Sunday of the Man Born Blind. Holy and Glorious Martyr Irene (321-23). Our Venerable Father Nicephoras, Hegumen of the Monastery at Medicius.
Acts 16:16-34. John 9:1-38.
Read Acts 16:16-34
Christ is risen! Truly, He is risen!
What happened to the slave girl who had been possessed? The story takes off after her part in it and she is not mentioned again.
She was not the only person in the story who was enslaved. Her masters were so enslaved by the love of money that they could not see past their financial loss to the power of Jesus Christ who was greater than the spirit within her. The multitude was so enslaved by xenophobia that they were easily manipulated by her masters. The magistrates were so enslaved by their status that they acted with the mob rather than according to due process.
Paul too was a slave – “a bondservant of Jesus Christ”. (Romans 1:1) He waited until after he had been beaten to inform the magistrates of his Roman citizenship, giving him legal leverage which he used for the protection of the new church at Philippi. The magistrates could have been barred from public office and Philippi deprived of its status as a Roman colony. Paul made a point of visiting and encouraging the fledgling church at Lydia’s house on his way out of town.
When Paul first came to Philippi, he met Lydia at a place of prayer and she was converted. He then stayed with her household. It was between Lydia’s household and the place of prayer that the slave girl met Paul. If she remained in Philippi, she would have been known and ministered to by the members of this church which continues today as an Orthodox Metropolitan See. Of her and the others Paul said, “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6)