“Called Christians” by Melanie Rigney

The Peutinger Map showing Syrian Antioch Alexandria and Seleucia in the 4th century

“Called Christians” by Melanie Rigney

Tuesday in the Fourth Week of Easter

For a whole year, they met with the church and taught a large number of people, and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians. (Acts 11:26)

All you nations, praise the Lord. (Psalm 117:1a)

I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand.” (John 10:28-29)

Piety

Lord, help me to be Christian in thought, word, and deed.

Study

Maybe it was a pejorative. Maybe they were the first to use it because there wasn’t a word that encompassed Jews and Gentiles in the same community. Maybe it caught on because Christian is shorter than Christ-follower.

Regardless, the phrase gives you a Holy Spirit shiver: “it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians.”

Think of it: Peter, Paul, and the rest began to refer to themselves by this word. So would more people than we can count or name in the next two thousand years: Constantine. Mary of Egypt. Antony of the Desert. Jerome. Paula. Bernard of Clairvaux. Hildegard of Bingen. Teresa of Avila. John of the Cross. Vincent de Paul. Therese of Lisieux. Oscar Romero. Katharine Drexel. Josemaria Escriva. Your great-great-grandfather Franklin. Your great-grandmother Joanna.

You may feel you have more in common with some than with others. But each and every one of them were called Christians and embraced His cross.

Antioch, where they were first called Christians, at the time was the third-largest Roman Empire city (behind only Rome and Alexandria in influence and size). In the coming centuries, it would be struck by fire, earthquakes, and invaders that razed it. Today, it has about 220,000 residents.

Christianity, when the term was first used, encompassed a few hundred people. In the coming centuries, Christians would be subjected to martyrdom, torture, and ridicule. Today, the Pew Research Center estimates they make up nearly a third of the world’s 7.3 billion people.  

Christian.

It’s a powerful, scary, challenging word. But when we accept it and attempt to live it, it’s also a comforting, beautiful, hope-filled word.

Action

Show you’re a Christian.

 The image link is https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Antioch_Alexandria_and_Seleucia.png