It's the first day of May! The weather is warming up; and I’m thinking of a story about two nuns in a supermarket on a warm day. One said, “Wouldn’t a cool beer be a delight?” The second replied, “Yes, but I wouldn't feel comfortable buying it, as the cashier may recognize us.” The other nun replied, “Don't worry, let me handle this,” and she picked up a six-pack.
The cashier smiled as the nuns approached. “We use the beer for washing our hair,” the nun explained. The cashier put a bag of pretzels with the beer, smiling as he said, “The curlers are on the house.” The moral: you can’t fool all the people all the time. Enough of that.
The word of God takes us back to our first century. The Sanhedrin, the Jewish supreme court, wants the apostles to stop proclaiming the good news. But Peter and the other disciples boldly state that their allegiance is to God alone. God, Peter declares, exalted the crucified Jesus. He is risen, alive and among us. And then Peter concludes, focus your lives on God and the things of God. The author of Acts challenges us to do the same.
The book of Revelation describes a visionary, mystical, heavenly experience in which countless creatures cry out that Jesus, the Lamb slain for us, is worthy of power and riches, wisdom and honor, glory and blessing. The author may be asking us, do we know that through the Lamb slain, once again we have a relationship with God and he alone is worthy of our worship. And that’s an incredible gift: to have a relationship with God.
The Gospel highlights a post-resurrection appearance of Jesus on the shore of the sea of Galilee. Jesus tells the disciples, who had been fishing all night and caught nothing, to cast their nets again. Lo and behold, they make a huge catch. John suddenly recognizes the Lord. So does Peter, who recently had denied he knew Jesus but then wept bitterly and begged forgiveness.
Last Sunday we met Thomas the questioner, the doubter. This Sunday we meet Peter, the spontaneous or impulsive disciple. Who was he? Peter, aka Simon, appears to have had a good fishing business on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee. He was uneducated but street-smart, married, left the business to become a disciple of Jesus, became the leader or rock among the disciples, denied he knew Jesus, then witnessed His resurrection, shouted from the rooftops that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah, worked signs and wonders, evangelized throughout the eastern Mediterranean, and eventually was martyred in Rome. Two New Testament letters are attributed to Peter.
Though Peter often appears impetuous, he always was ready to admit a mistake, to make amends. In the end, Peter became someone you could trust, a man of character. Within each of us, there is a tension to choose our better or our worse self. Catholic Christianity calls this “original sin” or “the fall from grace.”
Now many try to explain why people behave the way they do. Lawrence Kohlberg, e.g., a distinguished psychologist and educator, described human moral development in three “quantum leap” levels. And this is only one of many descriptions.
Simply put, the first level is self-centered, what’s good for me: “I’ll be good, and they will reward me,” or “If I’m not good, they’ll punish me.”
The second level is group-centered: “I’ll be loyal to the group, e.g,, family, peers, society.”
The third level, principle or integrity centered: “I will follow my principles no matter what,” or, “I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t try to do the right thing.” This level is staying true to our inner best selves.
Put another way, an informed conscience ought to be our moral compass. So what is conscience? It is closely associated with our feelings—we sometimes feel guilty about things we do or don’t do— but conscience is more. It is an almost instinctive judgment about the goodness or badness of our behavior and attitudes. Our conscience is a friendly guide in our quest to be true to our inner best selves.
Leo Tolstoy, the Russian novelist/philosopher, noted there are only two important questions in life: what shall we do and how shall we live? The apostle Peter would answer the 2nd, “strive to be men and women of moral character.”
Now there’s a difference between personality and character. Our personality on the surface puts us in a category: cheerful, moody, and so on. Character, by contrast, defines who we are at the core of our inmost selves.
Character, by definition, is either good or bad. It manifests itself in choices each of us must make about the fundamental values or virtues by which we live.
Men and women of character strive to be true to their best selves. A person of moral character will choose the dignity of the person over impersonal business or material advantage, a respect for human beings over the lust for pleasure, power, or personal success. A person of character is willing to “go the extra mile” to do what's best.
A person of character will speak up for what is right, defend what is fair, take a stand on principle and conscience—even if it is to their disadvantage. They will try to choose what is true and good and right in all decisions, small and great.
Today, the word of God may be calling us to be men and women of character: like Peter, who, although he failed at times, always picked himself up and started afresh to try doing the right thing.
I like to think that the quality of our life and our soul’s destiny will be measured by our character: going the extra mile to help someone in need; living up to our promises; working for the common good; trusting always in a good and compassionate and forgiving God who is ever near to us and who will bring us into eternal life.
