Gospel: Mark 16:9-15

Saint Stanislaus, bishop and martyr (not celebrated this year). Stanislaw of Szczepanow (1030-1079), from 1072 bishop of Krakow, Poland, excommunicated the Polish king Boleslaw “the Bold” (in a conflict like that between King Henry II and Thomas a Becket in 1170). Boleslaw had Stanislaw murdered,in 1079. The cult of Saint Stanislaw the martyr began immediately upon his death.

1st Reading: Acts 4:13-21

Risking their lives, Peter and John speak out, declaring what they have seen and heard.

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and ordinary men, they were amazed and recognized them as companions of Jesus. When they saw the man who had been cured standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition. So they ordered them to leave the council while they discussed the matter with one another. They said, “What will we do with them? For it is obvious to all who live in Jerusalem that a notable sign has been done through them; we cannot deny it. But to keep it from spreading further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.” So they called them and ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge; for we cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard.” After threatening them again, they let them go, finding no way to punish them because of the people, for all of them praised God for what had happened.

Gospel: Mark 16:9-15

Mark’s summary version of some well-known resurrection encounters told in other Gospels.

Now after he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. She went out and told those who had been with him, while they were mourning and weeping. But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.

After this he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them. Later he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were sitting at the table; and he upbraided them for their lack of faith and stubbornness, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation.

Overcoming obstacles to faith

The Sanhedrin, Judaism’s supreme ruling body, found it impossible to consider that Jesus could be the Messiah, and that he had really risen from the dead. To believe in him would demand a major change in the whole furniture of their belief-system; nothing less than a total reinterpretation of their Scripture and cherished traditions. Yet these two Galilean fishermen, Peter and John, stood there, insisting that the crucified Jesus was alive again, and now present for everyone as a living force for healing and renewal. They made this claim on peril of their lives, heedless of the Sanhedrin’s prohibition (“ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.”) The message was too important to be repressed by any human authority.

One might say, his resurrection rolled away more stones than the one blocking his tomb; it also flung wide the doors to the future and gives us a glimpse of what lies beyond. The Sanhedrin, the disciples and we ourselves are asked to accept, in God’s most mysterious ways, that Jesus really is the Saviour, who throws light on all our lives and lets us reevaluate all that we previously thought we knew. Are we willing to allow the love of Jesus to cast its bright rays on our understanding, so that we shape our whole future in relation to him. If He has risen at the core of our existence, then our lives will be as transformed as were those of his disciples at the beginning.

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Believing the message

The disciples refuse to believe when Mary Magdalene comes to them and told them that she had seen the Lord. They refuse to believe again when two disciples who had been on their way into the country tell them that they had seen the Lord. Eventually the Lord himself appears to the disciples and reproaches them for their failure to believe those who had seen him. It seems that nobody, not even Jesus’ closest associates, was prepared to believe that he had risen from the dead unless they could see him for themselves. Only then was their incredulity and obstinacy overcome. We have no option but to believe that the Lord has risen on the basis of the reports of others. The Lord will not appear to us as he appeared to his original disciples. In John’s gospel Jesus declares blessed those who believe without having seen him in the way the original disciples saw him. That beatitude embraces all of us here today, all who believe without having seen. We believe on the basis of those who have seen the Lord, something the original disciples were very slow to do. The beatitude suggests that we who believe without having seen are no less privileged than those who believed on the basis of seeing the Lord for themselves. The beatitude seems to suggest that we are more blessed in some ways. We may not have seen the Lord, but we experience his presence in and through his word, the sacraments, especially the Eucharist and in and through each other. For all of this, we give thanks.