Today’s first reading, taken from the Acts of the Apostles, illustrates the meaning of the adage, “A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.” 

The Christian congregation at Antioch in Syria commissioned Barnabas and Paul to preach the Gospel in the Synagogues of the diaspora.  Their first destination was the island of Cyprus where they made disciples in the towns of Salamis and Paphos.  From Cyprus, they returned to the mainland of Asia Minor and preached in the city of Perga in what is today the country of Turkey. Then, they traveled north to Antioch in Pisidia where Paul preached at length about how Jesus’ death and resurrection were the culmination of God’s actions to redeem the world from sin. 

Our first reading begins on Barnabas and Paul’s second day of preaching in Pisidian Antioch.  Some of those who had gathered became jealous over the size of the crowd the Barnabas and Paul attracted.  They attacked the two evangelists and chased them out of the town. 

This event marked a major turning point in the evangelists’ missionary journey as well as a major turning point in the ministry of the Church.  It became clear to Barnabas and Paul that God was directing them to preach the Gospel to gentiles as well as their fellow Jews.  After this event, Paul’s attention was directed increasingly to evangelizing pagan gentiles. 

The people who persecuted Barnabas and Paul did not object to religion or to the belief that God saves God’s People from sin.  Rather, they had a little knowledge of God and God’s grace, but their knowledge was insufficient.  Like many Catholics today, Barnabas and Paul’s persecutors fell into the error of believing that faith in God required only the static amount of knowledge of God’s will that they had already attained.  Their little bit of knowledge proved dangerous both to them and to the evangelists. 

The evangelists’ response might seem very harsh to modern hearers, but it wasn’t meant to be an insult.  Paul and Barnabas said, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first, but .  .  . you reject it and condemn yourselves as unworthy of eternal life.” (Acts 13:46) 

Many people today would espouse a different approach to those who rejected Barnabas and Paul.  In the twenty-first century, it is popular to respond to complaints and objections by saying, “Oh, I’m so sorry I offended you.  I never meant to call into question the validity of your personal truth.  I affirm your right to conceive of God in your own way.”  It is equally popular to respond with insults, intimidation, and threats of violence.  These kinds of responses are appropriate expressions of belief in purely subjective truth, but they are not appropriate expressions of faith in the One, True God. 

I know that many will complain about my insistence on truth as purely objective.  We live in a society that defines truth as individual and personal to the point of being a private experience.  It is offensive to many people to hear that truth is not a matter of opinion or personal experience or political perspective.  I am aware that professing truth to be objective is widely viewed today as being a quaint holdover from a less enlightened past, but there is a simple demonstration of this claim’s veracity. 

Those who claim to be deeply offended when their personal truths are not validated by others are able to make such a claim only on the basis of the assumption that truth is, in fact, universal rather than personal.  In order to complain that one has been offended, there must be an objective and universal meaning to offence; if truth is not objective, claiming to be offended is meaningless because it cannot be experienced or understood by anyone except the person offended. 

The people in Pisidian Antioch could have listened patiently to Barnabas and Paul, even if they found the evangelists’ preaching to be offensive and disturbing.  Then, having listened to the disturbing message, they would have been free to agree or disagree; threats and violence were unnecessary and disingenuous. 

Barnabas and Paul, for their part, modeled authentically virtuous behavior when faced with an offensive and disturbing situation; they spoke the truth and continued their mission to preach the Gospel.  Their warning that their persecutors had condemned themselves was not bullying or coercion; it was merely a statement of the predictable consequences of rejecting God’s Word. 

Some claim that the revealed truth of the Gospels is oppressive or coercive; it is their right to do so because faith is authentic only when it is a free choice.  The disciples of Jesus, however, are obliged never to conform themselves to the sentiments and opinions of non-believers.

Barnabas and Paul are models of how to live faithfully in a world where faithlessness is often considered a virtue.  The objective truth about human existence is this: self-righteousness, licentiousness, vulgarity, dishonesty, coercion, violence, and similarly selfish behavior are both unnecessary and disingenuous because they make one’s claims about truth into a lie.  Those who claim to believe in the universal truth of God’s will to save the world through the death of Jesus, on the other hand, are obliged never to be satisfied with a small measure of the truth but rather, to pursue greater knowledge of truth daily. 

If the complainers in Antioch of Pisidia had been more open to understanding God’s Word, they could have avoided sin, conflict, and the embarrassment of rejecting the truth of the Gospel.  The same redemption from the darkness of unbelief is available to all who refuse to be satisfied with a narrow experience of God’s will.