Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." (This is a wilderness road.)  So he got up and went.  Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury.  He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah.  Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go over to this chariot and join it."  So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah.  He asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?"  He replied, "How can I, unless someone guides me?"  And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him.  Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this: "Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth.  In his humiliation justice was denied him.  Who can describe his generation?  For his life is taken away from the earth."  The eunuch asked Philip, "About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?"  Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus.  As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, "Look, here is water!  What is to prevent me from being baptized?"  And Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may."  And he replied, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God."  He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.  When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.

This man was a very important court official, in charge of the entire treasury of the Queen of Ethiopia.  Look at the extent God goes to reach him.  An angel is sent to the apostle Philip to tell him to head out on a road which, unknown to Philip, will intercept the eunuch.  Then once Philip sees the chariot the Holy Spirit tells him to join it.  Philip, running up along side it, overhears the eunuch reading Sacred Scripture (they read aloud in those days) and asks him if he understands what he is reading.  Recount this again: an angel of God is sent to one of the twelve apostles to send him forth, then the Holy Spirit directs him to the proper carriage.  Philip literally runs to catch up alongside the chariot and engaged the man.  All this extraordinary effort expended on just one person.  Why?  Not because he was a court official but because he had such a love of Sacred Scripture and a thirst for divine knowledge that he took the sacred texts with him on a journey and read them along the way.  This remarkable episode tells us, by means of the word itself, that God has such a desire to be heard that he will pursue us if we but pursue him in his holy word.

In like manner Jesus drew near to two of his disciples on the road to Emmaus who were discussing the events surrounding Christ's death and resurrection.  He asked them "what are you discussing as you walk along?"  Then as they related to him their conversation he opened their minds to the meaning of the Scriptures.  (Luke 24.13-27)