Acts

My husband and I finished Acts last night. We read a chapter a night, taking turns reading out loud. We missed a few nights, but mostly we were faithful readers.

As I thought back on what we read, what struck me is what an incredible journey (both physically and spiritually) St. Paul and the other disciples had following Jesus’ death. I envy their total commitment to the truth and to spreading the news about Jesus Christ. They really couldn’t have had much doubt in Jesus’ word, because heaven knows the nonbelievers didn’t make it easy for them. Most eventually were martyred for the cause.

It also struck me that many of the people who chose to follow Jesus did so because St. Paul or St. Peter or St. Barnabus or St. Stephen or St. Whomever was able to demonstrate God’s power by curing the sick or raising the dead to life. When doing so, they had to continually remind the folks that they weren’t the ones who were performing the miracle, but instead, they were God’s vehicles – His intermediaries. But those followers had a direct and very real demonstration of God’s existence.

Today, in order to follow Jesus, we have to have faith. We have to believe in the scriptures and we have to believe in those who bring God to us. While in some ways that is more difficult, at least we aren’t in danger of being crucified for our beliefs.