Fidelity and Memory

May 7: Tuesday of the Sixth Week of Easter

May 06, 2024

When stories from different parts of the Bible are pushed together in the daily readings, it can be easy to forget that these are actually separate books, with separate authors and intended audiences. But although they may never have met, the evangelists Luke and John certainly knew people in common, and were trying their best to faithfully record Jesus and His apostles’ time on Earth.

Being fallible humans, they probably made mistakes in the order of events or possibly even direct quotes. You’d expect this from any work of history or biography. But we believe the Holy Spirit guided them such that their works wouldn’t contain moral or doctrinal error.

That’s what we have to discern when we think we notice a mistake in scripture.

Reading 1

Acts 16:22-34

The crowd in Philippi joined in the attack on Paul and Silas, and the magistrates had them stripped and ordered them to be beaten with rods. After inflicting many blows on them, they threw them into prison and instructed the jailer to guard them securely. When he received these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and secured their feet to a stake.

About midnight, while Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God as the prisoners listened, there was suddenly such a severe earthquake that the foundations of the jail shook; all the doors flew open, and the chains of all were pulled loose. When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, thinking that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted out in a loud voice, "Do no harm to yourself; we are all here."

He asked for a light and rushed in and, trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" And they said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you and your household will be saved."

So they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to everyone in his house. He took them in at that hour of the night and bathed their wounds; then he and all his family were baptized at once. He brought them up into his house and provided a meal and with his household rejoiced at having come to faith in God.

I warned you yesterday that being friends with a rich, powerful lady wasn’t going to help Paul and the gang.

This didn’t come out of nowhere, however. Once again, we sort of skipped an important part.1 There was an “oracle” in town; in fact, she was a slave girl possessed by a demon. Her owners would sell prophesies to the highest bidder.

When she saw the disciples preaching, she followed them around, and the demon shouted, “These people are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.” Because, though evil, a demon still recognizes Christ.

So, using the power Christ granted his apostles, Paul exorcised the girl. Instead of being happy that she was free of a demon, her owners gather a mob to attack Paul and Silas!

And that’s where today’s story starts. They’re thrown in the deepest, darkest prison available. And what do they do with their time? They pray with the other prisoners.

God gave them the opportunity to escape their punishment, but they knew it wasn’t quite time, yet. Paul waited for the guard, the guy who threw him in the deepest, darkest prison, and converted him.

Despite some bumps along the way, it’s a cascade of good things that happened when they followed Jesus’ teachings and spread the Gospel.

Responsorial Psalm

Ps 138:1-2ab, 2cde-3, 7c-8

R. Your right hand saves me, O Lord.
I will give thanks to you, O LORD, with all my heart,
for you have heard the words of my mouth;
in the presence of the angels I will sing your praise;
I will worship at your holy temple,
and give thanks to your name.
R. Your right hand saves me, O Lord.
Because of your kindness and your truth,
you have made great above all things
your name and your promise.
When I called, you answered me;
you built up strength within me.
R. Your right hand saves me, O Lord.
Your right hand saves me.
The LORD will complete what he has done for me;
your kindness, O LORD, endures forever;
forsake not the work of your hands.
R. Your right hand saves me, O Lord.

The Psalmist is singing a song of thanks, not of self-congratulation. He didn’t do anything to deserve being rescued. It was only God’s goodness that saved him.

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See Jn 16:7, 13

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I will send to you the Spirit of truth, says the Lord;
he will guide you to all truth.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Jesus has gone up to Heaven, but he hasn’t left us alone.

Gospel

Jn 16:5-11

Jesus said to his disciples: "Now I am going to the one who sent me, and not one of you asks me, 'Where are you going?' But because I told you this, grief has filled your hearts. But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes he will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and condemnation: sin, because they do not believe in me; righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me; condemnation, because the ruler of this world has been condemned."

Jesus says no one asks where he’s going, but, y’know, Peter did,2 and so did Thomas.3 Chapters 13 through 17 of John are called the “Farewell Discourse,” basically a long speech by Jesus at the Last Supper, to prepare the Apostles for his death and resurrection. But it’s clear from little inconsistencies that they didn’t exactly have a stenographer at their Passover dinner.

It’s pieced together from memory and various oral traditions, probably combining multiple sermons into one, long homily. You don’t really notice the inconsistencies when you get it in bits and pieces over weeks, like we have been, but if you read it straight through, you might pick them up.

None of which is to say this didn’t happen, or that Jesus didn’t say these things at some time or other. He probably did preach at the Last Supper, and He probably did say something like this.

But in John’s defense, the early Christians thought the Second Coming was imminent, and there was no need to copy everything word-for-word, because they were almost at the end of time anyway. It was only later that they realized the Gospels needed to be written down for future generations.4

So, yeah, we’re going to get some paraphrasing and inexact quotes. But the words John5 puts in Jesus’ mouth are his recollection of what He said about the Holy Spirit, and it’s not like he’s going to get the core theology wrong; just the wording.

If you can’t trust that the gist is correct, you basically can’t trust anything in the Bible. Or any ancient history. Or any science textbook. Or anything you didn’t see with your own eyes and record with your own pen and paper.

We have to rely on the testimony of others; no one can learn everything by direct experience. We have to use our judgement and trust in the guidance of the Holy Spirit.