What a plan

The first century after Jesus death has been described by Thomas E. Phillips as a time of prophets, revolutionaries, exorcists, sages, militarists, fanatics, politicians, and philosophers who populated first century Judea. Scholars have tried to define Jesus in terms of the philosophy of many of these types of people. The Evangelist Luke writes in the Book of Acts about the plan of God which in the text today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary shows the leaders of the Jewish community rejecting the exhortations from Paul and Barnabas and they are driven out of the territory. This suffering for the Gospel is noted by Friar Jude Winkler as a cause for Joy as they are filled with the Holy Spirit and the Good News is preached to the Gentiles in accord with the plan of God. The Hellenistic influences on Jewish thought in the first century, noted by Thomas E Phillips, include Stoicism. Fr. George W. Rutler addresses the question of the influence of Stoicism on Luke. Suffering for a cause and having faith in a Divine Plan are positions attributed to Stoics. In the Gospel from John today we have the account of Philip seemingly seeking a rational proof, an object perhaps, that he could analyze to know the relationship between Jesus and the Father. This attempt to categorize and define is like the process expressed by the Jewish philosopher,Martin Buber, of an I-It relationship. Buber expresses that the relationship which in which objectivization is absent, I-Thou, is the deepest knowledge one of the other. This position inclines us to give thanks and praise God as proclaimed today by the psalmist. Robert P. Heaney offers some expansion of the experience of Jesus Word and action which reveals to us the Presence of the Father.