17 April 2020
Friday in the Octave of Easter
The Acts of the Apostles describe the development of the Church. It’s a rough go at first. Stephen is martyred and Saul is on the tracks of the infant church. Peter and John, in today’s first reading, are being questioned by the officials concerning the veracity of their teaching. One would think that the chances of this group were about as secure as a March warm streak in Wisconsin. It is a historical fact that the church grew, and it is a question often debated by historians whose task it is to explain why certain events occurred. Those who look at events with the eyes of faith could respond to this question by stating that by means of God the Father, in union with the Holy Spirit, missions the second person of the Trinity, the Son, to renew the divine Trinity’s most beloved creation; the human race. This answer will not sell at a history conference, I assure you. What does sell is that historians noted that the early Christians led lives of moral rectitude, they were taught to love their wives as Christ loved the Church, and they were told to avoid immorality such as drunkenness and watching violent video games (going to the coliseum and watching people get killed). Oddly enough, this way of life attacked people. Considering the moral corruption available in first century Rome, the Christians offered a different option. Parents, not unlike parents today, were looking for a better environment for themselves and for their children. So they inquired about this organization and its bases. In today’s first reading Peter gave the answer:
There is no salvation through anyone else,
nor is there any other name under heaven
given to the human race by which we are to be saved.
No doubt, this response needed further exploration and understanding, both for those who were followers of Jesus and those interested in following. But the belief these early Christians had was real, as real as Jesus eating fish on the seashore, and this reality created a change in their lives which created a good contagion for others. So our spiritual work today is thinking of how we can spread good contagion. How can the small germ of Christian virtue be sparked to flame by our small acts (remember the mustard seed?) by calling a few elderly friends and persons that may be suffering or a bit isolated in a very small apartment. So, make your list and start calling and let people know that they are important and that you are concerned about them.