Readings: Acts 4:13-21; Psalm 117(118):1,14-21; Mark 16:9-15 (You can find these in full on the Universalis website – Click here)
Homilies often begin with an illustration from everyday life. But today, let’s get straight to the point, which is what St Mark does in the gospel reading today. In typical succinct tone, he sums up the resurrection appearances of Jesus. He begins with Mary of Magdala and how her message was met with unbelief. After this, he speaks of two other disciples who were travelling to the country and who also did not believe. At last, he showed himself to the Eleven while they were at table. Jesus ticks them off for not believing the witness of those who had seen him, and then gave them the commissions to ‘Go out to the whole world; proclaim the good news to all creation.’
Our faith in the Risen Lord is not operated by some imaginary switch, like a light bulb which immediately brings light to a room. Rather, it is often gradual, like the rising of the sun at dawn, when one is not quite sure if we are in light or darkness, but we soon sense that the darkness is gradually giving way to the brightness of the sun. Doubt is part of the pilgrimage of faith, as we grapple with the reality of God.
It is like Jacob wrestling with the angel at the River Jabbok. Or like Peter stumbling his way from the fire of denial in the courtyard when Jesus is on trial to the sands of Galilee’s shore and the fire that the Rosen Lord had kindled for them to ‘Come and have breakfast.’ At the end of the gospel reading today, the disciples are sent out. We see them doing this in the reading from the Acts of the Apostles. Filled with post Pentecost fire and with a firm faith in the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead, Peter says, ‘We cannot promise to stop proclaiming what we have seen and heard.’ Peter and the others have been on quite a journey. It is a journey in which we share, and to which we can perhaps relate, as our faith grows and is enlightened like the rising of the sun at dawn.
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