Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Easter
In today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we read how the Word of God continued to spread and grow. The narrative of the Acts describes this spread of the Word, from the huddled mass of apostles at Pentecost to the city Rome and to the major cities of the Mediterranean. Historians note the growth of Christianity was truly an amazing phenomenon, considering that hundreds of “oriental” religious (religious from the eastern part of the Empire) had practitioners spread throughout the vast expanse of the Roman Empire. Yet, by 350, the primary religious experience of persons with the Mediterranean was a form of Christianity. Although Christians cite the cause of the spread of the Christian as instigated by divine impulse, such an explanation does not sell at a history conference for those looking for the explanation of a very real phenomenon more along the line of human causation. The spread, they hold, was caused in great part by the strong sense of identity formed by a life of union with supernatural idea that saw that ideal lived out in lives of good conduct and charity. In short, the Christians had a belief system that saw that system encouraging works of charity and disciplined behavior. Although this explanation does remove the action of God, it does identify that belief was followed-through in action and that these actions inspired the desire for membership. It appears as if the early Christians acted on their beliefs and this action inspired others. When the call for evangelization continues to be heard, perhaps we can take a lesson from the early church and see the importance of the relationship between belief and action.