In the early 50s A.D., St. Paul visits pagan Athens. His visit is recorded in the seventeenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. Paul is described as being visibly provoked and saddened by the idols on display throughout the city; and he spends his days arguing with the Jews and other devout persons who wander into the synagogue and other public places.

It is no surprise that Paul catches the attention of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers in Athens. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle are long dead, but the community of Greek philosophers and intellectuals that they inspired are curious about Paul, who is the first to preach Christianity in Athens. Not surprisingly, their views of Paul are mixed:

“Some said, ‘What would this babbler say?’ Others said, ‘He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities’ — because he preached Jesus and the resurrection.” Acts 17: 18

So they take Paul to the Aeropagus on Mars Hill, which is near to the Acropolis, and order him to explain in greater detail the new doctrine he is preaching. I like to imagine the scene —

Paul is standing in the middle of the rocky hill, surrounded by arguably the world’s greatest thinkers. Paul’s bold aim is to expose the fallacies of their decision to worship “an unknown god.” (Acts 17: 23) Interestingly, Socrates, the founder of Western philosophy and a pioneer of moral philosophy, was tried for his beliefs and sentenced to death on this same hill, almost five centuries earlier, in 399 BC.

Here is an excerpt from St. Paul’s memorable speech:

“Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this 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, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man, nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all men life and breath and everything.

“And He made from one every nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after [or reach out to] Him and find Him.

“Yet 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 poets have said, ‘For we are indeed His offspring.'” Acts 17: 22-28

As Paul’s words settle on my mind and heart, I picture myself on that hill in Athens, alongside all the others who are searching for answers. For some of us, there are still lots of questions and we feel uncertain, so we want to hear more of what Paul has to say. Some of us feel that we have strayed from our purpose in life — in fact on this particular day, we are no longer confident that we even have a purpose. Some days, God feels so distant from us. At least we like to think that God is distant because it lessens the inexplicable pull on our hearts to reach out to Him for His friendship and guidance.

However at Paul’s feet, we are reminded of the truth of God’s nearness. We see that God wants to answer the questions on our hearts and our minds. While we may not be able to see how the things we are worried about will turn out, we suddenly understand that we are exactly in the time and place that God has willed for us, and we are surrounded by the people we need.

We are reminded that God longs for us to search for and to know Him. It’s why He created us — to live in relationship with Him forever. We recognize again the truth of one God, our Father, who desires only to fill us with the love and joy and purpose that He has dreamed for each one of us. He loves us more than we can ever imagine.

The Bible describes that at the end of Paul’s speech, some in the crowd mocked him. Others indicated that they wanted to hear more from him. Others joined Paul and believed.

Dear Lord, please inspire all of us who are reading Paul’s words to follow your faithful servant off that hill. O Holy Spirit, create in all of us a deep and unquenchable thirst to learn more and more about God through sacred Scripture. Dear God, our Father, help us to encourage and love one another, so that we may all know You here on earth and see You in heaven.

This is our time to seek and to find and to know God.

Jesus assures us that if we seek God, we will certainly find Him. (Matthew 7: 7)

“The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn [or created] you with an everlasting love.'” Jeremiah 31: 3

Note: Photo by O. Mustafin, courtesy of Wikipedia.