Jesus is here

A Reflection on the First Reading for April 28, 2019:
​2nd Sunday of Easter:  Divine Mercy
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Acts 5:12-16
Many signs and wonders were done among the people through the Apostles. And the believers were all together in Solomon’s Portico. None of the rest dared to join them, but the people held them in high esteem.

Yet more than ever believers were added to the Lord, great numbers of both men and women, so that they even carried out the sick into the streets, and laid them on cots and mats, in order that Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he came by.

A great number of people would also gather from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all cured.  
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“Many signs and wonders were done among the people through the Apostles.”

Such was the power of Jesus…. such was the power of His resurrection.

The passage said that, more than ever, many believers were added to the community of the apostles. Many more would have joined but they were still afraid of the authorities. They however counted as believers and they held the Apostles “in high esteem”.

Jesus was with the Apostles, in Spirit, as they built the first Christian communities — as they spread the Word.  The miracles of healing that they did were proof of their identity with Jesus.  Peter was especially respected.
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These miracles still happen today.  Maybe the healing of the sick is not as evident as it was during the time of Jesus and the Apostles, but the same signs and wonders are still being experienced today.  There have been so many who have shared about their encounters with Jesus, with God and with the Holy Spirit.  So many have shared about their Alpha experience at my parish —  about how God touched their hearts through the Holy Spirit.  Jesus is here.  When we open our hearts to Him, he will enter and be with us and hold our hands, especially during our difficult times.

​"What a wonderful feeling it was knowing that Jesus had my back."

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During the Easter Vigil service we had at the parish last weekend, I was assigned to read the Epistle during the mass — after the seven readings of our salvation history.  As I was preparing to go to church, I felt a bit dizzy and I had the beginnings of a migraine.  I immediately thought that this would be an obstacle to my doing a service to glorify God.  I asked my husband to pray over me and I went to church still a bit woozy.  I usually take a pill and sleep it off.  There was no chance for that this time. I hadn’t had a migraine in a long time, so I had no pills available.  I prayed hard to Jesus and laid my migraine at His feet.  When I get a migraine, I usually have a difficult time reading, and that too I asked Jesus to help me with. 

​I was to be the last in a long line of readers.  Lo and behold, when the readings started the migraine slowly went away.  By the time I read, with my concentration on the reading and the determination to serve God no matter what, the migraine went away.  What a wonderful feeling it was knowing that Jesus had my back.  I always believed, and now do so more than ever, that our prayers will be answered especially if we are doing a service for Him.  He will defeat the evil one who tries to stop us from glorifying God.  Glory and praise to Him, Alleluia!

Liz Venezuela

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