Homily for Tuesday, Week 6 of Easter

Homily for Tuesday
6th Week of Easter

May 7, 2024
Acts 16: 22-34
John 16: 5-11
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you and your household will be saved” (Acts 16: 31).

Following the usual pattern of Paul’s missionary work, he and Silas have some initial success in preaching the Gospel at Philippi.  Then opponents arise and make trouble for them.  There’s a great disturbance, and the apostles are arrested, beaten, and jailed.

The pattern changes with the intervention of what insurance people call “an act of God,” an earthquake.  The apostles’ jailer is frightened—not by the earthquake but by the mysterious powers Paul had displayed in the exorcism that led to the civic disturbance (16:16-22), now followed by this disturbance of the earth.  In the face of what the gods are doing, the jailer seeks salvation or safety.

Paul, of course, sets him straight.  The Lord Jesus is the key to salvation.  Or, in terms of today’s gospel, he offers us divine righteousness, being made right with God.  Thru Christ, “the ruler of this world has been condemned” (John 16:10-11).  The dark powers of evil have lost, and the gods of Greece are useless.  The God of Israel has won our redemption.

We prayed in the collect that we might share in Christ’s resurrection, in his victory over the Devil and whatever dark powers there may be.  “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” is how victory comes about.  That’s a 2-step process:  belief in our minds and hearts, complemented by putting our belief into action—not necessarily in the form that Paul and Silas did, but at least as Jesus told us yesterday:  “You also testify” (John 15:26), i.e., you also bear witness that Jesus is the way by which we come to the Father, and we walk his way by obeying his command to love one another (John 15:17).