Acts 5:17-26 / John 3:16-21
We like to see movies in which the good triumphs over evil. However a number of these movies are action movies that have violence in them and that may not be suitable for children.
However we enjoy comedies and we would have a good laugh when we see the bad guys being made a laughing stock.
The account from the 1st reading can be like a scene from a comedy. The high priest and the Sadducees were prompted by jealousy and they arrested the apostles and had them put into prison.
But that night, the angel of the Lord freed them from prison and told them to preach the Good News in the Temple.
Then in the morning the high priest and his supporters, without realizing anything, convened the Sanhedrin and asked for the prisoners to be taken out.
But surprise, surprise, the prisoners were not there and then news came that they were preaching in the Temple. The high priest and his supporters must have looked like fools and a laughing stock.
Yes the good will be vindicated and triumph over evil but it does not mean that we want to see the evil and bad people have a violent end.
Because the gospel tells us that God sent His Son into the world not to condemn the world but so that through Him the world might be saved.
Yes the good will have the last laugh at evil and we want to laugh with them too. But the good would also want the evil people to repent and turn back to God so that there would be more rejoicing in heaven. We must want that too.