A Roadmap to being Witnesses

THURSDAY of the EASTER OCTAVE

April 16, 2020: Acts 3:11-26; Luke 24:35-48

You are witnesses of these things...says the Gospel today. We are witnesses of the great works that the Lord has done in and through us! Just imagine, how many decades we will be recounting the stories of these days - the days of crisis, quarantine, the lockdown and the closure of all institutions including the churches! As trues sons and daughters of God and the disciples of the Risen Lord, we are called to witness to something different! And the readings today give us three steps towards being such witnesses. It would do us good to reflect on these steps.

To see - The first reading reports the discourse of the apostles to the Jews gathered in Jerusalem after the cure of the crippled man. This is the first step: to see our history through the eyes of faith. They were able to interpret things from the past, the things of history from a new light - the light of faith. How prepared and capable are we to see things and interpret them the true light of faith?

To be Challenged - The second step is to be challenged by understanding history from the perspective of faith. It does not begin actually with interpreting for others, but primarily from within oneself - sincerely being critical with oneself. The apostles who deserted Jesus, hid themselves away and looked to escape into their past, were challenged by the Risen Lord as we see in the Gospel. And they accepted the challenge and managed to understand, relearn everything that happened, from the perspective of faith that Jesus opened up to them.

To Challenge - The call, thirdly, is to challenge the others towards a commitment of faith! What Peter does today is not to accuse the Jews of anything, but challenging them towards a personal experience of the Risen Christ. He was mindful of the weak person that he was, the act of cowardice that he fell in to in moments of crisis - but he has risen from those moments and now he is able challenge his own brothers and sisters. We need to become aware of our moments of weaknesses, grow out of them and never cease to challenge each other to perfection - only through that we can become true witnesses.

To see, to be challenged and to challenge - that is the road map to be true witnesses!