‘The truth I have now come to
realise is that God does not have favourites, but that anybody of any
nationality who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to him’ (Acts
10:34-35).
One of the many benefits that comes
from a more mixed society, where we have people from many different parts of
the world living together, is that it helps to broaden our minds. I lived in a religious community for a while
and we often had people from different parts of the world. One morning when we came down for breakfast
two of us noticed that someone had cut the loaf of bread not from top to bottom
into slices the way we usually do, but from one side to the other across the
middle. In other words they had done the
complete opposite of what we were used to.
The two of us who noticed this at the same time both began to complain
saying, ‘Who is the idiot that did this!’
But then almost immediately we both began to check ourselves and say, ‘I
suppose there is no law that says you can’t do it this way!’ and we laughed at
ourselves and how fixed we can be in our ways.
It was a Taiwanese priest living with us whose culture is very different
from ours. Something as simple as this
helped us to see how small-minded we can be in our ways.
In the second reading today St. Peter
says he realised how anyone can be acceptable to God if they do what is
right. That might seem obvious enough to
us, but it wasn’t obvious to them at that time.
The Jewish people believed that they were specially chosen by God, and
that meant anyone else who was not Jewish was not so important to God. But then the Lord began to teach the Apostles
that in fact He was there for everyone, of every nationality and creed. It took them a while to come around to this
way of thinking. In fact the first few
times some Gentiles (non-Jews) received the gift of the Spirit, the Apostles
were quite surprised. They hadn’t
expected this. They didn’t think that
Gentiles would be given the gift of the Spirit. God was helping them to gradually broaden
their horizons. Everyone, of every
nationality and creed was being called into God’s family. The Lord showed this to St. Peter through a
vision (See Acts 10:9-16). Peter saw a
vision of a great sheet being let down from heaven filled with all kinds of
animals and birds. Then he heard a voice
saying:
“Now Peter, Kill and
eat!” But Peter answered, “Certainly
not, Lord; I have never yet eaten anything profane or unclean.” Again a second time, the voice spoke to him,
“What God has made clean, you have no right to call profane”. This was repeated three times and suddenly
the container was drawn up to heaven again (Acts 10:13-16).
This vision helped Peter to
understand that no-one was ‘unclean’ in God’s sight if they tried to live the
right way. The Lord was helping Peter to
see a bigger picture, but as with most of us, this happens gradually. Everyone is called to be part of God’s
family.
After Jesus was Baptised in the
Jordan a vision was seen of the Spirit coming down on him in the form of a
dove. The Father in heaven was
empowering him with the gift of the Spirit, to enable him to live the mission
that the Father had given him, to teach the people about God and to offer
himself for the sins of the world. Right
after Jesus baptism he was led into the desert and then he began his public
ministry. The Spirit gave him the strength and wisdom He needed for this
difficult mission.
Perhaps another reason why people
were allowed to see the Spirit descend in bodily form was to remind us of what
happens when we are baptised. We are
given the gift of the Spirit to enable us to live the Christian life. It is not a way of life that we can live by
our own strength; it would be too difficult.
This is why God gives us the gift of his Spirit to guide, strengthen and
teach us. Jesus said to the Apostles
that after He had ascended into heaven He would send the Spirit, ‘Who will
teach you everything’ (John 16:13b). Our
minds can only take so much, and we are continually learning about the ways of
God.
When we are baptised we state what it
is we believe in and we commit ourselves to this way of faith. For many of us someone else will have spoken
on our behalf if we were baptised as infants, but this is done on the
understanding that we will be taught about our faith as we grow up, otherwise
it would make no sense. If we come for
baptism as adults we will be examined before-hand to make sure we understand
the commitment we are taking on. But the
greatest part of Baptism is the gift of the Spirit who will teach us all we
need to know, and who will continue to challenge us in different ways so that
we grow ever closer to God.
‘The
truth I have now come to realise is that God does not have favourites, but that
anybody of any nationality who fears God and does what is right is acceptable
to him’ (Acts 10:34-35).
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