Justin Appel

Dear Friends,

I have been thinking recently about the nature of faith, especially how God asks us to be ‘all in’ in our attempt to follow him in our lives. Today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles highlights the reality that faith cannot be a half measure.

This may not be the first truth we think of upon reading this passage, but the theme is present. In the story, a man called Simon sees that the Spirit is given to ordinary people through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, and he begins to calculate. “Give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”

Peter, characteristically, speaks the truth baldly: “Your money parish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money!”

Of course, we might focus on the notion that the Spirit is a free gift to those who believe and are baptized. This could be spun as comforting news: we can’t buy God’s presence, only receive him as a gift. This is true, of course, but it’s not the entire, bracing message of the exchange between Peter and Simon.

Peter discerns that Simon is “in the gall of bitterness and the chains of wickedness.” Simon thought he could buy his way into faith without changing his way of life.

Surely this message is on point for us today. I cannot set stock in God’s favor while manipulating his mercy and refusing stubbornly to turn from my own sinful passions, a concept about which the early Church has much to say. Instead, God asks me to approach him with true repentance—an activity that is surely ongoing and will be characterized by frequent failures. In other words, our active response to God, our intention to follow him is essential.

Perhaps this is a way of saying our faith needs to be genuine, and we need, by God’s gracious empowerment and presence, to persevere with a faith that is real.

Yours in Christ,

—Justin