(Please read the Scripture passage before the homily.)
Uh-oh, Peter is in trouble. He has been rating and associating with Gentile, those vile people. Why would the great Peter do such a sacrilegious thing?
Peter has his reply. He was praying, he saw a large sheet loaded with animals of all kinds and the Lord told him to eat. The Lord made no distinction between the unclean and the clean. Then the Lord told Peter to go with some Gentile guides. He went there, and the Holy Spirit came down upon the group as the Spirit has come upon the apostles at Pentecost. How could Peter refuse baptism to those whom God’s Spirit had singled out?
This incident marked a new phase in the work of the apostles: they were to go to the Gentiles, the pagans, as well as to the children of Israel. In the Church of today, we have many new phases possible; how is the Spirit directing us so that we announce to all people the good news of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus?
We put names of people so that we can control them better. Peter’s generation had people divided by uncircumcised and uncircumcised, Israel and Greek.
In our day we have made division between white and Indians, between whites and blacks, between male and female, between the haves and the have-nots, and between the many other categories we use to discriminate against the others. God, however, does not use these categories because God gives God’s gifts to all without question or condition.
The wisdom of the early Church and the wisdom of Peter lay in listening to the word of God and by letting God guide the Church. Our wisdom lies in the same procedure, that of listening to what God has to tell us.