Wednesday of the 4th Week of Easter
Acts 12:24-13:5 | Psalm 66:2-3, 5-6, 8 | John 12:44-50
[…] the Holy Spirit said, “I want Barnabas and Saul set apart for the work to which I have called them.” (Acts 13:2)
Imagine being told by your boss to travel to a country you’d barely heard of, to convince the locals in each state to set up and run branch offices in the name of your obscure social-enterprise startup. Oh, and you could only take one other person with you. No financial or logistics support would be forthcoming from HQ. Here’s your one-way ticket, and you have just enough time to catch the flight out, if you leave Right Now.
Did your heart just sink to the level of your feet? Did you immediately start to think of ways to get back into your boss’ good graces, while simultaneously destroying the accursed co-workers who just tried to sabotage your career?
Or did you just go “cool, new opportunities and cuisines to try”?
I’d like to think Saul (as he’s still referred to at this stage) and Barnabas were absolutely champing at the bit, ready and eager to go abroad and spread the Good News in places of which they had little prior knowledge. I know that I’d be running rather quickly in the opposite direction.
Still, I’d been taught since young that I am a member of a “people set apart”, not in the Übermensch “master race” sense, but in the “focus on the holiness of God’s Way, not the earthy sensibilities of humanity’s way” sense. Or in the words of St. Paul:
Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect. (Romans 12:2)
So if I were awakened in the middle of the night by a quiet voice urging me to go forth and evangelise…I’d be terrified, but I’d start making plans. Hopefully, my dogged writings about daily readings will help me slip quickly into the right frame of mind.
Lord Jesus, we know that we have been set apart, not for our personal glorification, but that we might in turn share Your message of hope and salvation to all. For You are the Way to the Father, the source of all Truth, and the promise of everlasting Life. Amen.