Friday of the Second Week of Easter
April 21, 2023
Daily Reading from the USCCB: Acts 5:34-42
Gamaliel, one of the wisest members of the Sanhedrin, now offers a way out of the impasse in which the Jewish leaders found themselves. “Let’s just do nothing,” he says, “and maybe this whole situation will go away. We have faced things like this before and they all disappeared. If this new movement is from God, God will see to it that it survives.” So they don’t execute the apostles. They just have them flogged and sent away.
But Gamaliel’s solution really isn’t the answer. He urges passivity in the face of what the apostles are preaching. Yet Jesus is not asking for passivity. He wants acceptance. He wants to be recognized as Messiah.
Jesus wants full commitment from us, too. Nothing else is enough.
