Please read the scripture passage first.
When the Lord Jesus was ascending to the Father, he promised that the Apostles would be witnesses to him in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. The time has come in Luke’s story to tell how an Apostle gave witness at the end of the earth, in a place called Rome. The beginning end and the ending end, both ends, of the Roman world are Rome.
In the closing chapters of the book of Acts, Luke recounts the arrest and trial of Paul in Jerusalem. Things had not gone well for Paul. He had to appeal his case to the Supreme Court in Rome and to Rome he must go. Today’s reading describes some of the process needed to send Paul on his way to Rome.
Saturday’s reading will describe Paul arrival, his house arrest, and his testimony there. This will bring Luke’s history to an end. Luke has told us the gospel went from Jerusalem to the ends of the world.
So ends the Acts of the Apostles. What more can we say? We know the doings of Paul. We have some inkling of Peter’s ministry. When persecution broke out at the death of Stephen, the apostles remained in Jerusalem while others fled (8:1). Other than this, the Scriptures tell us almost nothing of the other Apostles. What can we surmise from other sources?
Paul had indicated that he had wanted to go to Spain. Whether did or not after his freedom in Rome, we do not know. The Church in Rome has stories that both Paul and Peter died in Rome.
John is supposed to have gone to Ephesus. Andrew has long been associated with the area around Athens. Thomas is connected an ancient account of a “bearded white man” who came to the shores of present-day Mexico.
India, Egypt, Ethiopia Mesopotamia, even Ireland, have stories of apostles who came and preached the gospel in those places.
According to legends and stories, the Apostles traveled extensively throughout the Roman Empire. Whether these stories represent historical facts, I cannot say. They do, however, assert, very strongly and very truthfully, that their Christian faith rests firmly upon the Apostles. In other words, they have a strong claim that their belief in God and Jesus Christ is apostolic just as much as our Catholic faith is apostolic. The account of Thomas in Mexico, asserts that the Catholic faith practiced there rests of the foundation of the apostles.
I do find it interesting, challenging and, perhaps unnerving that there is very little reference to the apostles going to most of the European countries. There is no reference to the apostles visiting any of the United States of America. Our faith, however, like that of the Europeans, like that of the Eastern Churches, like that of all the places visited by apostles, rests firmly upon the apostles.