Upon first reading of, well, the First Reading, it would appear that it’s just another story of Paul sharing the Good News and building up the early Church. That’s all well and good (I mean, where would we be right now without the work of the early disciples?) but one might become more concerned with how they would pronounce the cities Troas and Samothrace instead of what they can take from the reading and they might miss this gem of a verse.
“…and the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what Paul was saying.”
I think we can find ourselves in two positions within this verse – that of the woman whose heart was opened and that of Paul who was evangelizing.
Let’s start with the woman. In our fallen human nature, how many times have our hearts been closed off to the ways and words of the Lord, whether it was due to our own sin or to our own ignorance? When we sin, when we choose things against the Lord, when we choose opposite of His will for our lives, we harden our hearts and seek the voice of the world instead. Or sometimes, we seek the voice of the Lord but we box Him in with our own expectations. We fail to hear the whisper in the wind when we are looking for the boom of the lightning bolt instead.
Fear not, brothers and sisters, for the Lord is more powerful and more merciful than we often give Him credit for. He can bust down the largest and thickest walls built up around our hearts. There is no heart that he can’t open. He can, does and will speak to us, in His own way, in His own time.
Now let’s look at how we are like Paul. Through our Baptism, we are each given the mission to proclaim the Good News and build up the kingdom of God – the same mission that was given to Paul and the early disciples. When we are evangelizing, we have to remember that it is the Lord who speaks through us. He’s working in the hearts of both parties, the one doing the speaking and the one doing the listening, because it’s His Good News.
What is the Lord asking you to open your heart to? What is He asking you to pay attention to this week? This month? This year? What is He asking you to proclaim in your task of evangelization? These are questions we should all consider.
Erin is a Cleveland native and graduate of Franciscan University of Steubenville. She is passionate about the Lord Jesus, all things college sports and telling stories and she is blessed enough to get paid for all three of her passions as a full-time youth minister and a freelance sports writer. You can catch her on old episodes of the Clarence & Peter Podcast on YouTube as well as follow her on Twitter @erinmadden2016.
Feature Image Credit: Henry & Co, https://unsplash.com/photos/M3KfixgdCko