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Thursday, September 28, 2000
Faith Ali?e!
The Southern Cross, Page 9
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FAITH IN THE MARKETPLACE
Name a New Testament book,
passage or saying that you
find thought-provoking, and
tell why.
“I work with mildly mentally
handicapped children. They are
very impressionable, and they
need to see the action along with
the words. Therefore, a story like
the Good Samaritan is important
to me because the Samaritan was
committed to helping others, and
he showed it by his action.” —
Sheila Guse, Rock Island, Ill.
“The stories of the Prodigal Son
and the lost sheep.... I work in
sacramental (preparation), and
these stories have a big impact in
explaining a reconciling and
forgiving God the Father to both
children and parents.” — Peggy
Hammett, Tyler, Texas
“It’s a passage from John: ‘He
who lives in God, lives in love.’
Love is the driver for any Chris
tian. If we claim to love God but
don’t love our brothers and sisters,
what good is that?” — Carolyn
Protin, Ellicott City, Md.
“I like the Gospel of Mark
because it is down to the essen
tials of life. It is the Gospel for
those who are marginalized.” —
Anne Thomisee, Little Rock, Ark.
An upcoming edition asks: Name a
belief — an aspect of your faith —
that strongly influences your
thinking, your approach to life. If you
would like to respond for possible
publication, please write: Faith Alive!
3211 Fourth St. N.E.,
/\> Washington, D.C. 20017-
/—> iioo.
Ways the Gospel spread in the beginning
By Father Eugene LaVerdiere, SSS
Catholic News Service
A;
round A.D. 30, the church was
born in Jerusalem on the Jewish feast
of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit de
scended upon the apostolic
community.
In the Acts of the Apostles
(2:2), Luke described the
event as “a strong driving
wind,” evoking the breath of
God at creation. The birth of
the church was a new begin
ning, a new creation.
For the feast of Pentecost,
devout Jews came to Jerusa
lem from every nation —
from the East and West,
from the confines of India
and the city of Rome. They
came from the North and
South, from the shores of the
Black Sea and North Africa.
Everyone in the crowd
heard the same sound like
the sound of a strong driving
wind. They were amazed
that the apostles spoke their
language. Many people were
baptized after hearing
Simon Peter.
From Jerusalem, the
good news and the church spread
quickly to the eastern Mediterranean
in three ways:
1. With their new Christian faith,
the pilgrims returned from Jerusalem
to their native cities. They went to
their synagogues and spoke the good
news about Jesus’ passion and resur
rection.
That is how the Gospel was planted
in Alexandria, capital of Roman
Egypt, probably also in Carthage,
capital of Roman Africa, and even in
Rome, capital of the Roman Empire.
2. In the wake of a Christian perse
cution in Jerusalem in the mid-30s
A.D., the Christian faith came north
ward to Phoenicia, now Lebanon, to
CNS photo courtesy of Newark Museum
the Isle of Cyprus and eventually to
Roman Syria.
That is how the Gospel was planted
in the city of Antioch, Roman capital of
Syria, now in modern Turkey. Antioch
was among the Roman Empire’s four
largest cities, rivaled only by Alexan
dria, Carthage and Rome.
3. In Antioch, the church flour
ished, attracting not only Jews but
gentiles. The Antioch community sent
New Testament personalities
By Theresa Sanders
Catholic News Service
s
'ummer is the time many fami
lies get together for reunions. They
might tell old stories, walk through
cemeteries where ancestors are buried
or look at fading photographs of people
whose names they know but whose
long-ago lives they can only imagine.
Reading the New Testament can be
like that. We get tiny glimpses of so
many different people! Sometimes I
find myself trying to picture them,
wondering if I would like them, what
they and I would find to talk about
and what I can learn from them.
Take the prophet Anna, for in
stance. She was married only seven
years before her husband died. When
we meet her in Luke’s Gospel, she is
84, a woman praying in the temple
night and day.
When she sees the child Jesus, she
begins praising God and speaking of
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the baby to everyone (Luke 2:36-38).
I wish I could have seen Anna’s
face. I wish I could have heard her
songs of worship.
Two other intriguing characters
are the married couple Prisca and
Aquila, who had a tent-making busi
ness and who accompanied Paul on
some of his travels. Paul writes that
the two “risked their necks for my life”
(Romans 16: 3).
How exactly Prisca and Aquila en
dangered themselves Paul doesn’t
say, but it is clear he admires both
their daring and their faith.
Another of Paul’s friends was
Onesiphorus, who lived in what is
now Turkey. He visited Paul in prison
in Rome (2 Timothy 1:16). I wonder
what courage it took to walk into that
place of chains.
One story never ceases to amaze
me. It features an Ethiopian who was
treasurer to the queen of the Ethiopi
ans, and when we meet him he is
reading the Book of Isaiah. The dea
con Philip approaches and interprets
a passage for him, and immediately
the man asks to be baptized. After
ward we are told, “He went on his way
rejoicing” (Acts 8:39).
As for Philip, he must have been a
persuasive person. He even managed
to convert Simon the Magician (Acts
8: 9-13)!
We might think of Martha as some
thing of a fuss-budget since she com
plains that her sister Mary doesn’t
help her around the house. Yet the
Gospels tell us that when Jesus vis
ited, Martha “welcomed him into her
home” (Luke 10:38). What a lovely
thing to be remembered for.
I admire too the unnamed
Syrophoenician woman who lived in
what is now Lebanon. She begged
Jesus to cure her daughter, and when
he resisted she badgered him and ban
tered with him until he agreed to help
(Mark 7:24-30). Now there’s a good
person to have in your family tree!
(Sanders is an assistant professor of
theology at Georgetown University.)
missionaries, like St. Barnabas and
St. Paul, to preach the Gospel to every
nation in the northeastern Mediterra
nean.
That is how the Gospel was planted
in Ephesus, now in Turkey, and in
Philippi, Thessalonica and Corinth,
now in Greece.
In A.D. 70, when Jerusalem was
destroyed by the Roman legions,
Antioch became the church’s center.
Later in the first century, Rome
would become the center of the
church.
he church was born in
Jerusalem on the Jewish
feast of Pentecost when the
Holy Spirit descended upon
the apostolic community.”
Luke probably wrote his two-vol
ume Gospel (Luke-Acts) in the
Antioch region of ancient Asia Minor.
When he described the crowd on the
first Christian Pentecost, he also de
scribed the world of the New Testa
ment in the mid-80s:
“We are Parthians, Medes and
Elamites, inhabitants of Meso
potamia, Judea and Cappadocia,
Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and
Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of
Libya and near Gyrene, as well as
travelers from Rome, both Jews and
converts to Judaism, Cretans and Ar
abs” (Acts 2:9-11).
In the mid-80s, the world of the
New Testament included three conti
nents: Asia, Europe and Africa. If
Luke could rewrite his two-volume
work at the beginning of our 21st cen
tury, he would include North, Central
and South America, and Australia.
From the viewpoint of Luke and
the Antioch community, the crowd
overflowed the frontiers of the Roman
Empire, representing the whole world
and every culture.
In the mid-90s, the author of the
Book of Revelation wrote to the seven
churches in Asia, now in western Tur
key, prophetically reminding them
that the New Testament world is big
ger than Asia.
God’s kingdom includes “every
tribe and tongue, people and nation”
(Revelation 5:9). That is why they
have a universal mission.
(Father LaVerdiere, a Blessed Sac
rament priest, is a Scripture scholar
and senior editor of Emmanuel
magazine.)
When they gathered, the communities founded by St. Paul
read the letters he’d sent to them.
As the apostles — authoritative eyewitnesses — dwindled in
number, the Gospels were written to preserve the story of
Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.
In A.D. 70, when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem, Antioch
became the church’s center. Later in the first century, Rome
became the center of the church.