It was just too much for them, these Greeks. As Paul addresses the Athenians, he talks to\nthem about a different kind of God and it was just too much for them to take at\none time. First of all, it was so\ndifferent. These were educated people\naccording to the Greek traditions. They\nknew all about their gods; and they knew about other cultures and their gods. They were tolerant of these other beliefs as\nthe altar to the unknown god testified. In\na sense, they knew too much about these other belief systems. Today, they would be called pluralists; those\nwho believe that there is a little bit of truth in all faiths. Such folks believe that God speaks in his own\nspecial way to all cultures and peoples. \nSo, there is value in listening to all and integrating everyone\u2019s\nrevelation. Pluralists think it is\narrogant for someone to proclaim that their religion has the answer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paul\u2019s words turned everything around on them. Paul talked about how there was only one God,\na God who was beyond all understanding; a God who made everything and everyone. Such a God would supersede all these other\nreligions that these folks studied. They\njust didn\u2019t want to hear that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Secondly, they did not have the proper disposition because their hearts were closed.\u00a0 They were not capable of inspiration; not open to it.\u00a0 The vanity of their educated status and their long line of traditions, made the idea of resurrection of the body absurd to them.\u00a0 And so, they politely rejected Paul.\u00a0 They told him \u201cWe should like to hear about this some other time\u201d.\u00a0 And so Paul left.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We also live in a culture that thinks it has all the\nanswers. Our culture believes that mankind\ncan control their own destiny. Many\nteach that all creation can be explained without God; and that our science and\ntechnology has advanced to the point where we can forge our own destiny. We can clone animals and people, they say. We have genetically engineered this and that. And they also scoff at the idea of an\nafterlife, especially a resurrected body. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, the interesting thing is that the Christian message conquered the western world despite the arguments, smugness, and arrogance of the establishment of its time.\u00a0 They conquered the world because of the love that the Christians displayed.\u00a0 They conquered the world by speaking and living the truth.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The tiny group of 12 men that gathered around Jesus and listened to the words Jesus spoke to them this morning in the Gospel changed the world forever.\u00a0 Most of the 12, all but one, suffered martyrdom in the process.\u00a0 But they had the peace that Jesus offered them in the process.\u00a0 They had that peace because of the tremendous force that Jesus promises them this morning.\u00a0 They had the energy, words, inspiration, and guidance of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 And so even when they were being persecuted, they were at peace with their God.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This Easter, Father John gave each of us a little book to\nread. I don\u2019t know how many of you have\nread it, but the author, Matthew Kelly, makes a very strong point. He advises all of us that we can respond to\nthe Holy Spirit with Holy Moments. We\nmay not live holy moments all the time but we can be inspired to live holy moments\nat any time. Our holy moments involve\nthe inspiration we have to do something simple, yet extraordinary in our lives:\nto love unconditionally and unexpectedly for just a short period of time by\nhelping a neighbor; doing something extra and unexpected. And if we all live holy moments more often, that\nwill make a difference. Even the most\narrogant and smug in society can be touched by the love of a holy moment just\nlike they were 2000 years ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So a good, sound, theological argument may fall on deaf\nears, just as it did with the Athenians in Paul\u2019s time. It may be just too much all at one time for\nthose who are disposed otherwise. But a\nlittle love goes a long way. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wednesday of the Sixth Week of Easter Acts 17: 25, 22B- 18:1; Jn 16:12-15 Deacon Larry Brockman It was just too much for them, these Greeks. As Paul addresses the Athenians, he talks to them about a different kind of God and it was just too much for them to take at one time. First […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[579,580],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1136"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1136"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1137,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1136\/revisions\/1137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}