Tuesday 2 May 2023
St Athanasius
Acts 11:19-26. All you nations, praise the Lord – Psalm 86(87):1-7. John 10:22-30.
How are we perceived by others?
The first reading today asks us to think about trust. There is a group of people who have escaped persecution. We can just imagine the trauma they carried with them. We probably know people ourselves who have lived through some ordeal and have managed to escape. They might be refugees or they may have moved on from a destructive relationship. They are often tentative as they start to rebuild. It is not easy for those who have been hurt to trust again.
In Antioch, this group meets Barnabas who has come from Jerusalem, seemingly to check on them. This could have gone badly. But it doesn’t. The reason is simple. The persecuted can see that Barnabas is ‘a good man, filled with the Holy Spirit’. Think for a minute how this might have come across. Was he a listener? Non-judgmental? Kind? Let’s ask ourselves if people we meet today, especially those who need healing, will experience us in the same way.
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