What Are We to Do?

What Are We to Do?

Saturday in the Octave of Easter

Observing the boldness of Peter and John and perceiving them to be uneducated, ordinary men, the leaders, elders, and scribes were amazed, and they recognized them as the companions of Jesus. Then when they saw the man who had been cured standing there with them, they could say nothing in reply. So they ordered them to leave the Sanhedrin, and conferred with one another, saying, “What are we to do with these men?” Acts 4:13-16A

But later, as the Eleven were at table, he appeared to them and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart because they had not believed those who saw him after he had been raised. He said to them, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.”  Mark 16:14-15

Piety

O Come Holy Spirit of God, Holy Spirit of Love, Holy Spirit of Compassion, of Sympathy, Empathy, and of Tenderness.  Give us hope. Oh, loving God, steady us!  Reassure us!  Say to us what you have always said: “Be Not Afraid!” (From “Spiritually! Let’s Hang on to Each Other,” by Rev. Michael Doyle, Sacred Heart Parish, Camden, NJ, March/April 2020).

You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shade of the Almighty, Say to the LORD, “My refuge and fortress, my God in whom I trust.”  He will rescue you from the fowler’s snare, from the destroying plague, He will shelter you with his pinions, and under his wings, you may take refuge; his faithfulness is a protecting shield. You shall not fear the terror of the night nor the arrow that flies by day, Nor the pestilence that roams in darkness, nor the plague that ravages at noon.  (Psalm 91: 1-6)

Study

Do you remember getting scolded by your mother or your teachers when growing up?  Even those who might be 60- or 70-years old reading this probably do. Crank up the embarrassment you felt at that experience to imagine what it must have felt like to get scolded by the Lord himself!

That is what is happening in today’s Gospel. Indeed, the result is the Great Commissioning to go into the world and proclaim the Gospel through piety, study, and action.  But, before we get to that point, Jesus has to practically shame his best friends for their behavior on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and beyond. They were denying him and abandoning him on the cross and not even sticking around to bury his body and then locking themselves in the upper room for fear that the Pharisees and Romans were coming for them next.

A curious thing about the Lectionary during the Easter season is how the First Reading (always out of Acts of the Apostles) tells the story in reverse order of time.  The “first reading” actually occurs AFTER the Gospel that we read next.  Today, we first hear of the “boldness” of Peter and John. That is precisely the kind of followers Jesus wanted to leave that upper room and preach, and heal, and teach, and minister to those who needed help.

Action

In this Easter season, we share the experience of being locked in our “upper room,” even if it is not by choice.  We may not fear the Romans or the Pharisees, but instead, we fear a microscopic virus that could be coming after us.

Imagine the experience of poverty in today’s society.  We live next to people who can not shop at the same stores where we shop. We live next to people who can not buy tickets to the same concerts and sporting events where we go.  We live near people who cannot buy the same kinds of cars or houses that we buy.   

They are “quarantined” from us not by disease but by poverty. Even the so-called “stimulus” payments are not getting through to the poor because they don’t have bank accounts on file with the IRS as we do with our direct deposit tax refunds.

Someday, maybe next month or next fall or next year, when there are vaccines and sufficient testing, we will emerge from our “confinement” and go back out into the world. But the poor will remain confined. 

An Epistle from (future) Saint Michael of Camden arrived in my mailbox this week.  The Rev. Michael Doyle is pastor of Sacred Heart Parish.  His monthly letters remind me that there have always been people isolated by violence, poverty, and other social, economic, and cultural afflictions. He wrote:

• Any bit of softness in our lives is trampled and overrun. No tender touch in life. No lift of laughter now. Terrible – Statistics are worsening every day, mauling our peace. Nothing is smooth and flowing.  All seems shattered and overwhelmed.

• Come to Holy Spirit into our unsettled minds and hearts and help us to pray.  Give us the courage to hang on, to pray for our sisters and brothers, to help others, to pray for the children. Knowing of the “destroying plague” frightens me and you and many others, so I searched the Book of Psalms for words that would give you and me a lift of hope.  I found for us Psalm 91, and this is a piece of it that will soothe our souls.

We need those words of God's Protection Policy (aka Psalm 91) now.  But we also will still need them when we emerge from our upper room and reach out in Gospel love to those who remain quarantined and isolated by poverty, illness, and violence.

What are we to do now and later when the stone of quarantine rolls away?  Spiritually, let’s hang on to each other.