Rejoice and Be Glad
Now there were in the Church at Antioch prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Symeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who was a close friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." Then, completing their fasting and prayer, they laid hands on them and sent them off. Acts 13:1-3
“Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Thus, they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Matthew 5:11-12
Piety
Study
Are all Christians prophets? Do we encounter Jesus like Paul, Barnabas, and the other early Apostles?
As the Beatitudes come to a close, it seems that Jesus (through the words recorded by Matthew) might consider his entire audience prophets. As indicated by the notes accompanying the New American Bible (Revised Edition), “the disciples of Jesus stand in the line of the persecuted prophets of Israel. Some would see the expression as indicating also that Matthew considered all Christian disciples as prophets.”
If the seed of Christianity was planted on the hillside where Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount, then the tree grew into full bloom in Antioch. Antioch became an important military, commercial, and cultural center but it also was a hotbed for the followers of Christ. In Antioch, the first reading explains, they were called Christians for the first time.
Not only did Antioch become the “naming” origin for Christianity, before the Great Schism, there were five centers for Christianity and it was one. In the early model, the Christian church is governed by the heads (patriarchs) of the five major episcopal sees of the Roman Empire: Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem.
Why Antioch was important? According to an essay by Julia Lambert Fogg, associate professor, California Lutheran University:
In the early to mid-first century C.E., Paul and Peter engaged in a theological standoff. The standoff took place in the heart of the early Christian community: Antioch of Syria on the Orontes (Gal 2:11). Paul reports publicly opposing Peter for eating with Gentiles and then separating from them to appease a Jewish-Christian party from Jerusalem. The early church had to sort out these questions: Was it necessary to observe the dietary practices of Torah in order to be Christian? And, more specifically, could Jewish Christians eat the same foods or eat at the same table with Gentile Christians? This was an old argument among Jews. They had developed multiple rules to regulate eating in the presence of Gentiles. But Antioch was different: the question of Jews and Gentiles who followed Jesus eating together would determine Christian communion practices and Christian identity for the next two thousand years.
Paul argued that in Christ, everyone—Jew or Gentile—could eat the same food at the same table. Peter observed a more flexible practice. According to Paul, Peter followed Jewish regulations when eating with Jews and then abandoned such regulations when eating with Gentiles in mixed company. Paul denounced Peter as a hypocrite and stormed off. But the question of table etiquette continues today when Christians are invited to, or barred from, sharing communion across the boundaries of theology and tradition.[1]
Action
Although Peter and Paul mended their fences, many questions continue to divide our faith. There are the big questions. Who can partake of communion? How do Christian churches view the authority of the Pope? Can you be saved by faith alone? However, there are many other arguments that divide people today.
The University of Notre Dame awarded Sister Norma Pimentel, executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley and one of the nation’s strongest champions of immigrants, the Laetare Medal. She received the nation’s oldest and most prestigious Catholic award at the university’s commencement ceremony on May 20.[2]
As Sister Norma told the University of Notre Dame graduates last month: "You have the opportunity to decide what you will be beyond this point. Will you say yes to God's plan in your life? ...What will be your response to our world which needs you to make a difference and speak for the voiceless and help the voiceless have a voice."
If you will be open to God’s plan, how will you get to know it? After all, we cannot show up on a hillside in Galilee and listen directly to Jesus. Pope Francis has a suggestion.[3]
But to travel this path of helping to lift up others, let us not forget, we need personal encounters with Jesus, moments of prayer, adoration and, above all, listening. The word of God. I ask you: how many of you read two minutes of the Gospel each day? Two minutes! Keep a little copy of the Gospel in your pocket, in your wallet ... While you are on the bus, while you are on the subway, on the train or you stop and sit at home, open it and read it for two minutes. Try, and you will see how your life changes. Why? Because you will meet Jesus. You will meet Him with the Word.
The Holy Father sent a fifteen-minute video message to the participants in the II National Youth Meeting taking place in Rosario on May 25th to 27th.
He invited them to carry a small book of the Gospels with them and to read it when they’re on the bus or sitting at home. It will change their lives, he said. “Why? Because you will encounter Jesus. You are encountering the Word.”
How do you carry the Word and live out the Beatitudes?
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