In dioceses of the Latin Rite where today is not the Solemnity of the Ascension, today’s reading introduces us to Priscilla and Aquila:

After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. There he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, and, because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them, and they worked together – by trade they were tentmakers. Every sabbath he would argue in the synagogue and would try to convince Jews and Greeks. (Acts 18:1–4)

Priscilla and her husband Aquila were laypeople. (Later in the story it becomes clearer that they were Christian Jews and well versed in both “the Way” and the Old Testament books.) Something about them drew Saint Paul to them.

Blessed Charles de Foucauld saw in Priscilla and Aquila a kind of lay presence at the heart of the world, going where priests and religious sisters and brothers were often excluded (consciously or unconsciously, by design or by circumstance). He said,

We need Christians like Priscilla and Aquila doing good in silence.

And elsewhere,

Certainly there have to be Priscillas and Aquilas on the side of a priest, to meet those whom he cannot meet, to enter into places where he cannot go, to reach out to those who have moved away from him, and to evangelize through friendly contact by becoming an overflowing goodness to all, a love always ready to give of itself, an appealing good example for all who have turned their backs on the priest, or maybe, through prejudice, are hostile to him…

The laity should become apostles to all they can reach: at first their family, close relations and friends, but not only them, love cannot be restrictive, it embraces all those who are embraced by the Heart of Jesus. By what means? By giving the very best of themselves to those whom they meet, and to all, without exception, with whom they have any rapport whatsover, by means of goodness, tenderness, filial affection, the example of virtue, humility and gentleness… Some may not even say a word about God or religion but being patient as God is patient, good as God is good, they become a dear sister or brother.

After all, in today’s reading, we hear about Paul’s partnership with Aquila to support Paul’s preaching; but we don’t hear of anything that Aquila did that would be classified as any sort of preaching with words. His only reference is to preaching by example: work, and work with a saint.

Perhaps this is over-much to read into the few short lines in which Priscilla and Aquila appear in the Bible. What is more certain is that, even if these two are not examples of lay evangelization by presence, we need such examples today and everyday. God came to seek and to save us all.