Monthly Archives: April 2016

Friday of the 3rd Week of Easter
Acts 9:1-20; Psalm 116:1,2; John 6:52-59

Today’s reading centers around surprises, from the blinding bolt from the blue that felled Saul on the road to Damascus, to the shock and fear of his companions upon hearing the Lord’s thundering voice but seeing nothing, to Ananias’ reaction to the Lord’s command: “You want me to heal who?!?!”, to Paul’s swift and total conversion to Jesus.

I too am surprised…that I lasted this long. I confess that I had serious doubts in the first days of my daily reflection “marathon”, and it often takes a couple of hours and more than a few household interruptions before completing each day’s blog. It is surprisingly fun, though, to read daily scripture and ponder the layers of meaning therein, not the dreary task that I’d initially feared.

Now all I need to do is improve the content of my reflections. As the song goes, “One day at a time, Sweet Jesus!”

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

If you’re wondering why today’s title looks vaguely familiar, it recalls one of my favorite childhood TV shows, The Six Million Dollar Man (1974). Indeed, there are surprising parallels with the titular character Steve Austin, as this rewrite of the famous opening sequence makes clear:

Saul of Tarsus, persecutor. A man barely alive. I can rebuild him. I have the Power. I have the capability to make the world’s first apostle to the Gentiles. Saul of Tarsus will be that man. Better than he was before. Braver…stronger…persuader.

Lord, let the scales fall from our eyes, so that we can clearly see the path that leads to You. Send us the Holy Spirit to imbue us with the confidence to share your gospel message with others and, in so doing, lead them to Your Kingdom, for You are the Way, the Truth and the Life. Amen.

Thursday of the 3rd Week of Easter
Acts 8:26-40; Psalm 65:8-9,16-17,20; John 6:44-51

As a cradle Catholic, I was far too young to remember my infant baptism, but reading today about the Ethiopian eunuch’s conscious journey towards faith and baptism, guided by the disciple Philip, makes me long for the chance to make a similar journey. We of course know this process today as RCIA.

Lambert Sustris – The Baptism of the Ethiopian Eunuch by the Deacon Philip

The eunuch’s question to Philip drew my immediate attention: “How can I [understand the scriptures] unless I have someone to guide me?” In modern times, there is no shortage of scriptural guides both online and off, in which case the question becomes: “How can I [understand the scriptures] unless I commit myself to the task?” Given the never-ending flood of distractions both online and off, this question is worth pondering.

Lord, give me the patience and willingness to ponder your Holy Word daily and, in the process, become more like you each day. Amen.

Wednesday of the 3rd Week of Easter
Acts 8:1-8; Psalm 65:1-7; John 6:35-40

Saul the Subjugator swings into action in today’s reading, arresting, imprisoning and killing practitioners of this burgeoning religion called Christianity. The Bible doesn’t go into too many details, but one might be forgiven for comparing Saul to the comic book character known as the Punisher.

The resemblance is…compelling.

Now, we know Frank Castle’s backstory, but what’s in Saul’s history that would cause him to “entirely approve of [Stephen’s] killing” and take an active role in quashing this upstart faith? Many scholars seem to agree on a simple reason…Saul was a devout Pharisee.

It’s hardly a surprise that the Pharisees had no love for Jesus Christ, especially at the frequency with which they and their practices were castigated by Our Lord and Saviour. It must have been a relief for them when Jesus was crucified and confirmed dead; now they could get on with business as usual.

Then word comes that His followers are spreading obvious and ridiculous lies that He’s risen from the dead, yet they still manage to convert thousands of Jews despite their falsehoods. For a zealot like Saul, this must not stand! Hence, his energy and enthusiasm is fully directed towards the destruction of this blasphemous cult.

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Of course, there’s a twist in the tale, one familiar to any of us who has spent countless hours trying to convince close relatives or friends to drop their gambling habit, or drug use, or whatever we feel to be a foolish course of action. For those who haven’t had this particular pleasure, the twist is this: we only do this for those we love.

It should therefore be clear that, despite appearances, Jesus truly loved the Pharisees; he would not have spent so much time and energy on them otherwise. It was an unrequited love, to be sure, but that never stopped Jesus, just as it never stopped us when our loved ones rejected our attempts to save them from themselves.

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Of course, most disciples scattered in the face of Saul’s persecution, but they never stopped spreading the Good News. Likewise, we should never cease to evangelise our faith, despite our personal troubles or difficulties at home, or in the office, or anywhere we may find ourselves amongst non-believers. We might not be able to summon up a stream of Pauline eloquence, but we could certainly perform the deeds we do with love, and in turn reflect our Father’s undying love for the world.

Amen.

Tuesday of the 3rd Week of Easter
Acts 7:51-8:1; Psalm 30:3-4,6-8,17,21; John 6:30-35

Between Stephen’s arrest in yesterday’s reading, and his rebuke of the Sanhedrin in today’s, lies a long lecture from the Spirit-filled orator about the many times God had shown his love to His people, only to have Him and His agents be soundly rejected. The last part of this lecture drew my attention:

the Most High does not live in a house that human hands have built: for as the prophet says:
With heaven my throne and earth my footstool,
what house could you build me, says the Lord,
what place for me to rest,
when all these things were made by me?
(Acts 7:48-50, ref. Isaiah 66:1-2)

Indeed, God does not makes His home in cold and empty churches, no matter how beautiful, but in the loving hearts of all His faithful, no matter how weak and burdened with earthly cares. It is we who bring God-as-Holy-Spirit with us to worship together, and it is He in turn who binds our individuality together into a united community of warmth and light.

But we are fallible, so we should always be open to criticism from within (when the Holy Spirit gently nudges us away from sin) and without (when our friends, relatives and even complete strangers point out ways in which we do not exhibit the very Christian virtues that we loudly extol), and doing the necessary to improve ourselves, just as athletes willingly accept corrections from their coaches. The learned men of the Sanhedrin in today’s reading, sadly, displayed just the opposite disposition.

And in our last days, should we find ourselves alone and beset with sickness and perhaps even “enemy action,” we could do worse than keep faithful as Stephen did, set aside our enmities:

Lord, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

and let ourselves return to the ever-loving embrace of our Creator:

Lord, into your hands I commend my spirit.

Stoning of St. Stephen
(attr. Luigi Garzi)

Amen.

Monday of the 3rd Week of Easter (Year C)
† St. Stanislaus, Bishop & Martyr
Acts 6:8-15; Psalm 118:23-24,26-27,29-30; John 6:22-29

Last Saturday, we were briefly introduced to the seven men chosen by the fledgling Christian community to serve as deacons, i.e. to take care of temporal matters while the apostles focused on the spiritual.

But this did not mean that the seven were mundane men. Stephen, in particular, was described by John as:

a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit (John 6:5)

so it should be no surprise that today’s reading opens with Stephen “working miracles and great signs among the people,” and leading to verbal conflict with people from foreign synagogues. John goes on to mention that, being unable to best Stephen, they “procured some men” and “put up false witnesses” to lay serious charges of blasphemy against Moses, God, the Temple and the Law, particularly that Jesus would destroy the Temple and change the Law.

Stephen before the Sanhedrin

Which were probably all true…from their point of view. See, from the tenets of our faith that we proclaim today, I suspect that Stephen actually said that:

• Jesus was the Son of God, and therefore greater than Moses (blasphemy against Moses)
• Jesus was God (blasphemy against God).

As for the rest, they were almost certainly subtle reinterpretations of what Stephen and Jesus actually said, in particular Jesus’ confident prediction about the actions to be initiated against him:

Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up…But he spoke of the temple of his body. (John 2:19,21)

Regardless, Stephen’s reaction to the charges was priceless. Confronted by the laser-like stares of the collective Sanhedrin, his countenance nevertheless “appeared to them like the face of an angel”. No angry denials, no loud curses against the men arrayed against him, just the peace and confidence that comes with placing complete trust in God and His Truth.

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I was in a similar position almost a decade ago, confronted by an angry customer A who was in hot water with their own customer B. It turned out that A had run my control programs on a version of their test software that I never knew existed, and erroneously classified thousands of B’s devices to be in perfect working order. B in turn built those devices into end-user products…which all failed their own testing. In all fairness, I heard rumors that B was rumbling about “liquidated damages” in the millions, so A was understandably…perturbed.

So I waited for the “hair-dryer” to be switched off, then quietly said that:

• I was sorry this entire fiasco happened, and
• I would modify my software to ensure that, should they run it on anything other than a configuration that I’d personally tested, it would scream bloody murder.

Everybody calmed down after that, and the situation with all concerned parties was resolved amicably. I remember trying to relax my clenched jaw throughout this incident, so no “face like an angel”. Then again, I’m no Stephen.

Lord, give us the wisdom to discern Your Holy Truth in our lives, and the truth behind our interactions with our fellow beings, so that we may deal with others in love and understanding, a shadow of the bottomless love and understanding you show to us poor sinners every day. Amen.