Acts 5:27-33 — The members of the Sanhedrin question Peter and the Apostles about their continued preaching of the name of Jesus. Without apology, Peter and the others respond, “We must obey God rather than men.” The reaction of the Sanhedrin? “When they heard this, they became infuriated and wanted to put them to death.” God cannot be put in a box, ideologically. Such a notion of God becomes too small or otherwise doesn’t quite fit. Where the Apostles saw a source of humility, courage, and confidence in the astonishing experience of God’s grace, the Sanhedrin saw a threat and reacted with rage. If God doesn’t quite fit our own ideas or prayers or dreams, do we respond with openness to the possibilities or do we react with threat and sulking and rage? If my image of God doesn’t fit my experience of God, one of them has to be put to death: which shall it be?

April 11. 2013
Msgr. William J. King