Word to the Wise
Tuesday, May 19, 2009 - Tuesday in the Sixth Week of Easter
[Acts 16:22-34 and John 16:5-11]"Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" And they said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you and your household will be saved." So they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to everyone in his house."
The Acts of the apostles almost makes it seem easy. All one needs is to be chained in jail just before an earthquake, and a jailer and his family will be added to the church! Of course, we know it's not that "easy." Luke provides quite a number of stories about the early preaching that fit a pattern in which the Lord supports the preaching by mighty deeds such as earthquakes or interesting jail escapes. One would only have to read St. Paul's Second Letter to the Corinthians, and see the list of trials he had, to recognize that the early preaching started out under great challenges. Nowadays, the challenges are still there. In some countries, preaching the gospel can still get one put in jail (Myanmar, for instance) or Saudi Arabia! In other places, the opposition is more subtle: secularism, relativism, agnosticism. Students returning from study abroad, especially in Europe or Great Britain, reported to me often that they were the only person their age at Mass on Sunday! One would think that after preaching the gospel for 2000 years, the world would be totally converted! But that assumes that a preacher will always be successful or effective. Experience is closer to what Jesus describes in his parable of the sower and the seed. Sometimes the seed falls in a place that is receptive and sometimes not. We are not always going to have an earthquake to help us convince folks! AMEN
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