Sunday Meditation: Authority and Obedience vs. Truth

Recently, I was absolutely staggered by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re telling Archbishop Vigano that, “We must obey the Pope even if the Pope does not obey the Lord.” 

Really?

Feast of St. Stephen, the First Martyr

 Holy Mother Church, in her wisdom, doesn't let us spend too much time with Baby Jesus and the angels singing around the crib. The very next day after welcoming Jesus, she reminds us that the spiritual life is more than a precious smiling baby. She gives us St. Stephen, stoned to death for his fidelity to our crucified Lord. 

You can read all about him in Chapters 6 and 7 of Acts of the Apostles. 

After giving the Sanhedrin a history lesson about Moses, he accuses them with these words:

Morning Thoughts on Acts of the Apostles

I've been reading Acts of the Apostles most mornings since Easter and it's amazing how relevant it is to 

what's happening in our day. Paul's missionary journeys expose him to much of the same types of controversy boiling over here and now. People don't change. Envy, greed, and the other deadly sins operate today just as they did in Paul's time.

Consider Acts 19. Paul and his associates preach the gospel and the dissent from some elements is so vehement it causes riots! Sound familiar? 

Disinformation Board Censors Speech in First Century Jerusalem

Peter and John cure the cripple at the gate, by Nicholas Poussin 1655

If you want to correctly interpret the madness of our own time, you can often find similar situations in the Bible. That's exactly what I found yesterday morning when I was reading Chapter 4 of Acts of the Apostles. Really! The more things change the more they stay the same. The "banality of evil" marches to the same drum in every generation. Liars lie. Minions of Satan engage in strategizing to keep themselves in power and annihilate their competition. That's exactly what happened in the first century: truth debunked as "disinformation," unpopular speech censored and forbidden. The competition labeled as insurrectionists troublemakers who must be forced to shut up or face persecution.

Acts of the Apostles Reminds Us That God Always Brings Good from Evil

Martyrdom of St. James

I generally read Acts of the Apostles during the Easter Season. How that book impresses one with God's Providence. No matter what persecution falls on the heads of the apostles and disciples of Christ, good comes from it. 

• The persecution of the Christians in Jerusalem, particularly after the execution of James by Herod (about 15 years after the resurrection), sends Christian disciples all over the known world spreading the gospel. The blood of the martyrs is, indeed, the seedbed of the faith.

• As the early martyrs go singing to their deaths, the faith spreads not only among those already oriented toward faith, but to their persecutors converted by their amazing witness. 

• The destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. accelerates the exodus and sends believers out en masse to evangelize the known world. What looked like an unmitigated disaster becomes an important means of spreading the faith.

Are You and I Willing to Die for the Faith? St. Stephen, Pray for Us.

For some reason, I got it into my head this morning that today is the feast of St. Stephen. I must have been suffering a senior moment. (Is that a symptom of COVID 19)? I know it's not the feast of St. Stephen, so where did that come from? (His feast is actually December 26th.) 

Reading Acts of the Apostles for the Easter Season

Send me, Lord!

If I had to choose a favorite book in the Bible I think it would be Acts of the Apostles. What an adventure it relates about the early days of the Church.

When someone asks me about the Bible or comments on its difficulty, I always suggest they read Acts first. It's easy to understand and shows the zeal and commitment of the apostles after they receive the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. What an adventure story with Paul being shipwrecked and marooned, jailed and beaten. (Robinson Crusoe and the Count of Monte Cristo have nothing on Paul.) What models those early evangelizers offer us!

Called to be Witnesses to Christ: Are We Listening?

Rembrandt: The Stoning of St. Stephen

During the Easter season I like to read the Acts of the Apostles and the post Resurrection gospel passages. They are all about Christian witness, i.e., evangelization. Peter uses the word witness over and over after the Resurrection of Jesus. He tells the crowd on Pentecost Sunday about Christ saying, "This is the Jesus God has raised up, and we are his witnesses." (Acts 2:32) After curing the cripple at the Beautiful Gate of the temple Peter proclaims to the amazed crowd, "Why do you stare at us as if we had made this man walk by some power or holiness of our own? The God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his Servant Jesus....