The Impact of Ignorance

 Reflection on Today's Readings, Thursday of 7th Week of Easter, Year B, May 20th,  2021
Texts: Acts 22:30; 23:6-11; Ps. 16:1-2.5.7-11; John 17:20-26
Paul is now in chain. However, the question may be asked: Is Paul the real issue here? Why is he in chain? Certainly Paul is not the real issue; for he was once with them and they loved him and he advanced their cause. Paul is in chain because of the faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The problem is not just about resurrection but resurrection of Jesus Christ. If it were to be about resurrection without reference to Jesus, all the pharisees were to be imprisoned. Though Paul says, “Brethren, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees; with respect to the hope and resurrection of the dead I am on trial.” Paul did not discuss resurrection as it concerns  Jesus because he wanted the sympathy of the pharisees so as to divide the council which stood against him. If he had mentioned Jesus he would have infuriated the pharisees. The reaction of the pharisees shows they were ignorant of why Paul was in chain. What really divided the people was lack of knowledge, lack of information. When people lack knowledge or information, they act on whatever little information they could get from any quarter. The same thing is happening in our nation: Mr president neither acts nor speaks and yet expects the citizens not to believe any information made available to them from other quarters.
Knowledge is very crucial to unity. Jesus affirms it thus: "The glory which you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to behold my glory which you have given me in your love for me before the foundation of the world." Those words of Jesus show that He hides nothing from us. The glory Father gave Him, He gave us. He did not just give us the glory he received from the Father but also desires that we live with Him so as to make the knowledge of Him first-hand. Jesus desires that we grow in knowledge of Him to the point of making it first-hand. The unity among us will become perfect when our knowledge of Him becomes first-hand. We have to continue deepening our knowledge of Him so that the unity among us will become perfect. We are far apart, today, to the level of our ignorance; the level of our ignorance determines the width and breadth of our disunity.
Paul wore chain because of the faith in the resurrection of Jesus, the reason for our hope in God, the reason for our repentance, the reason for all our efforts here below. The people were not against Paul but the faith he propagated. This brings to mind the words of Shakespeare in the mouth of Brutus: "We all stand up against the spirit of Caesar, And in the spirit of men there is no blood. Oh, that we then could come by Caesar’s spirit. And not dismember Caesar! But, alas, Caesar must bleed for it" (Julius Caesar, Act 2, Scene 1). If they could have been able to put the faith in chain without Paul being in chain they would have done it. What was in chain was our faith, but not without Paul.
Jesus Christ assured Paul that his chain was an opportunity for him to bear witness to the faith in Rome. He says, "Take courage, for as you have testified about me at Jerusalem, so you must bear witness also at Rome.” Jesus Christ willed the faith to shine forth in his chain. For some of us, Jesus Christ wills the faith to shine forth in our sickness. No matter  amount of prayer we offer for healing of such sickness, it will remain. For some of us, Jesus Christ wills the faith to shine forth in poverty; for some in riches; for some in endurance and resilience; for some in peace and joy; etc. Some saints had borne witness to the faith in martyrdom; some in life of solitude; some in public life; some in virginity or celibacy; some in marital life; etc. However, many a time we denounce the circumstance in which Jesus Christ wills the faith to shine forth in our lives. The way to salvation is to accept our lot, the way Jesus Christ has decided to make  the faith shine forth in our lives. His will is the best for us.

God our Father, send us the Holy Spirit to fill us with the intimate knowledge of you and your Son, Jesus Christ, so that we may be united perfectly in you. Amen.

Fr. Andrew Olowomuke