It is very surprising to see how focused the first disciples were on proclaiming their faith, that experience of the risen Christ in their lives. First, we see that they were so bursting with joy and desires to share their faith that many took off on missionary trips. Today when we ask the Confirmation candidates to do a few hours of community service over the lapse of one school year, we hear lots of complains, not just from the teenagers, but also from their parents. The Acts of the Apostles is a book full of common people who dedicated their lives to sharing their faith as the first and foremost aspect in their lives.
Secondly, we see how they used everything in their daily life to insert their faith into their conversations with others. For them common events in life spoke to them of the presence of God. Today, we see how Paul arrives in a new city as a foreigner and uses aspects of the local culture to proclaim his faith experience. In those days the city had a god for every aspect of human life: love, war, planting, harvest, good luck, vengeance, good health, wisdom, or fertility. There was even a shrine for the “unknown” god, just in case they had missed one.
Paul notices this while walking through the city. He uses that personal experience and that aspect of the local culture and natural religiosity to proclaim the risen Christ. Paul even makes efforts to cite local poetry to show how God is already working in their lives and culture.
Paul and the first disciple were not sugary, overly pious, doctrinal, or sanctimonious. Their faith and their faith sharing were simply based on their personal experiences of the risen Christ in their lives. Many times, as a Church and as a local faith community, we do not take the time to share and announce our faith and many times our faith sharing is too rigid and cold and separate from daily live. Do you take time to share your faith in a personal way, or do you remain silent?
So that people might seek God,
even perhaps grope for him and find him,
though indeed he is not far from any one of us.
For ‘In him we live and move and have our being,’
as even some of your poets have said,
‘For we too are his offspring.’