In today's first reading, Acts 5: 34-42, Gamaliel asks the Sanhedrin to step back and think through what they are about to do to the Apostles for preaching in Jesus' name and proclaiming the resurrection. If their activities are of God, he says to them, you may be fighting God and you will not win that fight. He reminds them of two other persons who rose up and attracted a large following. One was killed and all of his followers disbanded. The other simply perished and all of his followers scattered. Have nothing to do with the apostles, he tells them. "For if this endeavor or this activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself. But if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them."
Jesus certainly lived this out. No one could or can destroy Him. His origin is of God; He is
God, the promised Messiah, at work in the world today, as He was of old. Those working in His name, too, will not be extinguished either. Jesus teaches us in today's Gospel, John 6: 1-15, however, to reject the world's efforts to idolatrize us, to lift us up as "kings/queens," to make us something we are not. Following the multiplication of the loaves and fish, the people exclaimed: "This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world." Jesus, knowing "that they were going to come and carry him off to make him king, ...withdrew again to the mountain alone." Without realizing it, if we do not withdraw "to the mountain alone," to converse with God, to put things in perspective and realize that any good we do is God at work in us, we can easily do good in order to receive people's accolades, to accumulate awards, to be lifted up as the greatest of human beings. We, then, become our own idol, "worshiping" ourselves and the work we do and, actually fighting against our God, who alone is King!
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