Homily for Tuesday, Week 4 of Easter

Homily for Tuesday
4th Week of Easter

April 23, 2024
Acts 11: 19-26
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

“Those who had been scattered by the persecution … preached the Word to no one but the Jews” (Acts 11: 19).

We’ve already seen Deacon Philip preaching the Word in Samaria, and Peter preaching it to a Roman household.  The Holy Spirit is at work, beyond what the apostles and the earliest community in Jerusalem could imagine.  Even persecution becomes a means by which the Spirit acts.

St. Barnabas

“The hand of the Lord was with” some who—deliberately, it seems—began to speak to the pagans (11:21).  Those who did that were from far off Cyprus and Cyrene, evidently not as closed-minded as Jerusalem believers.  Barnabas, too, was from Cyprus; so it was natural for the mother Church to send him to look into this unusual, perhaps suspicious, activity in Antioch:  the 1st provincial visitation!

That the Spirit worked in Antioch is significant.  Antioch, modern Antakya, Turkey, scene of a destructive, deadly earthquake 14 months ago, was the 3d city of the Empire, after Rome and Alexandria.  For the Church to plant deep roots here meant far more than its start-up in Jerusalem and slow progress in Samaria and Phoenicia.  It was also, according to venerable tradition, Luke’s hometown.  That, too, was a work of the Spirit, to introduce this gifted writer, this future pen of the Holy Spirit, to the Lord Jesus.

Barnabas quickly perceives the workings of grace (11:23), which is to say the workings of the Spirit.  We’re not told how that grace revealed itself, except in a bold faith.  Faith becomes more important than Law.  The Law would have restricted the faith to Jews, kept the followers of Jesus confined to a very limited portion of humanity.  Greeks also can believe and be saved.  The faith is summarized in a simple confession:  “Jesus is Lord” (11:20).

Jesus is Lord:  Kurios in Greek, the word used in the Greek Scriptures for God’s personal name, YHWH.  These followers of Jesus are affirming his divinity even before they’ve been tagged as “Christians.”  “Jesus is Lord” also distinguishes Christians from pagans, who gave the title “Lord” to the emperor, according him divine status and burning incense before his image.  It was, in effect, an act of defiance as well as of faith:  “You shall not have other gods besides me” (Ex 20:3).

This faith, driven by the Holy Spirit, will seize the hearts of many of the pagans and change the world, as it had already changed Saul of Tarsus.  Yesterday’s 1st reading (Acts 11:1-18) concluded, “God has granted life-giving repentance to the Gentiles too.”  The question before you and me is whether we, as well, have repented and submitted to the Holy Spirit.