Saturday of the 6th Week of Easter
Acts 18:23-28 | Psalm 46:2-3, 8-10 | John 16:23-28
An Alexandrian Jew named Apollos now arrived in Ephesus. (Acts 18:24)
Picture, if you will, a young educated Jew who had the gift of the gab and a firm foundation in holy scripture. Fired by great enthusiasm, he goes around teaching everyone he meets about the coming Messiah.
Then he encounters a couple who fills him in on a few recent developments: not only has the Messiah arrived in his lifetime, but He’s made a brand new covenant with His people, gathered many followers, died like a criminal on a cross, rose from the dead, ascended to heaven, flooded His appointed apostles with this mysterious Spirit to make them speak in every language on earth and convert thousands.
“Oh, and you just missed this chap named Paul. Firebrand like you, a great persuader like you, just a little thinner than you in the hair department, on account of being zapped by Christ on the road to Damascus. With a little work, you can be Just Like Him. Here’s what you need to know…”
Weeks later, he’s off and running to Achaia with the support of the Christian community in Corinth, successfully replicating what St. Paul had done on his own journeys, convincing and converting people to Christ.
✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could’ve spoken directly to Jesus, traveled with Him, learned from Him? If only that could’ve come to pass, we’d be able to convert the people around us to Him, easy-peasy.
Except Apollos had none of those advantages either; he never met Jesus, but he put his formidable Alexandrian education to good use, and had Priscilla and Aquila to further educate him on the Way of Christ. Oh, and neither of them ever met Jesus either, but they had St. Paul as a guide.
Today, we have the benefit of two millennia of careful consideration and evolution of our faith foundations. We have a level of education that easily exceeds ancient Alexandrian standards. We spend every Sunday listening to learned clergy proclaim God’s Word and expound on what it means to us in our daily lives. We have the Internet with easy access to scripture and recorded history and tradition, and trivially easy ways to build online Christian communities. We (largely) have the luxury of not having to toil in the hot sun, living each day from hand to mouth.
We’ve got it all over Apollos. We just need Apollonian enthusiasm to spread the gospel message…
Lord, we have everything we need to be like Apollos, except the passion to proclaim your Holy Word. Send the Holy Spirit upon us to enflame our hearts and give us the courage to go forth, online and in real life, to share our hope in You with others, and kindle in them the fire of Your depthless Love. Amen.