The Easter Community: United to the Lord

WORD 2day: Wednesday, Second week in Eastertide

April 10, 2024 - Acts 5: 17-26; John 3: 16-21

Presenting to us the characteristic marks of the community born out of the Resurrection experience, the Word spoke to us of a community that is united in love. It is not because they are better persons than those that do not form part of this community, but because they have found their new identity in a very special focal point - the Risen Lord. Today the Word insists on this mark, defining the Easter community as that which is united to the Lord and thus in union with each other. 

The apostles are arrested for teaching and preaching about Christ. They are miraculously liberated, only to go back to the people and announce the Risen Lord, once again. They would have been certain that they will be arrested again, but that does not impede them from carrying out the task entrusted to them - to announce and testify to the Risen Lord. They were so united to the Lord that nothing mattered to them more than what the Lord wanted of them. 

No amount of threats and punishments, no measure of harships and persecutions, no extremes of oppression or abandonment, could stop them from speaking out and proclaiming the Risen Lord, because they were a community who "looked towards him and were radiant!" The Angel of the Lord was encamped around them; they had tasted the Lord and nothing could separate them from the Lord. They had to proclaim and bear witness to the Lord!

An easter community is that which is united to the Lord in its core, that nothing else matters other than proclaiming the Lord in word and deed, in life and death, in joy or in pain. The light has come into the world - the sentence is already pronounced: we stay with the Light or not, we choose the Light or not, we are united with the Light or not - it is our choice to decide to be united to the Lord.