Elise and I are watching a series on Netflix called “Manifest”. It is the story of a group of passengers on a flight that is lost for 5 1/2 years before suddenly reappearing. The passengers have not aged at all while the rest of the world has moved on. A running theme through the show is the passengers getting what they term “A Calling” where they receive messages (both audio and visual) giving them instructions on what to do in order to primarily save someone from dying. Spoiler Alert…it appears that these messages are coming from a higher power. They even name this power as God. Not something you often hear in mainstream television. When they listen to these “Callings” generally things turn out well and when they ignore them, and go in their own direction, then things tend to go south and we see impending conflict among the characters.
We see conflict within the Catholic Church as well and it has been present as long as the Church has been in existence. We see that in today’s first reading from Acts. At this time in history essentially all Christians were Jews. A very strange statement indeed from today’s perspective. But in early first century Palestine, Jews were the first to hear and accept Jesus as the Son of God. Of course, most Jews did not accept Jesus in this regard but those who did were uniformly Jewish.
Within the Jewish community, however, there was a split between Hellenistic Jews and Hebrew Jews. Hellenists were those Jews who had adopted the culture of Greek occupiers who held control of Judea from 333 to 63 B.C. (BTW, it is B.C. not B.C.E.). Many Jews adopted Greek customs and language during this occupation. It became so universal that the Hebrew Bible (the Tanakh) was translated into Greek. A version called the Septuagint. It was the most read version of the Bible during Jesus’ time.
During this time there were also Hebrew Jews. Those Jews who adhered to traditional customs and culture as well as mostly speaking Aramaic instead of Greek. They maintained the reading of the Hebrew version of the Bible. In fact, the reason we see 7 books in the Catholic Bible that are not in the Protestant Bible is because the Catholic Bible is based on the Septuagint (which includes these books) and the Protestant Bible is based on the Hebrew Bible, which does not include these 7 books.
What we see in today’s reading from Acts is a conflict between the Hellenistic Jews and Hebrew Jews over the treatment of their widows in the daily distributions of food. The Hellenists felt that they were being discriminated against in favor of Hebrews in the community. It also appears that there was division over various social habits and customs. The potential for significant division within the early church was significant. The Apostles main focus was spreading the words of Christ to the populous instead of being concerned with administrative tasks. But real, or perceived, discrimination was creeping into the community.
The Apostles acted to fend off the coming rift among early believers. They appointed 7 men of unquestioned character to manage the day to day operations of the group. Some believe that this was the origin of the deaconate movement within the Church. A similar solution was suggested by Moses’ Father-In-Law, Jethro, when Moses became overwhelmed with all his responsibilities as the Israelites travelled through the desert. The larger Israelite community was broken down into smaller subsets with leaders placed to manage each. These then reported back to Moses when needed.
The result of this reorganization was the continued growth and harmony within the early Catholic Church. As we know, the term “Catholic” means Universal and signifies the primary strong point of Catholicism…its unity world wide. While there are tens of thousands of Protestant churches in the United States, the Catholic Church stands firm and unified. But not unblemished.
In the year 1054 the Eastern Orthodox church formally split with Rome over issues involving the type of bread used for the Eucharist, celibacy in priests and whether Christ should be referred to as the “Lamb” of God. In the 14th Century there arose an Anti-Pope in France as a result of objection of the naming of Urban VI as pope. And, of course, the Reformation of 1517 led by Martin Luther decimated the church leading to the appearance of over 40,000 Christian denominations. But, for the most part, the Catholic Church has stood unified with its doctrine being the accepted doctrine among the faithful all over the world.
There is a potential threat to that unity as a consequence of the Synod of Bishops that Pope Francis called this past October. A Synod in the church is a collection of local bishops who come to an assembly in order to discuss and answer concerns or questions within the Church. Vatican II was such a Synod. Pope Francis called this 2 year Synod process in order to gain input from the clergy and the faithful on the status of the Church. Such concerns as Priestly Celibacy, Communion among remarried-divorced Catholics, Women priest and deacons as well as attitude towards homosexuality.
The potential divisions comes as the German church leans to a more liberal view of these issues while the growing African church holds a more conservative line. The concern is how the Pope will manage these potential differences in terms of him adhering to traditional church teaching or being “open” to these “alternate” approaches. Some believe that the Pope’s past ambiguity in his positions on these topics may contribute to uncertainty and eventual division.
In the end it is a question of leadership within the Church and an adherence to the teachings that Jesus gave us. And, foremost, it is prayer for direction and allowing the Holy Spirit to guide our decisions. While we may not have “Callings” in our day to day lives, we are influenced by the Holy Spirit if we open our hearts to His direction. Whether we are making decisions within our families, within our parishes or in a world-wide Synod…whether we are individuals or bishops…we must act the way the apostles did. Pray for guidance and listen to our consciences. The result will surely be the same as what occurred in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago:
“The word of God continued to spread”
