Word to the Wise
Monday, April 30, 2007 - Monday in the Fourth Week of Easter
[Acts 11:1-18 and John 10:1-10]As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them as it had upon us at the beginning, and I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, 'John baptized with water but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' If then God gave them the same gift he gave to us when we came to believe in the Lord Jesus Christk, who was I to be able to hinder God?"
Along with the conversion of St. Paul, the words quoted above are also a pivotal moment in the development of the Christian community. For St. Paul it came at Iconium when the Jewish community there created a riot against him. For St.Peter, it came at Joppa. The confrontation was somewhat inevitable. If non-Jews get interested in Christianity, do they have to become Jews as well as Christians? It's almost like our option-loving American culture! In Peter's case, there's the "when in Rome you do as the Romans do" question. He is accused of being hypocritical because he was not observing "kosher" with the Gentiles. His response is to tell of his vision in which he heard a voice from heaven which says, "What God has made clearn, you are not to call profane." But I think his best line is the question, "Who was I to be able to hinder God?" Perhaps we can all learn a lesson from that line. Who are we to say what God can do or not do? AMEN
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