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Acts: 17:15, 22 – 18:1
After Paul’s escorts had taken him to Athens,
they came away with instructions for Silas and Timothy
to join him as soon as possible.
Then Paul stood up at the Areopagus and said:
“You Athenians, I see that in every respect
you are very religious.
For as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines,
I even discovered an altar inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’
What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you.
The God who made the world and all that is in it,
the Lord of heaven and earth,
does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands,
nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything.
Rather it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and everything.
He made from one the whole human race
to dwell on the entire surface of the earth,
and he fixed the ordered seasons and the boundaries of their regions,
so that people might seek God,
even perhaps grope for him and find him,
though indeed he is not far from any one of us.
For ‘In him we live and move and have our being,’
as even some of your poets have said,
‘For we too are his offspring.’
Since therefore we are the offspring of God,
we ought not to think that the divinity is like an image
fashioned from gold, silver, or stone by human art and imagination.
God has overlooked the times of ignorance,
but now he demands that all people everywhere repent
because he has established a day on which he will ‘judge the world
with justice’ through a man he has appointed,
and he has provided confirmation for all
by raising him from the dead.”
When they heard about resurrection of the dead,
some began to scoff, but others said,
“We should like to hear you on this some other time.”
And so Paul left them.
But some did join him, and became believers.
Among them were Dionysius,
a member of the Court of the Areopagus,
a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
After this he left Athens and went to Corinth.
The Word of the Lord.
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Athens was one of the most diverse cities in the ancient world. It was a city of intellects – and a city of gods. In fact, there were so many gods worshipped that some used to say, “It is easier to meet a god than a person.”
Perhaps you’ve seen the famous temple where all the gods were worshiped, the Parthenon, located smack dab in the heart of Athens.
There, people could offer sacrifices to any god they wanted – to the god of the sky, of the sea, even of the underworld. Interestingly, there was also an altar reserved for, The Unknown God.
The Greeks wisely believed that they could not box-in the Divine. God was bigger than they could imagine.
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Enter Saint Paul in our first reading.
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Imagine him standing in the shadow of the Parthenon, preaching about Jesus Christ who is the “Unknown God,” the one through whom everything and everyone was created.
As Paul writes in his Letter to the Colossians, “All things were created through him; all things were created for him; he is before all else that is. In him everything continues in being.”
If the Greeks wanted to worship God in his fullness, Paul argued, then they had to worship Jesus Christ. Amazingly, some people converted, becoming part of the second generation of Christians.
Paul’s success was driven by three things: he had faith in humanity. He believed that every person longed to know the Truth, even if they were far from it. He made it his mission to gently lead people to it.
He understood the scriptures. Paul argued masterfully about why and how Jesus is LORD.
Most importantly, Paul’s actions spoke louder than his words. He was humble and courageous, risking humiliation, rejection, even death on multiple occasions for the sake of souls.
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This is how we will continue to grow the Church today – our belief in the fundamental goodness of all people; we are all searching for Truth. Our understanding of the scriptures. And, above all, by the way in which we live our lives.
Saint Paul, pray for us.
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Image credits: (1) Japanese Congregational Church (2) National Catholic Register (3) KCIS 630