CHAPTER
II
FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH
Life of Christ
But when the time had
fully come, God sent forth his only Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as
sons (Gal 4:4-5).
With
these wonderful words St. Paul, the great Apostle of the Lord, characterized
the coming, mission and primordial aim of the Redeemer. The Son of God came to end the Old Covenant
and establish the New One of grace.
Thirty years later, more or less, he began his public life in a remote
place called Palestine, confirming his divine doctrine with signs and marvelous
miracles.
He
was not the reformer of the Jewish religion, but something more. He came to show mankind that God is the
Father who gives himself to men through love.
The Law, the Temple and the works of the Law must come to an end. Christ unites religion and ethics, the two
salvific principles of the Jewish and Hellenistic world, in a new supernatural
community for the salvation and beatitude of men, a supernatural community
which embraces all the people of the world and must remain until the end of the
world.
To
achieve this end he chose some disciples, and from them, his twelve Apostles,
he conferred to them special powers for their mission, sending them to preach
to all people, to baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit.[1] As the fundament of his Church and as supreme
pastor of his flock Jesus chose Simon Peter, when he said:
Blessed are you, Simon
bar-Jona. For flesh and blood has not
revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock
I will build my Church and the powers of death shall not prevail against
it. I will give you the keys of the
Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven
(Mt 16:11-19).
In
this promise there was a guarantee of the continuation of his divine mission on
earth.
Only
a part of the Jewish people, however, recognized Christ as the Messiah. St. John tells us in the Prologue of his
Gospel: “he came to his own, and his own people received him not” (Jn 1:11). Not only the Pharisees, but also the
Sadducees were against him. After a
little less than three years of public life Christ ended his life on the
Cross. It was the hate of the Jewish
leaders that brought him to that seemingly infamous end. His mission seems to end in total
failure. Rejected and crucified by his
own people, who would ever think of him?
And yet miraculous signs accompanied his death, witnessing his celestial
mission. The veil of the Temple was torn
into two to show that a New Covenant between God and mankind had started. After three days he raised himself from the
dead, as he had predicted. In that way
he proved he was a real Prophet. After
his resurrection he spent forty days with his disciples, instructing them about
his Kingdom. Finally, to fully realize
his mission he ascended into heaven where he is now seated at the right hand of
the eternal Father.
This
is how Christ’s life can be briefly described.
An unknown man, for world’s standards, he led an agitated and poor life
indeed. He appeared to his
contemporaries as one denouncing evil, preaching universal brotherhood, called
himself Son of God, he attracted the illiterate people of
society. No rich or learned man followed
him. He surrounded himself of common
people, even sinful women and men. To
crown everything, to show the utter failure by human standards, he was
abandoned and even denied by his own disciples.
In fact one of them, called Judas, betrayed him to his declared enemies:
the leaders of the Jews. He was nailed
to a Cross, the lowest and most despicable way of dying and being
executed. Yet it was God dying on a
cross. Ever since that moment the Cross
has become the symbol and reality of salvation.
But in order to achieve this, he was going to depart from this world and
return to his heavenly Father, he always thought of founding his Church, a
divine and universal family for all men who have a common Father – Our
Father – who is in heaven. This
family is the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church, then, is Christ living in the world, it is his very
dynamic presence in man.
As we
mentioned before, the earthly life of Christ is a seeming failure and
defeat. After three years of preaching
he dies like a criminal, between two criminals.
But since the cross upon which he died has become the symbol of
Christianity and center of redemption, it is, then, not strange that the
Church, the continuation of Christ’s salvific mission here on earth,
participates also of that suffering upon the cross. Together with spectacular successes we find
incredible failures. Even during her
most brilliant periods, the Church is always on her way towards the Cross.
The
Church shines over all the other religions and systems because of her
universalism, of her Catholicism. The Church is the System of the Center,
the synthesis of all human values, whether of the right or of the left. In her rich history, tainted in times by
blood and failure, the Church has always avoided the partiality and
exaggeration of everything that pertains to her essence. The Church abandons the Jewish people as the
chosen people, but in the New Alliance, humanity becomes the True
Israel. The Church recognizes the
forces of human intelligence, but rejects all comparison of the Christian
religion to philosophy. The Church knows
that her doctrine is a mystery and, nevertheless, admits that this mystery can,
in part, be understood by human intellect.
The Church teaches that grace is the moving force for all that
leads to salvation and, yet, ascribes to the human will the strength and duty
of cooperating with grace in this transcendental task called salvation.
The
life and work of Christ, the founder of the Church, are the basis and
foundation of the Church. So, everything
we know about him pertains, in a special way, to the history of the Church.
The
sources of our knowledge about the life of Jesus are to be found fundamentally
in the writings of the New Testament and, in a most special way, in the four
Gospels.
Jesus
Christ died probably in the year 783 after the foundation of Rome, on the 7th
day of April of the year 30 of our Era.[2]
Jesus Christ, we have said, is God. This
is taught by faith. The foundations of
this faith are the Messianism of Christ, the fulfillment of all the prophecies
in Him, the miracles wrought by him and, principally, his bodily Resurrection
from the dead, the divine sanctity of his life, the inexhaustible richness,
wisdom and clear truth of his doctrine: the divine highness of his personality.
Jesus
wants to carry to all men the true religion and true piety. The culmination of this religion is the
command of love to God and command of love to the neighbor. He demands that the internal intention be
pure. In this way, Jesus rejected the
mechanical and exterior piety: the religious act is an involvement
between God and the soul. At the same
time, the political element in religion comes to an end. The kingdom of God preached by Christ is not
only for the descendants of Abraham – the Jews – but for all men. Christ brings to man religious universalism, the
religion of mankind.
The
religion of Jesus is internally capable to fulfill this universalism because it
is simple, because it does not look for temporal advancement, because it looks
only for the ultimate reality and destiny of man, because it looks only for
man, his soul and, because of this, it is addressed to men of every nation and
race.
The Primitive Community of Jerusalem and the Initial Development of the Church
The
first community of believers in Jesus Christ was formed in Jerusalem. During the forty days that Christ remained on
earth after his Resurrection he taught his disciples many more things about the
kingdom of heaven. He ordained and
commanded them to remain in the Holy City “not to depart from Jerusalem, but to
wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, “you heard from me, for John
baptized with water, but before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy
Spirit” (Acts 1:4-5), “and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all
Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8)
At
the moment of the Ascension the number of the disciples was around five hundred
(1 Cor 15:6) of whom 120 belonged to the community of Jerusalem. From this first nucleus of disciples Christ
has taken apart the twelve apostles, conferring upon them the triple mission of
teaching, governing, and sanctifying the souls. After the Ascension the disciples thought of
electing one to replace the traitor, Judas Iscariot. Following Peter’s advice
the community of Jerusalem put forward the names of two of those men who had
accompanied Jesus during all the time that the Lord went in and out among
them. Their names were Joseph called
Barsabbas, who was surnamed Justus and Matthias. Casting lots, it was on Matthias on
whom the lot fell. And he was enrolled
with the eleven apostles (Acts 1:26).
Precisely
on the day of Pentecost that followed the Ascension of Christ many Jews from
the Diaspora had come to Jerusalem. The
Apostles together with the Blessed Virgin Mary, were present in the upper room
(coenaculum). All were devoted to
prayer waiting for the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, promised by Christ. On the day of Pentecost, “a sound came from
heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled the house were they were
sitting. And there appeared to them
tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and
began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts
2:2-4).
At
the sound the many Jews there present came together. Then Peter lifted up his voice and addressed
them saying that everything was the fulfillment of the Holy Scriptures and of
the prophecies about Jesus of Nazareth.
By his miracles and above all, by his Resurrection and Ascension into
heaven, he had proved to be the much awaited Messiah. Jews were converted and baptized. With this, with this new Pentecost, the true
history of the Church begins. In that
moment the Church was proclaimed in the most solemn way in front of the whole
world and to the whole world, as the new and universal Messianic Kingdom,
independent from the Synagogue. Three
thousand Jews were added to the disciples of Jerusalem. Those Jews, now Christians, who went back to
their own countries, were the first missionaries of the Church.
First Persecution and Stephen’s Martyrdom
The
apostles, full of the Holy Spirit and especially with the gift of miracles,
began to preach the Resurrection of Christ.
We can appreciate from the very outset, that the leader was Simon Peter. After the healing of the lame from birth, the
one “whom they laid daily at the gate at the temple which is called Beautiful”
(Acts 3:1ff), the number of disciples who believed in Christ through Peter’s
preaching grew enormously. The number
reached five thousand.
The
authorities, especially the Sadducees, were annoyed “because they were teaching
the people, proclaiming in Jesus the Resurrection from the dead” (Acts
4:2). This was in clear opposition to
their own teaching, because the Sadducees did not admit the Resurrection from
the dead. The two apostles were arrested
and put into custody for the night, but were freed the next morning. As they continued their preaching they were
put in prison a second time, owing their freedom to an angel of the Lord. They were taken before the council, owing
their freedom to Gamaliel’s intervention.
The Jewish leaders beat the apostles, charging them not to speak in the
name of Jesus and allowed them to go.
The
life of the new community was something beautiful and ideal. “…Those who
believed were of one heart and one soul, and no one said that any of the things
which he possessed was his own but they had everything in common” (Acts
4:32). Here we have a kind of religious
communism practiced out of love for sacrifice and totally alien to any
constriction.
The
direction of all the works of charity was the duty of the twelve, but having to
minister at table to so many people the apostles had no much time to preach the
word of God. So when the “Hellenists –
Jews born in foreign countries who spoke Greek – murmured against the Hebrews
because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution” (Acts 6:1), the
twelve apostles decided to pick from among the disciples seven[3]
men of good repute, full of spirit and of wisdom …We will devote ourselves to
prayer and to ministry of the Word” (Acts 6:3-4). Among those seven deacons chosen were Stephen
and Philip.
The
faithful, at the outset, were together with the Jews. They went daily to the temple at the time of
prayer and observed the Mosaic Law.
Nevertheless they had special practices, that is, celebration in private
houses, where “they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and
fellowship, to the breaking of the bread – Eucharistic banquet or agape of love
– and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). The supreme council of the Jews, the Sanhedrin,
was not indifferent to the increasing numbers and influence of the disciples of
Christ. The Jewish leaders had put Peter
and John into prison but for fear of the people never dared to proceed against
them. Stephen’s preaching, however, was
a little too much for them. He was one
of the seven deacons, a man “full of grace and power” who “did great wonders
and signs among the people” (Acts 6:8).
When Stephen spoke of the end of the Old Covenant and the beginning of
the New with Christ, the Jews could not stand him anymore. “…They cast him out of the city and stoned
him; and the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man
named Saul” (Acts 7:58).
General Persecution
Stephen’s
martyrdom, - which must have happened around the year 33, (the first Christian
blood to be shed) – was the sign of a general persecution which fell upon the
Christian community, especially upon the Hellenists. Many took refuge in the rural districts of Judea
and Samaria, Syria and the island of Cyprus.
The apostles however, remained in Jerusalem (Acts 3:8).
This
dispersion or scattering of the disciples favored even more the spreading of
the Christian faith because the faithful “who were scattered went about
preaching the word” (Acts 8:4). One of
the disciples who distinguished himself in the preaching of the Gospel was the
deacon Philip (not to be confused with Philip the Apostle). In Samaria the inhabitants, like the Jews,
were monotheists and looked for the coming of the Messiah. But they retained nothing else of Jewish
religion or practices and were despised by the Jews as a mixed race. Philip made conversions among these
inhabitants including Simon the magician, “who had previously practiced magic”
(Acts 8:9), hence his name. Having heard
of the many conversions in Samaria the apostles sent Peter and John so that the
new converts “might receive the Holy Spirit” (Acts 8:15).
As
first gift of the pagan world[4] we
have “a Eunuch, minister of Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of
all her treasure” (Acts 8:27) who was baptized by Philip. He was followed into Christianity by “a
devout man who feared God, with all his household” (Acts 10:2). This happened through Peter’s effort. This man, Cornelius, was received into the
Church without first passing through Judaism.
In
Antioch, capital city of Syria, there was already a Christian community
chiefly composed of Gentile Christians, under the care of Barnabas, a
native of Cyprus. It was here where the
followers of Christ were first called by the pagans “Kristianoi”, that
is Christians (Acts 11:26). By
the Jews they were known as Galileans or Nazarenes (Acts 1:15, 24:5). They called themselves brothers, holy people,
faithful, disciples of the Lord or something similar (Acts 1:15; 6, 1:2-7; Rm
1:7; Ep 1:7).
Final Scattering of the Apostles
King
Herod Agrippa (37-44)[5]
who had received from the Roman Emperor Caligula (37-41) the title of King,
wanted to please the Jews and prove to them his Jewish faith. Around the year 42 or 43 “the king laid
violent hands upon some who belonged to the Church. He killed James the brother of John with the
sword…and he tried to arrest Peter also” (Acts 12: 1-3). St. Peter was rescued by the angel of the Lord
and went himself to tell the Church – that Church which made earnest prayer for
him to God – the happy news of his liberation.
Finally, “Peter departed and went to another place” (Acts 12:17). According to the ancient tradition all the
other disciples scattered themselves to regions far away from Palestine to
preach the Gospel. James the Less, son
of Alfeus (Mt 10:3) who probably is “brother of the Lord” (Gal 1:19) remained
in Jerusalem as head of the first community and as president of the presbyterium. Hegesippus, a Christian Hebrew of the 2nd
century, (Eusebius, H.E. II, 1,2,3) calls him expressly bishop of
Jerusalem. Among the apostles he had a
high prestige. Paul speaks of him as
“pillar” of the primitive Church (Gal 2:9).
For his rigid ascetic life and his unbreakable fidelity to the Old
Testament Law he was surnamed the “just”.
He wrote the magnificent letter addressed “to the twelve tribes in the
dispersion”, that is, to those Christian Hebrews who lived in the pagan
world. But in the end, he, too, fell
victim to Jewish fanaticism. Around the
year 62 or 63 the high priest Annas (Ananus) had him stoned.[6]
Conclusion
As
we have seen the Church was born in Jerusalem, in the bosom of the official
Jewish religion which, in God’s plan, represents the natural historical
development.
Jerusalem
was always thought of in Jewish history as the only and ideal center of
religion. In it was the only temple in
which God wished his presence to be honored in a special way. In the “Holy City” the supreme religious
authorities felt themselves the trustees of perfect orthodoxy. Their just pre-occupation with keeping intact
the purity of God’s revelation had caused the official religiosity of the
period immediately before the Jews to evolve into a rigid and largely
legalistic conservatism. The different sects were distinguished by particular
interpretations of the Law and, although they differed among themselves, they
rediscovered their unity in the unique thread of their ancient tradition. Against such a background the new community
was considered by the Jewish authority.
St.
Luke shows us the earliest community still deeply involved in the Jewish
religion. It takes part in the
liturgical life of the Temple, having as its own particular external
distinctions the sharing of the possessions and the breaking of the bread, a
term used to describe the Eucharistic rite, then celebrated in private
houses. It seems to have been organized
around the Twelve, witnesses of the Resurrection of Christ and guided by the power
of the Holy Spirit.
Jerusalem
is thus seen as the center of Christianity whence the mission of the pagans is
being slowly prepared. The transition
happened gradually; the first step is towards Jews and Hellenists who are
orthodox and circumcised, the second is towards the Samaritans, circumcised but
unorthodox, who join the new Church without attaching themselves to official
Judaism.
The
first group of converted Hellenists is very active and is the cause of great
friction with the religious authorities.
It provokes a certain uneasiness even among the converted Jews of Jewish
speech. Jerusalem has always been a
center of conservatism whether Jewish or Christian. The Jews would have resigned themselves to
accepting the Christian movement as a sect of Judaism but they could not accept
the universalism, first of the Hellenists and then of St. Paul. In that they saw the destruction of Judaism
itself. The first reaction therefore
comes from the religious authority which tries to absorb the new sect, keeping
it at least outwardly within the bounds of orthodoxy. Thus a sort of compromise is reached between
the new Church and Judaism, a compromise which undergoes various vicissitudes,
and later results in the apostles and the most active exponents of Christianity
leaving the city for other centers.
The
second reaction came some time afterwards from political Judaism in the person
of Agrippa I who, in addition to being a Jew, had also the title of King. To ingratiate himself with the Sanhedrin and
the Jews he posed as the defender of orthodox Judaism and, above all, he
persecuted the Twelve, who were obnoxious to the Jewish leaders for having
welcomed even pagans into the new sect.
The persecution ended with his death, but meanwhile had provoked the
final flight of the Church from Jerusalem.
Peter left the city and we find him later at Antioch, capital of the
Middle East and third city of the Empire.
At Jerusalem remained James, the Lord’s cousin, revered even by the Jews
for his respect for the Law. The Holy
City thus slipped into the background and had no further important part to play
in the history of Christianity.[7]
[1]
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I
am with you always, to the close of age” (Mt 28:18-20).
[2] As
a consequence of an error made on the account of the Christian Era by the monk
Dionysius the Little (+566), the birth of Christ did occur three to five years
before the beginning of our Era.
[3]
Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus.
[4]
Eusebius, H.E., II, 1, 13; “The first Gentile to receive from Philip by
revelation the mysteries of the divine word, and the first fruits of the
faithful throughout the world…
[5] 1.
Herod the Great – appointed king of the Jews by the Romans in 40 BC and ruled
from 37 to 4 BC. Christ was born during
his reign.
2. Herod Antipas – Tetrarch of Galilee and Perea and son
of Herod the Great. “Herod the Tetrarch” of the Gospels (4 BC-34 AD).
3. Herod Agrippa I (37-44). Grandson of Herod the Great. He was given the title of King by Caligula in
37 for the region north of Galilee. In
41 Claudius (41-54) made him King also of Galilee and Judea. He is the “Herod” of the Acts.
4. Agrippa II is the “King Agrippa” before whom St. Paul
appeared.
[6]
Flavius Josephus, Antiq. XX, 9,1; Hegesippus, in Eusebius II, 23 with
some variants.
[7]
Cf. The Acts of the Apostles, pp. 115-116, by Msgr. Enrico Galbiati,
1973.
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