Fr Kevin Kilgore

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Gospel: John 16: 20-23

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn,
while the world rejoices;
you will grieve, but your grief will become joy.
When a woman is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived;
but when she has given birth to a child,
she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy
that a child has been born into the world.
So you also are now in anguish.
But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice,
and no one will take your joy away from you.
On that day you will not question me about anything.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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I’m sure we all know the story of Cinderella.

After the death of her mother, Cinderella is forced to live with her evil stepsisters, who turn her into a prisoner inside her own home.

They force Cinderella to wash dishes, to scrub the floors, and to polish their shoes. It’s an unbearably sad story if you don’t know the ending, when the prince falls in love with her, turning Cinderella into a princess.

Knowing what happens makes the movie worthwhile. 

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There’s a strange similarity between Cinderella’s story and the Lord’s words in today’s Gospel.

“Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices,” he says, “you will grieve, but your grief will become joy.”

Jesus is promising every Christian what Cinderella herself received – a storybook ending; a complete reversal of fortune.

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If we try living out all of Christ’s teachings, then at times we, too, can feel like the world is winning, while we are losing.

We forgive our enemies; we pray for those who persecute us; we turn the other cheek; and we love our neighbors without counting the cost.

Sometimes these efforts leave a bitter taste in our mouth, certainly if we aren’t ready to love, forgive, or surrender ourselves entirely to God’s plan.

But remember the story of Cinderella.

“Your grief will become joy,” the Lord promises, as did hers. Every fortune will be reversed. 

What might that mean for me today?

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Image credits: (1) Interrupting the Silence (2) Cinderella, Disney (3) Cosmofunnel.com

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Acts 18: 1-8

Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.
There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus,
who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla
because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome.
He went to visit them and, because he practiced the same trade,
stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade.
Every sabbath, he entered into discussions in the synagogue,
attempting to convince both Jews and Greeks.

When Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia,
Paul began to occupy himself totally with preaching the word,
testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus.
When they opposed him and reviled him,
he shook out his garments and said to them,
“Your blood be on your heads!
I am clear of responsibility.
From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”
So he left there and went to a house
belonging to a man named Titus Justus, a worshiper of God;
his house was next to a synagogue.
Crispus, the synagogue official, came to believe in the Lord
along with his entire household, and many of the Corinthians
who heard believed and were baptized.

The Word of the Lord.

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“Paul sailed for Syria, together with Priscilla and Aquila.”

In our first reading, Paul is on the move again. He’s been preaching the Gospel across Greece, Syria, even as far as Asia.  

Barnabas, Silas, Timothy, Luke, Priscilla and Aquila — are just a few of the people who accompanied him on his journeys. 

Imagine how much harder Paul’s life would have been if he had to preach the Gospel without such companions. Those sleepless nights on ships, in tents, in a stranger’s home, even in prison, could have been terribly lonesome otherwise. 

Paul understood an important lesson in life, and certainly in priestly ministry: friends are essential.

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True friends support us. They listen to our struggles; they pray for us; and stick by our side through the good and hard times. 

Do I have that type of friend? Is the Lord calling me to be that kind of friend for another?

As it’s written in the Book of Sirach: “Faithful friends are a sturdy shelter. Whoever finds one finds a treasure. Faithful friends are beyond price; no amount can balance their worth.”

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May Paul and his companions, pray for us.

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Image credits: (1) BBC (2) Charlestown Road church of Christ (3) Pinterest

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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. 

There were so many gods that some used to say, “In Athens, it is easier to meet a god than a person.”

Perhaps you’ve seen the famous temple where 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 gods of the sky, the sea, even the underworld. Interestingly, there was also an altar titled, “To the Unknown God.” 

The Greeks wisely believed they could not box-in the Divine. God was bigger than they could imagine.

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Enter Saint Paul.

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Imagine him standing in the shadow of the Parthenon, preaching about Jesus Christ. Jesus 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 argues, then they had to worship Jesus. Amazingly, some convert, becoming part of that second generation of Christians.

Paul’s success was driven by three things: he had faith in humanity. He believed every person longed to know the Truth – and Paul could lead them to it.

He understood the scriptures. He was able to argue logically about why Jesus is LORD. 

Most importantly, his actions spoke louder than his words. Paul was courageous, risking humiliation, rejection, even death on multiple occasions for the sake of souls. 

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If someone asked us for a logical argument about why we’re Christian, what might we say? 

And, more importantly, how do we live that faith we profess?

Saint Paul, pray for us.

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Image credits: (1) Vine Christian Centre (2) Saint Paul Preaching at Athens, Raphael (3) I’m Listening to God, WordPress