Food for Thought #6 The apostle of the Gentiles

After the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, He appeared to his apostles and many disciples encouraging them to spread the Good News of the Gospel to all people. Having assured them of his presence with them in the sacrament of the Eucharist, he instructed them to wait for his sending the Holy Spirit who would inflame them with the graces necessary to perform their task.  After Jesus returned to His Father in heaven, the apostles waited in a closed room for the moment of the coming of the Holy Spirit.

On Pentecost the disciples in the room heard a loud noise like a strong wind; on the heads of the disciples, tongues of fire spread among all the people in the room as they were filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.  They received the gift of tongues and as a crowd had formed outside because of the noise, the crowd heard their own languages from the lips of the disciples.  The apostle, Peter, explained to the crowd of Jews how Jesus, crucified, died for their sins and then rose to life.  There were several thousand converts from the crowd who were baptized as followers of The Lord Jesus.

The apostles started preaching in and around Jerusalem and in the Temple.  But the Jewish leaders who had been responsible for stirring up a mob to demand that the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate give over Jesus to be crucified, became jealous of the apostles for  making so many converts so, they started persecuting the disciples of Jesus.  One of the leaders by the name of Saul went on a mission to Damascus to round up Christians and bring them back to Jerusalem for trial. 

On the way to Damascus Saul was knocked off his horse by a bright light and a loud voice asked, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?”  “Who are you Lord?”, asked Saul.  “I am Jesus of Nazareth Whom you persecute!  But go into Damascus and you will be told what to do”.  For 3 days Saul, blinded by the light, waited, praying.  The Lord sent a believer to Saul who baptized him; immediately he regained his sight.  Saul started teaching in the synagogue that Jesus was the Son of God.  The Jews there were amazed but the leaders threatened to kill Saul.  With help from the believers he escaped to Jerusalem where he joined the Apostles after a disciple, who knew of Saul’s conversion, convinced the Apostles of Saul’s trustworthiness.  His life was threatened again in Jerusalem, so his friends sent him to the island of Tarsus where he spent time being instructed about his mission of Apostleship through the grace of God.

In the meantime, the apostle Peter, whom Christ had appointed head of His church on earth, had a vision about not calling certain foods unclean which was a custom of the Jews.  After the vision Peter was invited to visit a man called Cornelius in Caesarea who was a captain in the Roman army; he was a religious man and his whole family worshipped God.  Cornelius did much to help the poor Jewish people and he was devoted to prayer to the Lord Jesus.  When Peter arrived, he was met by a whole community of Cornelius’s family and friends who were all Gentiles. 

Peter spoke to them saying that Jews, by their beliefs were not supposed to associate with non−Jews but now he realized that, through the vision he had experienced, God was saying Gentiles were acceptable to Him; just as Peter was speaking, tongues of fire settled upon each of the Gentiles.  Peter then knew that the Lord wanted Gentiles as well as Jews baptized as members of His Church since the Holy Spirit was given to the Gentiles.  After baptizing all those with Cornelius, Peter returned to Jerusalem and reported to the disciples that God’s command was that all people, Jews and Gentiles alike, were to be treated as God’s people and baptized.

After some time Saul, now renamed Paul, traveled throughout the Roman empire teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  He would always go to synagogues first and convert many Jews to the new Christian belief but many Jewish leaders did not accept Paul’s teaching so he made a point of saying he would go to the Gentiles; Paul then established thriving communities of believers among non-Jews.  He then would write letters (called epistles) to these communities.  In all of these epistles we see the great love Paul has for Jesus Christ and what He, through His sacrifice on the cross, has done for all people.  In his epistle to the Ephesians, a people of the city of Ephesus in what is now modern Turkey, Paul makes it clear that we are all one people in Christ Jesus:

“ For Christ himself has brought us peace by making Jews and Gentiles one people. With his own body he broke down the wall that separated them and kept them [apart]…….. It is through Christ that all of us, Jews and Gentiles, are able to come with one Spirit into the presence of the father.”

Paul has been given the title of the Apostle of the Gentiles.

Thus, regardless of the separate beliefs and faiths of all human beings, we are all one people because of the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross, Who gave His life for the salvation of every single person born since Adam and Eve and all persons yet to be; all that is required is to love Jesus when they know of Him or love God in everything He has done for those who might not know or, in ignorance, might not accept Jesus.  

Let no person who claims to be a follower of Christ display hatred for Jews, Moslems, Buddhists,….. or any others who believe in God and love Him in a different way.  Those who are terrorists and do hateful things to innocent people and say they do these things in the name of God are to be judged as God knows their hearts.