Word to the Wise
Tuesday, May 30, 2017 - 7th Week of Easter - Tues
[Acts 20:17-27 and John 17:1-11a]TUESDAY, MAY 30, 2017 TUESDAY IN THE SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTER [Acts 20:17-27 and John 17:1-11a] "But now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem. What will happen to me there I do not know, except that in one city after another the Holy Spirit has been warning me that imprisonment and hardships await me. Yet I consider life of no importance to me, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to bear witness to the Gospel of God's grace." [Acts] For some time now we have been making our way through the "Farewell Discourse" of Jesus at the Last Supper. In today's first scripture, we have a "farewell speech" from St. Paul to the Elders at Miletus. He is at the end of his last "missionary journey" and is headed for Jerusalem where he will ultimately be arrested and sent to Rome for eventual martyrdom. Since the Acts of the Apostles and the Gospel According to Luke were written by the same evangelist, the resemblance between Jesus' determined journey to Jerusalem in the gospel and Paul's in Acts is not surprising. Furthermore, the disciples in the Upper Room at Pentecost (next Sunday) went out to the whole world, which was for them the Roman Empire. The Spirit (in John, the Advocate) will impel them to preach at the cost of their lives. The quotation above from Paul's speech is an example of the missionary zeal that characterized his ministry and that of the other disciples. Pope Francis has been urging all of us to have a missionary zeal in our faith. When faith becomes privatized and personal to the point that it is not a subject to be discussed in public, the whole missionary enterprise is endangered and the church suffers. Learning how to "give a reason for the hope that is within us" does take time, but we have to begin somewhere and do it "gently" but with determination. Jesus has promised us that the Spirit will "teach us all things," and that we will be told what we are to say. Can we take that risk? AMEN
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