Fifth Sunday of Easter
The dominant reading in these weeks immediately after Easter is of course the Acts of the Apostles. It was written by Luke, probably a native of Antioch, a highly educated Greek with a very good knowledge of Jewish law and culture. The Acts really forms Part II of the third gospel, Luke's gospel. It was completed about 70 AD. It could be accurately called 'The Origins of Christianity in the Mediterranean world'. But the main objective of the book was to signal a new direction: the followers of Jesus would move outside its Jewish roots and seek new followers among the Gentiles, or non-Jews. This reading describes some of the steps along that path.
The book opens with an idealistic account of the first Christian community at Jerusalem. The hero of the book is St Paul (and to a lesser extent, his friend Barnabas), whom Luke accompanied on some of his exhaustive missionary journeys throughout the Mediterranean world. After all sorts of misfortune, like being shipwrecked three times and starvation at sea for 16 days, the men eventually arrive at Rome. The book closes with Paul preaching to the Jewish refugees in Rome.
The Acts of the Apostles is the product of a diary kept by Luke of that journey between Jerusalem and Rome, supplemented by other accounts submitted to him by other Christian missionaries. After the custom of the day, long speeches are thrown into the mix for good measure. As far as the Jews were concerned, Jerusalem was the centre of the world and Rome was 'the ends of the earth'. So by the time the Acts close, the mandate of Jesus has been fulfilled: Beginning form Jerusalem, the gospel has reached the ends of the earth.
For our purposes, the most important lines are at the end of the reading: "They [Paul and Barnabas] sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work they had now accomplished. When they arrived, they called the church together and reported what God had done with them, and how He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles."
The community in Antioch (Major city on the Mediterranean, 20 miles inland in Syria but with an outlet to the sea) plays a key role when Luke explains the shift from a Jewish to a Gentile church. "It was at Antioch that the followers were first called 'Christian'." When the early persecutions began, many Christians fled Jerusalem to Antioch. However, they began to mix with Greeks and to preach the gospel to the Greeks. This went against the early Christian tradition.
An SOS is sent out to Jerusalem that a crisis has arisen in Antioch. The older, more prestigious Jerusalem church immediately sent Barnabas to Antioch to investigate. But because "he was a good man, filled with the Holy Spirit and faith," Barnabas not only approves of their behaviour, but also travels to Tarsus and brings the recently converted Saul to assist this new project. Barnabas had gone 'native' and he was now enlisting Paul in the project. Paul was a "Hellenist" Jew: an Israelite who lived his faith against the background of Gentile culture. He spoke Greek and was comfortable relating to non-Jews.
Historians often reflect on the Antioch community. It possessed a dynamism and a confidence that strengthened its members in taking this radical step into the unknown. No one could predict what would happen when Christians were no longer bound by the 613 laws of Moses. Today, we realize that Christianity would never be the same. The actions of the relatively small church of Antioch opened the entire world to Jesus' message. No longer would Christianity be destined to be just a small sect within Judaism.
So, almost by accident, Christianity is launched into a world that is utterly new it. The Church at Antioch took steps which forever changed the face and heart of Christianity. This was certainly one aspect of the "a new heaven and a new earth," dreamt of by the author of our second reading today. "Now I am making the whole of creation new" promised the victorious one in the Apocalypse.
This is the challenge facing each and every generation: to breathe new life into the gospel message and so that is it liberated to renew the face of the earth. As in Antioch, love is the only security we require to travel down those unexplored roads which the risen Jesus expects us to travel.