Acts 6:1-7; 1 Peter 2:4-9; John 14:1-12
He Disappears that I May Appear: The Era of Christianity
Quite often, the meaning of Christianity is misunderstood. The surest guide to the meaning of Christianity is to return to the origins and originator of Christianity. This simply means that the meaning of Christianity is indissociably tied to its past in such a way that the past must be made present by every generation. Put differently, there is no past, if there must be Christianity. In this connection, to have a past is to dislocate the present from the past. Christianity is not a theory but actions and deeds that are reminiscent of Christ’s!
To read from the Acts of the Apostles, as we do these days of Easter Season, is to read how the power of faith in Jesus Christ shaped the lifestyle of early believers in Jesus. It is to plunge into the past in order to make the past present today. In out first reading, the question of ethnicity and tribalism come into sharp focus. The question is: how does a Christian face up to the question of ethnic diversity and linguistic pluralism? This question remains vital to our world today, just as it did at the beginning of Christianity. Most African countries do not know, for sure, how many languages or tribes there are in there countries. For example, in Nigeria and Cameroon, students are taught that “there are over 250 tribes in our country” – there exists those forgotten and uncounted within our countries!
The solution to every pluralism, according to our first reading, is the centrality and unity of salvation. This is different from every political theory proffered by human beings, because human theories – conceptions or way of imagining – address symptoms and not the ailment itself. Today, as always, food distribution, as is the case in the first reading, is at the origin of all conflicts. Human cravings are basically carnal, and “the politics of the stomach” captures well what human theories worry about, the distribution of wealth or capital, with hardly any regard for the creator of the stomach and what he intends for the stomach.
Jews versus Greeks/Gentile conflict emerges from their respective rights to physical food, with no thoughts reserved for the fact that human beings “do not live to eat but eat to live.” A Christian approach to physical food is secondary to that of spiritual food, which endures to eternity. Early Christians were neither economics, those who worry about food production, nor were they politicians, those who control the distribution of food and hold the power to do so. NO! Early Christians, according to our first reading, are those who dedicated themselves to the proclamation of the Word of God. Certainly, physical food is important, but a new ministry was founded for that – the diaconate (deacons)!
Actual poverty is spiritual poverty, it is to descend to the level of “living to eat,” instead of “eating to live.” The poverty of “living to eat” has created the disease of obesity in some countries, and eradicated the meaning of human dignity in others. How does one explain the hunger in some countries, although richly blessed with material resources, yet the powerful dispossessed them of food? Fratricidal wars and exterminations of citizens over food and material resources are aptly captured by media outlets every single day. Today, hunger is a weapon of war, and genetically modified foods (GMO) have turned food itself into poison! Today, Christianity survived and will continue to survive to the decree to which attention is refocused on “why do we live or are alive,” rather than on “why do we eat.”
The preoccupation with physical food arises from a fundamental sickness – identity loss! The worship of food and material riches is the definition of carnalism or materialism – the god of the stomach. For Christians, there is only One God, and human beings live on his Word. The identity of such people, who live on “every word that comes from the mouth of God,” is Christian. To underscore Christian identity, our second reading says this: “You are ‘a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises’ of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” Christianity is mono-racial – the chosen ones of God, monocratic – priestly power, mono-ethnic – heavenly citizenship, and monolatry – the worship of One God.
We may wonder how these different indices define a Christian. The answer is provided in the opening sentence of our second reading: “Come to him, a living stone, rejected by human beings but chosen and precious in the sight of God, and, like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” Quintessential here is the imperative statement “Come to him.” It is the total surrender to the Word of God, preached from the Bible, that will manifest a Christian’s identity, not the appropriation of human theories. The most palpable evident of this total surrender is reflected in the common priesthood of all Christians because they all offer one spiritual sacrifice to God or they all worship one God.
Here is God’s plan and vision for human beings, provided they are willing to cooperate with him: “let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood.” One humanity, one household and one God is Christianity. However, here comes, to my mind, the biggest challenge of a Christian, especially in a contemporary culture which absolutizes the physical and the technological – the idea of an invisible God! Where does God live? Where can we see God? What are God’s contacts, especially when we need to reach him? The simplest answer to these question is this – God is invisible, and without contact address because he wants you and me to be visible and be his presence in the world!
If anything at all may be said about “time” with precision, after the resurrection of Christ, it is this: we live in the Christian Era. The disappearance of Christ is the appearance of the Christian – “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.” Jesus announces, at the end of today’s gospel, that he cedes his place on earth to you and me; that he hands over his powers to you and me; that he confers on us, a new era – the era of the sons and daughters of God. This does not mean that Jesus becomes jobless and inactive – “I am going to prepare a place for you,” he says, at the beginning of today’s gospel. Just as Jesus keeps busy, so should Christians because Jesus is coming back – “I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be,” and that will conclude the Christian Era.
Here and now, to replace or stand for Jesus, as Christians, is to preach racial, ethnic, gender and economic equality, just as Jesus did, and just as the apostles attempted to do in the first reading. This is only possible if we accepted the new identity Jesus confers upon us, according to our second reading – the identity of oneness in faith, worship and citizenship. And, Jesus’ presence will continue to be felt as long as our lives imitate and mirror his. So, we are not jobless, but Jesus disappears so that you and I may appear to continue the era of Christianity he inaugurated. Long live Jesus Christ, long live Christianity, and long live Christian witnessing!
Assignment of the Week:
Can you list three proofs that show that your life mirrors that of Christ?