Word to the Wise
Wednesday, May 16, 2007 - Wedneday in the Sixth Week of Easter
[Acts 17:15, 22-18:1 and John 16:12-15]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.
These words begin St. Paul's famous speech in Athens at a public forum called the Aeropagus. It was a glorified arena for soapbox speeches. Of course, Paul did not think of himself as doing "soapbox preaching" but that would be how the Athenians would view it. Paul begins with a bit of slippery rhetoric by claiming that the altar to an "Unknown God" was really the one that Paul believed in. But, hey! This was the Aeropagus and they were used to this kind of rhetorical footwork. What follows is a wonderful bit of preaching. He even quotes a Greek poet in support of his preaching. I am reminded of a famous English Dominican, Fr. Vincent McNabb, OP, who went frequently to Hyde Park in London, another location for "soapbox" speeches, to preach the gospel and take on any heckler or interested listener. I wish I had to courage to do it! I suppose I feel a bit like Paul if I'm in a crowd of so-called sophisticates, often in academic settings, and meet one of the "village atheists," or "village agnostics," or someone who simply was raised without any religion at all. I don't like cocktail party theologizing, but occasionally something I say hits home hard enough that a follow-up call occurs. More frequently I meet people who are simply indifferent to religious matters or sentiments, regarding it as private opinion without public relevance except when the ACLU files another lawsuit. In his Letter to the Romans, Paul takes off the gloves in the first chapter to go after some of the aspects of the secular lifestyle that were clear violations of God's law. But, to the Athenians, he is making an appeal to their reason and experience of time and nature. At the end, when he mentions the resurrection of Christ, he meets with scoffing, but others are intrigued and still others "follow up." Faced with similar opportunities, we can ask ourselves how WE respond. Have we decided our Catholic faith is a private opinion? If not a soapbox speaker, do we nevertheless speak up when the opportunity presents itself? We never know when that "follow up" will occur. Even if it only happens once in our life, we will have opened the door to eternal life for someone! AMEN
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