THE WORD BECAME FLESH

Monday of the sixth week of Easter, 2022

Acts 16:11-15

Ps 149

John 15:26-16:4a

Devout witnesses

Today’s first reading (Acts 16:11-15) describes a significant moment in the spread of the gospel in the early church. For the first time, Paul preaches the gospel in the equivalent of modern-day Greece, which is the continent of Europe. The first people to hear the gospel on European soil from Paul, according to our first reading, were a group of devout women who gathered for prayer on the Sabbath outside the gates of the city of Philippi. One member of that group, a woman named Lydia, responded wholeheartedly to Paul’s preaching of the gospel. She was a woman of some means. She was involved in the purple dye trade. Purple cloth was the most expensive cloth at the time. She had the means to offer Paul hospitality and she insisted that Paul accept her offer; it was her way of giving thanks to God for what she had received from Paul. People who get involved in parish ministry often say that they want to give something back. They are conscious that they have received a great deal in life and they want to give from what they have received. Lydia had no sooner received the gospel than she got engaged in the ministry of hospitality. This was her way of bearing witness to her faith, of giving back. 

In the gospel reading (Jn 15:26-16:4a), Jesus calls on his disciples to become his witnesses and he promises to send them the Holy Spirit who is Jesus’ primary witness. It is the Holy Spirit who empowers us to wess to our faith. It was the Holy Spirit who moved Lydia to witness her newfound found faith by offering hospitality to Paul and his companions. The Holy Spirit will always be inspiring us to wess to our faith in various ways. We need to be attentive to the ways the Holy Spirit may be inspiring us to be the Lord’s witnesses in the world.

Let us pray: Give us the grace Lord, to be your authentic witnesses in the world of our time. Amen.

+Remain blessed