In our first reading today, Paul is in Athens trying to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to the inhabitants of that city. In the ancient world, they prayed to a lot of different gods. In many ways, they tried to cover all the bases, not wanting to offend any one god. When Paul arrives in Athens, he is distressed to see many statues, idols, and altars dedicated to the Greek gods. Paul mentions seeing a shrine that they have dedicated “to an unknown God.” In his letter, Paul announces that he is going to preach to the people of Athens about the God that they unknowingly worship, because our God, the Father of Jesus, is indeed the one true God. Paul not only preaches in synagogue to the God-fearing Jews and Gentiles in attendance, but he also preaches the Good News of Jesus Christ in the agora, the busy Athenian marketplace.
Paul was definitely called by God to be a missionary and to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentile world. We may say to ourselves that we could never see ourselves preaching the Gospel the way Paul did. Indeed, God calls each of us to preach the Gospel in our own ways, with our own voice, out of our own spirituality and personality. In our neighbor, in our workplace, with our friends and even people we happen to meet, we never know the many ways we can witness to the faith in our words, our actions, and our lifestyle. May we not be afraid to see ourselves as evangelizers of the Gospel.
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