Monday of the Second Week of Easter

And now, Lord, take note of their threats,

and enable your servants to speak your word
with all boldness, as you stretch forth your hand to heal,
and signs and wonders are done
through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

In this passage from the Acts of the Apostles, the disciples seem in the painful process of realizing that Jerusalem is not going to accept the risen Lord Jesus, any more than she welcomed him on Good Friday. The Good News of his resurrection is not penetrating the stone-hearted institutions and structures of the ancient city. Nor will it go easily for his disciples. They will suffer for the sake of the name.

And so they must pray for the “boldness” to speak the word. As Saint Augustine would observe centuries later, “It always takes courage to speak the truth.” This may be one of the most difficult facets of our faith. Even as we think the true, good, just and beautiful should come easily, they get more difficult.

Knowing, loving and serving Jesus – once you come around to it – makes eminent sense. He has immediate appeal to those who see with the eyes of faith. He is fascinating, beautiful and delightful. So why doesn’t everyone jump on Jesus’ bandwagon?

First, there is the mystery of sin. Despite all the potential and beauty and innate goodness of the human being we are hardened by sin and suspicious of anything that smacks of truth. We have a concupiscent preference for what appears to be the easier, wider, more-traveled road.

Recently I am changing a lifelong habit of putting off simple chores till tomorrow. “It’s easier to do it now!” I tell myself a dozen times a day. I find I get a lot accomplished, including writing this blog, wetmopping the dining room, and sewing buttons on my clergy shirts. And I have less time for what apparently took so much time before, online crossword and Sudoku puzzles.

But, I have to admit, I didn’t exactly decide to make this change now. Something clicked and I can only call it grace. If trying to use my time more efficiently, as my father and mother taught me fifty years ago, would have worked, I would have done it fifty years ago. But the hour had not yet come, nor had the grace.

The Christian disciples of Jesus must announce the good news of his resurrection and they must face the bitter resistance of ancient Jerusalem. They must discover their courage. It will rise up within them and it will be fierce, peaceful and irresistible. If Jerusalem had been ready to hear the good news of Jesus’ resurrection the disciples would not have needed such courage, and their word would not have gone out to the ends of the earth.

Like the pharaoh’s stubbornness and the treachery of Judas Iscariot, the world must present a stubborn resistance to our good news so that it will shine like a light in darkness.