Word to the Wise
Thursday, April 8, 2021 - Octave of Easter - Thurs
[Acts 3:11-26 and Luke 24:35-48]"These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. And he said to them, "Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things." [Luke]
The 24th chapter of the Gospel According to Luke is a summary of the gospel and its purpose. It is also a bridge to the second volume of Luke's story, the Acts of the Apostles. The latter work is the source of the first scriptures for daily Eucharist this week and tells the story of the spread of Christianity from Jerusalem, ending in Rome, the center of the Mediterranean world at that time. In modern terms, Luke tells the story of how Christianity "went viral."
Jesus' crucifixion, death and resurrection were a terrible shock to his first disciples. His appearances post-resurrection added to the trauma in some ways. It took time for the community to digest the meaning of it all with the help of the Holy Spirit. Since the scriptures from what we would now call the Old Testament were the primary reference for God's message for them, the disciples turned to these for understanding. Luke speaks of minds being opened to understanding what the law of Moses, the prophets and the psalms were saying about God's plan of salvation. This became especially important because Luke wrote not long after the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem! Christianity could no longer be anchored to Jerusalem and Palestine! The Acts of the Apostles tells the story of the early preaching to all nations.
There is a challenge in all of this for us to see that our shared faith is a worldwide reality, expressed in multiple ways in multiple cultures but anchored not in just one place in geography or time but rather in the Word of God. Pope Francis and the papacy serve as a unifying force to keep everyone "on message," but we are not called to imitate everything that happens in Rome, as if that were appropriate in an Amazon jungle or small parish in rural West Texas or big city cathedral! Christianity went from being a small sect within Judaism to being a worldwide community of faith. This is still happening in our own time as long as we are faithful witnesses. AMEN