Acts 12:12 - 13:5 / John 12:44-50
Some things in the Bible seem so different from our modern present day situations.
Especially when we hear about the signs and wonders that were recorded in the Bible but which we don't seem to encounter all at.
Well, we don't need to see the parting of the Red Sea, but where there is famine and shortage of food we would like to see the miracle of the multiplication of loaves, and where there is an epidemic we would like to see some miraculous healing.
And the 1st reading would sound rather remote and abstract for us when it said that the Holy Spirit told the disciples that Barnabas and Saul were to be set apart for some work.
So did the Holy Spirit appear to them and in what kind of form? Or did they hear some voice from heaven telling them this?
And here we are complaining that God doesn't seem to say anything to us especially when we need directions and to make decisions.
Yet we must remember that the disciples were praying and keeping a fast when they "heard" the Holy Spirit.
When we pray and fast, we will slowly open our hearts to the presence of God.
We will also begin to hear the voice of God, which is the voice of the Holy Spirit.
And we will be able to say like what Jesus said in the gospel - What the Father has told me is what I speak.
Yes, we will speak the words that come from God, and we will also be able to see signs and wonders that God will work in our lives.