Mid-Pentecost; The Holy, Just and Long-suffering Job
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Acts 14:6-18; John 7:14-30
Christ is risen! Truly, He is risen!
Today’s account of Paul and Barnabas’ mission to the Lycaonians gives us an interesting insight into not only a mission to the polytheistic gentiles—who believe in many gods—but most interestingly we see how Paul and Barnabas respond when the locals offer them crowns and bulls. The locals misconstrue the grace of God working through the two missionaries as belonging to Paul and Barnabas. St. Basil the Great points out that Paul, “was struck with illness to show that his nature was human.” (Long Rules 55.4). In other words, the Lord permitted suffering—the ‘thorn in my flesh…’(2 Cor 12:7) and the stoning by the Jews in Act 14:19—in order to show the gentiles that these missionaries are human beings. And also to help the apostles personally stay grounded and remember that they are not gods as the Lycaonians dare to suggest. The allurement of accepting this glory is evident, but the danger is that this temptation places people on a path travelled by the fallen angels. This is the path of pride and self-aggrandizement, which places us on a road away from God. The path that the apostles follow is the way of humility, patient endurance and self-emptying, so that they may be filled with the love of God in order to bring it to others and walk the path of salvation.