Tuesday of Fifth Week of Easter
Our first reading today sounds familiar; nearly the same passage was read this past Sunday. There must be something there worth repeating! It’s a very historical reading. Paul travelled here, did this, and then he went there, met with these people, etc. But between the itinerary, we read that Paul was thrown out of the city and stoned, but got up as the disciples gathered around him, and went right back into the city! This is a person without fear! Paul goes on to tell the disciples that “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God.” This is what strikes me in the first reading. Paul and the disciples are not delivered from hardships and persecutions, but they are freed from the power that such coercive acts have over normal people.
In the second reading, Jesus promises Peace. But not as the world gives peace. What is the difference between the peace of Christ and the peace the world gives? Perhaps worldly peace is a calm and restful day free from conflict. It is a fragile peace. Christ’s peace is a deeper and sturdier. It is not the absence of conflict, but the freedom to speak love and truth to all people, no matter what their reaction might be. We Christians are freed from the power of peer pressure and persecution by our ability to endure many hardships. The result is a peace, rooted in Christ’s love and providence, which is unshakable. It is more powerful than anything this world can threaten us with.
This is the great power of the stories of Christian suffering throughout the world, today and in the past. Martyrs and saints teach us this: to find in our suffering the ability to endure hardships for the good of the Kingdom. When we walk next to Jesus in our trials, we have the opportunity to die and rise with Him as well.
May we find in our sufferings another pathway to Christ’s Love and Christ’s Peace. Amen!
- Chris Nieport