…and here’s another one of the Easter fire…
Boring isn’t it? I guess you had to be there. … I feel the same about the first reading. If this is Monday then we must be in Philippi … or is it Troas? Without being there these snapshots from Acts lose their significance. Who cares where Lydia came from or how she cajoles Paul into coming home with her? I imagine it meant a lot to Luke who wanted to get the story straight but I couldn’t care less … I wasn’t there.
Being there and remembering are at the heart of the gospel today. The disciples will be witnesses because they have been with Jesus from the beginning. The enemies who persecute the disciples will do so because they have never been with Jesus, never known him. And when we have tasted all that Jesus had to taste we will have something to remember—we will have been there for ourselves.
There’s more to remembering than a few photos. We remember, we can give witness to, only what we have experienced. And every time we remember, the experience is alive in us once more. And when the experience of Jesus is alive in us we can’t help but be witnesses.
The key is in being there in the first place… in having the experience to remember … in knowing Jesus and being known by him. So, let’s pray for each other, then – on retreat or not – to grow in our experience of him. To have something to remember, someone to witness.