Chalice Newsletter for the week of 3 May 2009 -- Defending Ourselves

St Peter enthroned,
originally uploaded by Lawrence OP.

Dear Friends,

Peter stood before the court of the Priests and Elders of Jerusalem. He and his colleagues had been arrested the day before and, after spending a night in jail, found themselves before the leading religious figures of Judaism of their day.
Peter, if you remember, was always something of a foil throughout the gospels. Jesus likened him to Satan at one point in fact. Peter was always getting it wrong, it seemed, around Jesus.

But here he was, facing the authorities. They had been arrested because of a healing they did, though clearly the real reason they were brought in was because they were getting just a bit too popular. Luke, the autor of Acts, tells us they had 5,0000 followers. No doubt this is a representative number; no one went out a did a census of how many followers of The Way there were at that point. It is interesting that the number matches at least one account of the miraculous mass feeding that Jesus performed during his ministry. Luke’s point is that it was a large number who were following by this point.
So Peter, who bumbled his way through the gospels, is suddenly thrust into the position of being a spokesperson. Peter, who denied that he ever knew Jesus just hours before the crucifixion, faced the same people who schemed to have Jesus put to death. And, relying on the Spirit, Peter defended himself and those with him against the charges, those used as presenting charges as well as the unspoken ones.

If we had to defend our faith, would we open ourselves up to the movement of the Spirit and allow it to work through and in us? If we found ourselves facing a group of religious bigwigs, would we be confident of God’s presence with us?

And, actually, aren’t we in that situation more often than we like to admit? In our daily lives, when we are in contact with friends, colleagues, and acquaintances, don’t we have opportunities to tell the story of our church and our faith time and time again?
Peace,
Gerry

(Picture © Br Lawrence Lew, O.P. "St. Peter Enthroned" ;
text © Gerry Brague)