St Paul's vision recounted in today's first reading, inviting him to cross over from Asia into Europe, marks one of the big milestones in the history of Christianity, a step on Paul's way to Rome. Since then, there've been many other important steps and milestones, and empires have come and gone. Why did the Gospel have to go to and through Rome before it came to eastern Asia? However, that Good News about Jesus Christ reached me, and I believe and committed myself to Him. My role now is, like Paul, to be attentive to God's Word and His calling. His call may come through a dream or a vision; maybe most often it comes through people around us, people we meet, ordinary experiences of life. It may be nothing dramatic at all, except just to be a witness to Jesus Christ ... But that's already something very dramatic indeed, and may change other peoples lives, and my own too.

So now, in my turn, what am I being called to? Faith is always calling us to cross boundaries, especially human-made ones. Modern politics has brought about the virtual disappearance of Christians from most of the places in western Asia where Paul preached, and also largely from where Jesus lived. In these times, let us remember in our prayers our fathers in faith, and our brothers and sisters who still live in that very troubled region of our world.