Acts

"Jesus spoke to us of death, the night He faced His own--the night they took Him before Pilate. It was our last supper together. After we had risen from the table, He washed our feet. And then He spoke. He told us that in His Father's house there are many mansions, that He went to prepare a place for us there. That, "Where I am," He said, "there you may be also." Our friends are in our Father's house. Some day we'll walk that same road, and at its end we'll find them, and find our Master, and His everlasting love."
--Peter (Demetrius and the Gladiators)

No book in the bible is more prominent during the Easter season than Acts of the Apostles. The first reading, which during most of the Church year is sourced from the Old Testament, is comprised exclusively of excerpts from Acts during the seven weeks of Easter.

Acts is unlike any other book in scripture. It is not a gospel or a letter. Instead, Luke, the author of Acts, describes how the apostles, after the Ascension, set out to do God's work and build the Lord's Church.

What is striking about this description is how changed the apostles were. When Jesus was alive, and during the early days following His death and resurrection, this group could hardly get out of its own way. Awkward, confused, afraid. This hardly seemed like an all star cast of church builders.

Acts testifies to the apostles' transformation--how they got to it.

No longer confused, the twelve set out on focused on the mission that Christ had prepared them for. They acted confidently while understanding the enormity of their task. As noted in today's reading (Acts 14:21-27), Paul and Barnabas told people that, "It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God."

The apostles faithfully endured that hardship--many of them to the death.

And so it can be for us. The Easter season demonstrates how a fumbling, weak, sinful people can dramatically change course and endure all hardship thrown their way for the love of God.