Homily
for Wednesday
6th Week
of Easter
May 28,
2025
John
16: 12-15
Acts
17: 15, 22—18: 1
Salesian
HS, New Rochelle
At
the Last Supper, Jesus assures the apostles that he’ll send them the Holy
Spirit, “the Spirit of truth.” The
Spirit will declare to them God’s truth (John 16: 13).
St. Paul preaching at Athens (Raphael)
That
truth is what St. Paul brings to Athens, supposedly the center for the search
for truth. The Athenians who come to the
Areopagus consider themselves philosophers, which means literally “lovers of
wisdom.” Paul points out to them what
anyone can know and understand: that God
created the world and all that’s in the world (Acts 17:24).
From
there, Paul goes on to proclaim the Christian message, something knowable only
thru the wisdom of the Holy Spirit: God
sent Jesus into the world to bring us to repent of our sins (17:30). Anyone can see, even without the Holy Spirit,
that there’s lots of evil in the world and in our own behavior. But the Gospel announces that thru repentance
we may be forgiven and made right with God.
We know that Jesus reconciles us effectively with God because God raised
him from the dead (17:31).
Jesus’
resurrection is the center of our faith.
Most of the Athenians can’t handle it.
St. Paul later writes to other Greeks in Corinth, “If Christ has not
been raised, then our preaching is empty, and so is your faith” (I,
15:14). Without Jesus’ resurrection, we
can’t suppose that God’s creation has a purpose, that he loves us, forgives us,
and offers us eternal life.
But
Jesus did rise, and so our repentance for our sins does bring forgiveness and the
promise of our own resurrection when Jesus returns at the end of time, so that
we may share in Jesus’ life.
The
Spirit of truth that Jesus sends to us now in the Church assures us of this.
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