My Dear People,

First, I would like to thank all those who participated in my 43rd-anniversary of ordination party. It was indeed a great occasion.

Secondly, I would like to congratulate to all the ones who received first communion and all the teachers who assisted and prepared them.

Thirdly, Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers.

As Acts of the Apostles stated that Paul and Barnabas went to Antioch in Pisidia, and as it was their custom on the Sabbath, they entered the synagogue. They began to preach about Christ and salvation. However, the people did not want to hear that, and they opposed Paul and Barnabas.

The opposition of these Jews, who in their jealousy contradict what Paul says, will from now on be the typical attitude of the synagogue to the Gospel. It emerges everywhere the apostle goes, with the exception of Beroea.

Paul may have been hoping that Christianity would flourish on the soil of Judaism, that the Jews would peacefully accept the the Gospel as the natural development of God’s plans. His experience proved otherwise: he encountered the terrible mystery of the infidelity of most of the chosen people, his own people. Even if Israel had been faithful to God’s promises, it would still have been necessary to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles. The evangelization of the pagan world is not a consequence of Jewish rejection of the Word: it is required by the universal character of Christianity. To all men Christianity is the only chance of saving grace; it perfects the law of Moses and reaches out beyond the ethnic and geographical frontiers of Judaism.

Paul and Barnabas quote Isaiah 49:6 in support of their decision to preach to the Gentiles. The Isaiah text referred to Christ, as Luke 2:32 confirms. But now Paul and Barnabas apply it to themselves. The Messiah is “light for the Gentiles” through the preaching of the apostles, for they are conscious of speaking in Christ’s name and on his authority. Therefore, probably here “the Lord” refers not to God the Father but to Christ.

“They shook the dust from their feet”: a traditional expression; the Jews regarded as unclean the dust of anywhere other than the holy land of Palestine. Our Lord extended the meaning of the phrase when he told the disciples he was sending them out to preach, “if any one will not receive you or listen to your words shake off the dust from your feet” (Mt. 10:14; cf. Lk 9:5). This gesture of Paul and Barnabas echoes what Jesus said amounted to “closing the case” or putting on record the unbelief they encountered with the Jews. After being rejected by the Jews, Paul and Barnabas focused their ministry on the Gentiles, for whom the Gospel was meant to be, especially when Jesus told the apostles to go out to the whole world and make disciples of all nations. This phrase of “all the world” meant to eventually go outside the Jewish culture and preach the gospel to the Gentiles. When Paul and Barnabas went to the Gentile territories, there were many who accepted the Gospel.

Yours in Christ,

Fr. Vincent Clemente