Gospel for April 18 2021 – Luke 24:35-48
Gospel Reflections for April 18 2021
Jesus opens locked rooms…
Our Lord appears to His nervous disciples shortly after His resurrection.
They are understandably hiding in a locked room for fear of the same people who had just crucified Jesus. While they hear from two other disciples who had met Jesus earlier that He had risen from the dead, they certainly find it hard to believe …until He shows up!
Jesus recognizes that just His appearance will not be enough to convince them. After all, He might be just a ghost or their imagination.
He dispels all doubts by inviting them to actually touch His wounds …and even watch Him eat some food …and right in front of them! The risen Jesus shows He is real.
Then He announces what His life has been for, and it is not for them to just stare in wonder and awe at Himself, but to take that same message of love, compassion, courage, commitment, and forgiveness …outside to the whole world!
This Kingdom of God is meant for your lasting happiness here on earth and your eternal salvation in the life to come. Jesus sends them out of that locked room to publicly proclaim the Kingdom of God to the whole world …beginning from that now unlocked room!
However, there are still two kinds of Christians in the world today, those who remain silent and fearful in kind of locked room and those who proudly proclaim and authentically live their faith.
This week at St Bruno we confirmed 147 young people with that same mission from Our Lord. They are not to be ever silent about their faith, or ever allow themselves to be “canceled” by non-believers.
These are volatile times. Social media often greatly inflames passions about the pandemic, social issues, racism, immigration, and even marriage and gender issues. Every week there seems to be a new explosive issue in the news, just as happened in Our Lord’s time as well.
Many are often tempted to shut down and keep their thoughts to themselves in a kind of “locked room.” Not Our Lord’s plan for you!
Our Lord understands that fear, just as He understood the fear of His disciples in their own locked room. He tells them that He is the one who will provide all that they will ever need to stand firm and speak and live their faith confidently.
You can draw on the same compassion, courage, strength, and wisdom today that came to those disciples in Jerusalem. Now is your time to do so …now more than ever.
God Bless!
Fr. Dave
Yes, more than ever, we need to be courageous in the free expression of our faith & in our patriotism, & to do so with love & dignity.
We always speak our faith, we speak respectfully, but we always speak!
Beautifully expressed Father Dave!!! It is so very important to stand up for our Faith with intense love for the precious Faith and moral values and beliefs given to us and lived by our Jesus!! Life is a precious gift from our loving God!! Abortion is wrong!!! Marriage between a man and a woman so beautiful and the gift is the creation of life,l Freedom to live our Faith, Religious freedom, Law and order, Freedom of speech, and the Freedom to become the beautiful person God created us to be!! !! We must attack the issues with intense belief and dignity and not the person!!! Our loving God is on our side!!! for we loveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee His Precious Son!!! Loveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee it!!!
Loveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, Franca and Dick
This is an important time to take this Gospel to heart, and never feel we are locked in a room of silence about our faith.
Well said Fr. Dave… We are called as the Apostles to speak
Gods word ad not to be silent. I lost 3 friends this year and am excited that 2 were Baptized before going on their journey. The other had already met our Lord. It is so exciting that their life was fulfilled b4 death.
When moving into this place I am at, there was a lady who didn’t like me (can u imagine). Well I didn’t give up and kept acting like she was my best friend. It worked, she speaks to me now. Can’t look at rejection and let it get to you. We have to run to the roar and face it on. Now I have 3 Protestants who were Catholic here. Working on that now.
What a great story! You acted in precisely the right manner. Well done!