In today’s first reading, Acts 13: 44-52, St. Luke talks
about the success and the difficulties Paul and Barnabas encountered when proclaiming the word of God. “The whole city
gathered” to hear them. The Jews reacted
“with jealousy and with violent abuse,” contradicting Paul and Barnabas’ teachings.
“Women of prominence” and “leading men of the city” incited a “persecution”
against Paul and Barnabas, expelling them
from the region. “Armed” with the Scripture that says “I have made you a light to the Gentiles, that
you may be an instrument of salvation to the ends of the earth” (Is 49:6), Paul
and Barnabas shake “the dust from their feet” and move on.
As I reflect upon Acts 13: 44-52, I might ask myself whether
or not, like the Jews, have I been motivated
by jealousy when another person or persons align, not with me, but with others?
Am I roused to anger when I am not succeeding and another is? Do I violently,
or not so violently, contradict those who are succeeding in ways in which I want to succeed? Do I incite others to “persecute”
those with whom I disagree or who are
more popular than I and of whom I am jealous (even when I am unaware of my hidden
motivation)? How important it is that you
and I take the time to examine the energy compelling us to spout off against
our “neighbor”. We need to know from
whence our behaviors flow: are we reacting from a positive force or a negative
one, from a good spirit or an evil spirit?
The inability to rejoice at the good another does or others are doing
could easily indicate that my motivation is linked to that within me that is
not of God.
Like Barnabas and
Paul, we Christians are called to be “a
light” and “an instrument of salvation to the whole world and, in particular,
in the world in which we live, work and pray. To do that we need to leave the
negativity within ourselves and outside of ourselves and move on to “greener
pastures”, to working in “soil” receptive to the word of God, as did Paul and
Barnabas.
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