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Acts: 8: 1-8
There broke out a severe persecution of the Church in Jerusalem,
and all were scattered
throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria,
except the Apostles.
Devout men buried Stephen and made a loud lament over him.
Saul, meanwhile, was trying to destroy the Church;
entering house after house and dragging out men and women,
he handed them over for imprisonment.
Now those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.
Thus Philip went down to the city of Samaria
and proclaimed the Christ to them.
With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip
when they heard it and saw the signs he was doing.
For unclean spirits, crying out in a loud voice,
came out of many possessed people,
and many paralyzed and crippled people were cured.
There was great joy in that city.
The Word of the Lord.
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The Acts of the Apostles, which we’re reading from throughout the Easter Season, describes the life and liturgy of the early Church, answering questions like:
“What did the first Christians do after the resurrection? How did they worship Christ? What were their lives like?”
Often, it wasn’t pleasant.
As we just heard, “There broke out a severe persecution of the Church in Jerusalem, and all were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria…Devout men buried Stephen [the first martyr] and made a loud lament over him.”
Life for these first Christians was hard and often dangerous.
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But we also see the responsiveness of the Holy Spirit.
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Because the first Christians were persecuted for their faith, they were forced to flee Jerusalem. As a result, the Gospel message begins to spread to new lands.
Soon enough, God will also transform the hardened heart of Saul, who becomes the Apostle Paul. After having his own experience of the resurrected Christ, Paul becomes the most traveled missionary of his era.
He walked more than 10,000 miles on foot, sailed the open seas, preached the Gospel in synagogues, in public, even in prison. God took Paul’s past and passion, which was once used to persecute Christians, and transformed into an unstoppable zeal for the Gospel.
Towards the end of his life, Paul writes about his belief in a profound and mysterious truth: “All things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose.”
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While God allows evil to unfold in our world – take these first Christian persecutions as an example, which Paul once participated in – somehow God can bring good out of it.
“All things work together for the good of those who love God,” because nothing and no one can separate us from the love of Christ.
What might that mean for me today?
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Image credits: (1) Fine Art America (2) Judeo-Christian Clarion (3) Pin on Faith Quotes, Pinterest