Reflection
The first reading for today picks up Paul, after staying for a time in Antioch where he began his 3rd missionary journey, now proceeding through Galatia and Phrygia, previously visited and evangelized, and onto Ephesus, where he will remain for almost three years. This journey will last from late 53AD through 55AD when he will return to Jerusalem to report to “the Church” on his activities.
He writes of his struggles in Ephesus to the Church in Corinth in 1st Corinthians. Ephesus was a large commercially, culturally, and religiously diverse and important city in southwest modern-day Turkey and apparently, a tough nut to crack evangelically.
We hear of a Jewish convert named Apollos, originally from Alexandria, preaching eloquently, but incompletely of “the Way” in Ephesus. Alexandria, a seat of great learning, with a large Jewish community, was a port on the north coast of Egypt, the second largest city on the Mediterranean, after Rome, and the home of the largest library of the ancient world.
Disciples of Paul, a married couple Aquinas and Priscilla, left in Ephesus by Paul, hear Apollos speak and recognize the power of his speaking but the need for correction in his messaging. This, they did with remarkable success, as Apollos would, with their blessing, travel to other communities to effectively preach the Good News. In particular, he would speak persuasively in local synagogues through Scripture asserting that Jesus was the promised Messiah.
The Gospel reading today comes from late in John’s account of the Last Supper. Jesus will here confirm that prayers to the Father should be through Him, Jesus. He intersperses this talk with different uses of the term, “ask”, in the sense of question and in the sense of request. He also predicts His imminent departure from “the world”.