SPEAKER_00: Today in the first reading, Saint Paul walks through Athens and discovers an altar with the inscription to an unknown god.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Athens was the intellectual center of the ancient world.
SPEAKER_00: These people were educated, sophisticated, philosophical.
SPEAKER_00: They had temples, statues, ideas, systems of thought.
SPEAKER_00: They were searching for meaning everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: And yet hidden in the middle of all that intelligentsia is an admission we still do not know.
SPEAKER_00: So just in case, here's an altar to an unknown God.
SPEAKER_00: Honestly, that altar still exists today.
SPEAKER_00: People are still searching everywhere for something to feel that emptiness inside.
SPEAKER_00: Some look for success, some look for it in money, in relationships, and things, in pleasure, in status, some in endless distractions.
SPEAKER_00: We live in one of the most technological advanced moments in all of human history, and yet so many people are still restless, anxious, exhausted, and spiritually lost.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Well, because a human heart was made for more than what this world can give.
SPEAKER_00: You know the famous quote from St.
SPEAKER_00: Augustine.
SPEAKER_00: He said it best, our hearts are restless until they rest in you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: What Paul recognizes in Athens is that beneath all the confusion, beneath all the noise, beneath all those false gods, there is still a real hunger for God.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul does something very important.
SPEAKER_00: He does not begin by insulting them, he begins by recognizing the search.
SPEAKER_00: He tells them, The God that you are searching for is not far away.
SPEAKER_00: In him we live and move and have our being.
SPEAKER_00: That line is beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: God is not distant, he is not hiding, he is not absent from our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Even when people do not fully know him, they are often searching for him without even realizing it.
SPEAKER_00: And then the gospel gives us the answer to that whole search.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you to all truth.
SPEAKER_00: Notice Jesus says all truth, not a truth, not your truth, not whatever truth is convenient or whatever truth the world is trying to sell you.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit leads us to truth.
SPEAKER_00: And that truth has a face, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The world tells us to look inward and invent ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus tells us to surrender ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: The world says take changes.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says truth sets you free.
SPEAKER_00: That is why some people mocked Paul when he preached the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: Because once you accept the Christ, that Christ truly rose from the dead, everything changes.
SPEAKER_00: It means life has meaning.
SPEAKER_00: It means eternity is real.
SPEAKER_00: It means we were created for more than this world, for more than comfort, for success, for survival.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe the most dangerous line in the reading is when some people say, We should like to hear you on this some other time.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, later, not now, we're kind of busy.
SPEAKER_00: That is one of the great temptations of the spiritual life.
SPEAKER_00: Postponing conversion.
SPEAKER_00: It's about convenience.
SPEAKER_00: But the gospel always calls for a response now.
SPEAKER_00: And scripture says that while some walked away, some did join him and became believers.
SPEAKER_00: That's how faith spreads.
SPEAKER_00: One heart at a time, one soul at a time, one person finally realizing the unknown God.
SPEAKER_00: That unknown God that they have been searching for their whole life is Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Today set your heart on him.
SPEAKER_00: Allow him to set your heart on fire, to know the true God.
SPEAKER_00: That God who is Jesus Christ sets you free in truth.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.