As we draw close to the conclusion of Saint Paul’s third missionary journey, we see how we’re also almost at the end of the Book of Acts. A lot is happening in such a short space of time and so we are naturally going to focus on some of the more important points, while at the same time reflecting briefly on the Gospel and some lessons we can learn from the life of Saint Margaret of Cortona, a wonderful Franciscan saint. You might also do well to have a read through the last eight chapters of Acts to get a proper context of what is happening.
We will have to fill in a lot of background however, to situate ourselves better within today’s beautiful reading. Yesterday we saw Paul and his companions bidding farewell to a very grateful Ephesian community. They end up heading back to Palestine and on the way visited briefly with the communities established in Cos, Rhodes and Patara (map beneath). They then bypassed Cyprus and arrived at Tyre in Phoenicia where the brothers held on to him for a week and begged him not to go back to Jerusalem as they knew his life was being sought there, but Paul wouldn’t change his mind. After another emotional parting on the beach, they headed southwards, first to Ptolemais, and there greeted the community. Then it was off to Caesarea where, once again, Paul stayed in the house of Philip, the deacon, now called “the evangelist”, noted for his great evangelization in Samaria and his baptizing the Ethiopian eunuch. While here a man with the gift of prophecy prepares Paul for the suffering which lays ahead. Again they all begged him not to go on, but he replied:
“…I am ready not only to be bound but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”
This was accepted as God’s will, and they let him go.
The Church in Jerusalem, led by James, was overjoyed at all that the Lord had been doing through Paul and his companions. They were also apparently still contending with those converts who wanted to enforce the mosaic law on new converts to Christianity. Here we move closer to the happenings recalled in today’s passage.
The local Jews and Christians were well aware of Paul’s discourses on how the mosaic law is superseded by the Law of Christ and somehow couldn’t come to terms with this but were also misrepresenting Paul as saying therefore that the Ten Commandments were no longer necessary. So to help these people, still weak in their faith, he was advised to cover the customary payment for the sacrifices offered at the termination of the Nazirite vow (see Numbers 6:1-24) on behalf of four of the brothers of the Jerusalem community, which would attest to Paul’s continued reverence for the mosaic law, especially since he himself had once made such a vow (when he was leaving Corinth, Acts 18:18), and this would have been publicly known. Paul agreed with this suggestion and did as he was asked.
This is when some of his Jewish opponents in Ephesus now in Jerusalem spotted him and rushed into the Temple to seize and harm him in their misdirected zeal. We then read that had it not been for the Roman commander, Paul would have been beyond rescuing, and so, by arresting him and putting him in chains he placed him out of the reach of those wanting to harm him.
It was only after the arrest that the commander realised the Greek-speaking Paul was not an Egyptian rebel. It was only then that he was given permission to address a large crowd of assembled Jews, and for the second time in the book of Acts, he conveys to his hearers his conversion story on the road to Damascus. He is on record as witnessing through his conversion story one last time in chapter 26. Paul then revealed to the centurion that he was a Roman citizen and that, unlike the garrison commander who had bought his citizenship, he had been born one. He said this because the crowd wanted to kill him. This created great alarm among his captors and he was released.
A meeting of the Sanhedrin was arranged by the Commander so that Paul would have a chance to explain himself. While the Sanhedrin was mostly made up of Sadducees, it also had Pharisee members. This council was the ruling body of the Jews. Its court and decisions were respected by the Roman authorities. Roman approval was needed, however, in cases of capital punishment (as happened in the case of Jesus). Paul’s being brought before the Sanhedrin was already foretold by Jesus to his disciples (see Matt 10:17-18). Paul, in time, will appear before “councils, governors and kings”.
Declaring he had a clean conscience, Paul was ordered struck on the mouth by Ananias the high priest, reminiscent of how the Master was struck before him. Paul strikes back – but, verbally:
"…God will strike you, you whitewashed wall" Acts 23:2.
Perhaps Paul was given a glimpse into Ananias’ fate, as Josephus, the Jewish historian, tells us that he was actually assassinated in AD 66 at the beginning of the First Jewish Revolt. When Paul is accused of reviling the high priest, he said he did not realise Ananias was the high priest and apologised. This, along with some other insights, has led scholars to speculate that Paul struggled with his vision.
This is where our reading today begins. Paul strategizes by declaring loudly and proudly that he is a pharisee, knowing it will garner him support from the pharisee Sanhedrin members.
Addressing his words specially to the Pharisees, he said:
“I am on trial concerning the hope of the resurrection of the dead.”
Now of course, Paul connected that normally to Christ, but here is just baiting the pharisees knowing that the Sadducees, unlike them, deny the existence of the afterlife, or the resurrection, and that’s “sad, you see?” Sorry, I had to. The Sadducees only believed in the Pentateuch as divinely inspired… the first five books of the bible. Doctrines such as angels (Tobit) and the resurrection (2 Maccabees) became part of Jewish teaching at a much later date. Paul and the Pharisees were in agreement on all these doctrines, and all of a sudden they exonerate Paul of any maleficence:
“We find nothing wrong with this man.” And, in a deliberate provocation to the Sadducees went on to ask: “What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?”
They may have heard of Paul’s mystical experiences, which would have been ludicrous to the Sadducees but not so much to them.
A brawl so serious ensued that Paul, caught in the middle of it all, would have been torn to pieces had the commander not saved him.
That night, Paul was visited by our Lord who stood right by him, and was assured that he would be protected in Jerusalem because he would go on to give witness to the Gospel in Rome. We have to always appreciate how much our Lord desired that his eternal-life-bearing word would reach the masses, and the egregious nature of its rejection, which our Lord clearly stated incurred damnation. We too must be like Paul—be ready at any moment for persecution, while not going out of our way to invite personal attack or persecution, something which we must not try to evade thereby compromising the truth of our faith.
In this way the Lord also worked in the heart of Saint Margaret of Cortona, a 13th-century Italian who was orphaned at the age of seven. Later on in life, she lived with a man to whom she bore a son out of wedlock. After the brutal murder of her companion, Margaret was moved to begin a life of penance. She moved with her son to Cortona. She became interested in the then newly formed Franciscan movement and eventually Margaret joined Francis' evangelical life for the laity as a secular Franciscan. Known for vigorous self-denial, Margaret nursed the sick, inspired others to conversion and founded a congregation of nuns.
What the life of this saint teaches us is that it is never too late for the Holy Spirit to perform miracles in the life of a broken and sinful individual so as to bring them, and many with them, to a better place of healthy union with God and others. It means hearing the good news preached, and then making it our own. This was Saint Paul’s constant wish when preaching the message, even if it meant turning the world upside down and suffering the repercussions for it. As our Lord loved, and received hatred in return, so too his disciples would be called to love. In today’s gospel, once again we come across Jesus’ plea with his apostles that they live in authentic love for one another, and that this would be the greatest instrument in their work of evangelization, because in a word, it would confirm the message.
“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” John 13:35.
My dear brothers and sister, we all still have a very long way to go. We are still in the middle of a waged war, where the armour of humility has to daily withstand the onslaught of the pride of this world, as instigated by Lucifer who fell from heaven through pride. If we search deep, and make a good examination of conscience, we too will see that it is our pride that is the underlying cause of all our sins. It is pride that keeps our ears shut to the message and the voice of God, like the men who warred over Paul’s words of truth in the Acts of the Apostles. It is our pride that our Lord will continue to try to wean from us, if we let him, in the crucible of the confessional and our prayer time with him. Our entire life’s journey is nothing more, than a preparation for how we will be required to live in heaven. There will be no jealousy in heaven, no anger, no impurity, no gluttony, blasphemy, idolatry, dishonesty, deception, brokenness, etc… and our fallen human nature will be healed. There will be no concupiscence that will rage within our souls and hearts. And if we die and are not yet ready for heaven, but not wicked enough to incur the penalty of everlasting torment, we will nevertheless have to be purified in purgatory, and the flames that burn there so as to remove all these impediments to heaven is powerful and mystics and those back from an afterlife experience have all attested to the purifying pains of purgatory
as something you really do not want to undergo. There were those who said they would rather spend their whole lives in severe penance, rather than spend even an hour in purgatory, and yet we know from our Lady in Fatima that even young people, not yet ready for heaven, might be in purgatory till the Second Coming of Christ, the last day. Do we have a long road ahead of us? Absolutely! But every day is a wonderful gift and a splendid opportunity to do better. Let us ask Saint Margaret of Cortona, to intercede for us and acquire the grace of a clear spiritual vision of the important things we need to consider, just as she did, but then, the courage to act accordingly. Amen.
Add comment
Comments