Thomas Sunday; Our Venerable Father and Confessor Basil, Bishop of Parios.
Acts 5:12-20; John 20:19-31.
Read Acts 5:12-20
Healing of trauma can take time. Because trauma puts the body on high alert, restoring the nervous system to a regulated state involves restoring a sense of safety. There is no standard timeline for it; everyone is different. Healing restores us to the dignity of our willed action rather than leaving us reactive like a wounded, cornered animal. Connection is key to counteracting this isolation.
Peter and John were arrested in Solmon’s Portico for “proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.” (Acts 4: 3) They were released under threat to “not speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.” (Acts 4:18) Their response was that they must listen to God and speak what they had seen and heard. The Apostles had undergone formation in their discipleship with Jesus and were filled with The Holy Spirit for their ministry of proclamation. They prayed for boldness (Acts 4:29) and returned to Solomon’s Portico with the other Apostles. But “none of the rest dared join them,” even though the general population “held (the Apostles) in high honor” and were being “added to the Lord” in “multitudes.”
This was not long after Jesus’s crucifixion. Pentecost was only fifty days after Jesus’s resurrection and these events occurred soon after that. Yes, “the rest” of the believers believed in Jesus and the signs done through the Apostles. But they knew what had been done to Jesus, a traumatizing experience. Even the Apostles shut themselves behind closed doors out of fear. (John 20:19) We are “the rest.” Just because we have the hope of resurrection doesn’t mean we are impervious to physical pain and death. The answer to our prayers for “boldness” may take time but with prayer and healing connection with Jesus in the Eucharist, we’ll get there by the grace of God.