Communal Stess and Strain

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator

We are all aware that the early Christian community endured harsh persecution at the hands of the Roman Empire beginning in the middle of the eighth decade of the Christian era. Those persecutions continued for several hundred years until Christianity was declared the official religion of the Empire by Constantine.

However, the persecutions that were imposed on the community from the outside were matched by the internal struggles of the community. We have to remember that it was not until the eighth decade that the Christian community and the Jewish community were separated. Up until that time, Jewish converts to Christianity were still a part of the Jewish synagogue, still kept the Sabbath, still maintained all of the rituals of the Jewish Law. The break between the two did not happen overnight. The relationship between those who had come to believe in Jesus and those who did not believe frayed over time.

The Acts of the Apostles documents some of the contentious meetings in which the differences between these two groups came to the fore. Today's reading from the Acts is just such an occasion. The Jewish contingent was upset about what they perceived as a betrayal on the part of Paul (Saul) who had been one of their leaders. When he turned his bold preaching style to the task of proclaiming the resurrection, they were easily incited to violent outbursts.

The first century of the Christian community's existence called for believers to put everything on the line for their faith. Though we do not live in the same circumstances, modern struggles in the Church and society at large call for the same kind of commitment.