Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens; and after receiving instructions to have Silas and Timothy join him as soon as possible, they left him. Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said,

‘For we too are his offspring.’

Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed; but others said, “We will hear you again about this.” At that point Paul left them. But some of them joined him and became believers, including Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.

New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.

In today’s first reading, we continue to accompany Paul on his missionary journey, now in Athens. Paul addresses this sophisticated and learned audience, contrasting their worship of idols and shrines with that of the one, true living God. What strikes me about this passage is Paul’s attempt to complicate their relationship to the divine. Rather than a transactional relationship involving public sacrifices and outward signs of honor, he describes a relationship with God as a very personal one of groping and searching, seeking and finding—almost as if groping for something in the dark. 

One thing Paul seems to make clear is that true worship is not practiced in bright, public spaces—outward activities with clear civic and religious benefits—but in the private rooms of our hearts. In this, I think Paul reminds us that we must continue to strive for authentic relationship with God in all we do and to long for something deeper than a transactional encounter. Faith for each one of us is a very personal journey, one full of twists and turns and unexpected lights and darkness. Let us continue to seek for God, even in our doubts and difficulties, for as Paul also reminds us, “he is not far from any one of us.”

—Christine Curran is Executive Director of the Ignatian Spirituality Project, a Jesuit accompaniment ministry with those in recovery from homelessness and addiction.

Lord, you seek to have a relationship with me and, even when we stray, you remain close to us. Give us the courage and fortitude to continue to see you in all that we do. Amen.

—Jesuit Prayer team