Fr Kevin Kilgore

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Acts: 1:15-17, 20-26

Peter stood up in the midst of the brothers and sisters
(there was a group of about one hundred and twenty persons
in the one place).
He said, “My brothers and sisters,
the Scripture had to be fulfilled
which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand
through the mouth of David, concerning Judas,
who was the guide for those who arrested Jesus.
Judas was numbered among us
and was allotted a share in this ministry.
For it is written in the Book of Psalms:
Let his encampment become desolate,
and may no one dwell in it.
and:
May another take his office.

Therefore, it is necessary that one of the men
who accompanied us the whole time
the Lord Jesus came and went among us,
beginning from the baptism of John
until the day on which he was taken up from us,
become with us a witness to his resurrection.”
So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas,
who was also known as Justus, and Matthias.
Then they prayed,
“You, Lord, who know the hearts of all,
show which one of these two you have chosen
to take the place in this apostolic ministry
from which Judas turned away to go to his own place.”
Then they gave lots to them, and the lot fell upon Matthias,
and he was counted with the Eleven Apostles.

The Word of the Lord.

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Our first reading describes what might be the first complete gathering of the Christian community after the resurrection of Christ. The days of the Apostles hiding fearfully in Jerusalem were over.

The Risen Lord had appeared to them, breathed on them, bestowed the Holy Spirit, offered his divine peace, and sent them out on mission to, “make disciples of all nations.”

The first order of business was to replace Judas Iscariot, whose betrayal and death left a gaping hole in the early Church’s leadership. So, the entire Christian community gathered… all 120 of them.

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Two candidates were proposed, Matthias and Joseph. Both of them were followers of Jesus from the earliest days of his ministry, but neither was chosen by the Lord to be one of the Twelve… until today.

One might imagine the Church had a very spiritual process of election, filled with much prayer and fasting. While that was true, the practical side of replacing Judas came down to casting lots. 

Matthias and Joseph each had their name written on a stone, then placed inside a jar. The jar shook until one name fell out: Matthias. With that, he joined the ranks of the Apostles, who were the direct successors of Christ’s authority on earth.

Tradition tells us that Matthias went on to preach the Gospel as far as Turkey, until, like his brothers and his Lord, he was martyred – literally put to death for sharing his faith.

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May Matthias intercede for us that we, too, would speak up, finding creative ways to share the Gospel, even unto death.

Saint Matthias, Apostle and Martyr, pray for us.

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Image credits: (1) Every Nation Church New Jersey (2) Saint Matthias, Peter Paul Rubens, 1611 (3) LDS Scripture of the Day

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Acts: 17:15, 22 – 18:1

After Paul’s escorts had taken him to Athens,
they came away with instructions for Silas and Timothy
to join him as soon as possible.

Then Paul stood up at the Areopagus and said:
“You Athenians, I see that in every respect
you are very religious.
For as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines,
I even discovered an altar inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’
What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you.
The God who made the world and all that is in it,
the Lord of heaven and earth,
does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands,
nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything.
Rather it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and everything.
He made from one the whole human race
to dwell on the entire surface of the earth,
and he fixed the ordered seasons and the boundaries of their regions,
so that people might seek God,
even perhaps grope for him and find him,
though indeed he is not far from any one of us.
For ‘In him we live and move and have our being,’
as even some of your poets have said,
‘For we too are his offspring.’
Since therefore we are the offspring of God,
we ought not to think that the divinity is like an image
fashioned from gold, silver, or stone by human art and imagination.
God has overlooked the times of ignorance,
but now he demands that all people everywhere repent
because he has established a day on which he will ‘judge the world
with justice’ through a man he has appointed,
and he has provided confirmation for all
by raising him from the dead.”

When they heard about resurrection of the dead,
some began to scoff, but others said,
“We should like to hear you on this some other time.”
And so Paul left them.
But some did join him, and became believers.
Among them were Dionysius,
a member of the Court of the Areopagus,
a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

After this he left Athens and went to Corinth. 

The Word of the Lord.

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Athens was one of the most diverse cities in the ancient world. It was a city of intellects – and a city of gods. In fact, there were so many gods worshipped that some used to say, “It is easier to meet a god than a person.” 

Perhaps you’ve seen the famous temple where all the gods were worshiped, the Parthenon, located smack dab in the heart of Athens. 

There, people could offer sacrifices to any god they wanted – to the god of the sky, of the sea, even of the underworld. Interestingly, there was also an altar reserved for, The Unknown God.

The Greeks wisely believed that they could not box-in the Divine. God was bigger than they could imagine.

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Enter Saint Paul in our first reading.

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Imagine him standing in the shadow of the Parthenon, preaching about Jesus Christ who is the “Unknown God,” the one through whom everything and everyone was created. 

As Paul writes in his Letter to the Colossians, “All things were created through him; all things were created for him; he is before all else that is. In him everything continues in being.”

If the Greeks wanted to worship God in his fullness, Paul argued, then they had to worship Jesus Christ. Amazingly, some people converted, becoming part of the second generation of Christians.

Paul’s success was driven by three things: he had faith in humanity. He believed that every person longed to know the Truth, even if they were far from it. He made it his mission to gently lead people to it.

He understood the scriptures. Paul argued masterfully about why and how Jesus is LORD. 

Most importantly, Paul’s actions spoke louder than his words. He was humble and courageous, risking humiliation, rejection, even death on multiple occasions for the sake of souls.

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This is how we will continue to grow the Church today – our belief in the fundamental goodness of all people; we are all searching for Truth. Our understanding of the scriptures. And, above all, by the way in which we live our lives.

Saint Paul, pray for us.

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Image credits: (1) Japanese Congregational Church (2) National Catholic Register (3) KCIS 630

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Acts: 16:22-34

The crowd in Philippi joined in the attack on Paul and Silas,
and the magistrates had them stripped
and ordered them to be beaten with rods.
After inflicting many blows on them,
they threw them into prison
and instructed the jailer to guard them securely.
When he received these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell
and secured their feet to a stake.

About midnight, while Paul and Silas were praying
and singing hymns to God as the prisoners listened,
there was suddenly such a severe earthquake
that the foundations of the jail shook;
all the doors flew open, and the chains of all were pulled loose. 
When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open,
he drew his sword and was about to kill himself,
thinking that the prisoners had escaped.
But Paul shouted out in a loud voice,
“Do no harm to yourself; we are all here.”
He asked for a light and rushed in and,
trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas.
Then he brought them out and said,
“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus
and you and your household will be saved.”
So they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to everyone in his house.
He took them in at that hour of the night and bathed their wounds;
then he and all his family were baptized at once.
He brought them up into his house and provided a meal
and with his household rejoiced at having come to faith in God.

The Word of the Lord.

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Maybe you’ve heard the Swedish proverb: “Those who wish to sing always find a song.”  

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In our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Paul and Silas have been humiliated, stripped in public, and beaten with rods. 

Now they’re imprisoned and chained to the ground deep inside the belly of the earth, facing the possibility of imminent death. How can they sing songs to God at midnight?

Paul and Silas have discovered a deeper freedom, one that cannot be chained – the freedom of knowing Jesus Christ. 

This is a great, almost original, Pauline insight – that in the midst of suffering, there is always the consolation of the Spirit; there is grace; there can be joy; there is a reason to hope.

“Those who wish to sing always find a song.” 

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While we may never know the darkness of imprisonment, we’ve all endured various trials in life – dryness in prayer, periods of grief, sickness, anxiety, isolation, or frustration. 

Paul and Silas remind us, in spite of these trials, our tune can always be one of joy, sustained by faith, hope, and love.

As Paul later writes, “What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? … No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us.”

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Those who wish to sing always find a song. 

May hours be a tune of gratitude and joy for Christ has been raised in the dead!

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Image credits: (1) Etsy.com (2) Ponderings on a Faith Journey (3) Jan Meeus, Unsplash