Why do the heathen rage? (Acts 4)

After their release they went back to their own people and reported what the chief priests and elders had told them. And when they heard it, they raised their voices to God with one accord and said, “Sovereign Lord, maker of heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them, you said by the holy Spirit through the mouth of our father David, your servant:
‘Why did the Gentiles rage
    and the peoples entertain folly?
The kings of the earth took their stand
    and the princes gathered together
        against the Lord and against his anointed.'" (Acts 4:23-26)

The persecution of the Church begins in Acts 4, with the arrest of Peter and John by the chief priests and scribes. The Sanhedrin cannot deny the very public miracle performed by Peter in the name of Jesus the previous day, and they likewise prove powerless in prohibiting the apostles from continuing to proclaim the Good News. 

Why are the chief priests so set against Jesus? Why do the Roman emperors persecute the Church? Why are so many people today so opposed to Jesus Christ?

Power is one issue. The gospel threatens the authority of the chief priests and scribes as the definitive interpreters of the Mosiac law. To embrace the gospel is to reject the authority of the Jewish priests and scribes and follow the authority of the apostles, the hand-picked priests of Jesus. 

Likewise, to follow Jesus is to accept Him and Him alone as the ultimate authority. Peter illuminates this principle boldly and succinctly in Acts 4:20-21: “Whether it is right in the sight of God for us to obey you rather than God, you be the judges. It is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard.” To the Roman emperors, who sought absolute power and encouraged people to worship them as gods, Jesus was a threat. 

Both the chief priests and the Roman emperors valued power over truth. On a more basic level, every person faces the choice of surrendering to Jesus and doing His will, or rejecting Him and retaining their own power to follow their own will. It is a hard thing to surrender one's own will. But there is a world of difference between believers who are gradually, in fits and starts, trying to relinquish their self-will and entirely surrender to Jesus, and those who absolutely refuse to yield an inch to the Son of God. 

Hardness of heart is an issue as well. How many miracles did the Pharisees witness and continue to deny Jesus? “I have shown you many good works from my Father," Jesus tells them. "For which of these are you trying to stone me?” (John 10:32) So set are the Pharisees in their own ways, so convinced are they of their own righteousness, there is nothing Jesus nor the apostles can do to convince them that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. "Neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead" (Luke 16:31).

It is a Biblical truth and a modern social science truth that once people make up their minds, it is hard for them to change their minds. (I always like it when social science uncovers ancient Biblical truths.) I came across a case of modern hardness-of-heart reading Immaculée Iligabiza's excellent book Our Lady of Kibeho. The Blessed Virgin Mary first appeared to 17-year old Alphonsine Mumureke on November 28, 1981 and then to 20-year old Nathalie Mukamazimpaka in January 1982. Alphonsine and Nathalie were students at a Catholic boarding school in the small village of Kibeho, Rwanda. Marie Clare Mukangango was also a student at the boarding school. Many of the students opposed the two visionaries, and Marie Clare was their leader. She mocked Alphonsine and Nathalie and would scream at them and hit them during their visions. Alphonsine and Nathalie would look up, as if in a trance, throughout their visions, and would take no notice of anything going on around them, not even when they were physically attacked. No matter what signs were given that the visions were genuine, and even as more priests and nuns at the school came to believe, Marie Clare would not be convinced. Not, that is, until Our Lady appeared to Marie Clare, on March 2, 1982, and asked her to spread devotion to the Seven Sorrows Rosary for the reparation of sins and for peace in the world. Like Saint Paul after the road to Damascus, Marie Clare would spread this devotion for the rest of her life. 

Why do people harden their hearts, especially in light of God's miracles? The lesson of Acts, and modern-day evangelization, is not that everyone will be converted, or that the Church will be free of persecution. Jesus pulled no punches with His apostles about the opposition they would face, and He willingly faced it Himself. Jesus simply told His apostles that the Holy Spirit would be with them, and encouraged them to rejoice in the face of persecution, for their reward in Heaven would be great (Matthew 5:11-12).

Ultimately God alone can soften a hardened hard. He may do this gradually or all at once. We are called to share the Good News and pray for those who are lost. 

Notes:

1. The New American Revised Bible translates Acts 4:25 as "Why did the Gentiles rage and the peoples entertain folly?" The King James Bible reads, "Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things?" Why Do the Heathen Rage? was the working title of Flannery O'Connor's final novel, unfinished at the time of her early death in 1964. 

2. Mary shared a horrific vision of slaughter with Alphonsine, Nathalie, and Marie Clare on August 15, 1982, with many witnesses present. This was a vision of the Rwandan genocide which claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, including Marie Clare, in 1994. The Vatican approved the apparitions of Alphonsine, Nathalie, and Marie Clare on July 2, 2001.

Pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet every day for the salvation of souls.