Today, the scriptures focus our attention on charges: not the kind of charges that we might make on a credit card, but the charges that might be levelled against someone in court. Throughout the first days when the Apostles were going out to spread the good news of the gospel, life was not easy for them. Their adventures are recounted in the Acts of the Apostles. We have been reading through these adventures all through the Easter season. Today, we find Paul - who himself was once a Roman soldier, but who had experienced a conversion - in prison in Caesarea. The chief priests and the elders of the Jews had brought charges against him while he was in Jerusalem and demanded that he be put to death (cf Acts 25: 15) but since the Romans were in charge, they had to follow Roman law, which did not permit for someone to be put to death without a fair trial. They stood around him but they could not charge him with any crime that would merit him being put to death (cf Acts 25: 16, 18).
These accusers were uncomfortable with Paul because when he spoke about Jesus, people listened to him. When he spoke about Jesus being put to death, people understood what he was saying, but when he spoke about Jesus being alive again (cf Acts 25: 19), the chief priests and the elders had trouble believing. They could not fathom the possibility that someone could rise from the dead, yet this is the ultimate triumph that is proclaimed by all those who are followers of Jesus ... including us.
No amount of human reasoning can make sense of the resurrection. This is an act of faith, a decision that each one of us must make: to believe that there is a God who loves us, a God who loves us so much that he came to live among us, a God who loves us so much that he willingly accepted a torturous death so that he could show us the way to heaven. When the apostles were witnessing these things, they were filled with fear - I think we all would have - even to the point that Peter denied knowing Jesus at all, so that he himself would not run the risk of being condemned to hang. Jesus knew this about Peter, and yet he forgave him because Peter never truly stopped loving Jesus (cf Jn 21: 15-17).
The charges that were brought against Paul were the same charges that were brought before Peter, and they are the same charges that are brought before each one of us: Do you love me? Jesus asks this question in order to test us and if we admit the truth, if we accept the charge of loving Jesus, then he sends us forth to feed his people with the special food of our love, our compassion, our faith and our commitment ... these are the gifts that have been entrusted to us so that we can share the joy of being charged with loving Jesus.
Have a great day.
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