St.Bernardine of Siena, priest 

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

Acts 17:15, 22-18:1

Paul was taken as far as Athens by his escort,

who then returned to Beroea with instructions for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible. Then Paul stood up in the Areopagus hall and said, “Athenian citizens, I note that in every way you are very religious. As I walked around looking at your shrines, I even discovered an altar with this inscription: To an unknown God. Now, what you wor­ship as unknown, I intend to make known to you.

 God, who made the world and all that is in it, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands, being as he is Lord of heaven and earth. Nor does his worship depend on any­thing made by human hands, as if he were in need. Rather it is he who gives life and breath and everything else to everyone. 

From one stock he created the whole human race to live throughout all the earth, and he fixed the time and the boundaries of each nation. He wanted them to seek him by themselves, even if it were only by groping for him, succeed in finding him. Yet he is not far from any one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being, as some of your poets have said: for we too are his offspring. 

If we are indeed God’s offspring, we ought not to think of divinity as something like a statue of gold or silver or stone, a product of human art and imagination.  But now God prefers to overlook this time of ignorance and he calls on all people to change their ways. He has already set a day on which he will judge the world with justice through a man he has appointed. And, so that all may believe it, he has just given a sign by raising this man from the dead.”

 When they heard Paul speak of a resurrection from death, some made fun of him, while others said, “We must hear you on this topic some other time.” At that point Paul left. But a few did join him, and be­lieved. Among them were Diony­sius, a member of the Areopagus court, a woman named Damaris, and some others.  After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.

 

Ps 148:1-2, 11-12, 13, 14

Heaven and earth are full of your glory.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊

John 16:12-15

 I still have many things to tell you, but you cannot bear them now. When he, the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into the whole truth.

He has nothing to say of himself but he will speak of what he hears, and he will tell you of the things to come. He will take what is mine and make it known to you; in doing this, he will glorify me. All that the Father has is mine; because of this I have just told you, that the Spirit will take what is mine and make it known to you.”

 

Gospel Reflection：

 It is fascinating to see how Paul uses something so familiar to the Athenians – their “altar to the unknown God” – and uses this in order to make a connection between something already known to them, and the message of the Good News.

St. Thomas Aquinas once said that “truth has nothing to fear” and that no matter where it is found, “truth is from the Holy Spirit”. Already during the early days of the church, we see this principle at work in the method of preaching of St. Paul.

He would take something already familiar to his listeners and then use this in order to gently introduce them to the truths of the faith. But then again, even Jesus employed this method of teaching; he would use stories that his listeners were somewhat familiar with, he would use examples drawn from their day to day lives and then use these to guide them towards arriving at moments of profound realization.