Saturday of the Third Week in Easter 2024
Why did the Church grow in membership so rapidly in the last half of the first century? There must have been many reasons; we were largely an assembly of the poor and marginalized, and there were a lot of those people in the Roman Empire. News of the Judean prophet, Jesus of Nazareth, could spread rapidly because Jews had been dispersed all over the western world, and the Roman roads and shipping lanes allowed that to happen. But a big claim to the success had to do with what the apostles and other disciples were doing, as they were filled with the Spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit of God, and accepted their missions to preach, teach and sanctify. They had two things to “sell.” First, the Word of God, who is Jesus, is compelling and it lays out the Truth like no other philosophy or religion could do. They preached that Truth and encouraged others to do the same. Second, the charismatic gifts actually made a difference in the lives of those they encountered. Today we see two examples of just one of those gifts–healing, with the shut-in Aeneas, and the woman with two names–Tabitha and Dorcas. This was in two different towns. These healings became known and all the residents of Lydda and Sharon and Joppa had to make a decision about that. Many were baptized and came to faith in Christ.
Peter had learned a lot from Jesus. One of the lessons had to do with how to pray for healing, or, in the case of Dorcas, how to pray for a resuscitation of a dead woman. You may recall that, early in His ministry, Jesus was summoned to the home of the local synagogue president, Jairus, because his daughter was very ill. On the way, neighbors came to Jairus and told him not to bother Jesus, because the daughter had died. Jesus came anyway. There was a crowd around the house, and professional mourners. Jesus put them all out and had only Peter, James and John with Him as He prayed over the girl. She arose and Jesus ordered the family to give her something to eat. Peter learned from this miracle, and that gave him the privacy he needed for authentic prayer. There are faith-healers who need to learn the same in our day. We have an awesome God, but He tends to work in non-spectacular ways.
Today’s Gospel passage concludes the story of what Jesus did and said near the Sea of Galilee–multiplying the loaves and declaiming on Himself as the Bread of Life. Clearly many of His listeners–yes, even disciples–when hearing that unless they ate and drank of Himself they could not have eternal life, these disciples thought Jesus was preaching cannibalism. They left and followed Him no more. When Jesus asked the Twelve what they wanted to do, Peter gave us a response that true disciples of Jesus have used ever since: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; 69and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God." Let that be one of the principal themes for the rest of your life. Lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.
