WE ARE CHAPTER 29

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Paul under house arrest in Rome

The book of the Acts of the Apostles, Luke's account of the growth of the early church, ends very abruptly, with Paul in Rome awaiting his hearing before Caesar. Here are the last words of the book:

"[Paul] remained for two full years in his lodgings. He received all who came to him, and with complete assurance and without hindrance he proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 28:30-31).

The abruptness of this ending raises a question that has vexed readers and scholars since the Second Century, namely, did the rest of the manuscript get lost, or is this the ending that was written by Luke? Does the writer really intend to leave us hanging like this?

Yesterday on the feast of his patron saint, our Fr. Luke preached a fine homily that included this way of answering the question: The author intended to leave the story unfinished, so that we, the readers, would get the idea that we have to continue the story ourselves. The inspired writer stopped at the end of Chapter 28, leaving the writing of Chapter 29 to the Christians that were to follow. I like that idea.

We, the church of today, are the renewed People of God, we are writing with our lives Chapter 29 of the continuing story of God's faithfulness. We are part of God's plan, we are the fulfilment of prophecies. In other words,we are each of us sacred authors, each adding our bit to the story through our actions, through imitating Jesus by the way we treat one another, the way we think and the way we pray. It's our vocation to advance the Kingdom and to move it towards its completion.

The normal way for us Christians to see our lives is as our struggle to get to heaven. Anything else is just a sidelight or irrelevant background noise. But the truth is much more expansive than that. It's not about my getting to heaven, it's about heaven coming to earth in Christ, about God's infinite Love showing itself in history through me, as it has been showing itself since the first "Let there be light." That's my rightful place in the story: My life gets its meaning from the fact that I'm part of God's overall plan for the world, and all my actions are part of the story of Chapter 29 of Acts, the ongoing task of cooperating with God's purpose for the world. Along with countless millions of sisters and brothers past, present and future, you and I are helping to write Chapter 29 every day.

Let's pray that we can continue to encourage one another as we move the story along together.