I enjoy visiting churches in Canada and around the world. I note similarities and differences in worship and parish life. I learn and grow from these visits, especially visiting in other countries and cultures.
Today’s reading describes a mission visit by leaders from the mother church in Jerusalem. They heard of major growth in Samaria. But with a long history of distrust and enmity between Jews and Samaritans, the apostles remain suspicious. They’ve heard Samaritans have been baptized, but they wonder if they really are Christians. So they send Peter and John on a fact-finding mission. The apostles pray for these new converts to the faith, and they are then convinced that they have received the Holy Spirit.
This brief encounter becomes a major step in the growth of the young church. The leadership in Jerusalem begin to take seriously Jesus’ commission to go to all the nations of the world. A little farther in chapter 8, we learn that Peter and John on their return to Jerusalem proclaim the good news to many Samaritan villages. (verse 25) Today’s reading reminds us that God works outside boundaries and barriers which we might set up.
Loving God, we pray for Christians around the world. Amen. —