Monday of the Fifth Week of Easter

"Bridges, Not Walls"

In our society, it’s not very likely that anyone will go so far as to worship a missionary or preacher. The time of the Acts of the Apostles was quite different. After the cure of the crippled man in today’s reading from Acts, the local people thought that Paul and Barnabas were gods “come down to us in human form” (Acts 14: 11). But Paul and Barnabas told them they were simply bringing them the Good News.

We are more likely to treat as gods, to “idolize” sports heroes, charismatic politicians, movie stars and doctors who work wonders for the sick. In spiritual matters we may approach this kind of “worship” when we forget that all the ministers of the Church (laity, priests, members of religious orders, bishops, popes) and all the sacraments, rituals and religious practices of our faith are helpful means to our relationship with the Holy Mystery we name God. They continue the work of the apostles – bringing the Good News of the Gospel to the human family and bringing the human family closer to God.

While we turn to the ministers of the Church for advice, counsel or instruction, they can never replace our consciences or the decisions and choices which make us followers of the Lord in our time and place. All the external practices of our faith are gifts to help us on our pilgrim way to God through this beautiful but terribly fractured and broken world. If we don’t go beyond them and see through them to God, we are taking them for more than they are. A spiritual guide once put it this way: “when a wise person points to the moon, the fool sees only the finger.”

Rituals, practices and ministers are to be bridges to God for us; if given too much importance in themselves, they become walls instead. We can cherish and honor sincerely all those who have fed our faith along our journey; we can treat reverently and with love the practices of our faith. We can do all this without forgetting that they point beyond themselves to the fullness that is our destiny.