So last weekend I alluded to this first reading where Philip, one of the first seven deacons, is mentioned. Last weekend we had the first ordination to the diaconate, it said “so they chose Stephen, a man filled with faith and the Holy Spirit, also Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicholas of Antioch, a convert to Judaism.”
The rest of ch. 6 & 7 talks about Dcn. Stephen’s ministry. Chapter 8 here gets into Philip’s ministry. Chapter 9 goes a different route and we don’t hear what “Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicholas of Antioch” do with their ministries. What is interesting to me is that I had never read this close enough to realize this Philip character was not Philip the Apostle, it is a different Philip, Philip the Deacon. It is clear if you think about the order of the book of Acts, Luke tells us about this ordination and then starts to tell what these deacons did.
So I want to focus on what Dcn. Philip is doing in this first reading. At his ordination he received a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and emboldened by the Holy Spirit, after Dcn. Stephen was killed, all the deacons scattered out of Jerusalem, and Philip went into hostile territory, Samaria. Samaritans hated the Jews and vice versa, they were not welcome to worship in the Jewish temple, but Philip went anyway to proclaim Jesus Christ to them.
Here is what it said again, “With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip when they heard it and saw the signs he was doing. For unclean spirits, crying out in a loud voice, came out of many possessed people, and many paralyzed or crippled people were cured. There was great joy in that city.”
By the power of the Holy Spirit, Philip does amazing things! Now some would call them miracles, but here Luke calls them signs, and the reason he does that is because they, like most signs often do, they point to something, or they tell us something. In this case, of course, they are pointing to Jesus Christ as God. They tell the Samaritans that Jesus is the Messiah that they had been waiting for. They were also waiting for salvation from God, and Philip proclaimed to them that Jesus Christ had died to save them from their sins and loved them despite what the Jews said about them, they were welcome in God’s Kingdom.
He proved that God had not left them orphans, as we heard in today’s Gospel, the Holy Spirit was in their midst doing these miraculous signs and wonders. And after they had accepted this, a few verses are cut out, but one of the omitted verses, verse 12 says this, “once they began to believe Philip as he preached the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, men and women alike were baptized.”
So, after they were baptized by the Deacon, then the Bishops came to do the Confirmations. The apostles were the first Bishops, right, so it says in verse 14, “Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who went down and prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for it had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.”
What we just heard is a confirmation Mass, just like we are having tomorrow (today) at the 9:30am Mass, hence the red strip on the Altar, there is a distinct separation between baptism and confirmation. Now tomorrow (today,) since the bishop is busy, I will be doing the confirmation - the bishop delegated that to me when I asked permission.
But usually it is the bishop. It says, “Then [Peter and John] laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.” So I am delegated to do our confirmation. Since I have seen it personally, I’ve preached a lot over the last couple years about the power of the Holy Spirit to work healings and mighty deeds. Whenever we receive a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit we have a greater potential to allow mighty deeds to be done through our hands. The Holy Spirit is activated in us in relation to our willingness to use God's gifts for the good of others.
Now clearly this is something that happens at Confirmation, however it doesn’t have to be the last time. In fact, if you are like me, you probably feel like you didn’t get much of any outpouring of the Holy Spirit when you were confirmed. (I’m praying you six will be fully empowered. But for those not getting confirmed, and) For that reason, I’d like to encourage everyone here to come to our Family Holy Hour on any Wednesday night and receive a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit. After confirmation anyone who is baptized and believes can lay hands and impart more Holy Spirit, it doesn’t have to be the bishop or his delegated priest.
We are coming up to Pentecost in a couple of weeks so now is a good time. All you have to do is walk up to a Prayer Team sitting in the Adoration Room or Cry Room some Wednesday and ask for a “Holy Spirit Outpouring.” They will simply lay hands on your head or shoulders and pray for the Holy Spirit to empower you like it did back then and filled those Samaritans with great joy! Jesus promised to send us the Advocate, the Spirit of Truth, to be with us always, so ask and it will be given to you, and you will know that God is in you and loves you too.