Acts 4:13-21 / Mark 16:9-15
Waking up in the morning can be like fighting magnetic forces.
The bed is like a big magnet pulling us in and not letting go of us.
More so if we didn’t sleep well and are running under the weather.
So, we will want to give ourselves just 5 or 10 more minutes, and then we oversleep.
The alarm might just go on and on, but somehow we don’t seem to hear a thing.
In a sense, the disciples in the gospel were like in a morning wake-up call.
For whatever reason, they just don’t want to wake up to the reality that Jesus has risen.
Witnesses might say all they want about having encountered the Risen Lord, but still it would be more comfortable and even safer to shut their ears and sleep on.
In the end, Jesus had to show Himself and this time the disciples had to wake up.
They were reproached for refusing to believe those who had seen the Risen Lord Jesus.
But when the disciples finally woke up, then it was time to get moving and working.
We see that in the 1st reading when Peter and John were interrogated by the rulers, elders and scribes.
And when those in power wanted Peter and John to stop proclaiming Jesus, Peter and John retorted:
You must judge whether in God’s eyes it is right to listen to you and not to God.
So the next time we hear the alarm going off, God is calling out to us to get up.
Yes, let us rise from our slumber and go forth to do what God wants of us.