Breaking the Word

5^th week in Easter Time, Monday – 8^th May 2023 – Acts 14,5-18; Jn 14,21-26

Remaining His Instrument

In the first reading, Paul and Barnabas meet all types of reactions as they make their journey through Asia Minor. They were rejected in Iconium and glorified and stoned in Lystra for healing a crippled man. After the healing, the Gentiles treated them like Greek gods, “Zeus and Hermes” who have come on earth. Paul and Barnabas point out that they are only instruments in the hand of the one, true God.  They have no desire to receive the honour due only to the living God. It is that God who deserves all the glory and praise. As a reaction, they immediately tear their clothes and deny any claim to deity. In fact, they tell boldly the townspeople that they worship a “vain thing.” Since Paul can’t turn their thinking by showing how Jesus of Nazareth fulfills the prophecies of the Messiah in the Jewish Scriptures, he talks to them about their beginnings, their Creator. He offers the people a relationship with the real God, Creator of the universe who loves them and wants a relationship with them.

God has chosen to work in and through us humans His divine message. It is truly remarkable that God empowers us to be ambassadors of the Good News to others. As we share the Good News, others may mistake the goodness and kindness which we extend to them as simply our gifts, rather it is truly a gift from God. They may try to give thanks to us. But we need to redirect the gratitude to the God to whom it is due.  As we reflect on how God can and does make us instruments of His Message, we need to focus all the attention and praise back to the one who sends us. We are not to be the center of others’ focus. We must point to the God who is in us and working through us.

4^th week in Easter Time, Saturday – 6^th May 2023 – Acts 13,44-52; Jn 14,7-14

Mature Follower

In the first reading, Paul and Barnabas continue their missionary journey into Asia Minor. As usual, after preaching in the Jewish synagogue, they are expelled by the Jews. The Jews refuse to see the truth of their own scriptures, revealing the saving works in the person of Jesus. The Gentiles rejoice in the message of the saving works of God. Their enthusiasm for the word of the Lord spread beyond the boundaries of the city. However, some of the Jews continued their harassments. They stirred up attacks on the two missionaries and eventually managed to drive them out. In response, following the teaching of the Gospel, they shook the dust of the city from their feet, as if to say nothing is redeemable in this town (Mt 10,14; Mk 6,11; Lk 9,5). In doing this, they showed the severance of responsibility and the repudiation of those who had rejected their message and had brought suffering to the servants of the Lord. Paul has a tender heart and expresses mature behaviour as follower of Jesus. Despite the dust he leaves behind in Pisidian Antioch (Acts 13,51), he is also heartbroken when the Jews reject their own Messiah (Rom 9,3). We accept that abuse and persecution are part of spreading the gospel (Jn 15,20). We walk away when God’s word is not heard (Mk 6,11). But we mourn those who refuse to hear (Lk 23,34).