Peace be with you.
For some reason, as I read over the first reading, I couldn’t help but think of a high school friend of mine that, for the sake of the story, I’m going to John. As you may be aware, it’s typical for people to gain some weight during the first year of college. People refer to it as the Freshman fifteen. After college and before his wedding, John decided he was going to work on some of the weight he had gained during college. He started exercising and eating less food and food that was healthier. John had lost fifteen of the forty pounds he was hoping to lose. He was feeling good about his progress and decided to go to a party with some of my high school friends. In the middle of it, John and another friend got into a bit of a verbal altercation which ended with the other friend calling John fat. I remember thinking how unfair it was for the one friend, who had gained more weight in college than John and was doing nothing about it. John knew there was no use in arguing with this person and let the whole thing drop but I could really tell it bothered him.
In the first reading, St. Paul and St. Barnabas are in Antioch of Pisidia. Now, this shouldn’t be confused with Antioch of Syria, where the term “Christian” was first used to describe the followers of Jesus. This is farther North and East of there. And this is the administrative center of the Roman Empire for the province of Galatia, meaning it would have been a fairly important town. St. Paul and St. Barnabas arrive in town and go immediately to the synagogue. In the first part of this chapter, they describe St. Paul’s preaching the first week that they’re there. He uses the Old Testament to show Jesus as being prefigured in the Exodus and King David. Then he uses a quote from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah to invite the people in the synagogue to faith in Christ. All of that happens in verses fifteen to forty two of this chapter of Acts, the verses that are left out of this reading.
Instead, we focus on what happens a week later when St. Paul and St. Barnabas again gather and, this time, a larger crowd filled with both Jews and Gentiles has gathered in the synagogue. It’s a clear indication that the Holy Spirit is working, the other being that these two saints get a jeering section. It’s hard to know if the Jewish leaders who went to the “women of prominence who were worshippers and leading men of the city” to these great evangelizers kicked out of their territory were more afraid that St. Paul and St. Barnabas were making salvation seem too easy or if they were just jealous because of the success. What we know is that didn’t allow the persecution to stop them but, instead, shook the dust from their feet and went on to the next place in joy and the Holy Spirit.
If you’re anything like me, it’s hard not to get frustrated by unfounded criticism. It’s hard not to question if something is worth it when someone is lobbing all kinds of criticism toward you. The question we have to ask ourself is if what we are doing is of God or not. If we are following God’s voice, if we are listening to the voice of the Good Shepherd, we should shake the dust of the naysayers criticism off our feet and continue on our way. If someone can’t handle your growth in holiness, it’s probably because they’re not making the progress they wish they could or they’ve given up on making progress in holiness. As it said in the Responsorial Psalm, “We are his people, the sheep of his flock.”
