Immediately prior to today’s reading from the Acts of the
Apostles, St. Paul had been preaching in the Areopagus of Athens, and now he had made his way to Corinth, the Sin City of the day. There he would preach the Gospel, in a town of
depraved moral standards, drunkenness, debauchery, incest and prostitution,
full of idol worship and false religion.
He had to face this terribly difficult task, after failing in
Athens. Remember how in Athens, Paul
offered an incredibly eloquent discourse, designed using language perfectly
fitted for the philosophical Greeks, “meeting them where they were”, so to
speak; and he failed, Paul gained very few converts in Athens.
He knew the Holy Spirit was urging him to preaching in Corinth, a much
more difficult forum than Athens, and his recent failure must have weighed
heavily on his mind. In this state, the
Lord spork the words from this morning’s reading, “Do not be afraid. Go on
speaking, and do not be silent, for I am with you. No one will attack and harm
you, for I have many people in this city.”
In the work of spreading the Gospel, sometimes it seems like
we experience more failures than successes.
And yet, that must not stop the mission.
When our egos become bruised, we must continue to do the work of God.
St. Paul lived in Corinth, for a year and a half, teaching
the Gospel. He knew that converts are
not won overnight, simply because of one eloquent homily, one persuasive
argument.
But remember, in that moment when Paul may have been
discouraged due to his failure, his mind and heart were open enough to hear the
Lord speaking words which must have sustained him greatly in his missionary
activity: “Do not be afraid. Go on speaking, and do not be silent, for I am
with you.”
In the face of apparent failure, we do well to recall the
Lord’s presence with us. Our failures
are not proof that we are to call off our mission of doing the Lord’s
work. Failure is simply a sign that we
need to turn more deeply in prayer to listen to the voice of the Lord speaking
his encouragement to us.
Repeated from yesterday’s Gospel, we hear again the promise
that our sorrows will be transformed by the Lord into joy, when we are faithful
to the mission he has given us. Even in
failure, even in sorrow, even in suffering, we can know joy, when our efforts
are ordered to the Lord.
There are many times when we are afraid to speak and live
the Gospel, when we are mocked or persecuted for our faith. As we come forward
to receive Holy Communion on this first Friday, let us do so confident that the
Lord is with us, encouraging us in our mission, freeing us from our fears, for
the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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