Second Sunday of Easter: What is a faith that cannot survive a test?

April 23, 2017

“In this you rejoice, although now for a little while  you may have to suffer through various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that is perishable even though tested by fire, may prove to be for praise, glory, and honor  at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 1

A priest who was trying to begin mass spoke into the microphone but no sound came out of the speakers. He said, “There is something wrong with this microphone.” The people responded, “And also with you.”

We begin mass in the sign of the cross and then the priest says, “The Lord be with you.” It is the Lord’s presence that changes how we look at the fears in our lives. Do you remember how the story of salvation begins? It begins in scripture the same way it begins in us; who do we trust? Adam and Eve didn’t trust God, according to scripture, and decided that they would be better off deciding good and evil for themselves. That is the story of humanity. We tend to judge good and evil by what suits our purposes. It is difficult to trust that there is someone else at work in the world. This relationship between trust in God and distrust is at work in the stories told in scripture today.

Consider the contrast between the two communities described in the readings today. In the Gospel according to John, Jesus was crucified. It is now the third day and the disciples were too afraid to go outside. Jesus warned them that he would be crucified and would rise from the dead, but they did not trust him. They had all run on the night Jesus was arrested. Now they were in hiding. Jesus appeared to them, showed them his wounds and breathed on them as God breathed on the first human in Genesis. How things changed by the time of the story told in the Acts of the Apostles.

In Acts, the same group of disciples are gathered. They are at peace and they are doing what the Church still does:

They are devoted to the teaching of the apostles; and
They celebrate a common life; and
The break bread, that is, celebrate the Eucharist; and
They pray together.

It is not as if the danger had passed. Acts described the harassment and persecution the early Church suffered. Saul, later St. Paul, helped to stone St. Stephen to death within a few short paragraphs of this picture of the early Church at prayer. St. Peter and St. John were tried before the Sanhedrin. It is not all goodness and light. The description of the Early Church community is set amidst persecution and danger. The difference between the story the Gospel of John told and Acts, is that the disciples are no longer afraid.

The early Church had fears, but their fears did not run their lives and choices. You cannot separate the incredible growth of the early Church from the reality of the Resurrection. The experience of faith is not the absence of fear, pain and sorrow. It is the acceptance that fear, pain and sorrow do not have the final world. Faith does not protect us from wounds, it transforms them. Through faith and suffering we reach maturity.