Wednesday of Week 3 of Easter – First Reading


Commentary on Acts 8:1-8

There is an old saying that “it is an ill wind that blows nobody any good”. We can see an example of this in today’s reading. The first half of today’s reading sets the stage for what is going to follow. First, it is linked to what has just been described in the preceding verses, the martyrdom of Stephen, followed by widespread persecution of Christians. This, in turn, will lead up to the unexpected conversion of the chief persecutor, Saul.

The martyrdom of Stephen was followed immediately by a savage persecution of the infant Christian community. A Pharisee named Saul was among the most dedicated attackers (in the name of God, of course), dragging people from their homes and tossing them into jail. It was the beginning of a phenomenon that has been the lot of Christians in many parts of the world ever since, right down to our own day. Even today, there are Christians in jail for no other reason than that they openly profess faith in Christ.

While the apostles remained in Jerusalem, many Christians began to scatter to the countryside of Judea (the province in which Jerusalem was situated) and the neighbouring province of Samaria, just to the north. This was to inaugurate the second stage of the Church’s expansion. The third stage would begin with the establishment of Christian communities in Antioch in Syria.

The persecution seems to have mainly targeted the Hellenist Christians, and it was this group, scattered by persecution, which gave the church its first missionaries. We are immediately introduced to one of them – Philip. This was the beginning of the great missionary outreach of the Church which has not yet come to an end in our own time.

The apostles would have been Aramaic-speaking Jews and, by staying behind in Jerusalem, they gave encouragement to those in prison, and would be a centre of appeal to those scattered. The Church in Jerusalem now effectively went underground – and not by any means for the last time.

However, We can now see that the persecution in Jerusalem was a blessing in disguise. While the persecution scattered Christians, they were now bringing their message to new areas. Eventually – often as the result of persecution – they would carry it to the very ends of the Roman world.

Among the fugitives was the deacon Philip. He was one of the Seven who, with Stephen, had been chosen for special ‘service’. He is now a full-blown evangelist, who preached the good news about the Messiah-Christ, healed the sick and drove out evil spirits. The result was that “there was great joy in that city”. Probably the reference is not to the town of Samaria, a Hellenistic city (at this time called Sebaste), but to the whole province. And those who were being evangelised were ‘Samaritans’ in the Jewish sense of the word. These were those related by blood and religion to, but cut off from, Israel’s Jewish community, and deemed to be living in heresy (recall the scene between Jesus and the Samaritan woman beginning in John 4:9).

Again and again it has been demonstrated that when the church is persecuted – when people want to wipe it out – the Church finds new vitality and the courage to stand up for what it believes. It is when we are taken for granted and even worse, ignored, that we are in the greatest danger. It is then that we are in real peril of being marginalised because we are no longer the “salt of the earth” or a “city on a hill”. Sadly, that is what is happening in many prosperous parts of the world today. Is it happening to the society we are living?

Comments Off on Wednesday of Week 3 of Easter – First Reading


Printed from LivingSpace - part of Sacred Space
Copyright © 2024 Sacred Space :: www.sacredspace.com :: All rights reserved.