The Scattering That Scatters Light

Voice over by Angeline Chue Chue

Acts 8:1-8, Psalm: 65, Jn 6:35-40

My dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

The Easter season reveals a truth that the world cannot understand: what seems like defeat often becomes the very means of victory. Today, we witness a scattering that becomes a sowing. The persecution of the Church, intended to silence the witness, becomes the engine that spreads the Word to the ends of the earth.

In the Acts of the Apostles, we read that a severe persecution broke out against the Church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria. Saul, later to become Paul, was ravaging the Church, entering house after house, dragging off men and women, and committing them to prison. This is devastation. The community that had been of one heart and mind is now dispersed. The leaders remain in Jerusalem, but the ordinary believers are driven out.

Yet Luke immediately tells us the result: “Now those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.” Philip goes down to Samaria and proclaims the Messiah. The crowds pay attention to what he says, and with one accord, they listen. Unclean spirits come out with shrieking, the paralyzed and the lame are cured, and there is great joy in that city. The scattering intended to destroy the Church becomes the very means of its expansion. The blood of Stephen becomes seed. The flight of believers becomes the mission.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus declares the core of His mission: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.” He assures us that the Father’s will is clear: “I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day.” The scattering of the early Church could not undo the will of the Father. The stone thrown at Stephen could not stop the hand of the Son. Those who come to Jesus, even when scattered to the winds, are held securely in His hand.

Pope Francis, reflecting on this dynamic, has said, “The Church does not grow by proselytism, but by attraction.” The early Christians did not strategize their expansion; they simply lived their faith, and in their suffering and their joy, others were drawn to the Light. St. Augustine, contemplating the paradox of persecution, wrote, “The Church is like a field that is winnowed; the wind of persecution separates the grain from the chaff, and the grain multiplies.”

For us today, the message is both a comfort and a challenge. We may not face physical persecution, but we face the scattering forces of our age: busyness that fragments our attention, secular pressures that marginalize our witness, and doubts that isolate us from community. Yet the same Lord who fed the crowds with five loaves is the Bread of Life who sustains us. The same Spirit who empowered Philip to bring joy to Samaria empowers us to be witnesses in our own “Samaria”—our workplaces, our neighborhoods, our families.

This Easter season, let us not fear the scattering. Let us see it as sowing. Wherever we find ourselves—whether in comfort or in difficulty, in community or in isolation—we are called to be bearers of the Word. For the one who promised, “I will not lose anything of what he gave me,” holds us secure. And the joy He gives is the joy that no scattering can ever destroy. Amen.

May God bless you all!