Cancelled Yet Unsilenced

“Observing the boldness of Peter and John
and perceiving them to be uneducated, ordinary men,
the leaders, elders, and scribes were amazed,
and they recognized them as the companions of Jesus.
Then when they saw the man who had been cured standing there with them, they could say nothing in reply.”

Acts 4:13-14

After curing the crippled man at the gate of the Temple, Peter and John were arrested by the Jewish leaders. They were questioned and asked by what power or name did they perform this miracle. Peter answered them emphatically that the crippled man was healed by the name of “Jesus Christ the Nazorean whom you crucified.” The Jewish leaders were not amused, but they also saw the cured man before them. They were speechless, but instead of acknowledging the saving power of Christ, they instructed Peter and John to not teach in name of Jesus anymore. Peter and John said they could do no such thing because they must obey God and that they could not deny what they had seen and heard. So, the Jewish leaders “cancelled” them and tried to silence them, but they remained unsilenced.

In 33AD the Jewish leaders cancelled Jesus and all those who preached in His name, but their cancellation could not silence the Truth. In 2022AD, the world is still cancelling Jesus. But will we be silenced? To be Christian is to be countercultural because the culture of this world is a culture of death, a culture that strives to do away with objective truth. But as Christians we know that without the Truth, nothing else matters because without Truth, who is Christ, there is no life.

Brothers and sisters, if we are to live out the baptismal promises we renewed just a few days ago and to bear witness to the Truth, we will be cancelled. We will be cancelled because the world does not know Christ, and because they do not know Christ, they do not know the Truth. In being ignorant of the Truth, they search for freedom in every place and in every way, but they will never be satiated because only the Truth can set them free. Our world has confused freedom with bondage and Truth with pleasure. That is why we will be cancelled. But, we do not need to be silenced.

In the face of persecution, Peter and John refused to be silenced. Later on we come to know that the early Church too refused to be silenced even to the point of death. They were cancelled but they could not be silenced. And because of their persistence and fidelity to the Truth, we are here today. Brothers and sisters, we must not submit to being silenced. Jesus was silent as He suffered so that we who now share in His Resurrection no longer need to remain silent! We must go out and tell those who do not know Christ the great things He has done for us and how a relationship with Him has transformed our lives. We must not remain silent. This, however, is not a plea to shove our faith down anyone’s throat or to argue combatively with those who reject Christ. This is rather an invitation to speak loudly and to proclaim boldly the truth of Christ by the way we live, to show others with our lives the love of Christ.

Brothers and sisters, reason and science may change minds, but only faith and encounter can change hearts. Many souls will be lost because of this ignorance of the Truth as a result of this “cancel culture,” and so we must never remain silent. Souls are at stake, brothers and sisters. The enemy may try to cancel us, but He can never, ever silence us, because it is Christ who works and speaks through us. Let us offer up ourselves as that instrument of Christ today.

Reaction to Christ

“So the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter,

‘It is the Lord.’
When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord,
he tucked in his garment, for he was lightly clad,
and jumped into the sea.”

John 21:7

After Jesus had risen from the dead, He appeared numerous of times to His disciples. One of these appearances was on the shore where Jesus prepares a fire and breakfast. He asked the disciples who were out on the boat if they had caught anything — a sure flashback to when the Lord first called Peter. They said no and so Jesus instructed them to put the net on the right side of the boat. Surely after doing so, they caught many fish. At this John told Peter that “It is the Lord,” and Peter jumps into the water and swims eagerly and anticipatingly to the shore to meet His Lord.

Some of the disciples were still a bit taken aback but believed that the man standing before them was indeed the Risen Lord. They were quiet. Peter jumped and swam. What was the underlying factor contributing to this difference of reactions? There are many videos on the internet capturing the reaction of friends and family members who were surprised by a loved one who had been away from some time, mostly those in our armed forces and recently those who have been separated because of the pandemic. In all of those videos there are elements of shock, surprise, embrace, and an overwhelming of emotions. There is always one who has returned and one who stayed. Even in these videos we see a varying degree of reactions, some jumping onto the person, screaming, and crying, and others more subdued, standing in the background shocked and stunned. What was the difference? Perhaps the individual’s personality. Perhaps the level of intimacy of the relationship. Those closest and those with whom the one had shared the most gave the greater reaction. Peter walked with the Lord for three years, and He was the one given a special place among the Apostles, and the one who vowed to lay down his life for the Lord, but he was also the one who denied Him, not once, but three times. Perhaps it was this intense mixture of love, remorse, regret, and gratitude that made Peter jump into the water to swim to Jesus.

Brothers and sisters, what is our reaction to the Resurrected Christ? How deep is our relationship with Him? How would we respond if someone says to us, “It is the Lord?” How would you respond if I pointed to the tabernacle and say to you, “It is the Lord!” How would you respond if I pointed to the person next to you and say, “It is the Lord!” The Lord is risen and He is truly among us. Do we recognize Christ’s presence today? If so, how will we choose to respond?

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For an additional reflection on this Gospel, see my entry from last year focusing on the actions of Peter and the Lord’s call to him, “Going Back.”

Choosing to Believe

“Then he said to them, ‘Why are you troubled?
And why do questions arise in your hearts?
Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.
Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.’”

Luke 24:38-39

Have you ever heard or saw something and then question its authenticity or validity? Or maybe witnessed or experienced something that you did not think possible? Maybe a unexpected recovery from illness or a miraculous survival from an accident? Something that just caused you to take a step back, pause and ask, “What?” The Apostles were the same way when they saw their LORD who hung upon the Cross and was laid in the tomb stand before them, alive and speaking to them. They thought He was a ghost.

The disciples were “terrified and startled” we are told, but why? Why were they afraid to see the LORD? Maybe they did not know He was the LORD or maybe because their brains were not able to process how the LORD could be dead in the tomb and also alive before them at the same time. Or maybe because they have all abandoned Him as He was being arrested, and now they are afraid of what He might say to them. They were terrified because they had not yet understood the meaning of the “resurrection from the dead.” They were seeing the Lord with their brains and not with their hearts. In trying to reason out logically what and who was before them and how it was possible, the disciples failed to truly see who was before them. Just as the two disciples on the road to Emmaus ran back to Jerusalem after recognizing the LORD in the breaking of the bread, the disciples in the upper room needed to make that journey back to the Jerusalem in their hearts, back to the place of faith. And that is why the LORD came to them; so that they might not remained terrified but rather come to believe.

When the LORD comes to us brothers and sisters, let us not be afraid and think Him a ghost, but rather invite Him into our journey back to the place of faith in our hearts. Say to the LORD, “Bring me back to Jerusalem, Lord!” He comes not to scold us for our disbelief but rather to comfort us and console us and assure us of His never failing presence. He asks “Why are you troubled?” not because He is disappointed but because He wants to cast out those troubles within us. He asks “Why do questions arise in your hearts?” not because He is angry at our disbelief but because He wants to answer our questions and to fill our hearts with the peace and joy that will cast out all those things that cause fear to dwell within us. He comes to us so that we might choose to believe. Brothers and sisters, where are we in our journey to Jerusalem? Have we chosen to believe?