Each Sunday between Easter and Pentecost, instead of hearing from an Epistle, we hear from the Acts “of the Apostles.” Actually it is mostly the “acts” of the apostle Paul, as written by “Luke,” author of the Gospel of Luke. Luke was probably a companion of Paul (there were others, like Barnabas), who sometimes accompanied Paul as he preached the Gospel throughout the eastern Mediterranean. One of the recurring themes of “Acts” is how the composition of the early Church changed over its first 50 years.
In the beginning, most converts to Jesus were Jews (including all the apostles). It did not take long, however, for the majority of Christians to be “gentiles,” non-Jewish converts to Christianity. It was a major shift, and in today’s readings we begin hearing how that happened. In Acts, it is Paul who recognizes that the Spirit is doing something new, and he begins preaching to the gentiles and persuading the other Church leaders to welcome them as members. Now one characteristic of Luke, the author of a Gospel and Acts, is that he puts a positive spin on how he relates events. So he glosses over the angst that would have occurred during this switch. Families were split, interrelated clans were split, villagers could no longer worship together, lovers could not marry people from the “other camp.”
Fast-forward to our time. For many centuries, Roman Catholicism has been a Western European religion. Today a shift is occurring. Growth in the Church is occurring in Asia and Africa while the Church in Europe and the Americas is shrinking. It is an uncomfortable time for many U.S. Catholics whose ancestry is European. We don’t know how this chapter of Catholic history will end. We do know how the shift worked out for the Church of Acts. And we know how the Jewish disciples of Jesus reacted: When they saw the non-Jewish gentiles glorifying the Lord, they “were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.” May the Holy Spirit also help all of us today, who struggle with the “new Church,” to find in it the same Lord who is still leading us all to His Father.
— Blog entry by Sister Mary Garascia
The post May 11, 4th Sunday of Easter, Shifts: a Sunday Scriptures blog first appeared on Sisters of the Precious Blood.