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Acts: 14: 19-28
In those days, some Jews from Antioch and Iconium
arrived and won over the crowds.
They stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city,
supposing that he was dead.
But when the disciples gathered around him,
he got up and entered the city.
On the following day he left with Barnabas for Derbe.
After they had proclaimed the good news to that city
and made a considerable number of disciples,
they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch.
They strengthened the spirits of the disciples
and exhorted them to persevere in the faith, saying,
“It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships
to enter the Kingdom of God.”
They appointed presbyters for them in each Church and,
with prayer and fasting, commended them to the Lord
in whom they had put their faith.
Then they traveled through Pisidia and reached Pamphylia.
After proclaiming the word at Perga they went down to Attalia.
From there they sailed to Antioch,
where they had been commended to the grace of God
for the work they had now accomplished.
And when they arrived, they called the Church together
and reported what God had done with them
and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.
Then they spent no little time with the disciples.
The Word of the Lord.
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It’s another tough day for Saint Paul.
As it says in our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, “They stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead.”
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Imagine Paul barely breathing… covered in rubble… left for dead.
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Suddenly, that pile of rubble starts to shake. A dusty and bruised Paul emerges victoriously.
Once taken for dead, he’s now alive again.
You might say that scene foreshadows the resurrection. Paul knows that the day will come when he is laid in a tomb one final time.
But he also knows that – like today – he will rise from the rubble. He’s not afraid; he’s seen the Risen Christ and knows that this is his destiny, as well.
As he later writes says, “O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?”
Paul is so convinced of the resurrection that he cannot help but share this news with the world; he’s like a man in love who has to tell everyone about the one who stole his heart.
So, he stands up, shakes the dust from his feet, and continues to preach until he draws his very last breath.
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What would it look like for us to have the faith of Saint Paul?
Would our behavior change? Would our burdens feel lighter?
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“This is the will of my heavenly Father,” Jesus says, “that you believe in the One he sent.”
In a word, that you live like Saint Paul.
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Image credits: (1) Bartolomeo Montagna (2) On this Rock: The Stoning of Paul the Apostle (3) Jesus Christ by Heinrich Hofmann