CALLED TO UNIVERSALITY

VI EASTER SUNDAY - Acts 10:25-26,34-35,44-48

Since the beginning, time and again, the Church appears to be conformist and conservative, afraid of change. Before the coming of the Holy Spirit, there was just a small group of the disciples of Jesus, who lived in hiding, afraid of suffering the same fate of their master. The Holy Spirit had to come like a strong wind to force them out and bring them into the open. It was the beginning of witnessing to the resurrection of Jesus as Christ and Lord. However, their preaching of the Gospel  did not go very far. In fact, they remained in Jerusalem, where they frequented the Temple on a regular basis. All the members of the Church were Jews; it looked more like a new Jewish sect than the Church of Jesus Christ. They had to suffer persecution (Act 8:1), in order to be scattered and take the message of redemption to Samaria and beyond.

For a while, the Church was a Jewish Church, made up only of Jewish people, both Aramaic and Greek speaking. They were following all the Jewish traditions, keeping themselves apart from the non-Jews or gentiles. Once again, the Holy Spirit had to force them to change course. First, in a dream, Peter was made to understand that there are no impure foods and that he should eat whatever is put in front of him wherever he may go, meaning that he would be able to sit at the table of the gentiles and share their food. Then, he was called by Cornelius, an officer of the Roman army, who had gathered in his house a group of relatives and friends, in order to listen to the message of salvation. While he was preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to Cornelius and the assembly gathered in his house, the Holy Spirit came upon them, to Peter’s great surprise, forcing him to recognise that “God shows no partiality” (Act 10:34), and that he addresses his offer of salvation to all. And so little by little the Church started spreading among the gentiles.

However, this journey of openness and inclusiveness was not an easy journey. The Christian Jews wanted at all costs to force the Christians of gentile origin to follow all Jewish traditions , and that caused so big an uproar in Antioch, that they had to appeal to the Apostles, who decided in favour of the gentiles, making it ver clear that the Church to be the Church of Jesus Christ has to be catholic, that is universal. The Church does not belong to any group, because she belongs to Christ, who is the head of the Church, and she is his body. 

In spite of the decision of the Apostles in the council of Jerusalem (Act 15), Paul suffered opposition and persecution everywhere. In the end, the universality (catholicity) of the Church became a reality, only because the Jewish people were defeated and the Temple destroyed, practically ending the influence of the Jerusalem Church and of the Jewish Christians. 

Throughout history, time and again, the Church is pushed forward by the Spirit, forcing her to change and to remain faithful to Jesus Christ and to the values of the Gospel. We must learn to listen to the Spirit and to allow ourselves to be guided by him.