"[Apollos] began to speak boldly in the synagogue; but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him and expounded to him the way of God more accurately." (Acts 18:26)
Have you ever dumped out an old puzzle and put it together only to find that there were pieces missing? This is similar to what we encounter in today's reading from the Book of Acts. Apollos, a learned Alexandrian Jew who was converted and would ultimately go on to be one of the great preachers and apostles to the Christian Faith, was teaching about God, but with various errors or partial truths. Therefore, when Priscilla and Aquila heard his preaching and realized that "pieces were missing," they took him aside and conveyed to him the "fullness of the Faith."
We, too, often have incorrect and imperfect beliefs or understandings about God. How often do we blame him for illness, disease, and death? How often do we question why He allows wars, floods, famines, and poverty? We think somehow, as did the Jews of old, that God is some type of punisher afflicting us for our sins. But our God is a god of love who created and put us in a paradise, only to have us choose to go against Him and now we are stuck with an imperfect world in which the devil reigns and causes conflict. And every time we turn to God and question Him, or worse, blame Him, the devil wins.
Such beliefs stem from our lack of knowledge about God which comes through not knowing or reading Holy Scripture "which shows that the Christ was Jesus" (Acts 18:28). Don't go through life having "missing pieces" in your knowledge of God, but learn,study, and grow in the faith so that you will mature and stand resolute against all the forces of evil which might otherwise sway us.
XB!
Fr. John
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