Acts 18
I wonder how many priests have ever gone out of their parishes and preached before the public. I have not. I preach almost every day but I have never preached to my non-Christian friends. I don’t even bring up religion before them. Rather I try not to be religious. Isn’t it sad?
Hopefully this does not sound too outrageous to you.
I cannot imagine the life of those apostles and lay leaders who spent most of their Christian life as missionaries. During the Easter Season we read the Acts of the Apostles. It describes mostly the missionary activities of the earliest Christian communities. As Jesus told his disciples, the world hated his disciples. They were not welcome in most places. Although the Christian community of Corinth was very important for St Paul’s missionary travel, he had to constantly fight fear and persecution in the city as we hear in the first reading today. As St Paul once accounted, he and his companions were often rejected, mistreated, slandered, threatened, beaten, and even stoned because they preached the Lord Jesus Christ.
Why does the world hate Jesus and his disciples? It’s because the word of Christ reveals people’s minds and hearts as Prophet Simeon foretold at the Lord’s presentation at the Temple. God’s word exposes our sinfulness and urges us to take the narrow and difficult way. His word is ever alive to cut our hearts and ever-relevant in our life and our times.
That’s why I have the fear of preaching Christ. The word of Christ demands actions from me. And it urges me to change my life daily. This is often painful. Moreover, the word of Christ hardly pleases many people of their lifestyles and habits. So, unless I take it for granted to be hated and persecuted, I cannot preach Christ. Many saints were not popular even among their clergy and suffered suspicions and slanders from the world!
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray for one another that we may not be afraid of preaching Christ. May we also hear the word of encouragement as St Paul heard from the Lord, “Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent; for I am with you.”
