Word to the Wise
Tuesday, April 23, 2013 - 4th Week of Easter - Tues
[Acts 11:19-26 and John 10:22-30]Those who had been scattered by the persecution that arose because of Stephen went as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to no one but Jews. There were some Cypriots and Cyrenians among them, however, who came to Antioch and began to speak to the Greeks as well.....and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians!
The quotation today brackets some important notes. First, the encounter of the early Christian preachers with non-Jewish cultures in Antioch is significant. This encounter would require a different form of "catechesis," since the Jewish "narrative" of faith would be little known or completely unknown to a Gentile. We see an example of this in Paul's preaching in Athens later on.[Acts 17:16-32]. In other words, Paul did not invent the mission to the Gentiles - it was already going on in Antioch. However, Barnabus had the wisdom to go and recruit Paul from Paul's hometown in Tarsus, to come and join the mission. It is this "recruitment" that led to Paul's missionary journeys and influence on all of Christian theology!
The question of the relationship of Christianity to Judaism was a matter of deep concern to Paul, as we read in Romans 9-11, and the story of the "council of Jerusalem" in Acts 15 reveals the first efforts to accommodate Jewish observance to the new Gentile converts. It took a long time for "Christianity" to develop an identity that was different from its Jewish roots - i.e. to be seen as more than a form of Judaism (as diverse as that was). However, the "Christian narrative" is incomplete without the Jewish roots and "narrative." The history of the relationship has been filled with terrifying violence, especially against Jews on the part of Christians. The Second Vatican Council in its document, Nostra Aetate, sought to put away any anti-semitism in Catholic practice and teaching. We still have a long ways to go. But, the Acts of the Apostles helps us to understand some of the roots of the challenge. AMEN