The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2023)

Episode Date: November 25, 2023

Fr. Mike focuses on the story of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch and how it demonstrates the importance of having guidance when reading Scripture. Although God's Word is infallible, we can easily misunderstand it without proper interpretation, which is why we have the Magisterium of the Church. Lastly, Fr. Mike also touches on the role of persecution in the life of the Church, and St. Paul's encouragement to abide by the law of love. Today we read Acts 8, Romans 13-14, and Proverbs 27:15-17. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 329. We're reading from the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 8, as well as St. Paul's letter to the Romans, chapters 13 and 14, and Proverbs chapter 27, verses 15 through 17. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic

Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. You can also subscribe to this podcast, receive daily episodes episodes and daily updates. You have, you know, I don't know, 35. Is that right? 35 days left. I'm not good at math. 36. Either way, you can subscribe now and it won't be too late.

As I said, it is day 329 and we are reading Acts of the Apostles, chapter 8, St. Paul's letter to the Romans 13 and 14 and the book of Proverbs chapter 27, verses 15 through 17. The Acts of the Apostles chapter 8. And Saul was consenting to his death. Saul persecutes the church. And on that day a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem and they were all scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. But Saul laid waste to the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. Philip preaches in Samaria. Now those who were scattered went

about preaching the word. Philip went down to a city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. And the multitudes with one accord gave heed to what was said by Philip when they heard him and saw the signs which he did. For unclean spirits came out of many who were possessed, crying with a loud voice, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was much joy in that city. Simon the Magician But there was a man named Simon who had previously practiced magic in the city

and amazed the nation of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great. They all listened to him from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is that power of God which is called great. And they listened to him, because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic. But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized, he continued with Philip. And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed. Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For the Spirit had not

yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money, saying, Give me also this power, that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit. But Peter said to him, your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money. You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Repent therefore of this wickedness of yours and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.

For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. And Simon answered, Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me. Now when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans. Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. But an angel of the Lord said to Philip, Rise, and go toward the south, to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert road. And he rose and went.

And behold, an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a minister of Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of all her treasure, had come to Jerusalem to worship, and was returning. Seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the Spirit said to Philip, go up and join this chariot. So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, do you understand what you are reading? And he said, how can I, unless someone guides me? And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of the scripture, which he was reading was this, as a sheep led to the slaughter or a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens

not his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken up from the earth. And the eunuch said to Philip, Please, about whom does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else? Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this scripture, he told him the good news of Jesus. And as they went along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, See, here is water. What is to prevent my being baptized? And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught up Philip,

and the eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found at Azotus, and passing on, he preached the gospel to all the towns, till he came to Caesarea. St. Paul's letter to the Romans, chapter 13. Being subject to bad. Would you have no fear of him who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. He is the servant of God to execute his wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore, one must be subject not only to avoid God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience. For the same reason, you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God attending to this very thing.

Pay all of them their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due. Love for one another. Owe no one anything except to love one another. For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. The commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and any other commandment are summed up in this sentence. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. An urgent appeal. Besides this, you know what hour it is, how it is full time now for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far

gone. The day is at hand. Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires. Chapter 14. Do not judge one another. As for the man who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not for disputes over opinions. One believes he may eat anything, while the weak man eats only vegetables. Let not him who eats despise him who abstains, and let not him who abstains pass judgment on him who eats. For God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls, and he will be upheld,

for the master is able to make him stand. One man esteems one day as better than another, while another man esteems all days alike. Let everyone be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. He also who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God. While he who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord. And if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and lived again,

that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, Do not hinder a brother. Then let us no more pass judgment on one another, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself,

but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. If your brother is being injured by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died. So do not let what is good to you be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God does not mean food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. He who thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. Do not for the sake of food destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, For the sake of food, destroy the work of God.

Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make others fall by what he eats. It is not right to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that makes your brother stumble. The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Happy is he who has no reason to judge himself for what he approves. But he who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not act from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. The book of Proverbs chapter 27 verses 15 through 17. A continual dripping on a rainy day and a contentious woman are alike.

A continual dripping on a rainy day and a contentious woman are alike. To restrain her is to restrain the wind or to grasp oil in one's right hand. Iron sharpens iron and one man sharpens another. Father in heaven, we thank you and give you praise. Thank you for being with us today. Thank you for feeding us with your word, with your spirit. Thank you for being present to us and shaping our hearts and lighting them on fire. Help us to love you and to love our neighbor as ourself. Help us to love each other well. In Jesus' name, we pray. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So, gosh, you guys, oh my goodness, Acts of the Apostles, incredible. I want to highlight a couple of things.

One is, it might be odd that we started with chapter 8, verse 1, and it starts with the word and, which basically connects chapter 7, verse 60. And so you might have thought, wait, what? What happened again? This was when Stephen had been stoned and they laid the cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul. And Stephen cried out, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

The next verse, and Saul was consenting to his death. So that's kind of like if you're wondering, wait, what? That's what. And right after this, in basically the same verse, chapter 8, verse 1, continued, it says, on that day, a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem. So here, starting with Stephen, then other Christians were then persecuted. And that is in one verse, verse one of chapter eight, and Saul is consenting to his death. That's one. The next thing on that day, a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem. That's two

persecution in verse, and then three, same verse here. And they were all scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Now, those three movements, here is Saul consenting to Stephen's death. Secondly, here's the persecution arising in Jerusalem. Thirdly, here is the scattering of Christians throughout the region of Judea and Samaria. Remember what Jesus had said. He said, you'll receive the Holy Spirit, and then you will proclaim, basically, bring the gospel, starting here in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, to the ends of the earth. And this is Jesus' words being fulfilled, but what is the context in which they're being fulfilled? The context is persecution. I think sometimes, gosh, we need to pray about this, especially as Christians in the 21st century.

We need to pray about this. Sometimes we think, well, if I'm going to have the blessing of God, if I'm going to live out the plan, the will of God, it's going pray about this, especially as Christians in the 21st century. We need to pray about this. Sometimes we think, well, if I'm gonna have the blessing of God, if I'm gonna live out the plan, the will of God, it's gonna be prettier, right? It's gonna be more, there's gonna be less pain. There's gonna be less persecution. There's gonna be only blessing.

What happens? Here, verse one of chapter eight, Saul consenting to Stephen's death, church being persecuted. And that sparks the next step of evangelization. That sparks the next step of the growth of the church, not just in Jerusalem, but throughout Judea and Samaria. And then further persecution will spark even more growth to the ends of the earth. And that's one of the things we just have to realize that suffering, that obstacles,

that persecution doesn't mean things have gone wrong. That doesn't mean automatically that things have gone wrong. Sometimes that's just how it goes. And that's incredible. And so we have a little piece here of Philip, one of those who were sent and he's sent out and he begins preaching the word in Samaria. And it comes upon this man named Simon, who is a magician who amazed everybody. But then all of a sudden they see the power of the Holy Spirit. Even Simon himself becomes a Christian. Peter and John, they come to that same region in Samaria. And this is where we have the term simony, S-I-M-O-N-Y. Simony is the buying and selling of religious things or buying and selling of sacred things or the buying and selling of like blessings, that kind of idea. It is a sin.

And that comes from chapter eight of the Acts of the Apostles, where here's Simon, the magician, who says, I want to buy the power of the Holy Spirit from the apostles. And Peter has some very stern words for him. And so the church also has very stern words for anyone who would want to buy or sell holy things or buy or sell blessings. It's a sin called simony named after Simon, which is kind of fun. I mean, you imagine your name becoming the name of a sin. I don't know. That's that's it's fascinating to me. But the conclusion of chapter

eight of the Acts of the Apostles is one of my favorite stories. It's Ethiopian eunuch, Ethiopian eunuch, right? So here's this man and he's a eunuch. So basically he is unable to become a Jew because of his status as being a eunuch. He is not allowed to be a person of the covenant, of the old covenant. But he is a God-fearer. He has come to Jerusalem to worship, even though he can't participate fully in the worship of the people of Israel. And so he's fascinated by the book of the prophet Isaiah here. And Philip, I love this. Philip, the Holy Spirit moves Philip to go up to the chariot. And Philip

asks him the question, do you understand what you're reading? And the response of the Ethiopian eunuch is, how can I, unless someone guides me? This is so important for us. The book we've been reading, you know, the 73 books we've been going through, we're not done yet. We have 30 plus days, but the 73 books we've been going through, they are God's infallible word. Absolutely. The infallible word of God. Absolutely. But, you know, we all know that they can be misinterpreted. We all know that God's word can be used and distorted. It can not even just be distorted. It can just be misunderstood. And so here's God's infallible word. What God's infallible word needs for us to impact our lives in a way that's infallible is it needs an infallible interpreter of the word. And so an infallible book without an infallible interpreter is a worthless book because if

I can get the interpretation wrong, then it's kind of useless, right? So what we need is what the Ethiopian eunuch pointed out. How am I supposed to understand this unless someone can guide me, unless someone can teach me? And that is the role of the church. Here's the role of Philip in this case. And it's just incredible to realize that God has given us that.

He's not only given us the infallible word of God, he's given us the teaching office of the church. He's given us what they call the magisterium to be able to guide the discernment, to guide the interpretation, to guide our understanding of the church. We're going to see this actually play out in the next couple of chapters. After Saul has his conversion, there's going to be a number of moments where it's like, how do I understand this? How do we understand baptism? How do we understand circumcision? And the church is going to be able to answer that question.

And it's just a really beautiful thing. Again, I'm not trying to make too strong of a case there, but it's compelling and it's worth praying about, I would say that. One quick note about Romans. What's happening in the letter of St. Paul to the Romans? Well, one of the things that's happening is, there's many things, obviously, but one of the things that's happening

is there's this call to love. Now, St. Paul has been talking this whole time about freedom, that if you're free from the law, then you're not bound to the law, right? You are now living by the law of love, you're now living by the law of the spirit. And so that doesn't mean, though, that you have license. That doesn't mean you can just do anything because you have to love each other. And as he says in

chapter 13, verse eight, owe no one to anything except to love one another for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. And this is a very, very interesting piece. He applies this to the reality that there is some contention. There's some discussion over, okay, so are there foods that you can eat? Like, are there foods that Christians can't eat? For example, are there foods that were offered in pagan temples that now Christians can't eat because they were part of a religious ceremony offered to a false God? And the idea is some people would say, no, that's completely fine. No big deal. Just eat the meat. And others would say, no, that's scandalous because that meat was offered to an idol. It was offered to a false God. And so St. Paul is saying, okay, whether you eat it or whether you don't eat it, that's irrelevant. The most important thing

is, does your eating of this meat hurt the faith of someone else? Or does your not eating of this meat hurt the faith of someone else? So take into account the people around you. And again, again, you can do whatever, basically he's saying you can kind of do whatever in this case, in this case, keep that in mind in this case. But if what you choose to do is going to hurt the faith of your brother or your sister, then don't do it. Why? Out of love for them. And that's just, it's, it almost seems like too easy. It almost seems too common sense. It almost seems too clear. And yet when we try to apply that to our own lives, isn't that, it's just so difficult because it's, does that mean I don't do anything or I'd start to have to do everything because this is going to scandalize my brother or sister? Let me say no, but we just come back down to this. The law is

law of love. If this is going to help my brother or sister, then why not do it? If it's going to hurt my brother and sister, then why would I do it? Again, it means living a dynamic life, meaning it's not just kind of rigid. It's not just a bunch of rules. It's about saying, will this help or will this hurt? If it hurts, I won't do it. If it helps, maybe I will. I hope that makes sense. But Romans chapter 13 and 14, what we just read today, it's just, it's full of gems. It's full of gold. It's full of just absolute, absolute beauty. And one last note, St. Paul says in chapter 13, he says, salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone. The day is at hand. Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. And that's just,

that's the last word. We'll let that be the last word today. Just to live as in daylight, to walk in the light and to recognize that the Lord loves you. God loves you who are listening right now. He's very proud of you. The Father is very, very proud of you. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me.

My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.