Friday of the Third Week of Easter
A poster about discernment in my parish growing up read, “there aren’t always trumpets and burning bushes.” A friend of mine speaks of spiritual two by fours as those moments where God communicates what you are being called to take on in His plan with such unexpected certainty and clarity you feel as if you have smacked in the face by a long plank of wood. These are few and far between in my experience.
Perhaps one of the best known spiritual two by fours is our reading from Acts of the Apostles today, Saul’s conversion. There is tremendous drama in Saul’s story, he’s knocked off his horse, hears a booming voice, and sees a bright light. However, in the same passage another person also gets an unexpected mission from God, Ananias.
God asked Ananias to go and not simply meet but heal, a person who was at the time responsible for tremendous fear and suffering among Christians. God sent Ananias to a man who had the authority to arrest him for believing in Jesus Christ. There was an opportunity for Ananias to take revenge for all those who had suffered at the hands of Saul, including Saint Stephen. Saul was in an incredibly vulnerable state without his eyesight. However, that isn’t the path that Ananias choose, instead he chose one of fidelity to God.
Because Ananias was faithful to what God had asked of him, we know Saul now as Saint Paul, who is credited with writing a significant amount of the New Testament. Ananias trusted that God was able to work through one of the most unlikely people to proclaim the Good News. Ananias trusted the Lord that someone with a horrific past seeking to destroy Christianity, could instead work to make the Kingdom of God present in our midst.
Ananias, was originally hesitant to go to Paul. This temptation lingers with us today. We too can fall into the trap - that there are people beyond being able to change and live the mission of the Christianity. Speaking at Villanova University last week, Cardinal Tobin said in regards to those who try to define who does and doesn’t belong to the Church that, “It is only the Lord who ultimately judges who belongs or does not belong.” To be a disciple like Ananias, is to remember this, that whoever God places in our lives to encounter, accompany, and share the Good News with, has the potential to agree to God’s plan and to change the world by living heaven on Earth.
Lord God, open us to Your plan for our lives and help us respond to Your call. Help us, when we struggle with who You are inviting us to share Your Word with to be like Ananias. Grant us, by Your abundant Grace, the ability to overcome our prejudgements and see each and every person we meet the way You see them. Help us to live the Kingdom this way. We ask this through Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen. Alleluia!
-Will Marsh