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| Saint Stephen Mourned by Saints Gamaliel and Nicodemus, follower of Carlo Saraceni |
(Audio)
For if this endeavor or this activity is of human origin,
it will destroy itself.
This was profound faith in God's providence on the part of Gamaliel. It was a willingness to take the long view of history, since, at any one time, various movements, ideologies, and isms seem to thrive. It was confidence that God could take care of himself, his plans, and his own reputation without needing the assistance of men.
But if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them;
you may even find yourselves fighting against God.
We would do well to learn from Gamaliel that we should not make assumptions about what new thing God or may not choose to do in the world as part of the designs of his providence immediately, nor on apparent success or failure.
He also drew people after him,
but he too perished and all who were loyal to him were scattered.
Gamaliel was suggesting that they step back and not try to force the issue, to wait on God, to see, not whether these early Christians would find success necessarily, but rather whether or not God was with them, whether or not he blessed them, whether or not they bore fruit.
Activities that are of human origin do eventually self-destruct. But we know also that the weeds and the wheat grow up together. We know that we may have to endure false prophets, and suffer false ideologies, as we try to align our own lives with what God is doing even in the midst of our difficulties. We want to be sure that, if we fight at all, it is not that we fight against this or that movement, but that we do our best to see how God is moving and get on board. We don't fight against heresies so much as love the truth. We don't fight against secular humanism as much as insist that there is a better way to human fulfillment. When we waste our time on what we are against it reveals a lack of confidence in God. The Apostles themselves would not have thrived as they did if they made their own movement a fight against the Sanhedrin. They didn't feel the need to defend themselves in that fight, because they were fighting a different one, one to which they were called by God. And that fight they were winning.
So they left the presence of the Sanhedrin,
rejoicing that they had been found worthy
to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name.
And all day long, both at the temple and in their homes,
they did not stop teaching and proclaiming the Christ, Jesus.
Our ability to trust in God to take care things when, humanly speaking, resources are insufficient, is part of the grace of the gift of faith which we can decide to use no matter the circumstances.
“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish;
but what good are these for so many?”
These offerings were more than enough for the crowd because they were brought to Jesus in faith. Jesus himself, because he offered his life to the Father, was able to become food for the whole world. In faith, our own limited offerings of self can participate in the one offering of Christ, and because of faith, superabound for others.
Gather the fragments left over,
so that nothing will be wasted.”
So they collected them,
and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments
from the five barley loaves that had been more than they could eat.
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