Homily on Wednesday, 2nd Week of Easter; 30 April 2025, DBPH Chapel, Talamban
Have you ever experienced being jailed in your life or detained by the civil authorities? Or have you at least visited someone behind bars. Luckily I have never experienced being jailed, but I have been inside the jail not only once but several times for confessions, for a Mass, for an outreach or for a short visit. And so, somehow I have an idea of how it feels to be locked up in prison. Grabe it’s really terrible!
I pity above all the young and the innocent ones falsely accused, arrested, detained and eventually convicted. We can only hope and pray that during this Jubilee Year of Hope they may experience for real the HOPE that never disappoints and may soon be granted the freedom they have been longing for.
The first reading today presents the Apostles being thrown into the public jail. Did they commit any crime? No! They were jailed for some good deeds they have done: they have preached Christ Risen from the dead, and in his mighty name they have healed a crippled man. They were imprisoned for they were so impassioned by the Good News.
What is amazing, however, is that in the middle of the night all of them were miraculously set free by an angel and were told to continue their ministry of preaching and healing among God’s people. So, early the next morning, to the great surprise of the Jewish authorities, they were found preaching again in the temple area surrounded by so many people.
What we sung in the Responsorial Psalm expresses perfectly this reality of our faith “The Lord hears the cry of the poor.” I believe that the apostles inside the jail could have immediately complained to God for what they suffered, but instead they chose to pray and to lift up everything to the Lord with confident hope. And so they were miraculously saved.
Moreover the passage we heard today from the Gospel according to John shows how the Lord has already foreseen and predicted what could happen to his disciples after his departure from this world. They who choose to believe in him and live in the light, will escape condemnation and will receive eternal life.
Maybe we can ask ourselves and reflect: do we have that same zeal of the Apostles in sharing the Gospel of Christ to others and in his mighty name are we willing to care for the sick and the infirm despite the inconveniences and unpleasant consequences? Are we so impassioned by Christ that we are ready to be imprisoned because of Him?
Jesus himself said in today’s Gospel “Whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.” May the Eucharist we celebrate today grant us that same power & passion of the Apostles so as to become courageous and consistent witnesses of the Risen Lord in our families, in our communities and to whomever we are sent. GiGsss!