An 80 year old woman was startled when the door burst open to reveal a threatening burglar. She ran toward him yelling, "Acts2:38, Acts 2 :38, Acts 2:28!" The burglar couldn't run fast enough to get away from her as she chased him out of the house.
The police came and took him into custody, asking, "Why were you running away from an 80 year old woman?" The young man answered shakily, "She kept yelling, 'I have an axe and 2 -38's'."
You've probably heard about the pastor who asked his congregation to read Acts 29 for the next Sunday. Then he asked everyone who had done their homework to raise their hands.
There really is an Acts 29, but you won't find it in the bible. Many groups have coined the title Acts 29. The point is that Acts 29 is our story. We are the disciples who carry on beyond what is written in Acts. Many of our stories are obscure and unwritten.
Before his dramatic conversion to Christ, Charles de Foucauld was a free-spending playboy. Ordained to the priesthood he spent a solitary life in the Algerian desert praying, working manually and serving the poor.
Charles wrote a rule for a religious order he hoped to found, but he died in 1916 in an anti-French up-rising. Such an obscure end to a life of prayer and love! What was the point of it all?
In 1933 his writings were discovered and a group of men and women started the Little Brothers and Sisters of Jesus. His example of modern day Acts teaches much about God's plan for us. We plant, the lord gives the growth.
Mother Teresa said, "What I do you cannot do; but what you do, I cannot do. The needs are great, and none of us, including me, ever do great things. But we all do small things with great love, and together we can do something wonderful."
In a quote from Avery Dulles last week I said that Easter is a season that reminds us that God-is-with-us. For us there may be cold, lonely seasons, seasons of sickness, seasons of frustration, and a season within which we will die. It is God-with-us that helps us climb out of the human condition.
May God bless you abundantly in this Holy Season as we are open to the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
