Homily: Thursday - 2nd Week of Easter 2016 - "We must obey God rather than men"

Since Easter Monday we’ve heard day after day in the Acts of the Apostles about the apostles’ unflagging determination to spread the good news of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Yet, very early on in their preaching mission, Peter and the Apostles’ began to face the same hostility Jesus faced in his ministry.  Yesterday, we heard how the Sanhedrin and the high priest had the apostles imprisoned for their evangelical activity, but God sent an angel to free the Apostles from prison and told them to continue to preach about the new life available in Jesus Christ. Upon being freed from prison, they went right back into the marketplace to begin preaching again.

Today, we heard how they were brought back before the high priest and Sanhedrin and threatened, but we heard the Apostles boldly say: “We must obey God rather than men.”  And they resumed their preaching.

We are all called to the same courageous conviction of the apostles: preaching the truth without compromise. “We must obey God rather than men.” When the earthly powers seek to silence the message of the Gospel, we must preach it all the more fervently.

In America, the Gospel message is under attack by the earthly powers.  We see the message of life silenced.  Parents are beginning to be penalized for opting their children out of the secular state’s indoctrination programs. The Church’s teaching on sexual morality and marriage is labeled as bigoted, intolerant, hate-speech.  And, unfortunately, we see many Catholics buying into the secular agenda. Many Catholics claim that the Church’s 2000-year-old message is wrong, and that we must change our teaching to fit the secular philosophy. 

Jesus explains the consequences for abandoning his teaching; we read today: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him.” Woe to us, if we preach anything other than His Gospel.

We must not be afraid to engage our fallen away Catholic family members. It is not sinful or judgmental to teach Christian morality, or to correct those who are in error—it is an act of love to help someone in error to return to the truth.

In order for us to be like Peter, Paul, and the apostles, we must be courageous and competent. Sometimes we don’t pass on the faith as effectively, because we really don’t understand the faith as well as we should.  Study the faith, study not just what the Church teaches, but why she teaches us: read the catechism, listen to solid lectures on the faith, discuss the finer points of Church teaching with each other. So many of us know that the Church’s message leads to moral and spiritual freedom, but we lack the confidence in spreading that message. 

Don’t be afraid. Study the faith, pass on the faith, for it is the message that leads to eternal life, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.