Prior, Fr. Joel Macul, OSB - celebrant
Acts 8:26–40
John 6:44–51
Sometimes we are told by concerned people not to pick up strangers and hitchhikers along the road. This could lead to trouble. It seems the Spirit today overrides such a concern for safety. Instead, the Spirit moves the deacon Philip to get out on the road, to be on the way and make himself visible to a traveler in a vehicle. And then, the Spirit moves the stranger, the eunuch from an exotic land, to invite the stranger running along the road into his chariot. And breaking all protocol of being cautious about the stranger actually asks him for advice about what he is reading.
What is Luke calling our attention to in this unique story about two people on the road? Remember that yesterday we read how deacon Philip went to proclaim the gospel in Samaria. It was welcomed and brought joy to the Samaritans. Today, deacon Philip is reaching out to a eunuch from a distant country. In both cases we are being told that the Spirit is working among the marginalized people of Israel. The Samaritans are sort of half-breed Jews; because their bodies were maimed eunuchs were not allowed to fully participate in the assembly or temple. Yet the Risen Jesus is restoring Israel, creating it anew, fulfilling its purpose. Those on the edges are being received into the community the Servant of God, Jesus, is calling together. Subtly the Spirit is bringing the words of the same prophet Isaiah that the eunuch is reading to fulfillment. For it is the prophet Isaiah that speaks of eunuchs having a place in worship in the restored Israel. It is Isaiah among others that speaks of people coming from Ethiopia to the New Jerusalem. And it is Isaiah who speaks of the suffering servant who brings all this about in his silence and humiliation. The eunuch is reading the prophet whose words become real in Jesus. The suffering and risen Jesus brings to reality what the prophet spoke and saw. The apparent stranger along the road helps the foreign visitor to Jerusalem to make the connection. Deacon Philip is doing with the eunuch what the Risen Lord once did for two downcast disciples walking on the road away from Jerusalem. He is breaking open the Scriptures so that the Servant and the Lamb are revealed.
Before Luke can reveal to us the Risen Lord’s call to the gentile world through the call of Paul and the experience of Peter and Cornelius in the next two chapters, he wants to bring into the community the fragments of scattered Israel. It is the Scriptures that are the key to this coming together. The result, we hear, is joy and rejoicing.
The response of the eunuch upon making the connection that Philip points out is simple: What prevents me from being baptized? What is preventing me from joining God’s suffering servant and rising with him out of the waters? Philip and the eunuch together go into the water for baptism.
We could ask ourselves when we see the connection between the Scriptures and who Jesus is and the potential for our lives, what holds us back from our dying to self so that we can truly live from the center of our being? What holds us back as individuals and community from accepting that the love that pulled Jesus out of death is still working to embrace myself and all God’s children, even those parts of myself that I have pushed back out sight over the years? Or am I afraid to let someone else, even a stranger, instruct me and help me read the Scriptures and my life?
Moments for letting go and allowing myself to be taught, to understand and to love again can appear anywhere along the road I am traveling. These moments are like the water the eunuch saw from his chariot and chose to plunge into with joy. These are moments when the Spirit is working. May we not be afraid of the guides who help us to find new meaning in our lives.