‘STAND FAST IN THE FAITH’

New Zealand Tablet, 16 July 1914, Page 3

‘STAND FAST IN THE FAITH’

( A Weekly Instruction specially written for the N.Z. Tablet by ' Giiimel.') * EARLY HISTORY OF THE CHURCH : CONVERSION OF THE GENTILES (Continued.) The apostles had received instructions to deliver the Gospel message in the first instance to the Jews. Nothing could have seemed more natural to the first group oi Catholics. Ihe Kingdom of God was evidently destined for the people of God, that privileged race which God had blessed in such wonderful ways, and to wlgeh lie had promised so much. But as the Jewish nation seemed so little inclined to embrace Christianity, the first Christians soon turned their attention to that other part of the Lord’s command, which bade them preach Him through the pagan world. So we find some of them whom the unfriendly Pharisees had driven out of Jerusalem, addressing themselves to pagans, such as the minister of the Queen of Ethiopia and the centurion Cornelius, who, disgusted with their own religions, had come to believe in the God of the Jews and to practise to some extent the Jewish religion. In this matter, as in others, Peter, the chosen head of the Church, plays the leading part. In the course of his first missionary journey Peter came to the town of Joppa, and stayed there with one Simon. The tenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles tells us how one day Peter was praying at the sixth hour (noon), the hour at which the crucifixion of our Saviour commenced. During his prayer, he fell into a trance, in the course of which he saw- the heavens opened, and a vessel like a great sheet let down by the four corners and coming close to him. In this vessel were all kinds of beasts and birds, clean and unclean that is, things which a Jew might cat and things which he was forbidden to touch; and a Voice bade him: ‘ Rise, kill, and eat.’ But the astonished apostle had not yet taken in the meaning of the vision,' and so lie replied : ‘ Far be it from me, for 1 never did eat anything that is common or unclean.’ A second time, therefore, the Voice speaks to him : 1 What God hath cleansed do not thou call common’; and in order to bring homo the meaning of the vision to the bewildered apostle, the vision takes place three times, and then the vessel is taken up into heaven. This vessel, according to St. Augustine, represents the Church, ‘the four corners of which are the four quarters of the globe— north, south, east, and west ; the four winds of the heavens, as they are elsewhere called. The animals are Jews and also the Gentiles, who were unclean in their errors and superstitions and lusts before Christ came, and therefore unfit for the society of a true Israelite; but after Christ’s coming, having their sins forgiven them, they were made clean. Therefore, now that their sins are forgiven them, why should they not be received into the Body of Christ, which is the Church of God represented by St. Peter? Peter, however, still sees ‘through a glass, darkly,’ and does not- at once understand what is meant. While he is groping in the darkness, three messengers arrive at Joppa from Caesarea and tell their story to Peter.

At Caesarea there is a centurion in the Roman army, named Cornelius, a just man, who worships the God of the Jews, is charitable, and much given to prayer and fasting.' Three days ago, at the ninth hour— the same hour when another centurion on Mount Calvary proclaimed, ‘ Truly this Man was the Son of God ’ — Cornelius was praying ; and in the course of his prayer a man in white apparel stood before him and told him that his prayer was heard, his alms remembered by God ; he had been faithful to the light he received, now he shall see the true Light of Life. He was further told to send to Joppa and ask for Peter, who would tell him what to do.

Peter believes there is something supernatural in these strange visions, and without hesitation sets out for Caesarea. There he finds in the house of Cornelius a large number of ‘ God-fearers ’ waiting to receive him, and then he understands the meaning of the vision. ‘ These are the Gentiles, once unclean, but now to be cleansed by the Word of God. And after explaining how he— a Jew — is able to hold intercourse with them, St. Peter proceeds to tell them of Jesus Christ, of His death and resurrection. When he speaks, the Holy Ghost falls upon those that are listening, and the six brethren from Joppa are astonished to hear these Gentiles speaking with divers tongues and praising God : thus showing that God Himself had broken down the wall of separation between Jew and Gentile, and had purified them by faith in His Son.’ There is no reason why these men should not be admitted straightway into the Church by baptism, without having first to become Jews by circumcision. Can any man,’ asks St. Peter, ‘ forbid water, that these should not be baptised, who have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?’

Thus were the first pagans received into the Catholic Church, and we note how Peter was chosen to receive them, and how peculiarly Jewish rites were no longer necessary— ‘ the former things had passed away.’