May 14, 2017
The message the three scripture passages convey is a very modern one, “participation” in the Church is more important than the hierarchical structure. If our only contact with organized Christianity has been limited to a hierarchical structured Church, then we will find this message surprising and maybe difficult to appreciate. Our authors are not interested in encouraging us to look to a higher rung on the authority ladder in order to discover God's will in our lives. They are concerned with making certain each of us understands the dignity God has implanted in us, and this dignity is independent of any authority structure. The author of the 1st letter of St Peter (who is certainly not St Peter) addresses newly baptized Christians – and he can't be clearer: "You are God's chosen and special people. You are a group of royal priests and a holy nation. God has brought you out of darkness into his marvelous light”. The text continues: “Once you were nobody. Now you are God's people” (1 Peter 2,9.10). We are to see each of us as members of the People of God, individuals whose call to minister to others is not mediated through a hierarchical structure. Such actions are rooted in God's spirit embedded in each of us. Let us have a look at the end of today’s passage from the gospel according to John. Here we see Jesus during his Last Supper discourse. And Jesus promises his followers something we often forget: "Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father" (John 14,12). Our life of faith is not just a matter of remembering the terrific things Jesus accomplished during his earthly ministry 2000 years ago. Jesus presumes that anyone who dares imitate him would continue his ministry after his death and resurrection. Jesus trusts all of us not only to accomplish what he achieved, but to even go beyond what he himself was able to do. The only problem is that many of us have been led through the centuries to believe that such accomplishments are for "others”, are for saints or martyrs or popes or cardinals – but not for us. Maybe some of you still know an old saying concerning the catholic church, it says: “Our role in the church is simply to pray, pay, and obey.” That is where today's passage from the Acts of the Apostles comes in. Luke describes a problem in the early community in Jerusalem. Hellenist widows think they are being short-changed "in the daily distribution" of food, they think they were given less than the correct amount on food that was due to them. “Hellenist widows”, the text says. “Hellenist” in this context, refers to Jews living now in Jerusalem who are not natives of Israel. They have spent most of their lives outside the Holy Land but have settled down now in Jerusalem. Some of them probably do not even speak Aramaic - the language the "Hebrews" speak. By nature, such a situation in a community leads to misunderstandings. But the solution the Twelve, the twelve apostles offer is not as natural as the problem. One might have expected them to decide in this case – top-down. But no, they say: “Choose seven men who are respected and wise and filled with God's Spirit. We will put them in charge of these things.” (Acts 6,3) Notice the names of the seven: "Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicholas of Antioch, a convert to Judaism." There is not a single "Hebrew" name among these seven. Every name is Greek. They are Hellenists. This way, in the Acts of the Apostles, Luke is telling his community: "If there are problems among you, those who have the problems should solve the problems. Do not expect a solution to be decreed from above.” If each of us really is as important as Jesus - and our early Christian authors believe we are! - then our problems should always be solved from below, by those who have a Spirit which will help them in this process. As the Church, as a Church community like All Saints, we certainly still have a long way to go in the future - a long way before we get back to how it was "in the beginning" of our Christian communities.
Fr. Wolfgang Felber, SJ