Acts 20: 17-27
From Miletus Paul sent a message to Ephesus, asking the elders of the church to meet him. When they came to him, he said to them:
“You yourselves know how I lived among you the entire time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears, enduring the trials that came to me through the plots of the Jews. I did not shrink from doing anything helpful, proclaiming the message to you and teaching you publicly and from house to house, as I testified to both Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus. And now, as a captive to the Spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and persecutions are waiting for me. But I do not count my life of any value to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the good news of God’s grace.
“And now I know that none of you, among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom, will ever see my face again. Therefore I declare to you this day that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.”
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
Giving Everything for the Faith
Martyrs have enriched the church since its birth. Shortly after Jesus’ death, Stephen was stoned for proclaiming the story of Jesus Christ. In today’s reading, Paul predicts his own impending persecution and ultimate execution. Today, the Church celebrates St. Charles Lwanga and his companions who were killed in late nineteenth-century Uganda for their refusal to recant their Catholic faith.
In my American life today, I remark how painless it is to live my faith. I drive to church at a Mass time and location of my convenience. No government spy is tracking my sacramental history. I can freely wear religious symbols.
Even still, I sometimes mask my Catholic identity in secular spaces to avoid judgment. I have to wonder, though, what would Stephen, Paul, and Charles say? Their stories make me ponder if I am prepared to bear my own hardships for the sake of the Gospel.
—Ty Wahlbrink, SJ, is a Jesuit scholastic of the Midwest Province teaching economics and entrepreneurship at Loyola Academy in Wilmette, IL.
Prayer
Take, Lord, and receive
all my liberty, my memory,
my understanding, and my entire will,
all I have and call my own.
You have given all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it.
Everything is yours; do with it what you will.
Give me only your love and your grace,
that is enough for me.
—Suscipe prayer of St. Ignatius
Pray with the Pope
Pray with the monthly prayer intentions of the pope.