<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are witnesses to these things\u201d.\u00a0 Those were Peter\u2019s words to the Sanhedrin.\u00a0 Indeed, we heard in the Easter Gospel that the Apostles were to go forth to all nations and be witnesses, even to the ends of the earth.\u00a0 And this command is passed on to all of us who were baptized as well.\u00a0 So we are called to be witnesses as well; but what does that mean, to be a witness?<\/p>\n
Some people think it means that one testifies as a witness, meaning that when called to tell the truth, one describes the truth of what happened.\u00a0 But is that what Peter was doing in the reading?\u00a0 On the surface, yes indeed, that is what Peter did.\u00a0 He kept telling the truth of what happened.\u00a0 And it made the Sanhedrin angry, because they had ordered the Apostles \u201cnot to talk about that man\u201d.\u00a0 But being a Christian witness means more than that.\u00a0 It means going forward and evangelizing.\u00a0 You see, that\u2019s really what the Apostles were doing.\u00a0 They weren\u2019t just defying the Sanhedrin by talking about Jesus when they were asked about Jesus.\u00a0 No, they were out and about telling the Jesus story with conviction every day, everywhere, to anyone they could find.\u00a0 And what was so convincing is that they were all in it together and they lived the message they preached.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what it means to be a true Christian Witness- it means being an evangelizer.<\/p>\n
Now our witnessing of our commitment to Christ is done by word and deed.\u00a0 We can talk about it, as Peter and the Apostles did.\u00a0 And while it is good to send people out to talk about our faith to others, that is incomplete witnessing.\u00a0 Because we also need to live out the word, as the Apostles did.\u00a0 These men didn\u2019t just keep it to themselves in their believing community, but they moved out and witnessed their behavior far and wide, living the message they were spreading by loving one another.\u00a0 That\u2019s why their message appealed; because they believed; because they lived the message as a community; and because they exuded a sense of joy and happiness despite their earthly trials.\u00a0 That made other folks take notice and seek out \u201cthe way\u201d.<\/p>\n
We are called upon to do the same.\u00a0 The life that we live with our families and community gives witness.\u00a0 It gives witness to our belief and values.\u00a0 In the Gospel we hear: \u201cThe one who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of earthly things. \u00a0\u00a0But the one who comes from heaven (is above all)\u201d.\u00a0 Every day of our lives, we \u201cspeak\u201d by what we do, not just by what we say.\u00a0 For as St. Francis said- \u201cPreach the Gospel, use words if you have to\u201d.<\/p>\n
So, what kind of a Christian witness are you?\u00a0 Is your witness to earthly things?\u00a0 Or are you above all that?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thursday of the Second Week of Easter Acts 5: 27-33; John 3: 31-36 Dc. Larry Brockman \u201cWe are witnesses to these things\u201d.\u00a0 Those were Peter\u2019s words to the Sanhedrin.\u00a0 Indeed, we heard in the Easter Gospel that the Apostles were to go forth to all nations and be witnesses, even to the ends of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[209],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=329"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":331,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329\/revisions\/331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}