Category: Uncategorized

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Acts 8:26-40

The angel of the Lord spoke to Philip,
“Get up and head south on the road
that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza, the desert route.”
So he got up and set out.
Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch,
a court official of the Candace,
that is, the queen of the Ethiopians,
in charge of her entire treasury,
who had come to Jerusalem to worship, and was returning home.
Seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah.
The Spirit said to Philip,
“Go and join up with that chariot.”
Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and said,
“Do you understand what you are reading?”
He replied,
“How can I, unless someone instructs me?”
So he invited Philip to get in and sit with him.
This was the Scripture passage he was reading:

Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,
and as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who will tell of his posterity?
For his life is taken from the earth.

Then the eunuch said to Philip in reply,
“I beg you, about whom is the prophet saying this?
About himself, or about someone else?”
Then Philip opened his mouth and, beginning with this Scripture passage,
he proclaimed Jesus to him.
As they traveled along the road
they came to some water,
and the eunuch said, “Look, there is water.
What is to prevent my being baptized?”
Then he ordered the chariot to stop,
and Philip and the eunuch both went down into the water,
and he baptized him.
When they came out of the water,
the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away,
and the eunuch saw him no more,
but continued on his way rejoicing.
Philip came to Azotus, and went about proclaiming the good news
to all the towns until he reached Caesarea.

The Word of the Lord.

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The Acts of the Apostles describes the life and activity of the early Church.

It was a dynamic era filled with both wins and losses. Yesterday, for example, Saint Stephen was stoned to death, becoming the first Christian martyr. 

But today the Church gains a disciple.

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Philip is leaving Jerusalem when he comes across an Ethiopian man reading the prophet Isaiah.

“I beg you,” he says to Philip, “about whom is the prophet saying this? About himself or about someone else?”

Because Philip knows his faith, he’s able to break open the scriptures, explaining to him that Jesus is the Messiah, the one whom the prophets foretold.

The Ethiopian man believes Philip’s testimony and is baptized on the spot.

Tradition tells us this man went on to evangelize Ethiopia, which still has an active Christian community today – and, in fact, one of the oldest Christian communities on earth.

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How many people do we know who are like this Ethiopian man, who are either searching for answers or are on the fringe of religion?

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Even Catholics can fall into this category. We all know someone who’s either drifted from the Church or is hungry to know more.

If we are to bring them to Christ like Philip did, then we must know our faith – and why it matters to us. Hence, the second and third pillars of our mission statement: Worshiping God and Making Disciples.

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If someone like the Ethiopian man asked you, “Who is Jesus? Why do you believe in him?”

What might you say? 

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Image credits: (1) Christian Educational Ministries (2) Baptism of the Ethiopian Eunuch, Rembrandt (3) FaithSharer.com

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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, leaving their comfort zones. As a result, the Gospel message spreads to new lands.

And soon enough, God will transform the hardened heart of Saul, who becomes the Apostle Paul. After having his own experience of the resurrected Christ, Saul becomes the most traveled missionary of his era.

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 Saul also participated in – somehow God brought 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.

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Image credits: (1) Fine Art America (2) The Stoning of Saint Stephen, Rembrandt (3) Bibles for America Blog

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1 Corinthians 15: 1-8

I am reminding you, brothers and sisters,
of the Gospel I preached to you,
which you indeed received and in which you also stand.
Through it you are also being saved,
if you hold fast to the word I preached to you,
unless you believed in vain.
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received:
that Christ died for our sins
in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he was buried;
that he was raised on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.
After that, he appeared to more
than five hundred brothers and sisters at once,
most of whom are still living,
though some have fallen asleep.
After that he appeared to James,
then to all the Apostles.
Last of all, as to one born abnormally,
he appeared to me.

The Word of the Lord.

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It’s a strange, but wonderful, truth that one of the first people whom Jesus appears to after his resurrection is Peter (as our first reading reminds us).

Peter fell asleep while Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. He denied knowing Jesus three times while the Lord was being led off to be crucified. He even abandoned Jesus while he hung upon the cross!

Anyone would’ve had reason to be mad with Peter; to hold a grudge; to give him the silent treatment. But Jesus does the opposite; he seeks Peter out immediately after his resurrection.

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Such is the nature of our Lord.

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God is never out to punish us.

He only wants to be reconciled, to draw us into deeper intimacy with him, even when that means washing away our sins.

Because, it seems, there’s nothing more attractive to Jesus than what Peter possessed: a penitential heart. 

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Image credits: (1) Sewickely Presbyterian Church (2) Gustave Brion, Jesus and Peter on the Water (3) Adoring God