Sin is an offense against God. It takes us away from receiving graces from God. As we journey in the Easter tide, God keeps revealing Himself to those around (disciples) and not to all. He showed himself to those who believe in him, to those who are witnesses. He did not show himself to those who killed him because he had nothing to proof to them. But he showed himself to those who actually needed to be enlightened by his words. Now we need to understand that there are people who we do not need to convince or impress. These people take no joy in your successes but in your failures. These set of people can be found in the different sectors of our lives as Christians. They are destiny killers and they do everything to change your narrative from good to bad. For this kind of people no explanation will suffice and no conviction is enough. They sleep in their ignorance and stubbornness of heart. Jesus did not go about appearing to the Jews, Pilate, chief priests and the scribes to prove that he is God. But for some of us that will be the approach. But he went to those who are already his own. Now he has risen as he promised, he is not a ghost, he is the same Jesus that was killed. We can now feel and touch him, he can now eat with and like us. Indeed he has risen. This is the foretaste of the resurrection on the last day, when St. Paul says we shall all rise with our glorified bodies. This joy of the resurrection was what made Peter to preach to the people in the first reading of today.
He preached with all full boldness and conviction. So this shows the work that Jesus has actually come to do. The work to enlighten those who he has enlisted so that they will be strong and perfect Christians. So as a result of this experience, Peter was bold enough to preach the gospel to those around and to point out their sins before them. Do we have Christians who have accepted the gospel of the resurrection? Do we have Christians that called themselves believers? Believers do not fear, believers proclaim what they believe. Now it becomes an irony because believers now hide in their houses and talk in their pockets. We now have believers who cannot speak the truth. We have believers in Aso Rock and around Aso Rock. Still our country is what it is. Nobody want to bear the cart, nobody wants his singular voice to be heard. For Peter to convert three thousand persons at a goal on the day of Pentecost means he was not afraid. Now we have believers that cannot convert those sitting next to them not to talk of their next door neighbors and still we call ourselves believers.
What do we actually believe in? Not the resurrection I guess. Sin is that barrier that prevents us from seeing the glory and greatness of God. So when sin comes into the life of a believer, he becomes timid and fearful. Sin makes you a slave to your bodily weakness. So we see that in the readings of today the act of repenting from our sins is focal. The evangelist says, if anyone should sin, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, who is just; he is the sacrifice that takes our sins away, and not only ours but the world’s. It is only sin that can make a believer look like a pagan. It is only sin that can make a Christian to be silent when there is evil looming. You cannot drink wine with a sinner and still stand up to correct him. We loose our identity of the resurrection when we keep silent to the truth of the resurrection. Christ has risen let us make him to be known in the whole world through our witnessing.