for May 7
Thursday of the Fourth Week of Easter

Paul loved to travel. From this point on the Acts of the Apostles will tell the story of Paul’s adventures as he moves from town to town—and a wild story it is.

Yesterday we were told that Paul and his companion, Barnabas, were sent on a travel mission by the Holy Spirit. And thus commenced what tradition calls Paul’s first missionary journey. There will be three journeys all told in Acts, not counting Paul’s final journey from Jerusalem to Rome.

Paul set out from his home base in Antioch. Antioch was one of the great cities of the Roman empire, located in what today is Syria, near the modern city of Aleppo which recently suffered almost total destruction in the on-going Syrian civil war. They traveled to the island of Cyprus and then after a short stay set sail north to what is today the southern coast of Turkey. Just to confuse matters, today’s reading tells the story of Paul’s adventures in “Antioch in Pisidia.” This is a small town in southern Turkey, not to be confused with “big” Antioch in Syria.

As we know, Luke loves to give us staged speeches, putting the words onto the lips of the great characters of his story. Today the synagogue officials invite Paul to speak, an invitation Paul would surely accept. Luke uses this literary devise to advance his own theology, giving it added weight with the endorsement of ultimate authorities like Peter or Paul.

What’s really going on in this long travel log that Luke gives us? We can read Acts with amazement first of all at the sheer physical stamina of Paul. One can only be impressed at the energy so much in evidence in the early Church, how the Church grew so rapidly and spontaneously through the ancient world. And finally, there is the courage and persistence of Paul in the face of overwhelming obstacles and resistance.

True enough. But there is another dimension, too, that perhaps is highly relevant and challenging to our own world.

We love boundaries. In all their many faceted forms, boundaries are exceedingly popular. Politicians run on platforms that advocate stronger border enforcement. People are always setting up neighborhoods that restrict who can be admitted, excluding undesirables. Even our communities of faith indulge in this love of boundaries, claiming the distinction between the “saved” and the outsiders who are condemned to eternal damnation. 

The early Christians were plagued by an absolute insistence on one boundary in particular. And Paul, too, was obsessed by it—prior to his conversion. It was the boundary between Jew and Gentile that was the cornerstone of order in their religious world. Ironically, this division has plagued the church through much of its history, but in reverse. For the church in Paul’s day, no one could imagine how a non-Jew could ever become a follower of Christ. For later generations, the problem flipped to how can a Jew ever be included in the Kingdom that Christ proclaimed. But what remained throughout history was the boundary, the division that served as the seedbed for hatred.

After his conversion, Paul’s passion took a radical turn against the greatest boundary that was operative in his world. For Paul, the person of Christ became the single focus who transcended all the differences. Acts will tell us how Paul worked so tirelessly to draw all people into that center where grace is bestowed on everyone. Luke in his portrait of Paul got that right, as Paul’s all-consuming ambition. 

So as you read through Acts, put yourself imaginatively in Paul’s world as he reaches out to the Gentiles and preaches that all the boundaries are gone, as he stated so emphatically in the third chapter of his letter to the Galatians, another area in modern day Turkey. And then come back into today’s world and notice anew all the boundaries, some of which maybe even you may adhere to. Imagine how Paul would challenge us to make Christ the center of our world and to work against all the prejudices that divide us and all the leaders that preach division that leads to hatred.
—Walter Modrys SJ

Today’s readings can be found on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops website.