Today's Ornaments of Grace for Friday of the Third Week of Advent are Priscilla and Aquila.
Isaiah 56:1-3a, 6-8
Let not the foreigner say, when he would join himself to the Lord, “The Lord will surely exclude me from his people”; nor let the eunuch say, “See, I am a dry tree.” And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, ministering to him, loving the name of the Lord, and becoming his servants –… them I will bring to my holy mountain and make joyful in my house of prayer…
Priscilla and Aquila are introduced to us in the Acts of the Apostles; they are also mentioned in Paul’s letters to the Romans, the Corinthians, and Timothy. This power-couple had much to do with the spread of Christianity. Priscilla, mentioned before Aquila in four of six Scriptural references, might have been the more influential since the wife was generally not mentioned before the husband in those days, if mentioned at all. Nevertheless, the couple worked together to live and teach the Good News.
Isaiah, in today’s Reading, speaks of how the Lord welcomed “foreigners” and would make them joyful in His presence. The Lord did this for and through Priscilla and Aquila. The couple were among the earliest Jews converted to Christianity and were living in Rome. When Emperor Claudius came to power and began to purge the Jewish population, they fled to Greece and set up a tent making business in Corinth.
Paul, in his own words, said he came to Corinth in fear and trembling. We are unsure of the reason he felt this way, but Priscilla and Aquila welcomed him there. They gave him an ideal job because he was also a tentmaker. The couple invited him to live in their home, and Paul did so for a year and a half. Since Priscilla and Aquila had been refugees, they understood the need Paul had for support in a new place. In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he sends greetings to the people not only from himself but from Priscilla and Aquila as well. This may mean that he considered them co-founders of the Church in Corinth; at the very least, they were instrumental in helping it thrive.
After 18 months, Paul felt called to continue his missionary journey. Paul was planning to head to Syria but stopped in Ephesus (modern-day Turkey) on the way. Priscilla and Aquila accompanied him, and Paul left them in Ephesus to continue sharing the Good News. In Ephesus, the couple met a wonderful preacher named Apollos. Apollos taught about Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. However, he taught the baptism of John the Baptist, rather than that of Jesus. So, Priscilla and Aquila, already in a new land themselves, welcomed the Egyptian Apollos into their home. There, they explained to him how Jesus’ baptism was not only a sign of repentance as John preached, but was also a sharing in the very life of Jesus.
Priscilla and Aquila continued their work in the early church. Paul says in his letter to the Romans that Priscilla and Aquila risked their lives for him, so we know they remained connected to the early church even if we do not know what specific risks they took for Paul.
While little is known beyond this about the couple who, refugees themselves, welcomed others, tradition holds that they died together as martyrs. They could embrace missionary life because they realized that their real home was in Jesus Christ.
OBSERVING THE BEAUTIFUL ORNAMENTS
Who might Jesus be asking you to welcome into your home or heart?
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