Reading and meditation on the Word of God on Thursday of the second week of Easter, April 16th, 2026

Delivered by Nia from the Parish of Good Shepherd in the Diocese of Surabaya, Indonesia. Acts of the Apostles 5: 27-33; Rs psalm 34: 2.9.17-18.19-20; John 3: 31-36.SCHOOL OF OBEDIENCE Our meditation today has the theme: School ofObedience. One of the characteristics of the spirit of Easter is the school ofobedience. This school is very different from the various schools that we havearound us, such as schools for military, nurses, police, communicationengineering, administration and so forth. Our schools obviously produce a lotof graduates, but did they all graduate or they really qualify in the virtue ofobedience? This is a big question. We should be honest to admit the fact that theseschools do not provide specific lesson and training to make a student obedient. If so, it may be more appropriate and better for allschools to take the spirit of Easter to be the lesson and training forobedience. In the school of obedience, the content of the lesson is JesusChrist who completely obeyed His Father in order to fulfill the will of theFather, by offering Himself as a sacrifice for the salvation of all humanity.This is the main source for the learning curriculum on obedience to beimplemented by all His followers and all other people who in good will followthe will of God. Jesus emphasized that our basic learning in His schoolis to believe in the One who was sent by the Father and follow the path that Hewent through, namely carrying out the will of the Father. This must be a commonspirit for every follower of Christ. Every form of activity such as ourmission, responsibility, commitment, service, and collaboration must refer tothis school of obedience. The point is that we all commit ourselves to carryout the will of God. If God's will is faithfully followed, then its expectedoutcome would be the divine graces that benefit us. The school of obedience is shown in the today'sreading from the Acts of the Apostles. Peter and the other apostles wereexamined in the court then followed by the order from the Jewish leaders thatthey should be silenced. They were strictly forbidden to preach to the publicthe gospel of Jesus Christ. But because their education, learning and trainingon the virtue of obedience had been strongly rooted, they responded withconfidence: it is better for us to obey God than to any human being! They had undergonean educative journey with the Master Jesus that focused on the priority ofloyalty and obedience to God. By this means and strength, we are taught thatany sort of temptation or threat intending to lead us to disobey God must beresisted. Why is the Lord our priority in this school ofobedience? Because in Him and from Him all moral teachings, goodness, truth,beauty, glory, and holiness originate. He is the source of all wisdom andintelligence. So, if we consistently and faithfully choose to obey him, we willbecome His obedient sons and daughters in all aspects of this life and we willbe able to renew this world. Let'spray. In the name of the Father ... Almighty and most loving Lord, may ourobedience to You not go in vain and without fruits, but truly a reflection ofour commitment to live with the obedience of Your Son Jesus Christ, our Lord.Hail Mary, full of grace ... In the name of the Father ...