At first glance, today's reading may seem puzzling. Faith, as we know, is an entirely voluntary matter, and no one has ever dragged anyone into the Kingdom by force. What, then, is the meaning of what happened to the magician mentioned in the account? Outwardly, it looks as though he was punished for...
At first glance, today's reading may seem puzzling. Faith, as we know, is an entirely voluntary matter, and no one has ever dragged anyone into the Kingdom by force. What, then, is the meaning of what happened to the magician mentioned in the account (vv. 6–12)? Outwardly, it looks as though he was punished for his unbelief. But even if we understand the event in precisely this way, we must acknowledge that it did not serve to reform the person being punished: the blinded magician sought help and was almost certainly stunned and frightened, but the evangelist says nothing of his repentance (v. 11). What the proconsul saw probably prompted his conversion (v. 12). Yet he is unlikely to have converted out of fear; it seems more reasonable to suppose that the proconsul discerned God's power at work in the incident, and that this convinced him of the truth of Paul's words (v. 7).
But what did happen to the magician? Paradoxical as it may seem at first, he too probably came into contact with the Kingdom. After all, it was near; it was already spreading and working in the world in such a way that anyone could come into contact with it, even someone who had no use for the Kingdom and was ready to resist it. Of course, with such resistance it is impossible to see the Kingdom. Yet resistance to the Kingdom is itself a kind of relationship with it, one that does not leave a person untouched. For someone who accepts the Kingdom, it becomes the fullness of God's love; for someone who rejects it, it becomes an irresistible force. As we can see, this is not a matter of punishment for unbelief. Rather, we have here the experience of someone who lays claim to a power that can only be received from God, yet does not turn to God. And so, on encountering God's power—for the Kingdom can be manifested in our world not only as love but also as power—he goes blind, literally blind, as a person can be blinded in impenetrable darkness.
The magician mentioned in today's account really did find himself in the Kingdom, but he did not see it and could not see it. And so, finding himself in the Kingdom, he simply saw nothing: before his eyes there was impenetrable darkness, hiding everything he had been able to see before. But this, of course, is not punishment. It is simply an experience of the Kingdom undergone by someone who does not know the Kingdom and does not wish to know it. An experience for which no one but he himself is to blame.
13
13:2 Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them - This was not ordaining them. St. Paul was ordained long before, and that not of men, neither by man: it was only inducting him to the province for which our Lord had appointed him from the beginning, and which was now revealed to the prophets and teachers. In consequence of this they fasted, prayed, and laid their hands on them, a rite which was used not in ordination only, but in blessing, and on many other occasions.