Read a reflection on today’s reading, Acts of the Apostles 4:13-21, below.
St Peter and St John are called before the Sanhedrin to answer the charge, by whose authority do they preach and teach. However, Peter replies that surely it is right to listen to God and how can they stop proclaiming what we have seen and heard. They are warned not to continue to make statements or to teach in the name of Jesus
The Sanhedrin recognise that St Peter and St John have publicly performed a miracle in Jesus’s name and do not deny this but there is a fear that this whole thing may spread among the people.
Jesus has previously revealed himself as “the way, the truth, and the life” and that the “truth (Jesus) willset us free”. The Sanhedrin do not deny this miracle performed in Jesus’s name, yet they still seek refuge in comforting lies rather than recognising the uncomfortable truth, that they have been wrong. They prefer to live their lives in the shadow of deceit and falsehood rather than in the light of Jesus, the way, truth and life.
The question that arises is why? That answer is found deep within ourselves, because there can be in our own life choices, an attraction to comforting lies anda distancing from uncomfortable truths. And yet Jesus comes to set us free from our sinful deceptions,inviting us into a real infinite freedom found in him and his kingdom’s beliefs. These are so inherently different from our world’s finite beliefs that canoffer us nothing more than earthly and so, temporary relief and not the eternal life promised by the Risen Lord.
“It is not hard to obey when we love the one whom we obey.” –St Ignatius of Loyola
“You cannot be half a saint; you must be a whole saint or no saint at all.“ –St Therese of Lisieux
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