E106 Archives

Saturday of Week 6 of Easter – Gospel

Commentary on John 16:23-28

We are coming now to the end of John chapter 16 and Jesus’ discourse at the Last Supper. Today Jesus makes a solemn promise that whatever his disciples ask the Father in Jesus’ name will be given to them. Up to this, of course, they have not been praying to God through Jesus. That will only happen after the resurrection and ascension. But then it will become the normal way for the Church to pray to the Father, as we do in all the prayers in the liturgy of the sacraments.

Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.

As we have pointed out before, this is not a carte blanche for us to make any request that comes into our heads. It is understood that we will be praying, first of all, for what we genuinely need and not just for what we want.

And what we need most of all is to be close to our God, and to be equipped with all those things and do all those things which will bring us closer to his will—things which will enable us to work with him for the building of the Kingdom. Those prayers will be answered, although not always exactly in the way we might envisage. It may not be until much later that we will realise just how our prayers have been answered—often in very unexpected ways.

Jesus says a strange thing at this point, when his disciples ask for something in his name:

I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf…

And the reason he gives is:

…for the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.

Our Father already knows all our needs and he wants to satisfy them for us in his love. He will not need the intercession of his Son.

And, when we are already closely related in love and faith with the Father and Jesus, mediation is hardly necessary: our relationship is the mediating factor. Our prayer through Jesus is not to tell God something he does not know already. Rather it is to help make us aware of what our real needs are and to go to where those needs will be answered.

Friday of Week 6 of Easter – Gospel

Commentary on John 16:20-23

Today’s Gospel repeats much of yesterday’s about the sorrow the disciples will experience when Jesus goes away (in his suffering and death) and the joy they will experience when he soon returns (in his resurrection). Jesus compares their experience to a woman about to give birth to a child:

When a woman is in labor, she has pain because her hour has come. But when her child is born, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought a human being into the world.

The joy of seeing her newborn child face to face is worth any pain. The disciples will have to go through a similar experience as the new Jesus, the Risen Christ, enters his new life and the new People of God, his post-resurrection Body, comes to birth.

Today’s passage adds the promise that, when Jesus sees them again:

…your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.

And they will no longer have need to ask the questions they are asking now. It does not mean that there will not be more sufferings in the future. There will be, and some of the disciples will give their lives for their commitment to Jesus and the Kingdom. But for those who are close to Jesus, pain and joy are not incompatible.

Let us pray that we, too, who have the enduring presence of the Risen Jesus with us at all times, wherever we happen to be, experience—in spite of inevitable trials and disappointments—the same kind of joy. In fact, we have reason to be concerned if there is not an underlying joy in our lives. It should make us wonder just how close we really are to Jesus.

Friday of Week 6 of Easter – First Reading

Commentary on Acts 18:9-18

We pick up on yesterday’s reading and Paul is still in Corinth. His missionary work is going well. He now receives encouragement in a vision in which the Lord tells him to keep speaking out. The Lord is with him; he has many friends in the city; and no harm will come to him. This is just one of three visions of the Lord which Paul is said to have had. So Paul stays in the city for a year and a half preaching the Good News. It is possible that, during this time, he may have extended his evangelising work to other parts of the province of Achaia, where Corinth was situated.

However, as often was the case, during this same time some Jews in the city who were opposed to him brought him to the civil court, accusing him of telling people to worship in ways which were against the law. They brought their case to Gallio, the pro-consul of Achaia. Achaia was the Roman province in southern Greece in which Corinth was situated.

We know a certain amount about this Gallio, who was a brother of Seneca, the famous Roman philosopher and tutor of the emperor Nero. The New International Version Bible notes:

“Gallio was admired as a man of exceptional fairness and calmness. From an inscription found at Delphi, it is known that Gallio was proconsul of Achaia in AD 51-52. This information enables us to date Paul’s visit to Corinth on his second journey as well as his writing of the Thessalonian letters.”

The Jews accused Paul of breaking the law, but did not specify whether it was Jewish or Roman law. But the Jews were claiming that Paul was advocating a religion not recognised by Roman law, as Judaism was. However, if he had been given the opportunity to speak, Paul could have argued that the message he was preaching arose from the faith of his fellow-Jews and thus was actually within the terms of Roman law.

After listening to their arguments, Gallio decided they were fighting over the interpretation of purely religious matters in which he personally had no competence or interest. If it had been a case of a crime or malicious fraud, he said he would have taken it more seriously. Instead, he summarily dismissed the charge.

The disappointed plaintiffs then set on a man called Sosthenes, a leader in the synagogue, and beat him up in the presence of the court. It is not clear whether it was the crowd in general who picked on Sosthenes as an excuse to attack the Jews or whether it was his own people beating their synagogue ruler for losing the case. Whatever the reason, Gallio showed no interest whatever in what was going on.

In the opening of the First Letter to the Corinthians, Paul refers to “our brother Sosthenes” (1 Cor 1:1). If it is the same person, then he was the second ruler of a synagogue to become a Christian in Corinth as a result of Paul’s preaching.

When he felt the time was right, Paul, in the company of his friends and fellow-workers, Priscilla and Aquila, set off home for Antioch in Syria, the headquarters of the missionary church where they would report their experiences. Priscilla’s name is put first, which may indicate either her more prominent role in the church or her higher social standing.

Finally, before embarking at the port of Cenchreae, Paul shaved his head because of a vow he had taken. The original Greek is not clear and it seems that it was Paul, not Aquila, who took the vow. To take a vow was to be nazir for the period it covered, usually 30 days, and among other obligations it meant leaving the hair uncut during that time. (Samson was a Nazirite and we know what happened when Delilah gave him a haircut!) Different vows were frequently taken to express thanks for deliverance from grave dangers, and indeed Paul’s time in Corinth had been relatively free from trouble. It is not known whether the vow was taken by Paul at Cenchreae or whether it expired there. Later on in Acts, Paul will again perform the rite with four other Jews in fulfilment of a vow.

Perhaps contrary to Paul’s expectations, those 18 months had been extremely fruitful and many people had found their way to Christ. We now have two wonderful letters, which are perhaps the condensation of four letters altogether, sent by Paul to his converts in the city—letters which still have a great deal to say to us about following Christ. In due course, we will be reading them during our Sunday and weekday Masses.

Thursday of Week 6 of Easter – Gospel

Note: This Mass, also known as ‘Thursday Before Ascension Sunday’, is celebrated in those countries where the feast of our Lord’s Ascension is moved to the Sunday of Week 7 of Easter. For the Ascension Day reflection, see this coming Sunday’s Scripture commentary.

Commentary on John 16:16-20

As Jesus continues to speak to his disciples at the Last Supper and briefs them on what is coming, they are puzzled when he says:

A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me.

They start mumbling among themselves asking what on earth Jesus is talking about. Seeing and not seeing and seeing again and “a little while”. To us it is clear enough that Jesus is referring to his coming suffering and death and his resurrection.

Jesus still does not spell it out clearly, but he does warn them that they:

…will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy.

Jesus’ passion, which will cause them to flee in fear of their lives, will be a traumatic experience. All their beliefs in Jesus as Messiah and Saviour turn to ashes. But there will be others (“the world”) who will be overjoyed over Jesus’ arrest and execution.

The disciples, though, are not to worry because their “pain will turn into joy” with the dawn of the Resurrection and all that implies. In their own way, the disciples will share the passion of Jesus, as all their hopes and expectations are emptied and turned to dust—only to be revived with the realisation that their Master still lives as Lord and King.

All our sufferings can similarly be turned to joy when we totally unite ourselves with Jesus our Lord and suffer with him and for him, for his Kingdom and for the sake of all our brothers and sisters.

Thursday of Week 6 of Easter – First Reading

Commentary on Acts 18:1-8

Paul now has moved to the city of Corinth in southern Greece. As we have already mentioned, compared to Athens, it did not at first sight seem a very promising missionary area, given its highly immoral reputation. But it did have a large Jewish community to which Paul—as was his custom—first directed his efforts. He always felt that, as God’s people, the religious Jews should be the first to hear the message of the gospel.

Soon after he arrived he met a Jew named Aquila. Aquila was originally from Pontus, a province lying along the Black Sea between Bithynia and Armenia. But he had recently arrived from Italy with his wife, Priscilla, also a Jew. Priscilla is a diminutive form of Prisca, a name by which she is known in some of the Pauline letters. Since no mention is made of a conversion, and since they immediately became partners with Paul in his missionary work, we can presume they were already Christians. Very likely, they had converted while in Rome. Both of them were to become valuable assistants in his work.

They had had to leave Rome because the emperor Claudius (AD 41-54, around whom Robert Graves’ book I, Claudius is centred) had ordered all Jews to leave Rome around the year 49 or 50. The contemporary historian Suetonius gives as the reason “their [the Jews] continual tumults instigated by Chrestus” (a common misspelling of ‘Christ’). He presumably is referring to conflicts over Christ’s Messiahship between Jews and those who had become Christians. The order was effective, but did not last. Once again, Providence was guiding people unknowingly in Paul’s direction.

Like Paul himself, Aquila was a tent-maker. Paul moved in with this couple and joined them in their tent-making work. Paul was always proud of his trade and boasted that he supported himself by his own hands. Even though Paul more than once insisted on the missionary’s right to be supported by those among whom he evangelised, he himself insisted on supporting himself. He said that he did not want to be a burden on anyone, and it proved his singleness of purpose—he was no sponger. Only from the Christians of Philippi did he accept help. He recommended that his followers should imitate his example, supplying their own needs and taking care of the needy.

In the beginning, Paul went every Sabbath day to the synagogue and entered into discussions about Jesus Christ and the message of the Gospel:

Every Sabbath he would argue in the synagogue and would try to convince Jews and Greeks.

“Greeks” here presumably means Gentiles who were attracted to the Jewish faith and attended the synagogue.

It was at this point that Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia. When he was still in Athens, Paul had instructed them to join him there, but it is likely he had then sent them back to check on the churches—perhaps Silas to Philippi and Timothy to Thessalonica. It would have been about this time, too, that Paul wrote his two letters to the Christians in Thessalonica. They are his earliest letters to churches (and historically the first books of our New Testament to be written).

As soon as Silas and Timothy arrived, Paul devoted his time entirely to preaching the Word and he put aside his tent-making for a while. He was speaking mainly to Jews, proclaiming to them that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah. This was usually the main theme of Paul’s preaching to Jews.

However, as had happened in other places, they rejected his message and abused him. He symbolically then broke off relations by shaking out his garments in front of them:

Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the gentiles.

He said this to them, using language found in the Old Testament and meaning that the Jews must take full responsibility for the consequences of their choice. He now felt free of his former responsibility to preach to them, and would instead devote his energies to the Gentiles. Among these he would have great success. The Gentiles in this seedy port town proved far more responsive than the Jews in the intellectual centre that was Athens.

Paul now moved in with a man called Titus Justus, described as a “worshiper of God”, which would mean he was an uncircumcised Gentile who attended the synagogue. His house (ironically for Paul!) was next to the (now hostile) synagogue.

However, there was a surprise conversion when Crispus, who was no less than the president of the synagogue, together with all his household, became Christians. It was the beginning of many conversions among Corinthians.

As we read these lines we can see the hand of God working so clearly and so unexpectedly among many people. Corinth, the city of sin, proved a far more fertile soil for the Gospel than sophisticated Athens. And it was the persecution of Jews in faraway Rome that brought Paul to meet two of his most loyal assistants, Aquila and Priscilla. As we have said and seen so often in this story, God writes straight with very crooked lines. May we be able to see God’s hand as clearly in our own daily experiences.

Tuesday of Week 6 of Easter – First Reading

Commentary on Acts 16:22-34

Today we have part of one of the most dramatic events in the story of the Acts of the Apostles. Paul is still in Philippi. We might wonder at the sudden attack on Paul and Silas with which today’s reading opens. It is such a change from the positive welcome they had been receiving up to this. In fact, the first part of the story and also the sequel are omitted in the reading, but they are needed if we are to appreciate today’s passage fully.

One day, on their way to the river for prayer, Paul had incurred the anger of the owners of a slave girl who had fortune-telling gifts (see Acts 16:16-22). The text literally translates that she was “with a Python spirit”. The Python was the serpent or dragon that guarded the oracle at Delphi. It later came to designate an evil ‘spirit that pronounced oracles’ and also a ventriloquist who, it was thought, had such a spirit in the belly.

This girl kept shouting after them:

These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation. (Acts 16:17)

Even though what she was saying could be interpreted favourably, Paul became irritated by her pestering and exorcised the evil spirit from her. She immediately lost her psychic powers and, as a result, could no longer earn money for her masters. The owners were understandably not very happy about this, and hauled Paul and Silas off to court. They accused them of being Jews who were disturbing the peace and breaking Roman laws. Basically they were accused of proselytising, which was indeed against Roman law.

It is at this point that today’s reading takes up the story. By this time the crowds had been worked up, so the magistrates sentenced Paul and his companion to a flogging with rods, and had them thrown into an inner cell and their feet put in stocks. Here they could be watched closely, and could not escape or be rescued by their friends.

During the night while Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises to God (they rejoiced to suffer for the name of Christ), a severe earthquake struck (Greece is very earthquake-prone). The prison building collapsed, the chains fell from the walls and the gates were thrown open. The jailer, who was responsible with his own life for the security of his prisoners, presumed they must all have run away and was prepared to kill himself. To take his own life would remove the shame and distress and was preferable to public execution. It was then he heard Paul calling from inside:

Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.

Then:

The jailer called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.

He was beginning to realise that the people he was treating as dangerous criminals were in fact messengers of God.

In deep gratitude, the jailer asked what he should do to be saved. Perhaps he meant it in a more immediate sense vis-a-vis his superiors, who might blame him for the loss of the prisoners.

On the other hand, between the frightening earthquake and the possible escape of his prisoners, he had been close to death. He also realised he was in the presence of two very special people. All this obviously made him reflect. He very likely had heard that these men were preachers of a way of salvation. Now with the earthquake and his own near death, he wanted to know about their Way. Paul showed him where real salvation lay:

Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.

And so it was that the jailer and all his household would be instructed in the word of the Lord. Late in the night though it was, the jailer:

…took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay. He brought them up into [his] house and set food before them, and he and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God.

Whatever form it took, it was truly a Eucharistic meal, a meal of thanksgiving for all concerned. As well, their accusers are nowhere in sight; they were probably too much concerned with the damage the earthquake had caused in the city to be bothered with a couple of wandering preachers.

It is at that point that the reading ends, but it is not the end of the story, which needs to be heard for completeness. The next morning, the magistrates presented the lictors with an order that Paul and Silas be released. Lictors were the equivalent of police officers, among whose duties were the arrest and punishment of criminals. The message was passed to Paul by the jailer. He told them they were free to go and he wished them well.

However, that was not good enough for Paul who said:

They have beaten us in public, uncondemned, men who are Romans, and have thrown us into prison, and now are they going to discharge us in secret? Certainly not! Let them come and take us out themselves. (Acts 16:37)

There had been a very serious miscarriage of justice, and the magistrates were alarmed that they had treated two Roman citizens in this way. Roman citizenship granted special privileges with regard to criminal process. Roman law forbade, under severe penalty, the beating of Roman citizens. This will not be the last time that Paul will cause alarm by revealing his citizenship, which granted privileges totally unknown to the ordinary resident of Roman colonies.

The magistrates humbly presented themselves, led Paul and Silas out of the prison and begged them to leave the city. However, Paul and Silas first went to say farewell to Lydia, their host, and to the other Christian brothers and sisters, and only then left the city.

This story once again indicates how God can write straight with crooked lines. Out of what seemed catastrophe for both the evangelisers (flogging and jail) and the jailer (the earthquake and its consequences) there came out something beautiful for all of them, and in the midst of it all was the love of Christ. A thriving community was left behind and they would be the recipients of one of Paul’s most beautiful letters.

We too continue to benefit from this saga. If only we could see Jesus at the heart of everything that happens in our lives!

Wednesday of Week 6 of Easter – Gospel

Commentary on John 16:12-15

Jesus continues to speak about the giving of the Spirit to his followers:

I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

They are still too raw in their understanding. It will take time for them fully to absorb the meaning of Jesus’ life and teaching. By then he will be long gone, so they will need the guidance of the Spirit to lead them to that fuller understanding. Jesus tells them the Spirit:

…will not speak on his own but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

The Spirit will guide them in their response:

…to the things that are to come.

Following on what Jesus has taught them, from their understanding of the meaning of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and from their Pentecost experience, a whole new order—a new way of looking at the world—will result, of which they will be the inaugurators.

And that guidance still is much needed for we have not reached, and we never will reach on this earth, the fullness of the truth about God and Jesus. The establishment of the Kingdom has still a long way to go.

Once again Jesus reminds his disciples that everything they are learning comes originally from the Father through the Son, and from the Son through the Spirit. These are not three separate revelations, but one message that emanates from each one successively.

We too, as Church, as churches, as communities and as individuals, need the constant guidance of the Spirit that we may remain faithful to the truth that is given us and be always open to understanding it more deeply so that we can pass it on to others with full integrity.

Tuesday of Week 6 of Easter – Gospel

Commentary on John 16:5-11

The disciples are sad because Jesus is going to leave them. He now reassures them that, contrary to what they must be thinking at this moment, it is better for him to go. If Jesus does not go away, then the Spirit, the Paraclete, will not come.

As long as Jesus is with his disciples in his present form, he is actually very limited in his presence. It is fine as long as they are all together, but what would happen if they were to be scattered in various places to do his work? And what of the many more disciples in distant places who would never have an opportunity to be in direct contact with Jesus?

It is through the Spirit of Jesus, the risen and ascended Jesus, that he can continue to be with his people at all times and in any place on earth. Yes, it is better that Jesus should go and come back through the Spirit.

And the Spirit:

…will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment…

That is, the Spirit will reveal the wrongness of the world—that world of the purely secular—in not putting its trust in the Way of Jesus.

The world’s sin is primarily one of unbelief, an ‘unreadiness’ to open its mind to the vision of life that Jesus gives. The Spirit will clearly show the rightness of Jesus in his claims to come from God and to being the Word of God to the world. The Spirit will reveal the meaning of Christ’s death as the condemnation of all that is evil in the world, above all in its denial of love as the centre of living.

The New American Bible expresses it thus:

“These verses illustrate the forensic character of the Paraclete’s role: in the forum of the disciples’ conscience he prosecutes the world. He leads believers to see (a) that the basic sin was and is refusal to believe in Jesus; (b) that, although Jesus was found guilty and apparently died in disgrace, in reality righteousness has triumphed, for Jesus has returned to his Father; (c) finally, that it is “the ruler of this world”, Satan, who has been condemned through Jesus’ death”.

On which side am I—on that of the Spirit or that of the world?

Wednesday of Week 6 of Easter – First Reading

Commentary on Acts 17:15,22—18:1

We continue to accompany Paul on his Second Missionary Journey. After passing through Thessalonica (to whose Christians are addressed two of Paul’s earliest letters) and Beroea (both in Macedonia), Paul’s next destination was Athens, at that time still the cultural centre of the Mediterranean, although political power was now in Rome. Our reading begins with Paul’s arrival in the city, with instructions for Silas and Timothy to follow on as soon as possible.

At this time, Athens was really only a shadow of its former self. Some five centuries before Paul it had been at the height of its glory in art, philosophy and literature, with a culture which still influences modern life today. In the generations which followed, the city still had a reputation for philosophical thinking, and in Paul’s day there was a leading university in the city.

While waiting for his companions to arrive, Paul was quite horrified at the level of idolatry he found in such a supposedly sophisticated city. He was engaged in discussions not only with Jews and other sympathisers, but also got involved with Stoic and Epicurean philosophers who found his teaching rather strange. “What does this pretentious babbler want to say?” they asked (Acts 17:18). Because of his mention of someone called ‘Jesus’ and terms like ‘resurrection’, they said he sounded like a “proclaimer of foreign (i.e. non-Greek) divinities”. Eventually they invited him to address the Council of the Areopagus, an indication of how seriously they took him even though they found his ideas outlandish.

It should have been a very important venue for Paul. If he could win the Athenians around to accepting the message of Christ, it could have far-reaching effects. The Greeks were famous for their intellectual interests and their love of discussion and debate. As Luke comments rather laconically,

Now all the Athenians and the foreigners living there would spend their time in nothing but telling or hearing something new. (Acts 17:21)

Yet, in a way, it was this passion for discussion of ideas which made the Greeks so outstanding in philosophy and literature (see Fr Bernard Lonergan’s writings for discussion of the Athenians’ gift for conversation, a source of great intellectual creativity).

So Paul went to the Areopagus in the heart of the city and spoke to the people assembled there. And it is Paul’s address which forms the main part of today’s reading.

The Areopagus was a hill to the south of the Agora, the central market place of Athens where people gathered. Areopagus also referred to the Athenian supreme council which held its sessions there.

Paul chose as his topic the knowledge of God, a theme very popular in the propaganda of contemporary Hellenistic Judaism. The pagans are accused of not knowing God, the proof being that they worship idols. This ignorance, Paul tells them, is culpable, since all are capable of knowing God as creator and controller of the cosmos.

Nevertheless, Paul’s address is in a totally different style from what he had been giving up to this time. He makes no explicit mention of the Scriptures; he does not even mention the name of Jesus. He speaks of the Greeks as “extremely spiritual”, although the word he used could also mean “superstitious” (Greek, deisidaimon), depending on the context. Paul’s meaning will emerge as he speaks. In the context, it is clear that Paul wanted to be complimentary in order to get a hearing.

He tries to go in their door by taking as his cue an altar he saw, dedicated to an “unknown god”. Polytheists (like the Greeks) used to dedicate altars to ‘unknown gods’, in case they incurred the vengeance of gods whose names they did not know. It was a kind of all-inclusive title. While it was a way to make sure that none of the many Greek gods was left unworshipped, it also indicated the level of superstition that co-existed with the Athenians’ much-vaunted intellectualism.

Paul uses the practice for his own ends and also turns back the charge of preaching about ‘outlandish’ gods which people had never heard of. And he goes on to spell out for them just who this ‘unknown’ God really is.

He is the God who made this world and all that lives in it. This idea was common in Greek thought and Hellenistic Judaism; it is a form of the old biblical theme found in the prophet Amos 5:8 and in Psalm 50:1-6. Paul proclaims a personal Creator in contrast with the pantheistic God of the Stoics.

He is a Lord who pervades the heavens and the earth and is not confined to man-made sanctuaries. Nor does he need the help of any human. On the contrary, it is he who gives life and breath and everything with it.

He made one the whole human race, meaning that all belong to one family (Athenians, Romans, Greeks, ‘barbarians’, Jews and Gentiles). This is a belief we assert every time we pray “Our Father…”. Through his creation he made his presence evident all over the world:

…so that they would search for God and perhaps fumble about for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us.

He is the Designer God where nothing is left to mere chance, as the Epicureans thought. He even gives two quotations from Greek poets to strengthen his argument:

‘In him [i.e. God] we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said…

This quotation is attributed to the poet Epimenides (about 600 BC) who came from Knossos in Crete, and is found in his work Cretica. And Paul also quotes the Cilician poet Aratus (about 315 to 240 BC) in his Phaenomen and in Cleanthes’ Hymn to Zeus:

‘For we, too, are his [i.e. God’s] offspring.’

Paul also questions the practice of worshipping objects of stone or metal as gods:

Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals.

In other words, how can that God be contained in images of gold, silver or stone—materials which are on a lower level than ourselves? Note that it is a very different thing—as we have in the Catholic Church—to have images representing our God or the saints. They play the same role as family photographs, as no one believes that a picture of Uncle Joe is really Uncle Joe.

Up to this, God had tolerated this practice, which was done in ignorance, but with the coming of Jesus, all that has changed. It is time now to ‘repent’ (Greek, metanoia—a word which, as we have already seen, implies a total conversion in our way of living) because God:

…will have the world judged in righteousness by a man [Jesus] whom he has appointed…

And all this, says Paul, is confirmed by Jesus’ having been raised from the dead.

But at the mention of “raising him from the dead”, some of Paul’s listeners began mocking and others, perhaps with their interest whetted, said, “We will hear you again about this.” However, it seems clear that their interest was purely on the level of intellectual speculation and not at all on the spiritual or religious. Immortality of the soul was accepted by the Greeks (see Plato’s Dialogues), but not the resurrection of a dead body.

In the Greek world, even among Christians, the doctrine of the Resurrection was strongly resisted—as we see in the First Letter to the Corinthians (15:12). The Jerusalem Sanhedrists also condemned and attacked this Christian dogma, whereas the Athenians of the Areopagus were content to mock it.

Basically then, Paul’s mission to the Athenians was a dismal failure. From now on he refuses to use the arguments from Greek philosophy. So he writes later on to the Christians of Corinth:

When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the testimony of God to you with superior speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. (1 Cor 2:1-2)

As well, a little before that (in the same letter), he had written:

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scholar? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of the proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews ask for signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
(1 Cor 1:20-24)

From now on he would rely only on the power of the gospel message.

In spite of this, there were some converts made in Athens. Among these was Dionysius the Areopagite. The Jerusalem Bible notes:

“Luke’s readers must have known him. He became the subject of legend, especially since the 5th century when an author (the ‘pseudo-Dionysius’) published various mystical writings under his name. Later legend identifies him with St Denys, the first bishop of Paris (3rd century) or even that he was bishop of Athens.”

Another convert mentioned was Damaris. The New International Version Bible notes:

“Some have suggested that she must have been a foreign, educated woman to have been present at a public meeting such as the Areopagus. It is also possible that she was a God-fearing Gentile who had heard Paul at the synagogue.”

From Athens, Paul continued south to Corinth. He would have gone there either by land along the isthmus, a distance of about 80 km (50 miles) or else by sea from Piraeus, the port of Athens, to Cenchrea, the port of Corinth, on the eastern shore of the isthmus of Corinth.

Corinth had been rebuilt by no less a person than Julius Caesar, and became capital of the Roman province of Achaia (southern Greece). Its population was largely Roman and Latin-speaking, but it was a lively commercial centre which attracted people of all nations. There was also a considerable Jewish colony. The immorality of the city was famous, even by the standards of the day.

Paul does not seem ever to have ever returned to Athens. But once again, we see that God’s ways are not our ways. Once again, we see how Paul is turned in a different direction from what seemed the obvious way to go. His next stop will be Corinth, a city, on the face of it, which—compared to sophisticated Athens—was not at all promising, given its reputation for lewdness and immorality.

On the positive side, we should look carefully at how Paul presented his message in a language that would make sense to his hearers. He did not dilute or compromise his message, but he did try to express it in language that would give an opening to an audience totally unfamiliar with the Jewish Scriptures. This is something we need to remember whether we are bringing our message to a culture which has never heard the message before, or to one which has lost it. Much of our preaching, it has to be said, is to the converted and not to those who have not heard the message or have only heard it in distorted forms.

Monday of Week 6 of Easter – Gospel

Commentary on John 15:26—16:4

We continue reading the discourse of Jesus to his disciples at the Last Supper. Today he promises that the Paraclete, “the Spirit of truth” will come, sent both by the Father and by Jesus the Son.

As we saw earlier, Paraclete (Greek, parakletos) means a person who stands by one and gives support. It can be applied to a defence lawyer in a court of law. So the word is sometimes translated as an ‘advocate’ or someone who ‘consoles’. It can be anyone who gives comfort, good advice or moral support. Various forms of the word are used about eight times in a short and beautiful passage at the opening of St Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians (1:3-7).

Here, the Spirit that God bestows through Jesus on his disciples will be one who will comfort and strengthen them in the sometimes difficult days ahead, and will guide them in their fuller understanding of what Jesus has taught them. The Spirit will confirm all that Jesus has said and done. As well, the disciples are, with the help of the same Spirit, to give witness to all that Jesus has said and done. And again he warns them that they will need all the help they can get from the support of the Spirit because:

They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, an hour is coming when those who kill you will think that by doing so they are offering worship to God.

This was a prophecy which was very soon to be fulfilled and continues to be fulfilled down to our own day. People will do this because they do not really know the Father or Jesus. If they did, they too would believe and would recognise the presence of Jesus in the Christian community and its message.

As has been mentioned several times already, we are not to be surprised if we find ourselves (as Christians) the object of attack, slander, abuse, misunderstandings, or even contempt. St Ignatius of Loyola is said to have prayed that the members of the order he founded would always be persecuted—it was a sign that they were doing their job. It is a strange paradox, but the message of Christian love and forgiveness, a message of peace and justice, is found by many to be very threatening and one that must be attacked.

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