During our post-Pascha celebration, our weekly readings are taken mainly from the Acts of the Apostles, which provides us with the early history of the Church, and the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John is the most theological and mystical of the four Gospels.

Today we hear a passage from Acts that says “Through the hands of the apostles, many signs and wonders occurred among the people”. It seems that the apostles were able to cure many of the same illnesses that Jesus did.

This account in Acts tells us that the apostles were arrested because many of the leaders were “filled with jealousy”. They realized that the faith of the apostles was so very attractive and the good works they were able to perform so wondrous, that people were drawn to the Jesus movement.

We see that even when the apostles were rescued from prison, they did not hesitate to immediately go back to preaching and teaching. This testifies to their strong belief in the Person of Jesus.

St. John’s Gospel builds on this idea that a follower of Jesus must be strong in their belief and not doubt. In fact the story of Thomas the twin is all about how Jesus turned Thomas’ doubt into faith. The story ends with these very poignant words: “Blest are they who have not seen and have believed.”

What is striking about the theme in these two readings is the fact that they highlight the fact that one’s faith is not real if it depends upon “proof”.

While faith is offered to us as a gift from God, nevertheless we have to make an effort to accept this gift and to embrace it without proof. We have to make, as they say, an act of faith, putting all of our hope and trust in what we hear about this Jesus and what He taught.

Our faith in Jesus means that we truly believe that God Himself became “incarnate” – He became a human being – in order to help us discover not only who we are in His creation but also to learn how to more effectively live this present earthly life so that we might be able to experience the fullness of life – to experience God’s Kingdom here and now.

I truly believe that it is critical that we think in terms of God’s Kingdom here and now. His gift of faith has been given to us so that we might cooperate with His Spirit in bringing about His Kingdom here and now. The work of a follower of Jesus is not to work for a future Kingdom but, rather, to work to make God’s Kingdom real right now for himself and others.