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Acts 20: 17-27
From Miletus Paul had the presbyters
of the Church at Ephesus summoned.
When they came to him, he addressed them,
“You know how I lived among you
the whole time from the day I first came to the province of Asia.
I served the Lord with all humility
and with the tears and trials that came to me
because of the plots of the Jews,
and I did not at all shrink from telling you
what was for your benefit,
or from teaching you in public or in your homes.
I earnestly bore witness for both Jews and Greeks
to repentance before God and to faith in our Lord Jesus.
But now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem.
What will happen to me there I do not know,
except that in one city after another
the Holy Spirit has been warning me
that imprisonment and hardships await me.
Yet I consider life of no importance to me,
if only I may finish my course
and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus,
to bear witness to the Gospel of God’s grace.
The Word of the Lord.
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Often at funerals, a family member or friend offers a eulogy for the deceased, highlighting particular memories or qualities that made that person beloved by others.
Rarely has someone written his or her own eulogy.
But, in a sense, that’s what Saint Paul is doing in today’s first reading. Before boarding a ship, he says farewell to his community in Ephesus, saying, “I know that none of you to whom I preached the kingdom during my travels will ever see my face again.”
What a wrenching moment, saying farewell before his death to those whom he loved, something Jesus did just a few decades earlier.
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In this farewell discourse, Paul says several things about himself.
He spoke fearlessly. He preached to both Jews and Gentiles alike about the resurrection of Christ, often at great personal cost.
He lived independently; Paul worked for the bread he ate.
He was ready and willing to offer his life for the Gospel. “But now, compelled by the Spirit,” he says, “I am going to Jerusalem. What will happen to me there I do not know.”
Eventually, Paul travels from Jerusalem to Rome, where he’s martyred in the year 65 AD.
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What Paul says of himself we pray will be said of every Christian: “I fought the good fight. I ran the race to the finish. I kept the faith.”
May we continue running the race today.
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Images: (1) FuneralWise.com (2) Saint Paul by Bartolomeo Montagna