GOD’S WORD IN DAILY LIFE
10 May/Friday/Sixth Week of Easter
Acts 18,9-18/Psa 47,2-3.4-5.6-7/John 16,20-23
First Reading Acts 18:9-18
'I have many people on my side in this city'
At Corinth one night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision, ‘Do not be afraid to speak out, nor allow yourself to be silenced: I am with you. I have so many people on my side in this city that no one will even attempt to hurt you.’ So Paul stayed there preaching the word of God among them for eighteen months.
But, while Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a concerted attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal. ‘We accuse this man’ they said ‘of persuading people to worship God in a way that breaks the Law.’ Before Paul could open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, ‘Listen, you Jews. If this were a misdemeanour or a crime, I would not hesitate to attend to you; but if it is only quibbles about words and names, and about your own Law, then you must deal with it yourselves – I have no intention of making legal decisions about things like that.’ Then he sent them out of the court, and at once they all turned on Sosthenes, the synagogue president, and beat him in front of the courthouse. Gallio refused to take any notice at all.
After staying on for some time, Paul took leave of the brothers and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. At Cenchreae he had his hair cut off, because of a vow he had made.
Responsorial Psalm Psalm 46(47):2-7
God is king of all the earth.
All peoples, clap your hands,
cry to God with shouts of joy!
For the Lord, the Most High, we must fear,
great king over all the earth.
He subdues peoples under us
and nations under our feet.
Our inheritance, our glory, is from him,
given to Jacob out of love.
God goes up with shouts of joy;
the Lord goes up with trumpet blast.
Sing praise for God, sing praise,
sing praise to our king, sing praise.
Gospel Acclamation John 14:26
Alleluia, alleluia!
The Holy Spirit will teach you everything
and remind you of all I have said to you.
Alleluia!
Gospel John 16:20-23
Your hearts will be full of joy that no-one will take from you
Jesus said to his disciples:
‘I tell you most solemnly,
you will be weeping and wailing
while the world will rejoice;
you will be sorrowful,
but your sorrow will turn to joy.
A woman in childbirth suffers,
because her time has come;
but when she has given birth to the child she forgets the suffering
in her joy that a man has been born into the world.
So it is with you: you are sad now,
but I shall see you again, and your hearts will be full of joy,
and that joy no one shall take from you.
When that day comes,
you will not ask me any questions.’
Reflection
The First Reading recounts the missionary experience of Paul in Corinth. This second missionary journey of Paul has been full of hardships. From one place to the other, Paul met with resistance to the word that he preached. The first part of the reading gives the impression that Paul might be getting disillusioned and was in need of some encouragement to be able to continue the task entrusted to him. Help comes to Paul in the form of a vision in which the Lord tells him “Do not be afraid…I am with you”. These are reassuring words indeed!
The words Paul heard in the First Reading remind us of what Jesus said in the Gospel Reading today. There are moments in life that for the sake of the Gospel we weep and wail while the world rejoices but the Lord assures us that he would turn our sorrow into joy.
It is in the strength of this encouragement that Paul stayed in Corinth for more than eighteen months. It is one of the few places where he spent a considerable length of time during his missionary journeys. The period he spent in Corinth was an opportunity to instruct the members of the community in the faith. This seems to have provoked some jealousy from his opponents who wanted to have him imprisoned for blasphemy. Such an accusation in a Jewish court would have had serious consequences for Paul. This was not the case with Gallio, a Roman official who was not familiar with Jewish law. The dismissal of the case is the way in which God fulfilled his promise to Paul that he would be with him. Paul could join the Psalmist is proclaiming that the Lord has subdued peoples under him and nations under his feet.
It sounds ridiculous that the Jews who failed in imprisoning Paul let out their anger by beating up Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue. There is no presentation of his fault so it would seem that the Jews wanted to blame him for allowing Paul to preach to the people in the synagogue. This displacement of anger only reveals what we often do when we fail to accomplish our evil intentions. We turn our anger on innocent people instead of examining our conscience in order to discover where we went wrong and need to amend our lives. The episode in the First Reading is a lesson for us to learn to accept defeat when we are on the wrong path. We pray for the courage to acknowledge our fault instead of turning our anger on innocent people.
he urged all Christians most especially Catholics to open themselves up to the prompting of the Holy Spirit. He further added that we pray earnestly for the gifts and the fruits of the same Spirit. He said that on receiving them we should put them to use for the benefit of all humanity most especially in these difficult times when COVID 19 is ravaging the whole world. 
