Church History Part 12
Threat from GnosticismAccording to tradition, St. Linus was appointed by St. Peter and St. Paul as the successor of St. Peter. In 2 Timothy 4:21 St. Paul writes about a Linus passing on his greetings to Timothy. It is generally believed that the Linus that Paul writes about is the same Linus that St. Irenaeus writes about in his work “Against Heresies” and the same as the one who was appointed to St. Peter’s chair. St. Linus was the pope from A.D 67 to A.D 80. Next time when you attend Mass, follow the names of the martyrs mentioned during the Eucharistic prayer. The priest will mention St. Linus and St. Cletus among others. Cletus was the third pope. He was the pope between A.D 80 and A.D 88. During the first few centuries, persecution remained central to the life of the Church. Today, when we walk into a beautiful Catholic church, we may not realize that the early Church fathers sacrificed significantly to fight against persecution. The nature and extent of persecution varied between emperor to emperor. Emperor Trajan (A.D 98 to 117), for instance, used persecution as the last resort compared to Emperor Nero whom we saw earlier. While the Christians were fighting the external persecutions, this helped Christianity to grow in large numbers. There was another type of issue the Christians had to deal with, which is the divisions within the Church. There were divisions among Christians regarding issues like on what day the death and resurrection of our Lord should be celebrated, whether our Lord Jesus was fully human and fully divine. There was a group of people who believed anything physical is evil and that a group of people had some secret knowledge (Gnostics). We may be tempted to romanticize the early Church and imagine a golden age of peace and harmony. Early church fathers had to fight external persecution on the one hand and keeping the faith true to the Gospels internally. St. Ignatius of Antioch, St. Polycarp and St. Irenaeus of Smyrna were among the church fathers who lived and protected the faith in this period. The Catholic faith as we know it now, the collection of books that we call Bible now, the liturgical calendar that we take it for granted now are all the fruits of the sweat and blood of these early church fathers. Almost all protestant Christians who converted to Catholicism converted after reading the lives of these early church fathers. I encourage everyone to read reflect on their lives. Next week we will understand some of the controversies that were plaguing the Church and how they were stopped.
First Sunday of Lent – Year A
First Reading: Gn 2:7–9; 3:1–7Responsorial Psalm: Ps 51:3–4, 5–6, 12–13, 17Second Reading: Rom 5:12–19 or 5:12, 17–19Gospel: Mt 4:1–11 In today’s selection from the Letter to the Romans, Paul connects the first reading and the Gospel by proposing that we look at Jesus...
Church History Part 1
Why Church history? C.S Lewis said, the growth of the Church is like a long conversation. If the conversation started at 10 AM and if we joined the conversation at 3 P.M, we would hardly follow the discussion unless someone updates us. To fully grasp where we fit...
Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A
First Reading Sirach 15:15–20 Response Psalm 119:1b Psalm Psalm 119:1–2, 4–5, 17–18, 33–34 Second Reading 1 Corinthians 2:6–10 Gospel Acclamation Matthew 11:25 Gospel...
Church History Part 2
It is generally believed that the birth of the Church was on the day of Pentecost; Fifty days after our Lord’s Ascension to Heaven. However, I would like to take this opportunity and go back to the Old Testament and point out couple of historical events. Our Church...
Church History Part 3
From 54 A.D to 68 A.D emperor Nero was ruling Rome. His mother was the great granddaughter of the emperor Augustus. When he became the emperor, he was guided by his mother and senate. Nero, however, was not happy about the restrictions imposed by his mother and the...
Church History Part 4
While Emperor Nero was still alive, Peter was accepted as the leader of the apostles. Our Lord, in Matthew 16:18, assigned Church leadership to Peter. Peter and the apostles were performing miracles and performing plenty of good deeds in addition to spreading the...
Church History Part 5
While the apostles were making inroads in evangelization, there was a pharisee called Saul of Tarsus who was working against them. Tarsus is in present day Turkey. He was also a Roman citizen. He was from a wealthy family. His dad was a tent maker. He studied...
Church History Part 6
I ended last week’s article with a question why the Jewish scriptures were translated to Greek. Alexander the Great had conquered most of the known world, taking the Greek language with him. Around the same time because of persecution, Jewish Christians fled to other...
Church History Part 7
Last week we saw why and how the Greek Translation of the Scriptures were done. I pointed outed out that we should not view ancient historical events with the same expectations as reading present day history. There is another reason that is of interest regarding the...
Church History Part 8
Because the early Church in Jerusalem was growing at a rapid pace, the apostles were being stretched thin by preaching, praying, administering the money and land given to them, and distributing necessities to those in need. In Acts 6:2, the apostles say: “It is not...
Church History Part 9
Towards the end the article published on August 28th we saw St. Paul proposing that Gentiles can become Christians without first converting to Judaism. Apostles, who were all Jews, were shocked. Circumcision was required to become a Jew. On the one hand the apostles...
Church History – Part 10
After the council of Jerusalem, Paul and Barnabas had a difference of opinion and they parted ways. From this point on, Timothy became Paul’s closest companion. His remarkable missionary journeys, which had already begun before the council of Jerusalem with visits to...
Church History – Part 11
Bartholomew, according to a non-Biblical document “Martyrdom of Bartholomew”, was martyred in Armenia by King Astyages. Historian Eusebius who lived in the 4th century has recorded that Bartholomew preached in India too. His remains are currently located at the...
Church History – Part 13
In last week’s article we saw one of the internal issues that the early Church fathers had to address was Christianity’s relationship with Judaism. While reflecting on the disputes between different group of Christians on various practices and interpretations of...
Church History – Part 13
In last week’s article we saw one of the internal issues that the early Church fathers had to address was Christianity’s relationship with Judaism. While reflecting on the disputes between different group of Christians on various practices and interpretations of...
Church History – Part 14
The Church in the second century was made up of local communities from the Mediterranean Sea to the Middle East. They had a strong sense of unity even though they were loosely organized. This is when another controversy arose. This controversy is called Gnosis. ...
Church History – Part 15
Around A.D 285 Diocletian became the Roman emperor. He realized that the empire had grown too large to be governed by one person. He divided the kingdom into two (East and West). He kept the ultimate power and appointed governors and assistants. In the West, they...
Church History – Part 16
In my last article on Nov 6th bulletin, we had reached a point in the Church history where emperor of Rome, Constantine had made Christianity as an official religion of Rome. For Emperor Constantine, to become a Christian was one thing, but to deal as an emperor with...
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