Friday of the 7th Week of Easter
Acts 25:13-21 | Psalm 102:1-2, 11-12, 19-20 | John 21:15-19
Not much is known about Porcius Festus, the governor of Judaea who sent St. Paul to Rome to appeal to Nero’s judgement at the latter’s request, but one phrase in his account to King Agrippa of the events leading up to this stands out for me:
Not feeling qualified to deal with questions of this sort […] (Acts 25:20)
The Romans we’re familiar with from the Bible tend not to be very humble, especially with regards to their perceived authority and knowledge (and especially when they lack thereof). It’s not hard to imagine some other governor saying, “You’re an idiot, Paulus! People don’t rise from the dead! I don’t care if you’re Roman-born, you just disrupted my lunch routine, so off to the Jews you go.”
The same could be said of most people nowadays, especially when they’re online. Not a day goes by without someone taking umbrage with someone else for some (usually trivial, absurd and/or mistaken) reason, and channeling their inner Judge Dredd, unleashes a very dark stream of consciousness that leads only to embarrassment, furious backpedalling, and possibly several related firestorms.
We’re not privy to Festus’ personal opinion of St. Paul, but St. Luke records that:
[he] was anxious to gain favour with the Jews, so he said to Paul, ‘Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and be tried on these charges before me there?’ (Acts 25:9)
Despite all that, and to his credit, he still extended to St. Paul the fundamentals of civil and lawful treatment, regardless of any private biases or favour-currying.
So did Pope St. John Paul II, who was shot four times on this day 35 years ago, yet forgave his would-be assassin and successfully persuaded the Italian president to pardon him.
If only more people today would do the same…
Lord, You showed abundant love to all during Your stay on earth, reserving Your wrath only for the truly deserving and the demonic. Remove the dark lens of hatred and prejudice from our eyes, so that we can see others for who they really are, our kin under God despite our occasional disagreements, so that we too can show our love and understanding to them especially in trying situations. Amen.