Sunday Vigil
We remember Our Lady of Sheshan, sanctuary nearby Shanghai in China. Prayer for Chinese Christians.
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Acts 16,1-10
From there he went to Derbe, and then on to Lystra, where there was a disciple called Timothy, whose mother was Jewish and had become a believer; but his father was a Greek. The brothers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him, and Paul, who wanted to have him as a travelling companion, had him circumcised. This was on account of the Jews in the locality where everyone knew his father was a Greek. As they visited one town after another, they passed on the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem, with instructions to observe them. So the churches grew strong in the faith, as well as growing daily in numbers. They travelled through Phrygia and the Galatian country, because they had been told by the Holy Spirit not to preach the word in Asia. When they reached the frontier of Mysia they tried to go into Bithynia, but as the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them, they went through Mysia and came down to Troas. One night Paul had a vision: a Macedonian appeared and kept urging him in these words, 'Come across to Macedonia and help us.' Once he had seen this vision we lost no time in arranging a passage to Macedonia, convinced that God had called us to bring them the good news.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Chapter 16 of Acts has the Word of god overcome the borders of Asia. The author underlines that the decision to go to Europe is not born from a strategy of the apostle Paul rather from a question that raised from the very heart of the Empire. This is the sense of the appeal of the Macedonian man who appears in vision to Paul and standing pleads to him saying: "Come over to Macedonia and help us!" It is a pressing invitation, almost an imperative; and yet is still a "vision." The Apostle does not fulfil his mission with his head down, he does not live the task of proclaiming the Gospel as a cold employee. He ponders how the Gospel can be preached everywhere; he opens his eyes to those in need and is distressed because there are so many who are still waiting; he ponders how to approach preaching, how he can touch hearts. In short, Paul has a vision for his mission. From that day, the vision becomes reality. Paul responded to the cry that was rising from Europe and, in a way, from the entire West. But Europe - the Christian Churches of Europe - must, in turn, as Paul did that night, listen to the cry for help from poor countries, from those oppressed by violence and war, especially from the peoples of the South of the world. There is a need for the Churches to have a 'vision', not to be closed in on themselves and their problems, but to have a gospel, i.e. universal, outlook. This universal mission, aimed at making peoples one family, requires the Church to be healed of the sin of division that separates it from the Gospel. The holy Patriarch Athenagoras used to repeat: "Sister Churches, brother peoples." If the Churches are divided, the peoples will also be divided.