20260512 THE PATH TO FAITH AND WITNESSING IN THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
12 May 2026, Tuesday, 6th Week of Easter
First reading | Acts 16:22-34 |
Become a believer and you will be saved, and your household too
The crowd joined in and showed their hostility to Paul and Silas, so the magistrates had them stripped and ordered them to be flogged. They were given many lashes and then thrown into prison, and the gaoler was told to keep a close watch on them. So, following his instructions, he threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
Late that night Paul and Silas were praying and singing God’s praises, while the other prisoners listened. Suddenly there was an earthquake that shook the prison to its foundations. All the doors flew open and the chains fell from all the prisoners. When the gaoler woke and saw the doors wide open he drew his sword and was about to commit suicide, presuming that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted at the top of his voice, ‘Don’t do yourself any harm; we are all here.’ The gaoler called for lights, then rushed in, threw himself trembling at the feet of Paul and Silas, and escorted them out, saying, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ They told him, ‘Become a believer in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, and your household too.’ Then they preached the word of the Lord to him and to all his family. Late as it was, he took them to wash their wounds, and was baptised then and there with all his household. Afterwards he took them home and gave them a meal, and the whole family celebrated their conversion to belief in God.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 137(138):1-3,7-8 |
You stretch out your hand and save me, O Lord.
or
Alleluia!
I thank you, Lord, with all my heart:
you have heard the words of my mouth.
In the presence of the angels I will bless you.
I will adore before your holy temple.
You stretch out your hand and save me, O Lord.
or
Alleluia!
I thank you for your faithfulness and love,
which excel all we ever knew of you.
On the day I called, you answered;
you increased the strength of my soul.
You stretch out your hand and save me, O Lord.
or
Alleluia!
You stretch out your hand and save me,
your hand will do all things for me.
Your love, O Lord, is eternal,
discard not the work of your hands.
You stretch out your hand and save me, O Lord.
or
Alleluia!
Gospel Acclamation |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Christ has risen and shone upon us
whom he redeemed with his blood.
Alleluia!
Or: | cf.Jn16:7,13 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
I will send you the Spirit of truth, says the Lord;
he will lead you to the complete truth.
Alleluia!
Gospel | John 16:5-11 |
Unless I go, the Advocate will not come to you
Jesus said to his disciples:
‘Now I am going to the one who sent me.
Not one of you has asked, “Where are you going?”
Yet you are sad at heart because I have told you this.
Still, I must tell you the truth:
it is for your own good that I am going
because unless I go,
the Advocate will not come to you;
but if I do go,
I will send him to you.
And when he comes,
he will show the world how wrong it was,
about sin,
and about who was in the right,
and about judgement:
about sin: proved by their refusal to believe in me;
about who was in the right: proved by my going to the Father and your seeing me no more;
about judgement: proved by the prince of this world being already condemned.’
THE PATH TO FAITH AND WITNESSING IN THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ACTS 16:22-34; PS 138:1-3,7-8; JOHN 16:5-11]
How can one come to faith in Christ? Firstly, one depends on the impact of the witnesses. The more convincing the witnessing, the more powerful the testimony. This is what St Paul wrote in his Letter to the Romans, reminding us that the conversion of believers depends on faithful witnessing to the Lord: “how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!'” (Rom 10:14f) The power of witnessing, however, does not come from ourselves but from a divine power, without which we are helpless and will succumb to the persecutions of the world. Without this power, we will cower before those who oppose our message.
What does this witnessing entail? Witnessing comes through the power given to us by the Holy Spirit. Indeed, the Spirit is given precisely to us as our Advocate to be a witness to Jesus. Jesus in the Gospel assured the disciples that His return to the Father was necessary so that He could come in a new way, that is, into the hearts and minds of every disciple, no longer confined to space and time. “Still, I must tell you the truth: it is for your own good that I am going because unless I go, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I do go, I will send him to you.”
Secondly, the Holy Spirit enables us to testify to Christ by exposing our ignorance about sin, about truth, and about judgement. The Lord told the disciples, “And when he comes, he will show the world how wrong it was, about sin, and about who was in the right, and about judgement: about sin: proved by their refusal to believe in me; about who was in the right: proved by my going to the Father and your seeing me no more; about judgement: proved by the prince of this world being already condemned.”
The Holy Spirit is the one who strikes the heart of our conscience. Often, knowledge alone will not change us, but only when what we know strikes the depths of our hearts. The Holy Spirit is the conscience of God speaking to us and opening us to the depth of His message. Hence, only the Holy Spirit can convince and convict us of our wrongdoing and ignorance. The real problem of unbelief is not so much ignorance as intellectual blindness and the stubbornness of the will, which is often the cause of rejection. The Holy Spirit, through the power of preaching and prophecy, can help expose someone’s ignorance and hypocrisy and convict the person of his sin.
The Holy Spirit vouched for the truth and credibility of our Lord by enlightening us that it is through the death and resurrection of our Lord that we can be certain about His divine message and identity. The resurrection is the seal of the Father on the work of Jesus. That Jesus was raised from the dead shows that Jesus was innocent and therefore His claims of Divine Sonship and Messiahship are true. Indeed, in the Holy Spirit, Jesus makes His presence so deeply felt in the hearts of the disciples that they knew He was risen in their midst. Only those with faith and docility can see the Risen Christ. So whilst the world celebrated the end of Jesus by putting Him in the tomb, the disciples used this same symbol to show that His absence from the tomb was proof of His return to the Father.
Finally, the Holy Spirit leads us into the true meaning of judgement. The world judged Jesus as a criminal and a blasphemer. In so doing, the world judged itself to be ignorant and perverse. Jesus in the Gospel already said, “The Father judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son, so that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father. Anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgement, but has passed from death to life.” (Jn 5:22-24) Thus, Jesus becomes the norm of judgement. We judge ourselves using Jesus as our reference point for truth and love.
In the light of what we have said about witnessing, we can now apply these principles to the ministry of Paul and Silas. There are several lessons we can learn from the incident where Paul set the slave girl free from the demon. Firstly, it is a call to renew our faith in the power of God over evil. The sign that accompanied the preaching of Paul was the act of exorcism when, in the name of Jesus, he cast out the spirit of divination from the slave girl. This mirrors the exorcism by our Lord when He cast out a demon when He was preaching at the synagogue. (Mark 1:21f, Luke 4:31f) Just as in the case of our Lord, the demons also exposed the power of Paul and Silas saying, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.” (Acts 16:17) And just as our Lord did, Paul also silenced the demon and said to him, “I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” (Acts 16:18) The First Reading therefore reminds us that instead of falling under the control of the evil spirit, we should turn to our Lord and be led by His Holy Spirit, who can convict the world of sin and put the devil to flight.
Secondly, today’s Scripture teaches us that when we witness to Christ, we will share in His suffering, as in the case of Paul and Silas. When we seek to do good and eradicate evil, we can be sure that there will be opposition. For Paul and Silas, by delivering the slave girl from the clutches of the demon, she also lost the power of divination, much to the dismay of her master, who lost an important source of income and influence through her owners. In their anger, the crowd seized Paul and Silas and dragged them to the authorities, who had them stripped of their clothing, beaten with rods, and locked in jail. We should not be surprised that our profession of being a Christian may deny us a respectable place in society. The world today may not arrest us and torture us for our faith, but it can still promote a cancel culture to destroy our credibility and make us out to be fanatics, divisive, and a nuisance.
In that same vein, this incident assures us that God is with us, just as He was with Paul and Silas. Miraculously, “there was an earthquake that shook the prison to its foundations. All the doors flew open and the chains fell from all the prisoners.” God responded to the prayer of Paul and Silas who, whilst in prison, instead of groaning in pain from the lashes they received, “were praying and singing God’s praises, while the other prisoners listened.” The Holy Spirit shook the jail and set them free. Yet, instead of running away for their freedom, they courageously remained in the cell to testify to unbelievers like the gaoler about the power of God and His fidelity to them. And so “when the gaoler woke and saw the doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to commit suicide, presuming that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted at the top of his voice, ‘Don’t do yourself any harm; we are all here.'”
Finally, we learn about the redemptive power of suffering in Christ for the Church. Truly, there are times when God asks us to suffer and endure injustice as Paul and Silas did. Through our suffering, we are also able to also save others by witnessing to Christ. This is why St Paul wrote, “I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh, I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. I became its servant according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known.” (Col 1:24f) As a consequence of their sufferings, the gaoler was converted. He was set free from ignorance and found faith in Christ. He “threw himself trembling at the feet of Paul and Silas, and escorted them out, saying, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ They told him, ‘Become a believer in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, and your household too.’ Then they preached the word of the Lord to him and to all his family. He took them to wash their wounds, and was baptised then and there with all his household. He took them home and gave them a meal, and the whole family celebrated their conversion to belief in God.”
How wonderful is the power of witnessing in suffering and in faith, that the entire family was converted to the Lord after hearing in faith the Word of God preached by Paul and Silas. They were moved to conviction and they began to wash the wounds of Paul and Silas. In turn, Paul and Silas washed the gaoler and the family of their sins in baptism. After sharing their meal, which is an anticipation of the Eucharist, we are reminded that baptism and the Eucharist must lead us to humble service of our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Best Practices for Using the Daily Scripture Reflections
- Encounter God through the spirit of prayer and the scripture by reflecting and praying the Word of God daily. The purpose is to bring you to prayer and to a deeper union with the Lord on the level of the heart.
- Daily reflections when archived will lead many to accumulate all the reflections of the week and pray in one sitting. This will compromise your capacity to enter deeply into the Word of God, as the tendency is to read for knowledge rather than a prayerful reading of the Word for the purpose of developing a personal and affective relationship with the Lord.
- It is more important to pray deeply, not read widely. The current reflections of the day would be more than sufficient for anyone who wants to pray deeply and be led into an intimacy with the Lord.
Note: You may share this reflection with someone. However, please note that reflections are not archived online nor will they be available via email request.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
