Mk 16:9-15
After Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary of Magdala, from whom he had driven out seven demons. She went and reported the news to his followers, who were now mourning and weeping. But when they heard that he lived, and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.
After this he showed himself in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. These men also went back and told the others, but they did not believe them.
Later Jesus showed himself to the Eleven while they were at table. He reproached them for their unbelief, and hardness of heart, in refusing to believe those who had seen him after he had risen.
Then he told them, “Go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News to all creation.
REFLECTION
One of the greatest demonstrations of how the Holy Spirit can affect a person’s behavior is shown in how Peter was transformed by the gift of the Spirit. Before he receives the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, he is a timid, fearful, faint-hearted man—a coward, in a word. He abandons Jesus at the garden of Gethsemane and betrays him three times shortly afterwards. Even after the crucifixion is a thing of the past, Peter and his companions stay huddled in the upper room with locked doors “for fear of the Jews,” John tells us (Jn 20:19). But when the Spirit invades Peter on the day of Pentecost, Peter becomes a changed man: from a coward he becomes a fearless witness to Jesus. With great daring after that, he addresses huge crowds and publicly blames them for the death of Jesus. Then he appears before the Sanhedrin (the land’s Supreme Court) and with perfect self-assurance refuses to bow to its injunction of silence, as we see in today’s first reading. Later on he presides the Council of Jerusalem with great authority.
The Holy Spirit can transform us too, if only we are willing to let him do so.
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