SERMON/HOMILY FOR WEDNESDAY OF THE 2ND WEEK OF EASTER 10TH APRIL 2024

SERMON/HOMILY FOR WEDNESDAY OF THE 2ND WEEK OF EASTER 10TH APRIL 2024

Acts 5:17-26; Ps.34; John 3:16-21

The Word of God sets Free

In the first reading of today, the high priest and the Sadducees persecuted the apostles not merely for their connectivity with Jesus but also for continuing the mission of Jesus. These unrepentant authorities, plagued with guilty conscience, needed to continually convince themselves (and others) that they acted rightly by killing Jesus Christ. So, they never found comfortable anything, person or event that resonances the name and works of Jesus Christ. Darkness attempted to completely put off light so that left with no other choice, the world will embrace darkness as light.

So in the first reading, they put the apostles in prison for speaking and doing the works of Christ. Putting them in prison was to stop them. However, an angel of the Lord set them free in a remarkable way. They were led out of the prison while the prison remained securely locked with sentries standing at the doors. It therefore means that even the sentries did not know that they were guarding an empty prison. Notice that at the point of being set free, the angel of the Lord asked the apostles to go to the temple and preach the Words of life.

Beloved, the apostles were set free because they contained the Word of God. They were set free in order to go preach the Word of God. They were set free to teach us that nothing at all can cage the Word of God. In the gospel reading, we learn that the Word of God is light. Those who are ready to repent come to it and they get illuminated. But those who are obstinate in sinful living detest the light for fear of being exposed.

Till this day, the Word never loses its potency of setting hearts free. Sometimes, we are like the Jews who claimed to be free whereas we are held hostage. Some of us are held bound by mistakes of the past, some by a bad habit that has become an addiction. Some persons have developed cold feet towards virtues like honesty, chastity, trust, prayerfulness, etc, on account of ugly experiences of the past. Some are held bondage by unforgiveness or the fear to seek forgiveness from those they have gravely hurt. Some are stagnated by the wickedness and calumny of men. Some are held captive by an erroneous philosophy of life that lacks respect for core values.

Beloved, whatever be our bondage, the Word of God is our liberation. Thus, the psalmist tells us that when the lowly one called, the Lord heard him. We have been made low by weaknesses, mistakes and wickedness; let us call on the Lord in His Word and that Word will win us a liberation that is eternal life.