Word to the Wise
Thursday, April 30, 2015 - 4th Week of Easter - Thurs
[Acts 13:13-25 and John 13:16-20]"Fellow children of Israel and you others who are God fearing, listen. The God of this people Israel chose our ancestors and exalted the people during their sojourn in the land of Egypt..." [Acts]
APRIL 30 ST. PIUS V, o.p. (Thursday in the 4th Week of Easter)
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When a story of a group's origin and identity is told, it gradually becomes a kind of "narrative" that enters the consciousness of the group and sustains it in times of difficulty or attacks on the culture. We have a kind of secular version of this in the story of the "pilgrim fathers" in the origins of the U.S.A.. A similar narrative is at work in Paul's preaching in today's first scripture. He is speaking to an audience in a synagogue that includes not only Jews but people who believed in what Jews believed but did not accept other practices such as circumcision or kosher. They were called "God-fearers." His narrative is about the experience of the exodus and the development of the kingdom under David and the preaching of the prophets, all of which would have been familiar to the audience. He paints in very large strokes, as narratives often do. But then he introduces Jesus into that narrative! This would be the point of controversy!
When we are baptized, we become part of that narrative of the history of God and human creation! Over and over again since the time of Jesus, his followers have created and related the narrative which was put into writing in the Bible, but continues to be shaped in every age by those who tell the story. How do we tell it to our children or friends? What would we say to a "God-fearer" or a "Gentile?" [Cf. Paul's speech in Athens in Acts 17:22-34] How do we see ourselves as part of that great narrative? AMEN
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