Our Father Among the Saints Athanasius the Great (373)
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Acts 9:20-31; John 15:17-16:2
Christ is risen! Truly, He is risen!
In today’s epistle from Acts, we encounter the newly-converted and baptized Saul of Tarsus who among the party of the Pharisees was the great persecutor of the Church. Immediately following his conversion, Saul is an outcast. On the one hand, there are the Jews who see him as a betrayer and want to put him to death, and on the other, we have the disciples who do not trust him as their former persecutor. Barnabas is his only friend and it is through Barnabas’ entreaties that Saul is eventually accepted and even protected by the church.
What is our attitude to outsiders, brothers and sisters? Do we welcome them in our churches, or do we question their motives for being there? Are we suspicious of strangers who have had some form of conversion experience and have found a deep and zealous faith that is perhaps threatening to us? Perhaps we envy them. The conversion of the Holy Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus is literally a shining example of how God can powerfully transform the lives of even the most unlikely of people and use them for His purposes. When we encounter someone who doesn’t seem to “fit in” we must be Barnabas to them. We must introduce them to the community so that they may be welcomed and share the gifts with which God has blessed them -gifts that may help lead us and those around us to salvation.