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Theo Tigno•
6/5/2003 6:40 am
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Thursday, June 5th 2003 |
Acts 22: 30; 23: 6-11
Wishing to determine the truth about why Paul was being accused by the Jews, the commander freed him and ordered the chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin to convene. Then he brought Paul down and made him stand before them.
Paul was aware that some were Sadducees and some Pharisees, so he called out before the Sanhedrin, "My brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of Pharisees; I am on trial for hope in the resurrection of the dead." When he said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the group became divided. For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection or angels or spirits, while the Pharisees acknowledge all three. A great uproar occurred, and some scribes belonging to the Pharisee party stood up and sharply argued, "We find nothing wrong with this man. Suppose a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?" The dispute was so serious that the commander, afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them, ordered his troops to go down and rescue Paul from their midst and take him into the compound. The following night the Lord stood by him and said, "Take courage. For just as you have borne witness to my cause in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness in Rome."
Dawg's thought:
St. Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, knew that there was division among the Sanhedrin, and therefore exploited this division.
Last night, I briefly saw a man on Larry King Live who talked about why other faiths, based on the teachings of Christ, were not true. The two religions that were brought up were Mormonism and Catholicism. Myself, being Catholic, listened to his argument against Catholicism, and the points he made could have easily been explained if someone was around who knew Catholic tradition.
As I read this morning's first reading, I'm struck with our modern day division. St. Paul was able to find division among the Sanhedrin, and in exploiting this division, they couldn't get any work done because their "pride" came first. They were more interested in arguing who was right versus getting down to business. Will we be more interested in feeding our egos on who is right versus feeding Jesus' sheep? Let us be more concerned with spreading the Gospel in our Christian walk, and let us be united in this. Take care and God Bless.
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