💖 HOMILY - APRIL 15 💖

First Reading - Acts 4:13-21

Gospel - Mark 16:9-15

It's said that Mother Teresa struggled in her faith for thirty years. That was the darkest night of the soul for her. However, she didn't remain in that juncture but grew stronger in her faith. The readings of today invite us to grow stronger in our faith.

The gospel gives a brief account of the appearance of the risen Jesus to his eleven disciples. The unbelief of the disciples in the witnesses of the resurrection sets incredulity of the nature of resurrection itself as it is beyond any ordinary human understanding. It's really a fact that resurrection finds a slow place in the hearts and minds of the disciples. The gospel mentions that the eleven heard the witnesses of the two preceding incidents where Jesus showed himself; firstly to Mary, and secondly to the two disciples to Emmaus. The witnesses of them meet incredulity of the disciples but the appearance of Jesus to the eleven dispels their unbelief and confirms them in their faith. Jesus also commissions them to make the good news known to all people. The disciples emerge from their unbelief to conviction of faith to impart it to others.

The first reading narrates the episode of gallant conviction of faith of Peter and John. The trial of Peter and John in the council of the leaders brings forth important facts about them; they were uneducated people and their miraculous sign of the healing of the lame man confounded the leaders. The leaders find no way to accuse them. Peter and John confidently face the interrogation of the leaders in the power of the Spirit. The leaders try their best to dissuade them to preach about the resurrection of Jesus lest other people would believe in Jesus but their efforts fail. Peter and John show great conviction in the resurrection of Jesus that even the leaders find difficult to stop them. This conviction in Peter and John comes from their encounter with the risen Christ whom they had seen, touched, and came to believe.

Dear friends, the invitation of the Easter is to grow in our faith to the level of conviction. We do experience dark side of our faith in our lives like the apostles before they really saw the risen Christ. The doubts, unbeliefs, disbeliefs, and scepticism etc. are phases of our spiritual journey. They infact strengthen us in our faith, provided we try to overcome them. The disciples overcame their sceptical attitude by encountering the risen Lord. Consequently, they grew in conviction of their faith. We do encounter the Lord everyday in our lives, we need to open our spiritual eyes to recognise him. He ventures everyday into our lives through daily events, people, the sacrament, daily reading of the Bible, and in the silence of heart. We need to encounter him and certainly we will also grow in our conviction of faith.

The conviction of faith that we receive must be shared with others. Jesus commissioned his followers to go out into the world with the message of the good news that 'he is risen', 'he is our saviour', 'There is salvation in his name only', 'We will also rise like him, if we believe in him' etc. The same message is to be proclaimed by us as well. This is indeed the task of every believer. We are the bearers of the good news. Let's carry it out by our words, deeds and life.

May God continue to help us grow in our faith.