Will you be ready when you’re asked to preach?

Find today’s readings here.

It is said that the most difficult job in sports belongs to the starting quarterback. The mental and physical demands of knowing an entire playbook, making split-second decisions and having the physical gifts to outrun an armored 300-pound lineman running at you all point to the veracity of this claim. But the starting quarterback does not have the hardest job. His backup does. 

His backup must go through all the preparation the starter does but with an expectation hanging over him that he will likely not have to use it. Any understudy knows this. And yet, there is a reason why football teams and theater troupes employ the services of an understudy. 

Today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles drops us in the middle of Paul’s first missionary journey. But it would not have been quite correct to call it Paul’s journey. As Pope Benedict XVI pointed out, “In fact, Paul was not directly responsible for the first [mission] (cf. Acts 13-14), which was instead entrusted to the Cypriot, Barnabas.” But when Barnabas and Paul enter the synagogue and are asked by the officials if “one of you has a word of exhortation for the people,” it is not Barnabas who speaks. Paul rises up and delivers the first sermon of his that we have on record. He addresses the Jews as well as the Gentiles in the crowd. And he tells them about Jesus. 

The crowds are intrigued enough by what he has to say that he’s invited to speak at the same time next week. It seems that Paul did not stop speaking or writing from that point on. 

Some of us literally preach the Gospel every day, from a pulpit or some other perch. And some live it quietly, following Jesus in the vocation God has called them to. But at some point, all of us will be asked if “we have a word of exhortation.” It might be for a crowd or for one lonely soul. It could be a coworker, a friend you’ve lost touch with or your son. It could be a friend who has never mentioned God or religion to you until this very moment, when they ask why it is you believe what you believe. Will you be ready? Will you speak?