Friday of the Sixth Week of Easter
We are his creative word
One night in a vision the Lord said to Paul, “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.” He settled there for a year and a half and taught the word of God among them … Paul remained for quite some time, and after saying farewell to the brothers he sailed for Syria, together with Priscilla and Aquila. At Cenchreae he had his hair cut because he had taken a vow. Acts 18,9-18
When in a family company the son of the owner is enough grown up to take the reins, the father, while remaining in reality the manager, assumes the role of president and he allows the son to operate. What the son does and decides is as the father, who is limited to supervise and to advise, would have done and decided. If the son has the humility to be guided by the experience of his father, the company is successful. This is what happened in the history of salvation. The day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended over the apostles and the church was born, in whose hands God has located the plan of salvation, preserving the role of responsible and prompter through the Holy Spirit. And the plan of salvation is implemented in the extent to which the church is guided by the Holy Spirit, as if God was to act directly. The church has been given the power to forgive the sins of the men, to break the bread which, in the eucharist, becomes mysteriously the body of Christ and the power which God owns since always: the creative Word. This power, which God has entrusted to the church, is exercised also mysteriously, but really, in announcing the gospel. When the man proclaims the gospel, God acts: ” He [Jesus] said to them: ’Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature ‘……But they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs“ (Mk 16,15-20). Returning to the passage of the Acts of the apostles which the church today offers to us, it is likely that Paul, who never was afraid to proclaim the gospel, at the beginning of his mission in Corinth was a little distrust because of the disappointment suffered at the Areopagus of Athens. In that city, in fact, when he spoke about the resurrection, the attendees had left, saying that they would have discussed it in another occasion. Then, in the today passage, the Lord appears to him in a vision and tells him: “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”. Here, the same words the Lord also says to us: “Do not be afraid, but continue to speak”. And, if we do it in the contexts where we spend time, the Lord will work and we will see to flourish the miracles around us.