Error never shows itself in its naked reality, in order not to be discovered. On the contrary, it dresses elegantly, so that the unwary may be led to believe that it is more truthful than truth itself.
- St. Irenaeus of Lyons
(This is a huge problem in the age of social media and cable news echo-chambers. What helps you discern truth from falsehood?)
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Acts 22:3-16; Psalm 117:1bc, 2
Mk 16:15-18
Jesus appeared to the Eleven and said to them:
“Go into the whole world
and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved;
whoever does not believe will be condemned.
These signs will accompany those who believe:
in my name they will drive out demons,
they will speak new languages.
They will pick up serpents with their hands,
and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them.
They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
Reflection on the Scriptures
Dear Lord, just when I thought I was stumped by the task for reflecting on this feast, you used Luke’s word itself as a way to awaken me to new possibilities of applying the biblical text. Just like Luke’s own readers, I thought I knew St. Paul. I thought it was presumptuous to think I could take him as a model. Take his status as a well-trained teacher of the traditions of his people, the people of Israel.
Well, as a Catholic priest I have been given opportunities to learn much about the religious traditions of worldwide Catholicism, and that in the framework of the Society of Jesus, drawing on the wisdom not only of 400 years of the group’s history but also of the collective contemporary experience of ministry in all the continents of the world. Those opportunities could support the conviction that I am equipped to judge how our faith should be practiced in places where I have lived. But Luke
reminded me that Saul/Paul’s expert training, bright as he was, had prepared him also to misjudge the movement of disciples of Jesus of Nazareth that was gaining popularity. Any movement that attributed such authority of a mere layman would have to be wrong and needed to be stopped in its tracks. A suffering Messiah doesn’t sound like a new David. And love of enemies—the leaders represented by the reigning high priest would be suspicious of that. The young scholar obviously needed ‘further
training’ and Luke helped me see that the Lord saw that he got it--the example of Peter’s confrontation of Simon’s desire to buy spiritual power, being gracefully called to Christian baptism by Ananias of Damascus. Does my own practice of ministry require such challenges to further my own conversion? Well, in fact, my own physical vulnerability and dependence on others as I age has taught me that any power I may have gleaned from experience and study is entirely dependent on whether that
ministry is governed by love and compassionate listening. Luke helped me see that Saul/Paul learned these things early. So help me, God.
- by Dennis Hamm, S.J.
The Existence of God
by Francois Fenelon
SECTION I. Metaphysical Proofs of the Existence of God are not within everybody's reach.
I cannot open my eyes without admiring the art that shines throughout all nature; the least cast suffices to make me perceive the Hand that makes everything.
People accustomed to meditate upon metaphysical truths, and to trace up things to their first principles, may know the Deity by its idea; and I own that is a sure way to arrive at the source of all truth. But the more direct and short that way is, the more difficult and unpassable it is for the generality of mankind who depend on their senses and imagination.
An ideal demonstration is so simple, that through its very simplicity it escapes those minds that are incapable of operations purely intellectual. In short, the more perfect is the way to find the First Being, the fewer there are that are capable to follow it.
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