A confused world

In today’s first reading (Acts 14:5-18), pagans confuse the Apostles Paul and Barnabas with the mythological gods Hermes and Zeus.

On one level, it was a natural mistake: when in doubt, the people applied concepts that were familiar. A natural, easy mistake – but a very bad mistake all the same.

The people in the United States saw something similar in the time leading up to the Holy Father’s visit last week: some people mistakenly applied political categories to him (does he help the Republicans or the Democrats?), others applied corporate categories to him (he’s a CEO), and some applied deceptive half-truths and outright lies (he’s a Nazi).

People may likewise try to categorize or pigeonhole us, especially when we try to share or demonstrate our faith.

Although we should make appropriate efforts to correct people’s misunderstanding, we must above all remain faithful to the Truth, regardless of the categorizations and distortions applied to us.

As we do this, we must pray for the Holy Spirit, whom our Lord promises to us in today’s Gospel (John 14:21-26), so that in the midst of a confused world we may remain faithful to Christ in everything we say and everything we do.

The Advocate, the Holy Spirit
whom the Father will send in my name
he will teach you everything
and remind you of all that I told you.