Acts 16:11-15

Acts 16:11-15

We set sail from Troas, making a straight run for Samothrace,

and on the next day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi,

a leading city in that district of Macedonia and a Roman colony.

We spent some time in that city.

On the sabbath we went outside the city gate along the river

where we thought there would be a place of prayer.

We sat and spoke with the women who had gathered there.

One of them, a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth,

from the city of Thyatira, a worshiper of God, listened,

and the Lord opened her heart to pay attention

to what Paul was saying.

After she and her household had been baptized,

she offered us an invitation,

“If you consider me a believer in the Lord,

come and stay at my home,” and she prevailed on us.

Opening Prayer: Lord God, open my heart today to welcome your Word and Spirit. Guide my thoughts, words, and actions, so that I may accomplish your heavenly will and extend your reign of justice, love, and peace.

Encountering the Word of God

1. Testimony in Philippi: The importance of giving testimony, of bearing witness to Christ through the Spirit, is clear in today’s First Reading. Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke all sailed together across the Aegean Sea to proclaim the Gospel in Europe and eventually made their way to Philippi, a leading city in Macedonia. The city was along a major road between Rome and Byzantium (modern-day Istanbul). Many veterans of the Roman legions retired there. “There were few Jews in Philippi, apparently too few to support a formal synagogue, so the missionaries sought out the informal ‘place of prayer’ (proseuche) where Jews and Gentile ‘God-fearers’ gathered on the Sabbath” (Pimentel, Envoy of the Messiah, 7).

2. Lydia: In Philippi, Paul and his companion missionaries encountered Lydia, from the city of Thyatira. Luke tells us that Lydia was “a dealer in purple cloth.” Purple cloth was very difficult to make. A small amount of purple dye required extracting the color from thousands of sea snails and boiling the extraction for 10 days. It seems that Lydia was quite successful in her business and was known for her profession. She was a Gentile believer in the God of Israel. As she listened to Paul’s proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, she was moved by God’s grace and opened her heart to God’s Word. She was drawn from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. In this way, Lydia became an example and “type” of the Gentile who accepts the Word of God.

3. Lydia’s Mission and Apostolate: On becoming a member of Christ’s mystical body through Baptism, she welcomed the other members of Christ into her home. “No sooner had Lydia been baptized than she undertook her apostolate, beginning with the conversion of her own household and immediately turning to the missionaries, to whom she extended that sacred hospitality (philoxenia) that was so highly valued in the ancient world (cf. Acts 16:15). Suffused with the theological virtue of charity, her hospitality expresses gratitude not only to her human benefactors but, more profoundly, to the Word. The ultimate meaning of her hospitality is thus acceptance of Christ in the person of her befriended stranger (xenos). Although Jews, Paul and Silas did not refuse to stay at the house of this Gentile woman” (Pimentel, Envoy of the Messiah, 8). Through the acceptance of the Gospel and through the Sacrament of Baptism, Lydia and her household joined in a new song of praise to God. They became children of Zion and rejoiced in Christ their king, who has conquered the world and cast out its ruler.

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, I believe in you. You are my Savior and Redeemer. Open my heart, as you opened Lydia’s, to receive your word with faith. Grant that, like her, I may welcome you into my home and order my life in loving service to you.

Living the Word of God: How can I imitate Lydia today? Do I need to be more attentive to the Word of God? Do I need to welcome the stranger in my life? Do I need to offer hospitality to those who preach the Word of God? Do I need to administer my wealth better in the service of God’s Word and the poor?