19 April 2013 - unsightly individual

19 April 2013 - unsightly individual

“Lord, I have heard from many sources about this man,

On a human level we know we're better off not proclaiming the gospel to certain people.  They seem like lost causes to us because of how closed they are to the message.  Yet most of these aren't as closed as Saul of Tarsus who is in fact "still breathing murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord" when Ananias is called to go to him.  And the message he is called to deliver isn't all sunshine and rainbows.  He is to tell him "what he will have to suffer for my name.”  

Ananias goes.  He is able to obey in part because the LORD reveals to him that he has already been working in the life of Saul.  He is able to proclaim even the difficult parts of Gospel because Jesus shows him the bigger picture.  He knows that the LORD is working for Saul's greatest good and for his as well.


“Saul, my brother, the Lord has sent me,
Jesus who appeared to you on the way by which you came,
that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 

And indeed he finds Saul as receptive as the Ethiopian in yesterday's gospel reading.  Jesus works in both Saul and Ananias to prepare them for this encounter.  He wants to use both of them in the building of his kingdom.  He is clearly able to do miraculous things in the lives of both of these men separately.  Yet he does not will to do all supernaturally or apart from human instrumentality.  How good it is that Ananias heeds the LORD's command.  And the result is that even though he is involved what Saul does from there proves a supernatural transformation.


and he began at once to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues,
that he is the Son of God.

His zeal for God has been transformed from something earthly and tainted to a zeal which can give itself over to the proclamation of the psalmist.

Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.

And with sight restored to his eyes he can now recognize that the Good News is a person: Jesus Christ.

We may be following God zealously as Saul thought he was.  But we need to be ready to lay down our plans if God tells us to do so because our plans are never one hundred percent pure.  They are always tainted by our flesh. We need our eyes to be opened to recognize in Jesus in the ways that he comes to us.  Especially in the Eucharist we can see the true vision of the Father for mankind.  All of our plans should be seen in that light as a litmus test for whether or not they are valuable.


Just as the living Father sent me
and I have life because of the Father,
so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. 

He wants to give life to the world.  And he wants to give us hearts for the world and empower us to bring his life to it.

whoever eats this bread will live forever.” 

His love for us is immense beyond all we can ask or imagine.  Let us lay our plans down at his feet and trust in him alone.


For steadfast is his kindness toward us,
and the fidelity of the LORD endures forever.