Be BOLD

Very often it is good to be quiet: simply being open to God and drinking in his peace in the midst of a loud and chaotic world.

Very often it is good to be meek: to walk humbly with our God through a world drowning in selfishness.

But sometimes it is not good for us – as Christians and as members of God’s holy Church – to be meek and quiet.

Sometimes we must be bold.

In today's first reading (Acts 4:23-31), the members of the early Church are scarcely meek or quiet.

As they prayed,
the place where they were gathered shook,
and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

Not all of us are, nor should we all be, mighty apostles and evangelists (the body is one and has many members), but too many of us - especially Catholics - limit the explicit practice of our faith to slipping off stealthily to a weekend Mass and then doing little more than mumble responses in the pew (and sometimes not even that).

This Easter season can be the opportunity for us to embrace anew what it means to be a Christian, to appreciate more fully the real meaning of Christ's victory over death, to open ourselves more to what we celebrate in every Mass, and to go forth into the world with the power of the Spirit.

This Easter, we can be bold.