Hello Saints,
*All following verses, etc, are from the New American Translation
This section of Acts seemed to me to have a profoundly ecumenical message. This is particularly evident in the story of Cornelius and Peter's vision. When God says "What God has made clean you are not to call profane," (Acts 10:15) he's not only speaking to Peter, but to us. This part had two meanings to me. The first, God is communicating to Peter about the men he is about to meet, and the second God is making a commentary on the Jewish Law that Peter has been used to following.
When God brings Cornelius to Peter, he gives Peter a heads up and essentially prepares his heart to receive someone he might not have welcomed. We don't always realize this is happening when God tries to prepare us. How many people have come into our lives that we've just brushed by or written off because it seemed they couldn't possibly be God speaking to us? Acts 10:45-46 finds the early Christians unable to comprehend that God could be so undiscriminating. They'd lived for years believing there was A/ONE chosen people:the Jews, and here God is giving away their "inheritance" to any bum on the street (I'm sure they didn't think those exact words, but you get the idea). Not all saints are Catholic or even Christian. Look at the good works of Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Albert Einstein, etc. God wants us to love others, even if they seem so different from us that we can't conceive them being our brothers and sisters. We've all heard the words of Galatians 3:28-29 when Paul states, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham'sdescendant, heirs according to the promise." If God brings someone into our life, we need to put aside our sometimes straight-laced Catholic tendencies and love as Christians.
Which brings me to the second meaning. Acts 10:12-14 illustrates Peter's habit of being an observant Jew. While we know Peter wasn't a learned scholar, he was still subject to the purification rites and knew well what foods were clean and unclean. The biblical commentary in my edition states "The vision is intended to prepare Peter to share the food of Cornelius' table without qualms of conscience." Sometimes we get so caught up in rules and traditions that make our Catholic faith so rich that we are unable to live as Christians and share in relationship with others. Had God not prepared Peter, he probably would have blown a wonderful ministry opportunity over a petty technicality (dietary restrictions). A lesson that God is helping me to learn is that sometimes my time is better spent in relationship with my family and people than in alone time with Him, and that can actually speak better through others in some circumstances. There is a time and a place for rules and traditions, the technicalities can hold us back from opportunities to witness to others. Let us never lose sight of the purpose of these institutions. They are in place to facilitate relationship with God, but when we can do God's will or hear God's voice better by stepping away from this and "mixing it up" we are better served and so is God.
Other thoughts?
3 comments:
When reading this section, the meeting of Peter and Cornelius could be read on multiple levels. First, as Sheila pointed out, God asking Peter to receive this Gentile man as a welcome guest means that Peter has to break out of his traditional view of the world and the proper way to worship God. The Law was good and indeed given from God, but now, after Christ's death and resurrection, there is another piece to add to the puzzle.
The Law--all those seemingly crazy Old Testament prescriptions for eating and dressing and working--was the way the Jews were absolutely sure that they were doing what God wanted them to. It took a lot of work, but obeying the law gave them the assurance that they were fulfilling God's will. Keeping track of everything would be a headache, but at the end of the day, wouldn't it be nice to know you were assured God's blessing because you had the proper tassels on your cloak and didn’t eat shellfish?
Now that Jesus died, rose and instituted the Church, Peter, and all of us, are able to come into a relationship with God by talking with him and being with him during the Mass or in the Blessed Sacrament. Outward signs of devotion are important because they remind us to think about God, but they are not the only way we know Him. Looking at the picture of your beloved or your family reminds you of them, but is no substitute for the real thing—it can’t talk or love you back.
Through Jesus, we can talk to God directly. For instance, I have been asking God lately to show me, in a tangible way I can understand, how He cares for me and pursues me like a lover. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that I started making this request around the feast of the Sacred Heart… it seems that it’s been following me around! I traveled to the town of St. Marys the other day for work, and on the way home, I stopped at Sacred Heart Church. While there, I picked up a book of visions from Jesus and Mary to this woman to increase devotion to Jesus’s Sacred Heart and Immaculate Heart of Mary. Yesterday, I went to another church and sat underneath a stained glass window of Christ appearing to a nun. It was Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque receiving Jesus, under the name of the Sacred Heart! Crazy. Indeed it’s true that whatever you ask will be given to you.
We talk about the Jesus’s heart a lot—its gentleness, mercy, justice, etc. I challenge you (and myself, too) to reflect on the “burning furnace of love” for us in His Sacred Heart. It’s the only thing that broke the barrier between man and God and let’s us know for sure that He hears and loves us without having to rely on physical laws of the Old Testament.
What really stuck out to me in this section were the visions of Cornelius and Peter. Peter was staying in the house of the tanner named Simon. Something interesting that I wanted to share is the footnote in my bible...9, 43: The fact that Peter lodged with a tanner would have been significant to both Gentile and Judaeo-Christians, for Judaism considered the tanning occupation unclean. It's so cool in this section watching God's plan unfold before us as He sends an angel to Cornelius and speaks to Peter through a vision. It's like all of the pieces just come together like a puzzle. I think we can all relate to this from some point of our lives. How many times have things just seemed to work out for the best and have felt perfect like everything was supposed to happen that way and you are right where you are supposed to be in life. Another thing that spoke to me was the fact that God shows no partiality. We are called to see others as children of God and a lot of times this is very hard. I know for me, a lot of times when I come across a stranger, without even trying or wanting to I instantly make a judgement about that person by what clothes they are wearing or how they walk and talk or anything. We have to look beyond what only the eye can see and start seeing others as God does, with zero partiality, looking into their hearts and loving them for who they are.
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