17 MAY 2022 – Tuesday of fifth week of Easter – Acts 14:19-28

      I love celebrating the Easter season during the liturgical year. During the Easter season, we hear the readings from the Acts of the Apostles in our daily masses. We hear about how the Early Church started and spread the Gospel throughout the world.  Today, we hear about Paul being stoned by the people of Antioch and Iconium; he was left for dead.   The people of this region feared the word of God. They were resistant to God’s message, so much so that they were wanting to kill the person that brought this message to them.  Today, we see a similar resistance to the word of God and to organized religion throughout the world, even right here in America, even right here in Mississippi.  In a similar way, so many people in our modern world don’t see God’s word as being relevant to their lives anymore. It is up to us to continue to evangelize and to live out the word that Jesus preached, to have it make an effect in our lives, to have it infuse our very beings.  Yet, later in the first reading, we hear that other people from that same region give words of encouragement to Paul in his efforts to evangelize the world.  

      Going on pilgrimage is an important part of my journey of faith. Millions of people go on pilgrimage in the modern world, many of whom do not claim to be religious or to be regular church-goers.  The pilgrimage of the Way of St James in Spain started with the apostle James the Greater going to Spain to help evangelize the people there. However, he returned to Jerusalem because his efforts to convert the people were not successful. Now, almost 2000 years later, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from throughout the world arrive at James’ tombs in the city of Santiago de Compostela after walking many miles along the pilgrimage route.  Even those who do not go for religious or spiritual reasons are often touched profoundly in faith but what they experience.  There are signs of encouragement and hope in the world today that God gives us, many signs of encouragement if we would only be able to look and recognize them. As we continue on our journey of faith during the Easter season, may we carry the message of the risen Christ in our hearts, and may we be heartened and encouraged as we live out God’s word and as we bring it to others.