Proclaiming the Word of God, receiving the Holy Spirit, sacrificing for what is good: The scripture for this week presents some of the great themes of Christian life.

Today you can be sure that all people within earshot of your preaching have felt alone and lonely, abandoned by friends or loved ones at some point, and fearful of how they will make their way through financial difficulties, problems with their children, or personal illness.

JOHN HENRY NEWMAN puzzles over the mystery of why Jesus left his friends after reuniting with them in the Resurrection. Things couldn’t be the same between them, he suggests, after the “awful truth” of the divinity of Jesus was revealed to their formerly imperceptive imaginations.

Which came first: baptism with water or with the Holy Spirit? Scripture seems to say one, the other, or both. When Peter and John heard the good news of Philip's successful mission trip to Samaria, they followed and found that the people "had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus," so they laid hands on them and conferred the gift of the Spirit.

One of the great lies of sin is that we are alone in the world. If we orient our lives toward that conclusion, then it's easy to get swallowed up by fear and loneliness. We've all gone down that path. Our minds jump from "I am alone" to "it's every person for himself" to "it's a dog-eat-dog world, and I'm going to get mine before somebody gets me."

There are trade-offs. We make them all the time. You can choose to wait for the train or drive. The train might be running late, so you could be in the cold for a long time, or it may be uncomfortably crowded.

In today's second reading, Saint Peter urges people to keep their consciences clear, "for it is better to suffer for doing good . . . than  for doing evil." How do you go about that? A good rule of thumb in any morally confusing situation is to simply "do the next right thing" in front of you.

Jesus is the resurrection and the life. We turn to him for the forgiveness that brings new life.

Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed the Christ to them. Philip was one of the "Seven" upon whom hands had been laid to commission them "for prayer and to the ministry of the Word" (Acts 6:1-7).

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." --Acts 1:8