Acts 11: There's always more

So the church at Antioch is booming, and Barnabas is sent from Jerusalem to check it out:

"When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians." (11:23-26)

I'm struck particularly by one sentence: "For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people."

I can be a rather impatient person. If I can't master something in about 30 seconds, I'm prone to give up. So I appreciate the reminder that, even if your teacher is St. Paul himself, it can take a while to grasp the Gospel. The Christian faith is in its essence mysterious -- you're never going to "get it." There's always more.

As Chesterton wrote in the final chapter of "Orthodoxy": "the Christian Church in its practical relation to my soul is a living teacher, not a dead one. It not only certainly taught me yesterday, but will almost certainly teach me to-morrow. Once I saw suddenly the meaning of the shape of the cross; some day I may see suddenly the meaning of the shape of the mitre. One fine morning I saw why windows were pointed; some fine morning I may see why priests were shaven."

There will always be more to learn, to reach for, to wonder and marvel at. That's one of the great joys of the faith.

(Image: El Greco, "St. Paul," c. 1608-1614)