Thursday, April 21, 2016

Homily: Thursday - 4th Week of Easter 2016 - Explaining your faith



Yesterday, we heard how Paul and Barnabas embarked on their first missionary journey which would take them on their first thousand mile missionary journey.  Today we hear just how St. Paul went about his missionary work.

Upon arriving in a new town, his method was first to go to one of the local synagogues and bring the gospel message to the folks who, by heritage, were most entitled to it, his fellow Jews. After the readings of that Sabbath from the scrolls of the Law and the prophets, the leader would ask if the visitor had any message for the congregation. Did he ever!

Today we heard Paul’s visit to the synagogue in the town of Antioch in Pisidia; this is not the same Antioch from yesterday’s reading.  Remember they had started in Antioch in modern day northern Syria, traveled southwest down to Seleucia, then sailed over to the island of Cyprus, then up to Perga on the southern coast of modern day turkey, which is as far west as his first journey will take him. Today we heard how he travels up the river and over what are now Turkey’s Anatolian highlands to a place called Antioch in Pisidia.  You might want to trace his journey in those handy maps in the backs of your bibles sometime today, for it was definitely a treacherous route.

So Paul comes to this synagogue and presents this exhortation to the Jews and others gathered there, summarizing beautifully the history of the people of Israel—with the surprise ending that the whole thing had been climaxed by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Tomorrow we’ll hear the rest of his exhortation.

The Jews were pretty familiar with their own history and the biblical prophecies of the Messiah. Imagine the surprise when Paul preaches that the Messiah had come, and the sort of Messiah he turned out to be!

Now Paul had been educated by the great Rabbi Gamaliel. He knew the law and the prophets of the Old Testament.  Paul was able to preach and teach his fellow Jews because of his familiarity with God’s Word. For many of us, we find the Old Testament daunting, and giving a biblical teaching about Christ may be out of our expertise.

However, St. Peter wrote: "Should anyone ask you the reason for this hope of yours, be ever ready to reply".  We may not be able to give an exhortation on the faith as a master’s level biblical theologian, but each of us should be able to give a clear explanation for why we are Catholic, why we remain Catholic, why we believe Catholicism to be the one true faith, where we find strength, and guidance, and the fulfillment of our hopes in our Catholic faith. And to share that story easily with others.

May we, by knowing our faith and knowing the Scriptures, and knowing and loving the Lord Jesus, give witness to Him in all of our words, actions, and decisions this day, for the glory of God and salvation of souls. 

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