Monday of the Fourth Week of Easter
As we work our way through Acts, Peter has an earth shaking vision — “Followers of the Way” (Christians) are no longer required to adhere to the 613 laws of Torah. “Who am I to hinder God?” Peter asks. Another way to put it, “God’s ways are not our ways.”
Like Peter, when we think we have God all figured out we can be sure that we don’t. As popular culture would have it, and with apologies to L. Frank Baum, Peter has a “Surrender Dorothy!” moment. (Back in the ‘90s “Surrender Dorothy!” became popular again, finding its way on tee shirts, bumper stickers and spray painted on underpasses.) But for today it’s “Surrender Peter!”
And surrender Peter did. He no longer is a stumbling block or obstacle. He no longer thinks he has a corner on what God expects or desires. And he doesn’t just step aside. He gets on board.
“Holy taboos” can be obstacles to God, but God cannot or will not be limited. How much of what we think we know about God isn’t simply a projection of ourselves? God made humanity in the divine image and likeness and we have been trying to return the favor ever since.
It is deadly pride to claim to know the mind of God. Pride is the original sin, the attempt to be like God, the sin of Genesis. The name of God is mercy but the name of Satan is pride. Today Peter sheds pride. He rejects Satan and all his works. Appropriately, Peter’s startling vision occurred on the second Shavuot following the first Easter. Shavuot (the Feast of Weeks) commemorated the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai, 50 days after Passover, in Greek “Pentecost.”
December 6, 1273 saw yet another indescribable vision of great consequence. After celebrating mass, scholar extraordinary Thomas Aquinas had a taste of the beatific vision. At that, the greatest mind in Christendom was still. There was no further dictation to his secretary. The saint told him, “The end of my labors has come. All I have written is straw. I can write no more.” The angelic doctor tried to wrap up God in the safe blanket of logic, to incubate-God-in-intellect. God will have none of it. The Almighty plays a cosmic joke on Thomas with a mystical, “Come to Papa moment.” Surrender Dorothy? Surrender Peter? Surrender Thomas!
To help us surrender we might pray the Suscipe of St. Ignatius Loyola:
Take, LORD, receive all my liberty, my memory, understanding, my entire will. Take, LORD, receive all is yours now. Dispose of it wholly according to your will. Give me only your love and your grace. That’s enough for me.
—Timothy J. Cronin