EASTER OCTAVE 2022
Saturday, April 23: Acts 4:13-21; Mark 16:9-15
"They recognised them as companions of Jesus", says a verse (13) in the first reading today. From the things that happened around them, from the words that the disciples were proclaiming and from the life that they were living, the people, the world, 'recognised them as companions of Jesus.'
Mark summarises the week after Easter in the passage that we read today in the Gospel. Again, the crux is - to speak of, to announce, to proclaim Christ, whom they have experienced. Mary of Magdala 'went and told his companions'; the two of them 'returned and told'... Finally the Lord gives us the command: Go! Proclaim!
The two fold call that we have today is, firstly, to identify ourselves as companions of Jesus, to know that we are walking everyday with the Lord, that we are not alone on our life's journey and that all that happens in our daily experience has a tremendous impact on ourselves and others - not because of us, but because of the one who walks with us, the One whose companions we are.
Secondly, the call is to 'proclaim'...to begin with, through our mindsets, attitudes and lifestyle and then explicitly through our words and speech. These words need to soon convert themselves into works, works not understood as big mighty deeds of valour and strength, but a committed life style that reaches out, or in Pope Francis' terms "goes out"!
But the crux of it all is the statement that the apostles make at the Sanhedrin, "it is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard"! There was an inner urge and compulsion for them to speak out, reach out and go out!
The question to us is: have we seen and heard, that is, experienced Jesus personally? Is it a compelling need for us to speak of Jesus to others? Are we really filled with the zeal to stand for Christ and speak of Christ today? Do we feel ourselves companions of the One who came in the name of the Lord?