Sadducees, and, filled with jealousy, laid hands upon the Apostles and put them in the public jail.  But during the night, the angel of the Lord opened the doors of the prison, led them out, and said, “Go and take your place in the temple area, and tell the people everything about this life.”  (Acts 5:17-20)

God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.  For God did not send his only Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him…  And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil.  For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed.  But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.  (John 3:16-17, 19-21)

Piety

May my heart truly be filled with joyful alleluias this Easter season, O Lord.

Study

How quickly we forget that we are still celebrating Easter!   Easter is a season lasting 50 days, until Pentecost, but once the Easter egg hunts are behind us and everything cleaned up from our Easter dinners, for many of us it’s back to business as usual.  The joy evaporates and is replaced by our daily worries and concerns.  All the saber-rattling going on in North Korea has everyone on edge.  In my neighborhood, I’m hoping the police soon catch the Springfield fondler, because I’d like to feel safe enough to go out for a walk.  Maybe in your home, you wish the fighting and squabbling would stop and that peace would reign in your family.

The Easter message is that God will prevail over all these things; in fact, over anything we may be anxious or concerned about.  The Resurrection message is that God is more powerful than any of our fears, our very worst sins, even death itself.   

In the first reading, the Apostles have been thrown into jail.  They’ve performed too many miracles in Christ’s name and witnessed one too many times to their faith in him.  The Jewish authorities are going to put a stop to all this dangerous Christian nonsense once and for all.  But, they’re the ones who get a surprise.  Even a jail can’t contain the Word of God.  Locks and guards are no match for God.  When the high priest wakes up the next day, the prison is empty and the Word of God is echoing in the temple area.  The Word will not be silenced, not by prison bars, not even by death.  In the modern world Maximilian Kolbe, Edith Stein, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Oscar Romero, and the Jesuit martyrs of El Salvador are just a few of the faithful who have given up their lives rather than deny the Word or turn their backs on their faith.

In the Gospel reading, we see Nicodemus, a member of the Sanhedrin, irresistibly drawn to Jesus under cover of darkness, as a moth is drawn to the light.  The fact is that Jesus is the Light of the World.  The Easter message is that nothing you or I could ever do, nothing that may ever happen to us, no evil perpetrated in the world will ever extinguish the Light. Darkness will never triumph.

Action

God looks to us as Easter people to help keep God’s Word resounding and the Light of Christ aglow in our world.  What one thing can you do this week to keep the Easter Alleluias ringing?