April Fools for Christ

Foolishly believing in the resurrection

Acts of the Apostles 4:1-12

After the crippled man had been cured, while Peter and John were still speaking to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple guard, and the Sadducees confronted them, disturbed that they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. They laid hands on Peter and John and put them in custody until the next day, since it was already evening. But many of those who heard the word came to believe and the number of men grew to about five thousand.

          Boys and girls, today is April Fool’s Day and people try to play tricks on each other. Do you like it when people play tricks on you? No! Do you like to play tricks on other people? Yes! Let me tell you about some old April Fool’s tricks. Back in the 1700’s in England, people would say on April 1st: “You should go to the Tower of London to watch the washing of the lions.” Now, were they really washing lions there? Of course not. But foolish people would show up! Or in France in the 1800’s children would tape a paper fish on the backs of adults called “piosson d’Avril,” which in French means “the April fish.” Fish are easy to catch in April and so are fools. On April 1, 1975, an Australian T.V. station reported that the country would switch to the metric system. Therefore, seconds would be called “millidays” and minutes would be called “cenitdays” and hours would be called “decidays.” I would rather have a “Do-See-Do”! So, don’t believe everything you see and hear on April 1.

          In the first reading today, the Sadducees are angry at the apostles because they are teaching people that Jesus rose from the dead. Now, did the Sadducees believe that Jesus was alive? Not at all. For them, Jesus’ rising from the dead was the oldest April Fool’s trick in the world! But it wasn’t a trick. That’s why Jesus appeared to his apostles multiple times, to prove to them that his resurrection was not an April Fool’s trick; it really happened. You see, to the Sadducees it was a trick; to the apostles it was true.

          Boys and girls, April 1st is not the only day we can be fooled; and people play tricks on us all year long. We even play tricks on ourselves. Sometimes people think they will always stay young. One day, I was talking to a young altar server before Mass and I asked him, “How old do you think I am?” He said, “Maybe 50?” I said, “Thank you.” Then I asked him, “Do you think you will be 50 one day?” He quickly replied, “No way!” But it’s foolish to think we’ll stay young forever. We foolishly think teachers who are hard are no good. When I was in college I didn’t like one professor because he was so hard. But now I see I learned the most from him. I was foolish in college. Some people think it is foolish to come to church and to pray. They say, “God doesn’t hear our prayers and he never answers our prayers.” I think that is foolish to think that. In fact, St. Paul told the Corinthians, “We are fools for Christ” (1 Cor 4:10) because he knew that what we believe and what we do will seem foolish to other people.

          Boys and girls, today is April Fool’s Day and so don’t believe everything you see and hear today. Don’t let people trick you!  But some things you do NOT see and you do NOT hear you should believe, like Jesus’ resurrection. It’s good to be an April Fool for Christ.

          Praised be Jesus Christ!