It is important to remember that the Church
is part of the Father's plan from all eternity
was instituted by Jesus Christ (the Church being Christ's Mystical Body)
receives life by the Holy Spirit, who acts as the Soul of the Mystical Body
is composed of sinners.
Knowing these points will help us to expect God's wonderful works to show in the Church. At the same time we will not be surprised to see human weakness in Her members through the 2,000 years of the Church's history.
PENTECOST: THE CHURCH IS BORN
Before Jesus ascended into heaven, He told His apostles:
But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. (Acts 1:8)
And so it happened as Jesus promised. The Holy Spirit was sent and the Apostles started to preach the Gospel to everyone.
1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. 5 Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6 And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7 And they were amazed and wondered, saying, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? (Acts 2:1-8)
ST PAUL, APOSTLE TO THE GENTILES
The Church's universal mission is exemplified by St Paul, whose conversion is narrated three times in the Acts of the Apostles (9:1-19; 22:3-21; 26:9-23). This conversion may have happened as early as 32 AD but not later than 37 AD. Saint Paul brought the Gospel to Asia Minor and Greece. One can read his apostolic adventures in chapters 7 to 9 and 13 to 28 of the Acts of the Apostles. In 67 AD, he was beheaded in Rome. One of the four major Roman basilicas is dedicated to him.
PERSECUTION AND MARTYRDOM
As soon as the new Faith was born, however, it encountered resistance. Christians who refused to worship the gods of the Romans were persecuted and many died for their belief. The first martyr was Saint Stephen, who died in 32 AD.
The ten great persecutions are as follows:
Nero (54-68)
Domitian (81-96)
Trajan (98-117)
Marcus Aurelius (161-180)
Septimius Severus (193-211)
Maximinus Thrax (235-238)
Decius (249-251)
Valerian (253-260)
Aurelian (270-275)
Diocletian (284-305)
These persecutions notwithstanding, the Church grew and fluorished. This phenomenon prompted Tertullian (c160 - c 225) to write: "The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians."
The persecutions ended with the Edict of Milan (313) which was promulgated by Constantine.
STRUCTURE OF THE EARLY CHURCH
PETER AND HIS SUCCESSORS. It is clear from the Acts of the Apostles that as soon as Jesus ascended to heaven, Peter takes responsibility for the Church. Church historians starting with Eusebius of Caesarea (263-339) give us the list of the first Popes. [Click here for a list of Popes from Peter to Benedict XVI]
Wherever Christians established themselves, they were led by bishops (episcopoi, Greek for "overseers") in each community, assisted by priests (presbyteroi, Greek for "elders") and deacons (diaconoi).
BISHOPS. Saint Paul talks about bishops in his letters to Timothy (I Timothy 3:1-2) and to Titus (Titus 1:7-9), two of the first bishops in the Church. Acts 20:28 gives an advice to the bishops of different communities:
Keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock of which the holy Spirit has appointed you overseers (episcopous), in which you tend the church of God that he acquired with his own blood.
PRIESTS. Aside from the overseers or bishops, there were elders or priests (presbyteroi). We are told in the letters to Timothy and to Titus:
Appoint presbyters (presbyterois) in every town, as I directed you, on condition that a man be blameless, married only once, with believing children who are not accused of licentiousness or rebellious. (Titus 1:5-6)
Presbyters who preside well deserve double honor, especially those who toil in preaching and teaching. (I Timothy 5:17)
DEACONS. Then there were the servants or deacons (diaconoi) mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles and in the letter to Timothy:
1 Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists murmured against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. 2 And the twelve summoned the body of the disciples and said, "It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. 3 Therefore, brethren, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this duty. 4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word." 5 And what they said pleased the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. 6 These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands upon them. (Acts 6:1-6)
If you will give these instructions to the brothers, you will be a good minister (diakonos) of Christ Jesus, nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound teaching you have followed. ... Until I arrive, attend to the reading, exhortation, and teaching. ... Attend to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in both tasks, for by doing so you will save both yourself and those who listen to you. (I Tim 4:6,13,16)
Similarly, deacons (diakonous) must be dignified, not deceitful, not addicted to drink, not greedy for sordid gain, holding fast to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. (I Timothy 3:8-9)
LAY FAITHFUL. To be sure, the vast majority of followers were neither bishops nor priests nor deacons, but ordinary people. The description provided by Henri Daniel-Rops, in The Church of the Apostles and Martyrs (volume 1, History of the Church of Christ. Transl. Audrey Butler. London & New York: 1960, pp 2-3) is quite accurate:
Anyone meeting these men in the temple courts or along the steep alleyways of the Holy City would have found them indistinguishable from the rest of the faithful. ... For the most part they were very humble folk .... Several of them had come originally from Galilee.... But some came from other districts of Palestine too, and others from distant Jewish colonies in pagan lands....they were an odd assortment of folk!
Nor did they flee from the world, like the bands of Essenes who had established real monastic colonies in the lonely wildernesses around the Dead Sea, who fasted rigorously, forswore women, ate no meat and dressed in undyed flax cloth. They did not even constitute themselves into an independent synagogue, a 'keneseth'. ... The people with whom we are concerned made no attempt whatsoever to isolate themselves, to cut themselves off from their fellow men: quite the contrary; their ranks were open to all, and their leaders never ceased calling on pious souls to join their little band.
Such was the structure of the Church then, and such is its structure now. The Holy Spirit has guaranteed that the structure willed by Christ for His Church is preserved till the very end of time.
ORAL TRADITIONS AND THE WRITING OF THE GOSPEL
The Gospels were not written on Day 1 after our Lord's glorious Ascension into heaven. We ought to remember that Jesus instructed his Apostles to preach and baptise (cf Matthew 28:19; Mark 16:15), not to write. Nevertheless, it was not only the Apostles, or the priests, who transmitted the Gospel. Everyone spoke about the new Faith.
Henri Daniel-Rops, in The Church of the Apostles and Martyrs (volume 1, History of the Church of Christ. Transl. Audrey Butler. London & New York: 1960, pp 106-107) again describes for us what might have happened:
Though this Christian endeavour possessed outstanding leaders, in the persons of Apostles and disciples, we should not forget that the immense labour of thousands of anonymous believers must have been of at least equal importance in ensuring its success. These unknown folk, by their chance journeyings and meetings, must have done a very great deal indeed to prepare the way for the Lord and to begin the work of winning souls for Christ. ... In order to understand it fully, and to appreciate its effectiveness, it is really necessary to have practical experience of the kind of conditions governing the average person's life in the first few centuries of our era, to picture the constant traffic from place to place, and the never-ending individual journeys, which were unimaginably frequent and widespread, and to visualise the inns and the caravanserais, where folk from different areas met one another.
So silent and secret was this missionary endeavour that no contemporary has recorded it. No names of any of these early heralds of the Gospel have come down to us. One day the news would simply begin to spread through some exclusive city quarter, or in one or other of the poorer districts near the walls. Who first brought it there? Was it some Jewish pedlar, some merchant from Antioch, or even this escaped slave here, who was said to have come from Cyprus or one of the Cilician cities? Might it even have been a woman? For women played a leading part in this 'whispering campaign'. People talked about the new doctrine in the shops, in the open-air markets, as well as in the stinking tanneries and the offal-yards.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (no 126) summarises for us the story of the Gospels.
We can distinguish three stages in the formation of the Gospels:
1. The life and teaching of Jesus. The Church holds firmly that the four Gospels, "whose historicity she unhesitatingly affirms, faithfully hand on what Jesus, the Son of God, while he lived among men, really did and taught for their eternal salvation, until the day when he was taken up." [Vatican II, Dei Verbum,19; cf Acts 1:1-2]
2. The oral tradition. "For, after the ascension of the Lord, the apostles handed on to their hearers what he had said and done, but with that fuller understanding which they, instructed by the glorious events of Christ and enlightened by the Spirit of truth, now enjoyed." [Vatican II, Dei Verbum,19]
3. The written Gospels. "The sacred authors, in writing the four Gospels, selected certain of the many elements which had been handed on, either orally or already in written form; others they synthesized or explained with an eye to the situation of the churches, the while sustaining the form of preaching, but always in such a fashion that they have told us the honest truth about Jesus." [Vatican II, Dei Verbum,19]
The four Gospels that have been handed on to us are:
THE CREED: OUR BELIEF IN A NUTSHELL
During the early days of Christianity, people moved about freely and no one had access to Google; there was no Google, no computers, no electricity. There were no handbooks on the Faith, no catechisms yet. So the main points of belief had to be summarised in compact form such that Christians could commit them to memory and have the basic tenets of their belief within easy reach. If someone asked them what their new-found religion was all about, they could explain it briefly to whoever was willing to hear.
Most of those receiving baptism were adults, so it was necessary that they understood the consequences of embracing Christianity. The most basic of these declarations of what Christians believe in is the Apostles' Creed.
THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS AND THE APOLOGISTS (DEFENDERS OF THE FAITH)
The successors of Peter and the apostles, together with some educated Christians, explained by word of mouth and in writing the contents of the Faith, especially the words of Sacred Scripture. This explanation is what we call Sacred Tradition. Pope Benedict XVI explained on 26 April 2006:
Tradition is not the transmission of things or words, a collection of dead things. Tradition is the living river that unites us to the origins, the living river in which the origins are always present, the great river that leads us to the port of eternity. In this living river, the word of the Lord that we heard at the beginning from the lips of the reader: "And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age" is fulfilled again (Matthew 28:20).
On 3 May 2006, the Holy Father continued to expound on Sacred Tradition and said:
In the living river of Tradition, Christ is not separated from us by 2,000 years of distance, but is really present among us and gives us Truth, gives us Light and makes us live and find the Way to the future.
What are the APOSTOLIC FATHERS?
"Apostolic Fathers" is the name given to a certain number of writers or writings (several of which are anonymous) dating from the end of the first or from the first half of the second century. The name has been selected because the authors are supposed to have known the Apostles and also because their works represent a teaching derived immediately, or almost immediately, from the Apostles. These writings are, indeed, a continuation of the Gospels and of Apostolic literature. [See Handbook of Patrology for more details.]
Who are the APOSTOLIC FATHERS?
ST CLEMENT (+c97). He was the third successor of St Peter, and author of the letter from the church of Rome to the church of Corinth (appropriately called Clement's First Letter)
ST IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH (c 50-107). He was Bishop of Antioch (remember also that St Peter was the first bishop in Antioch, before he went to Rome). Tradition tells us that Ignatius was a disciple of St John. He authored seven letters (Ephesians, Magnesians, Trallians, Romans, Philadelphians, Smyrnaeans, and Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna)
ST POLYCARP (69-155). He was a bishop of Smyrna and, like Ignatius, a disciple of St John. He wrote a letter to the Philippians.
AUTHOR OF THE DIDACHE ("Teachings" c 2nd century). The Didache (complete name: "Teaching of the Twelve Apostles") was a Church manual and liturgical document. It was discovered in 1873. The prayer that the priest says during the Offertory is taken directly from here ("Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation....")
AUTHOR OF THE EPISTLE OF BARNABAS
Read Pope Benedict XVI's discourses on the Apostolic Fathers.
See also the article in the Catholic Encyclopedia Online on the Apostolic Fathers.
What are the APOLOGISTS?
The name "Apologists" is given to a group of writers—more especially of the second century—who aimed to defend the Christians from the accusations brought against them, to obtain for them tolerance under the civil laws, and to demonstrate to their persecutors that the Christian religion is the only true one. [See Handbook of Patrology for more details.]
Who are the APOLOGISTS?
ST JUSTIN MARTYR (100-165). He was a layman. There are two Apologies bearing his name.
ST IRENAEUS (130-202). He was the Bishop of Lyons and wrote Against Heresies.
ST CYPRIAN (210-258). He was the Bishop of Carthage. He opposed the Novatian heresy.
CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA (150-215). He was the head of the catechetical school at Alexandria. He used Greek philosophy to explain the Faith, together with Origen.
ORIGEN (185-254)
TERTULLIAN (160-230). He is the first major theologian to write in Latin and use the term "Trinity".
Read the Holy Father's discourses on the Apologists.
Take a look as well at the article in the Catholic Encyclopedia Online on "Apologetics".
CONSTANTINE AND THE EDICT OF MILAN (313)
In the famous battle for Rome in the Milvian Bridge (312), Constantine won over his rival claimant. It was he who finally granted Christians the freedom to practice their Faith. (Note that he did not make Christianity the official religion. It was another emperor, Emperor Theodosius, who would do this 68 years later.)
Constantine passed laws that favoured Christians. He set aside Sunday as a day of rest. As the Christians were growing in number, he built large places of worship. The Christians were also able to take over the use of temples of other beliefs. An example of this is the Pantheon in Rome, where previously Roman gods were worshipped.
Constantine donated his own residence, the Lateran Palace, to the Church. This became the residence of the Pope until 1309, when the Pope moved to Avignon. He also built the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, which is the cathedral church of the diocese of Rome.
Constantine wanted to make a "New Rome" in the East, and created the imperial capital in Greek-speaking Byzantium, which he renamed Constantinople. This political move would later affect the history of the Church and would pave the way for the separation of the Eastern churches in 1054.
THE CATECHUMENATE AND INFANT BAPTISM
As the number of people who wanted to convert to the new faith increased, and with the experience of persons who fell away during the persecutions, the Church instituted the catechumenate, by which those aspiring to be baptised were gradually prepared.
The practice of baptising infants also grew, as Christian parents wished their children to enjoy the benefits of the Faith at a young age. As more and more people were baptised in their infancy or childhood, there were naturally fewer adult people to be prepared for baptism. Thus the catechumenate also declined.
The Second Vatican Council would bring back the catechumenate and since 1988, the Rite of Christian Initiation (RCIA) is followed in the parishes to prepare adults for baptism.
THE SACRIFICE OF CALVARY PERPETUATED IN THE BREAKING OF THE BREAD
Jesus commanded His apostles to continue offering His Body and Blood (Luke 22:19; I Corinthians 11:24-25) and the first Christians faithfully celebrated the "Breaking of the Bread" (Acts 2:42).
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (no 1345) quotes an ancient text that describes the way the Mass was celebrated. It shows that the same basic structure remains to our time.
As early as the second century we have the witness of St. Justin Martyr for the basic lines of the order of the Eucharistic celebration. They have stayed the same until our own day for all the great liturgical families. St. Justin wrote to the pagan emperor Antoninus Pius (138-161) around the year 155, explaining what Christians did:
On the day we call the day of the sun, all who dwell in the city or country gather in the same place. The memoirs of the apostles and the writings of the prophets are read, as much as time permits. When the reader has finished, he who presides over those gathered admonishes and challenges them to imitate these beautiful things. Then we all rise together and offer prayers for ourselves . . .and for all others, wherever they may be, so that we may be found righteous by our life and actions, and faithful to the commandments, so as to obtain eternal salvation. When the prayers are concluded we exchange the kiss.
Then someone brings bread and a cup of water and wine mixed together to him who presides over the brethren. He takes them and offers praise and glory to the Father of the universe, through the name of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and for a considerable time he gives thanks (in Greek: eucharistian) that we have been judged worthy of these gifts. When he has concluded the prayers and thanksgivings, all present give voice to an acclamation by saying: 'Amen.' When he who presides has given thanks and the people have responded, those whom we call deacons give to those present the "eucharisted" bread, wine and water and take them to those who are absent.
Read this article in the Catholic Encyclopedia Online on the history of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
THE TWO GREATEST MYSTERIES AND ATTEMPTS AT UNDERSTANDING THEM
The two greatest mysteries of our Faith are the Blessed Trinity and the Incarnation of the Son of God. The fact that they are mysteries does not mean that we cannot use our mind to try to understand them. From the very beginning, Christians strove to deepen in their understanding of the truths of Faith. It is to be expected that the endeavour to understand the mysteries of Faith will lead to inaccuracies and errors. In the early years of the Church, there were yet no clear-cut definition of terms and concepts used.
We have, therefore, two kinds of errors or heresies: Trinitarian and Christological.
TRINITARIAN heresies were an attempt to explain how there could be three Persons and yet only one God. These heresies (Monarchianism, Modalism or Sabellianism; Subordinationism; Adoptionism; Arianism; and Macedonianism) denied the divine nature of one or both the other Persons. These errors were checked in the First Council of Nicea (325 AD) and the First Council of Constantinople (381 AD).
CHRISTOLOGICAL heresies, on the other hand, denied either that Jesus Christ is two persons (Nestorianism, which also meant that Mary cannot be the Mother of God); or that he has only one nature--a divine one which absorbed the human one (Monophysitism); or that he is not God but only a creature (Arianism). Nestorianism was refuted in the Council of Ephesus (431 AD); Monophysitism in the Council of Chalcedon (451 AD); and Arianism in the First Council of Nicea (325 AD).
BEGINNINGS OF MONASTICISM
After Constantine granted Christians the freedom to worship, some of them found other ways of living their faith. A few chose to live alone as hermits who devoted their EREMETIC life to prayer and sacrifice. Some of these banded together to form communities: the CENOBITIC way of life.
SOME OUTSTANDING SAINTS OF THE PERIOD
ST JEROME (340-420). He was a monk and a biblical scholar. He was the secretary to Pope Damasus. He translated the Bible from Greek to Latin. This Latin version is called the "Vulgate". [Click here to read more about Saint Jerome.]
ST AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO (354-430). He converted from a sinful life and came to be the bishop of Hippo in northern Africa. He becomes a staunch defender of the faith. [Click here to read more about Saint Augustine of Hippo.]
POPE ST LEO THE GREAT (440-461). During Pope Leo's reign, the Roman empire began to disintegrate. He had an important role to play as the Eastern churches argue that the authority of the bishop of Rome is not above that of other bishops. Leo is the first Pope to be buried in Saint Peter's in 461 AD. [Read what Pope Benedict XVI says about Pope St Leo the Great.] [Click here to read more about Pope Leo the Great.]