Wednesday in the Sixth Week in Easter
Acts 17:15, 22-18:1; Jn16:12-15
Paul's speech on Mars Hill, or the Areopagus, as we have it in the text today is definitely one of the best known speeches in the Acts of the Apostles. It has a certain rhythm or rhyme to it but perhaps what we admire most in Paul was his ability to use the things that were dearest to his Greek Pagan listeners and apply them to the God that he met in Jesus Christ in his conversion.
At one point, he quotes one of the Greek poets, "In him we move and have our being."
There is an old story of a little fish that tells an older fish, "Excuse me, can you tell me where is this thing that they call the ocean?" The older fish replies, "The ocean is the thing you are in now" "Oh this?" said the little fish. "What I am looking for is the ocean."
They say that familiarity breeds contempt. That can be true of God as well. It could be that we have got used to him so much that we have even lost sight of who he is. Sometimes we can fall into the trap of projecting our own expectations of God rather than allowing him to surprise us with his unimaginable greatness.
Other times, we might have the tendency of putting him into the small categories of our mind, of what God can do or cannot do, or of confusing him with the caricatures of a God that we have not yet completely discovered, and which we have an eternity to continue discovering!
Sometimes, like Paul's listeners, we might scoff when someone mentions the "rising from the dead," such as victory over sin and over hatred, forgiveness and generosity, turning the other cheek and being welcoming.
Jesus knows that these things are hard for us to understand. He does not judge us but neither can he bear seeing us having half truths. He wants us to grasp the truth, the whole truth, without forcing it on us. He promises that if we are open enough to the Holy Spirit, we will know the truth, even the truth God, that is, seeing God more clearly and more fully than we ever did before.
This is not impossible. He has promised that he will give us the means to do so and just as there were at least two of Paul's listeners who had their heart open enough, so we too can have the grace of having an open heart to receive the truth about God.
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