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From: Acts 11:19-26

The Beginning of the Church in Antioch

[19] Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over
Stephen travelled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the
word to none except Jews. [20] But there were some of them, men of Cyprus
and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Greeks also, preaching
the Lord Jesus. [21] And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great num-
ber that believed turned to the Lord. [22] News of this came to the ears of the
Church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. [23] When he came
and saw the grace of God, he was glad; and he exhorted them all to remain
faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose; [24] for he was a good man, full of
the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a large company was added to the Lord. [25]
So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul; [26] and when he had found him,
he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the Church, and
taught a large company of people and in Antioch the disciples were for the first
time called Christians.

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Commentary:

19-30. This account links up with Acts 8:1-4, which describes the flight of Chris-
tians from Jerusalem due to the first persecution following on the martyrdom of
St. Stephen. We are now told about the spread of the Gospel to Antioch on the
Orontes, the capital of the Roman province of Syria. Antioch was the first major
city of the ancient world where the word of Jesus Christ was preached. It was
the third city of the empire, after Rome and Alexandria, with a population of a-
bout half a million and a sizeable Jewish colony, and was a very important cul-
tural, economic and religious center.

In Antioch the Gospel is proclaimed not only to Jews and proselytes. These Hel-
lenist Jews from Jerusalem preached the Gospel to all and sundry as part of their
ordinary everyday activity. St. Luke does not give us any names: the preachers
are ordinary Christians. “Notice”, says Chrysostom, “that it is grace which does
everything. And also reflect on the fact that this work is begun by unknown wor-
kers and only when it begins to prosper do the Apostles send Barnabas” (”Hom.
on Acts”, 25).

The Christian mission at Antioch played a key part in the spread of Christianity.
Evangelization of non-Jews becomes the norm; it is not just something which
happens in a few isolated cases. Nor is it limited to “God-fearers”; it extends to
all the Gentiles. The center of gravity of the Christian Church begins to move
from Jerusalem to Antioch, which will become the springboard for the evangeli-
zation of the pagan world.

20. The title “Lord”, often applied to Jesus in the New Testament and in the ear-
ly Church, is a confession of faith in His divinity. To say “Jesus is Lord” (1 Co-
rinthians 12:3; Romans 10:9) is the same as saying that Jesus Christ is God. It
means that He is worshipped as the only Son of the Father and as sovereign of
the Church, and receives the cult of “latria” which is rendered to God alone.

This acclamation of Jesus as Lord shows that from the very beginning the young
Christian communities knew that He had dominion over all mankind and was not
just the Messiah of one nation.

22-26. The community at Jerusalem, where the Apostles were based, felt res-
ponsible for everything that happened in the Christian mission field. This was
why they sent Barnabas to oversee developments in Antioch. Barnabas was a
man whom the Apostles trusted, noted for his virtue (he was mentioned in Acts
4:36).

No doubt it was because of all the work opening before the preacher of the Gos-
pel that Barnabas sought out Paul, who had returned to Tarsus after his conver-
sion and his visit to Jerusalem (9:30). Barnabas probably knew that the future
Apostle was the very man he needed to join him in the work of evangelization
about to be undertaken by the Antiochene Church. Barnabas’ sense of responsi-
bility and his zeal to find laborers for the Lord’s harvest (cf. Matthew 9:38) lead
to the first of the great missionary journeys, in which Paul’s vocation find full
scope.

26. We do not exactly know who first began to describe the disciples as “Chris-
tians”. In any event the fact that they were given a name shows that everyone re-
cognized them as an identifiable group. The name also suggests that the term
“Christos” — Messiah, Anointed — is no longer regarded simply as a messianic
title but also as a proper name.

Some Fathers of the Church see this name as further indication that people do
not become disciples of the Lord through human causes. “Although the holy
Apostles were our teachers and have given us the Gospel of the Savior, it is not
from them that we have taken our name: we are “Christians” through Christ and
it is for Him that we are called in this way” (St. Athanasius, “Oratio I Contra
Arianos”, 2).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

From: John 10:22-30

Jesus and the Father are One

[22] It was the feast of the Dedication at Jerusalem; [23] it was winter, and Jesus
was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. [24] So the Jews gathered
round Him and said to Him, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If you are
the Christ, tell us plainly.” [25] Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not
believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness to Me; [26]
but you do not believe, because you do not belong to My sheep. [27] My sheep
hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; [28] and I give them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of My hand.
[29] My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is ab-
le to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. [30] I and the Father are one.”

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Commentary:

22. This feast commemorates an episode in Jewish history (cf. 1 Maccabees
4:36-59; 2 Maccabees 1-2:19; 10:1-8) when Judas Maccabeus, in the year 165
B.C., after liberating Jerusalem from the control of the Seleucid kings of Syria,
cleansed the temple of the profanations of Antiochus Epiphanes (1 Maccabees
1:54). From then onwards, on the twenty-fifth day of the month of Kislev (Novem-
ber - December) and throughout the following week, all Judea celebrated the an-
niversary of the dedication of the new altar. It was also known as the “Festival
of Lights” because it was customary to light lamps, a symbol of the Law, and
put them in the windows of the houses (cf. 2 Maccabees 1:18).

24-25. When these Jews ask Jesus if He is the Messiah, “they speak in this
way”, St. Augustine comments, “not because they desire truth, but to prepare
the way for calumny” (”In Ioann. Evang.”, 48, 3). We have already seen Jesus
reveal, by His words and deeds, that He is the Only Son of God (5:19ff; 7:16ff;
8:25ff). In view of their good dispositions, He explicitly told the Samaritan wo-
man (4:26) and the man born blind (9:37) that He was the Messiah and Savior.
Now He reproaches His listeners for refusing to recognize the works He does
in His Father’s name (cf. 5:36; 10:38). On other occasions He referred to works
as a way to distinguish true prophets from false ones: “You will know them by
their fruits” (Matthew 7:16; cf. Matthew 12:33).

26-29. Certainly faith and eternal life cannot be merited by man’s own efforts:
they are a gift of God. But the Lord does not deny anyone grace to believe and
be saved, because He “desires all men to be saved and to come to the know-
ledge of the Truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). If someone tries to avoid receiving the gift
of faith, his unbelief is blameworthy. On this point St. Thomas Aquinas teaches:
“I can see, thanks to the light of the sun; but if I close my eyes, I cannot see:
this is no fault of the sun, it is my own fault, because by closing my eyes, I
prevent the sunlight from reaching me” (”Commentary on St. John”, ad loc.).

But those who do not oppose divine grace do come to believe in Jesus. They
are known to and loved by Him, enter under His protection and remain faithful
with the help of His grace, which is a pledge of the eternal life which the Good
Shepherd will eventually give them. It is true that in this world they will have to
strive and in the course of striving they will sustain wounds; but if they stay uni-
ted to the Good Shepherd nothing and no one will snatch Christ’s sheep from
Him, because our Father, God, is stronger than the Evil One. Our hope that
God will grant us final perseverance is not based on our strength but on God’s
mercy: this hope should always motivate us to strive to respond to grace and
to be more faithful to the demands of our faith.

30. Jesus reveals that He and the Father are one in substance. Earlier He pro-
claimed that God was His Father, “making Himself equal with God”—which is
why a number of times the Jewish authorities think of putting Him to death (cf.
5:18; 8:59). Now He speaks about the mystery of God, which is something we
can know about only through Revelation. Later on He will reveal more about this
mystery, particularly at the Last Supper (14:10; 17:21-22). It is something the
evangelist reflects on at the very beginning of the Gospel, in the prologue (cf.
John 1:1 and note).

“Listen to the Son Himself”, St. Augustine invites us. “’I and the Father are one.’
He did not say, ‘I am the Father’ or ‘I and the Father are one [Person].’ But when
He says, ‘I and the Father are one,’ notice the two words ‘[we are]’ and ‘one’ ...
For if they are one, then they are not diverse; if ‘[we] are’, then there is both a
Father and a Son” (”In Ioann. Evang.”, 36, 9). Jesus reveals that He is one in
substance with the Father as far as divine essence or nature is concerned, but
He also reveals that the Father and the Son are distinct Persons: “We believe
then in the Father who eternally begets the Son; in the Son, the Word of God,
who is eternally begotten; in the Holy Spirit, the uncreated Person who pro-
ceeds from the Father and the Son as their eternal Love. Thus in the three divine
Persons, “coaeternae sibi et coaequales”, the life and beatitude of God perfectly
One superabound and are consummated in the supreme excellence and glory
proper to uncreated Being, and always ‘there should be venerated Unity in the
Trinity and Trinity in the Unity’” (Paul VI, “Creed of the People of God,” 10).

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.