Acts 28:25-28. The Roman Jews who have come and listened to Paul are in disagreement about whether to believe what he has just told them. Before they depart, Paul says to them that the Holy Spirit was right in saying to their fathers through the prophet Isaiah "Go to this people and say: You shall indeed hear but never understand, and you shall indeed see but never perceive." He continues Isaiah's quote about how the people's hearts have grown dull and their ears and eyes are closed lest they truly understand and turn to God to heal them. Paul concludes by saying God's salvation is now being sent to the Gentiles, and "they will listen."

This gets at a couple of things, one of which we have seen frequently throughout Acts - that the people who know the faith are often the hardest to convince. They know they have the one, true God, and they know and obey His commands, but they are very resistant to any change, especially a major change, because they feel their knowledge and understanding would inform them if this change was correct. This resistance is a form of pride and reliance on one's self and other men, even priestly men. God made known from the beginning that one day a Savior would come. The unbelieving Jews do not want to accept that this promise has been fulfilled, because the Savior did not come in the way or to the people they were so sure He would. It is the same kind of resistance Isaiah faced when trying to call the people back to proper worship, and that is why Isaiah's words are so appropriate in Paul's mouth here.

I see this resistance to God's Word, to Truth, in so many these days, and it does seem stronger in many faithful Catholics. At first, I thought it was secularism creeping in, and it is, but I also see it now as a form of idolatry. Anything can be an idol, even, paradoxly, our faith, if we allow ourselves to layer our own thoughts and ideas onto it and convince ourselves that is what God is saying or meaning. God is complex and subtle, we will never fully understand Him or His ways. Our faith has to be humble and our eyes and ears open for His true Word, not our words spoken to ourselves in an imitation of His voice. The Gentiles are easier to convince in the early Church because they have not had years of knowing God's law to build up their own interpretation of it. When they hear the loving, self-sacrificing message of Jesus, it goes right into their hearts without having to first fight through layers of dullness and preconceived notions.

Secondly, Paul is able to quote Isaiah, and Isaiah's words are meaningful to the Jews, because they were written down! Human nature does not change and nobody knows us better than our Creator. When He speaks to His messengers in any time, it is important for them to listen and pass the message on, but it is also very important to preserve the messages for future generations. We will start acting the same way again, it is only a matter of time. Isaiah's words have much more gravitas with the Jews than Paul's ever could, simply because they've stood the test of time and faith. Paul's words have much more gravitas in today's world than my journal (as a small example) ever could for the same reason. I think that is a major reason God has put it on my heart to journal Acts of the Apostles right now. We are starting to act the same way as the Jews in Isaiah's time and the disbelieving Jews in Paul's. God wants us to open our hearts, eyes, and ears and turn fully back to Him, and he is using the words of his prophets to call us to that.