The dramatic first reading today is a good reminder of how easy it is for faith and manifestations of faith to be misunderstood or misinterpreted. It happened to Jesus, when crowds wanted to make Him a king because they saw the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves. When Paul and Barnabas healed a crippled man, the crowd took them to be gods and wanted to worship them. Feeding hungry people, enabling people who are disabled can indeed sometimes seem dramatic, but in the scriptures the point is always the faith that makes possible these miracles of God's power. What faith can do, the way faith can change people, is often ridiculed or discounted. On the other hand, people are easily captivated by wonders and strange happenings, stories of miracles and healings which may or may not be genuine. Remember Jesus' warning about the 'signs and wonders' that would distract people before His second coming?

Maybe our modern world is specially prone to this kind of thing. Look at the heroes and role-models that are pushed or proposed, especially to young people. How like 'gods' they are, in the way they're treated and expect to be treated! And listen to Paul and Barnabas' reaction: "Friends, what do you think you're doing? We're only human beings like you. We've come with good news to make you turn from these empty idols to the living God who made heaven and earth ..."