In today's gospel, we have a very moving last part of the farewell speech that Jesus gives to the apostles, and he prays this prayer before them in which he is thanking the Father for giving those apostles to him as a gift. In fact, Jesus's very words are: “Father, they are your gift to me.” And then: “I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”
Listen to how Jesus speaks of the apostles as his close friends. Friends that he loves. Friends that a teenager would thank his parents for allowing over to their house to spend time with them, for example. It is almost like he is speaking to the Father in this vein: “They are your gift to me. I thank you. I want them to be where I am.”
The incredible thing about this discourse of Jesus, or this prayer, is that in only a few hours the same apostles that he is thanking God for, that he is grateful to the Father for, will abandon him — and he knows that they will abandon him. He told them at the Last Supper, quoting the prophet Zechariah: “The shepherd shall be struck, and the sheep shall be scattered.” They will all lose faith.
But beyond that loss of faith, beyond the sin, beyond their weaknesses, beyond their fragile fallen human nature, Jesus sees something beautiful, something to be thankful for: the love of the apostle who comes to his senses, realizes that God is his everything, and will live and die for that truth.
Now one such believer in Christ, who came to his senses, who began to see the truth, and who began to live for Christ with such intensity that he would go on to say, “It is no longer I who live, but the Spirit of Christ who lives in me,” was Saul, who became Saint Paul.
And we see in today's last part of Acts — and we are approaching the end of our reading of Acts, which we will complete in the next three days — I urge you to take into your hands the Book of the New Testament, the Acts of the Apostles, and read through it yourself. There are eight chapters left. Witness the beauty of this martyria, this witnessing to Christ, that is displayed by Paul and the early Church.
Paul is standing before the magistrates. He is standing before the Sadducees and the Pharisees. And we know that the Sadducees and the Pharisees were competing religious authorities in the time of Jesus, for they did not believe in some of the things each other believed. For example, the Sadducees did not believe in angels or life after death, whereas the Pharisees did.
Saint Paul, standing before these men whom he knew belonged to the two groups, utilizes this. Appealing and pulling on the heartstrings of the Pharisees that were present, he says: “My brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of Pharisees. I am on trial for hope in the resurrection of the dead.”
So when he said this, we are told a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the group became divided. “For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection or angels or spirits, while the Pharisees acknowledge all three.” A great uproar occurred, and some scribes belonging to the Pharisee party stood up and sharply argued: “We find nothing wrong with this man. Suppose a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?”
And the dispute was so serious that the commander, afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them, ordered his troops to go down and rescue Paul from their midst and take him into the compound.
And then, my brothers and sisters, look at the beautiful gift he received the following night. We are told: “The following night the Lord stood by him and said, ‘Take courage. For just as you have borne witness to my cause in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness in Rome.’”
My brothers and sisters, the Lord knows our situation. Yesterday we spoke about how the Holy Spirit impels us, prompts us, and leads us into trials, sufferings, and imprisonments — just as he led Jesus into the desert to be tried, tested, and tempted by Satan — because this is what builds our character. When, trusting in the Lord, we transcend and come out victorious from our battle with temptation and all those things that hope to shatter our spirit.
My brothers and sisters, as the Lord was with Paul as he headed toward his last days, so too he is always with us: loving us, forgiving us, healing us, and guiding us toward everlasting life.
May Almighty God bless you through the intercession of Saint Paul, through the intercession of all the Saints, but especially through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Add comment
Comments