THINKING ANEW:WE are told that the beatification ceremonies for Pope John Paul II in Rome on Sunday attracted people from every continent, a sign of the worldwide influence of the Christian church in today's world.
It was so different for the early church, small in numbers and deeply rooted in Jewish religion and culture. We are reminded of this in tomorrow’s liturgy, where in a reading from Acts, Peter addresses the crowd: “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified”. Again in the Gospel reading two men on the road to Emmaus are accompanied by an unrecognised Jesus who explains his death and resurrection as the fulfilment of the Jewish scriptures.
When those early Christians sought to explain their Easter faith they did so in the light of their own religious tradition and experience. Later, as the church reached out into the wider world, Greek thought and culture became increasingly evident in some New Testament and other documents. It is quite understandable therefore that in the early days Peter was content to address the “Men of Israel”, whereas before too long Paul was talking to the “Men of Athens”. There is an important lesson to be learnt here by the church of today. While the fundamentals of the faith do not change, the culture and the context in which we are called to share them do change. We struggle to find ways of communicating a meaningful faith to a modern and often cynical world; we find it difficult to connect with the needs and expectations of many people today and the fault is not always theirs. The answer to the rising tide of secularism will not be found in a call back to where we once were but in a credible contemporary gospel presented by a credible church that speaks in love, acts with integrity and serves with humility.
We should stop worrying about numbers. St Luke tells us that the early church numbered a mere 120, women and men, who had in some sense been caught up in the events of Holy Week and Easter. (Incidentally St Luke often draws attention to the important role of women in the ministry of Jesus). The impact of their faith on the course of human history has been truly remarkable, not only in the realms of formal religion but also in art and music and almost every other area of human endeavour.
The theologian Hans Küng offers this advice to those who ask what is the essential message of the Gospel: "As the one who was killed and raised to life, Jesus is for believers the living authoritative embodiment of his cause. In all that he is, in all that he said, did and suffered he personifies the cause of God and the cause of humanity. All Christian churches ought to know that it is this Jesus himself who personifies his cause, who is the specifically Christian, the decisively Christian fact and not some 'Christian' or Western idea in the abstract, some kind of ethical postulate, a devout turn of mind, an abstract principle or an ecclesiastical or theological system. He himself, this specific Jesus as the living Christ is for believers in all situations the ultimate authority on whom we may rely." Recently the attention of the world was fixed on the splendid 1,000-year-old Westminster Abbey for the wedding of Prince William and Katherine Middleton. There is an essential connection between this building and "this Jesus" and the Easter story because that great stone abbey exists because once upon a time in Jerusalem another stone moved from the entrance of a tomb to give people hope. Ever since stones have moved to build cathedrals and churches, hospitals, schools and universities on every continent bearing witness to the fact that Jesus is alive today and available to those who need or seek his peace. – GL