Easter 5B (Acts 8:26-40)

The Ethiopian eunuch is someone who may be physically deprived, whether willingly or not, yet has social stability and political power as a court official in charge of the Ethiopian Queen’s entire treasury. (In the Ethiopian Orthodox tradition, he’s called Simeon Buchos or Simeon the Black.) This social and political capital would be for some people exactly what they desire if they care more about materials and power. For this Ethiopian eunuch, it doesn’t seem like all these worldly power and wealth satisfy him. There’s a sense of void in his heart. It's a spiritual void that nothing in the world can satisfy.

How do we know that? Simeon is on his way back home from Jerusalem where he considers a place of worship and is meditating on the Book of Isaiah. That he worships and reads Scriptures demonstrates there’s something he’s missing in his life. He knows there’s something deeper and more meaningful than the life he has as a court official. Even though he can’t probably become a Jewish convert due to his physical condition, he still seeks God. Scholars consider him as a God-fearer instead of a convert or a proselyte. Whether he is allowed to be into a religious circle or not, he persists his search for God who can only fill his void.

With all the information that St. Luke provides us in the lesson, we can at least diagnose Simeon’s spiritual condition: He’s spiritually healthy enough to sense that he’s spiritually missing something. He’s trying to find the way to be more intimately connected to God’s presence. He’s looking for God’s direction to live his life according to the will of God despite all the socio-political power and wealth he can certainly enjoy. I say he’s spiritually healthy because he sees through what can persuasively and falsely appear as the most valuable things in life and cuts through them.

Whatever social prejudice he is projected on and whatever political power he can nourish, he longs for God. Because he’s spiritually ready and mature to follow the way of the cross, St. Philip is to respond to God’s call for Simeon. He is told to go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza where he is to meet Simeon. We can imagine how both Simeon and Philip are spiritually connected to be on the same journey. Their vacations are ignited when they encounter each other. A true vocation is never self-serving but always without any exception is self-giving and others-receiving which leads to community-forming.

As Philip helps Simeon understand who the sacrificial lamb is, meaning whose life and footstep Simeon is to follow, notice it is Simeon who initiates to be baptized first, not Philip. The Isaiah reading on the sacrificial lamb does not depict a very optimistically hopeful vision, which is why it’s more shocking from our modern perspective that Simeon still wants to be baptized. To be baptized is to let go of one’s own ego, to empty oneself to contain others in oneself, which is to dedicate one’s life for the betterment of others.

As this pandemic crisis continues, we spend more time alone than with others. For some, this spending time alone can be isolating and can manifest a great sense of void, emptiness, or even despair that we were not aware of before. For others, it may come as solitude in which they find solace, hope, and peace as they handle this alone time rather meditatively. I think Simeon turns what’s deprived in him as a spiritual source to seek something deeper and greater to fill in. He begins with praying (worshipping) and meditating on Scriptures. As he delves into his practice of contemplation, his desire for God completes and fulfills what’s lacking in his life. His longing for God in and of itself is a gift from God because that holy desire eventually leads him closer to God, particularly to the life of loving kindness and compassion for others. This longing is the living flame of love in his heart.
​
It’s incredibly difficult to face our own depravity, our mistakes or regrets and to sense a spiritual void in our hearts. This recognition automatically doesn’t fill up what’s missing which is why we want to avoid courageously encountering it. If we try to compensate with worldly things, the void will become greater. This void can be filled only when we face and go through. There, we find God that whatever we feel as incomplete, incompetent, and imperfect about ourselves is nothing but an illusion that we have fabricated. That’s when we can finally see ourselves in God’s eyes that there’s nothing I lack but we can hear “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.” (2 Cor 12:9)