Saturday in the Octave of Easter

When Jesus had risen, early on the first day of the week,
he appeared first to Mary Magdalene,
out of whom he had driven seven demons.
She went and told his companions who were mourning and weeping.
When they heard that he was alive
and had been seen by her, they did not believe.

After this he appeared in another form
to two of them walking along on their way to the country.
They returned and told the others;
but they did not believe them either.

But later, as the Eleven were at table, he appeared to them
and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart
because they had not believed those
who saw him after he had been raised.
He said to them, “Go into the whole world
and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.” MK 16:9-15

We hear today Mark’s recap of the appearance of the resurrected Christ and we might be inclined to scan over it and move on.

But don’t. For if we just gloss over the reading we will be missing something very important.

For in the last appearance in the text when Jesus appeared to the eleven who were at table, he did not come to offer them peace or ask who they were looking for … as we have heard this week.

Instead he rebukes them for their hardness of heart in not believing the witnesses who had reported to them. If we are paying attention we might ask ourselves why.

Why would they be hard hearted and not believing? Why would these disciples who above all else had been privy to his talks, his preaching and his words to them alone from the crowds, perhaps over a fire at night or in the times they had for rest. Why would these men be so unbelieving?

Well, we might say, because they are human, humans doubt, we don’t always do what we know we should. We have other voices we might hear in our head causing us to question. Maybe they were so distraught they felt they couldn’t really believe in the news. We understand that. We have had our hopes raised in moments of grief or struggle only to find disappointment in reality. Don’t we experience this a lot in our world? Try to decipher news headlines today that read like a tabloid of yesterday, of a cure for cancer, or unbelievable events or people….only to find the article did not live up to its headline. Or government leaders promising a change only to find the same old same old….

Or someone we trust and love disappointing us when we least expect it. Humans are conditioned to be skeptical. And often rightfully so.

Or it might be the disciples did not understand why he would appear to others before them. Maybe they were envious or even feeling a little hurt in their pride.

We don’t know the real reason. We do know what happened next though.

Mark, who is being very brutally concise here, says the next thing Jesus says them is “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.”

We aren’t invited to hear any more of the conversation of what took place. Only that they were hard hearted, rebuked for it and then told to get up and get busy.

As we spend our last day in the Octave of Easter week, we face the rest of the Easter season and for that matter the rest of our lives with the task of being followers of Christ to the world too.

And we may find we have doubts. We may have fears. We may find we are skeptical or unwilling to just step up and get busy.

But that is what Jesus says to the disciples and to us to day.

Go and proclaim the Gospel!

Don’t allow doubts, fears, anxiety or pride get in the way. If they stop us from our work then who are we really following? Jesus Christ or the wrong voice in our head?

In terms more direct and clear than ever Jesus has confronted doubt and fear and stubbornness and told us in no uncertain terms what to do with it.

What will we do?

It is still the Easter season. We are still celebrating the risen Lord. Maybe it is a good time to examine how our lives proclaim the Gospel. Do we live according to his Word? Do we display a love for God and others so strong it permeates how we live and work and act and share?

Who have we told in our family or friends about Jesus Christ? Do we share the scriptures on a regular basis? Do we display the importance of Mass and prayer in our home?

Who has found Christ by watching how we live?

Does our love for others supersede our fears and hardness?

We leave the Octave of Easter with one message today. “Go into the whole world
and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.”