May 3, 2025; Acts 5-32,40b-41; Third Sunday of Easter
We believe in Jesus. We proclaim him as master and Lord. But how far does our commitment to Jesus go? How would we rank it with the other valid commitments in our lives? The apostles in today’s first reading answer this question for us. When the leaders in Jerusalem forbid them to preach the gospel, Peter says to them “We must obey God, rather than humans”. Peter was not denying the validity of the human leaders of his community. But he was telling them that, if their authority conflicted with God’s authority, it was God who must be followed. To put this another way, Peter is saying that our commitment to God must come first: before any person or human institution—before our commitment to our family, before our commitment to our friends, before our commitment to our country.
Now, fortunately for us, most of the time, what God expects from us matches what people and human institutions expect from us. We are to love our family, honor our friends, and serve our country. But when the demands placed upon us do not match the demands of God, today’s readings tell us that God must be obeyed.
When someone in our family betrays us, insults us, or ignores us, we are inclined to respond in kind. We want to respond with further insults and rejection. But we are followers of Jesus, who tells us that we must forgive rather than retaliate. Therefore, we are called to put his demands first. When our friends at school or in our neighborhood begin to ridicule or demean another person because of their race, nationality, or sexual orientation, we might be inclined to say nothing because we value our friends. But we know that God that has made every person with equal human dignity and that we are called to speak out in defense of those who are oppressed. So, we cannot remain silent. We all have our political opinions about what would be best for our country. And we have a right to those opinions. But when any political person, Democrat or Republican, calls us to ignore human life in the womb or begins to ridicule or demonize the immigrants who live among us, then, we must decide where our commitment lies. Do we follow God or humans.
It is not easy to negotiate our allegiance when commitments conflict with each other. But we are followers of Jesus, and we gather every week to share this meal in his memory. So, we should be what we claim to be. We must put God’s demands first.