In the passage immediately preceding that of today’s first reading from the book of Acts, the apostles are working great miracles among the people where even Peter’s shadow falling on the sick was enough to heal them. This was causing huge alarm among the Jewish leadership who were trying, as we shall see in the readings until Friday, to thwart this new movement who functioned in the name of Jesus, whom they regarded as heretical. What’s more, these apostles kept claiming that he was risen from the dead, and the only way they were able to perform any of those miracles, was through the name of Jesus who was indeed alive, and who had conquered death.
We can imagine the uproar this was causing to those who had understood Judaism for such a long time as the definitive revelation of God. They weren’t open to the newness God was working in their midst, which wasn’t a newness that went against any predetermined morals which God himself had prescribed, but a newness which only enhanced that goodness and holiness on a whole new and higher level.
Perhaps the person who showed the most resistance to this new group of reformers, was Caiaphas, who was the high priest that oversaw the illicit ecclesial trial which led to Jesus being condemned to death. Caiphas was recognised by Rome, even if the Jews considered his father-in-law Annas still the high priest because in their understanding, it was an office held for life (almost like our sentiments on how long a Pope should remain in office for the same reasons).
Caiphas resurfaces here in the Book of Acts, and he is linked to the Sadducees who do not believe in a personal messiah, much less one who had embraced even the Romans, but rather in a “messianic age”. In this, they and the Pharisees were divided but also on numerous other matters, like life after death, the soul, the existence of heaven, and it seems like in all these the pharisees got it right. And they got it right because they were guided by the Holy Spirit, and as Jesus said, they sat on the seat of Moses. In other words, they had God’s authority to teach truth and so we see they were much closer to the truth than the Sadducees.
Another thing the Sadducees didn’t believe in, were angels. In today’s reading we see that during the night an angel of the Lord opened the gates for them and told them to go back and continue preaching in the Temple. The phrase ‘angel of the Lord’ appears four times in Acts: Stephen, during his address to the Sanhedrin, speaks of an angel speaking to Moses near Mount Sinai (7:30-38); an angel guides the deacon Philip to seek out the Ethiopian eunuch (8:26); an angel frees Peter from prison (12:7-10); and it is an angel who strikes down Herod when he accepts being addressed as a god (12:23).
As a bit of a sidenote, angels are everywhere around us, and we remember that the designation of “angel” only refers to their office and function, not to their nature. St. Augustine famously writes:
“The angels are spirits. When they are simply spirits, they are not angels, but when they are sent, they become angels; for “angel” is the name of a function, not of a nature. If you inquire about the nature of such beings, you find that they are spirits; if you ask what their office is, the answer is that they are angels. . . . Make a comparison with human affairs. The name of someone’s nature is “human being,” the name of his job is “soldier.” . . . Similarly some beings existed who were created by God as spirits, but he makes them angels by sending them to announce what he has ordered them” (Expositions of the Psalms 103:1:15).
So God sent his angel to free the apostles, which bewildered their captors but he also worked many miracles in their midst. This brings us to the mystery that is atheism where it seems to be on the rise, especially with our young people. Focusing on today’s readings,
we need to ask if it does not strike us as odd, mysterious, and saddening for example, that even after so many proofs of the divine hand of God at work with the apostles, that they were nevertheless persecuted by the authorities? Would not a reasonable person be able to deduce that it was the work of God? Miracles? Angels? We ask this because a person who refuses to believe will try to sometimes justify their non-belief by claiming they are waiting for God to give them what he knows they need in order to believe, but we know that it doesn’t work like that. God has already come to us. That part of the equation has been fulfilled. It’s the other part of the equation that is sometimes lacking: our response to that theophany… to his manifestation among us.
In today’s gospel, Jesus speaks about how God sent his Truth and Light into the world—his Son, who is “the truth, the way and the life,” but also, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, and yet his Son was rejected wasn’t he? Why? Jesus makes the very somber declaration that , “On these grounds is sentence pronounced: that though the light has come into the world men have shown they prefer darkness to the light because their deeds were evil.” In other words, what we needed (light, truth, meaning, direction, safety, life in abundance…) was offered, but rejected. If anyone says they’re still waiting to receive all these things from God, they’ve kinda missed the boat! For this reason too in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, when the former ends up in hell and asks to go warn his brothers about what truly exists, what does Jesus say, “He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” And that’s just it. For some people, no amount of “proof” will ever suffice. Just look at the myriads of miracles the authorities in the first reading witnessed. Even with the paralytic that was the first to be healed by Saints Peter and John, we are told explicitly that they knew it was a real miracle. And yet, two sentences later they’re out plotting the death of these two apostles as they plotted the death of Jesus himself, who only loved and wrought good among the people of his day.
So this is where we’re at with our brothers and sisters who don’t believe. They too are on a journey, because they too are loved by God. A lot of times, those who are estranged from God, and even those who say they don’t believe, remind us of the parable of the Prodigal Son.
Notice what happens there. And we all might have a relative or a child who’s trying to figure things out, and that’s okay, and even great, since it means they’re searching. What does the father (who represents God) in this parable do with his Son who basically tells him, “give me my share of the inheritance, you don’t exist.” He lets him go. The father lets him go. He allows him to journey as far as he needs to, over mountains and down through the valleys, if need be, so as to come to his senses. The father didn’t go out to his son in the middle of his troubles. He waited for the son to decide. To decide what? To head home to his father who always loved him. And this is the person for whom God does not exist in their hearts. Yet, make no mistake, the eternal Father is and was always there, respecting their every move, their every decision, their every choice. For in the end, God waits for us to love him freely, and never by force. And when a lot of us ask for a sign, or proof, sometimes it’s right before our eyes and we don’t know it, and even then God doesn’t just suddenly appear and say, “Look… look at that! Can’t you see that’s my doing?” No. He waits for his child to clue in and learn and make the leap of faith.
For example, this earth of ours, how could any reasoning mind believe it just brought itself into being, or is a byproduct of something else that brought itself into being? Of everything that exists materially, has anything ever brought itself into being? And if we know the universe had a beginning (we know this scientifically now), then does it not stand to reason that something greater than the universe, with a mind, with an intention, with a heart, necessarily had to bring it forth? Why do I say, “with a heart?” Because God, from the very definition of the word God, is “he whom nothing greater than which can exist” (Anselm).
In other words, he needs nothing. He was perfect, even before he created all things. In other words, he did not bring forth the universe out of need, but… out of love. And he has loved you, whoever you are that is listening, from the beginning of time. Yes, even before he brought forth the universe, for you were forever in his heart and in his mind, and (as we hear in the poetic language of the Psalms) he carved out your name on the palm of his hand. And when he looked forward to you being with him forever, he created Heaven, with you in mind. For heaven, to Almighty God, would never be the heaven he intended it to be, without you there. So, you do your very best to get there and work out your salvation in fear and trembling and remember always that, “God so loved the world, that he sent his only begotten Son…” for you, and for me. Praised be Jesus Christ.
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The end of this homily brought tears of joy! Thank you!