Thursday of the Second Week of Easter
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April 23, 2020The one who is of earth is earthly, but the one from heaven is above all. When we think of this from the Gospel today, which one of these do we resemble? Heavenly or earthly? Obviously, immediately we can say earthly because we are of the earth and not from heaven, as the sentence explains.
The Gospel goes on to speak of how the gift of the Spirit has been given to us. In the first reading, the apostles disobey the government orders in order to spread the good news. They did not worry if they would be arrested, or killed or any harm, because they knew they were obligated to stand up for what God wants in life, and they knew that they were filled with the Holy Spirit.
We too are filled with the Holy Spirit, yet we often are not as bold as these Apostles and disciples. We often use the Ten Commandments as the guideline for examining our conscious, but we should use the teachings and events of Jesus and the situations of the first Christians in the New Testament as an examination of conscious.
Using these passages today, how often do we stand up to those who are against the truth? This would be our government with its laws of legal abortion, or redefining marriage, or gender identity that hurts children. How often do we stand up to people speaking against Jesus?
Or those who speak against the faith in our own company, which is often our family and friends?
The Apostles in this passage, and the early Christians were persecuted, often even to death, for standing up for Jesus and His teachings publicly.
When we do not stand up we must ask, am I allowing the gift of the Holy Spirit given to me to fill me and flow through me?
The Gospel says the Father has given everything to the Son, and the Son as St. Paul states in other passages, has come to us as the image of the invisible God and gives us everything.
When we do not stand up for the truth or against persecutions of the faith, then we are in a sense, not accepting the Holy Spirit to fill us. We are saying we do not want to be filled boldly enough to speak the truth in the world because of what we might have to face. Then we are living earthy not heavenly as the Gospel begins.
We must allow the Spirit to fill us so that we can live heavenly like the early disciples and early Christians. Living Heavenly here, even with persecutions or difficulties, or not being liked, will lead to living Heavenly for eternity, for ourselves and for others.
