Companions Of Jesus

• 8 years ago

By JAMES DRUMMEY

Part 1

(Editor’s Note: Below is a talk given by James Drummey, editor of the Catholic Replies column, at a retreat in Vermont, June 11, 2016. We are publishing his talk in two parts because of its length.)

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Of all the 73 books in the Bible, only one — the Acts of the Apostles — describes the early history of the Church, beginning with the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven in AD 30 and ending with St. Paul in prison in Rome around AD 62.

We know from other sources, and from Sacred Tradition, that Paul was beheaded in Rome, and Peter was crucified there upside down sometime during the persecution of the Emperor Nero between AD 64, when Nero set fire to Rome and blamed it on the Christians, and 68, when his brutal reign ended with his death. The reason Paul was not crucified was that he was a Roman citizen, and no Roman citizen could be executed in that way. So Paul was beheaded.

How brutal was the persecution of Nero? The Roman historian Tacitus said that Nero “inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace.” He said that Christians were covered with the skins of beasts and torn to pieces by dogs, or nailed to crosses, or tied to poles, covered with pitch, and set on fire to provide illumination for Nero’s nightly orgies.

Tacitus said that “even for criminals who deserved extreme and exemplary punishment, there arose a feeling of compassion; for it was not, as it seemed, for the public good, but to glut one man’s cruelty, that they were being destroyed.”

Not unlike today when Christians by the hundreds of thousands are being cruelly tortured and killed by Islamic fanatics because they refuse to worship Allah.

Returning to the Acts of the Apostles, the key event in that book is the Coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. Recall that the apostles were hiding in the Upper Room in Jerusalem, the same room where the Last Supper had been held, out of fear for their lives when “suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues” (Acts 2:2-4).

The sound was heard outside the house and soon a crowd had gathered. They were amazed because each person, no matter what part of the world he was from, heard the apostles speaking in his own language. “Are not all of these people who are speaking Galileans?” they asked. “Then how does each of us hear them in his own native language?” (Acts 2:7-8).

Some in the crowd scoffed that the apostles had had too much wine to drink, but Peter told them later that was not true because it was only nine o’clock in the morning.

Then something even more amazing happened. Peter, who only 52 days before this had three times denied that he even knew Jesus, now came out of the house and delivered a powerful sermon. He attested with quotations from the Old Testament that this Jesus whom they had crucified was in fact both Lord and Messiah. He said that God had raised Jesus up from death “because it was impossible for him to be held by it” (Acts 2:22-24).

“What are we to do?” those in the crowd asked, and Peter said, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:27-38).

The apostles on that day received the seven gifts of Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge, Counsel, Fortitude, Piety, and Fear of the Lord. These gifts of the Holy Spirit changed a group of fearful and confused men into brave and bold missionaries for Jesus. The Spirit will do the same for us if we are open to His gifts and put them into practice in our lives.

While preparing my tenth graders for their Confirmation on April 22, I told them that the Holy Spirit would be in St. Stephen Church that night, but that it was up to them whether to accept the seven gifts or not. A couple of days after the ceremony, one sponsor told me that her candidate was in tears afterward because he had actually felt the Holy Spirit putting His arms around him during the ceremony.

After Peter’s rousing sermon on Pentecost, 3,000 people asked to be baptized into the new Church that day. Only through the power of the Holy Spirit could Peter have proclaimed the Lord so convincingly.

We’ve read that passage many times, but have you ever thought about the logistics of the event? Each of the 12 apostles had to baptize about 250 people in one day, and where was the water to do it? They didn’t pour water on the people’s heads, as we do today; they dunked people in a river or a pool, and they did all this in one day! Imagine that!

When this amazing event came to the attention of the religious leaders in Jerusalem, they had Peter and John arrested and brought before the same Council that had sentenced Jesus to death. In chapter 4 of Acts (4:13), it says that the Council recognized Peter and John as “companions of Jesus.”

What did it mean to be a “companion of Jesus”? For Peter and John, it meant boldly proclaiming that Jesus was God, that He had risen from the dead, and that “there is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved.”

When the Council threatened them with punishment if they didn’t stop speaking the name of Jesus, Peter said that “it is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard.” The Council sent them away on that occasion with no punishment because the people were all praising God for the signs they were performing.

Not long after that, in chapter 5 of Acts, the Council had the apostles arrested again and put in jail, but an angel freed them during the night and, the following morning, they were back preaching in the Temple area. When the High Priest convened the Council that day and sent for the apostles, the court officers reported back that they had found the jail securely locked and guards stationed outside the doors, but the prisoners were gone.

Then someone said they were in the Temple area, so the officers went and brought them before the Council, which told them again to stop teaching about Jesus. But Peter and the Apostles made a statement that should apply to us today as well, namely, that “we must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).

Then another very interesting thing happened. One member of the Council, a highly respected Pharisee named Gamaliel, ordered the apostles to be put outside for a moment. This was the same Gamaliel who had trained Paul, when he was Saul, to be a Pharisee.

“Be careful what you are about to do to these men,” Gamaliel warned his colleagues. He said that other leaders had sprung up in Israel in the past, but when they were killed, their movements fell apart.

So in the case of Jesus and His followers, Gamaliel said, “have nothing to do with these men, and let them go. For if this endeavor or this activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself. But if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them; you may even find yourself fighting against God” (Acts 5:38-39).

From the perspective of 2,000 years, we can see that this was good advice, but the apostles, and their successors, continued to spread the Gospel message and the Church they started is still flourishing today, having overcome all obstacles, both from within and without, down through the centuries. And it will continue to survive because Jesus promised that He would be with His Church “until the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20).

There was a movie in the theaters recently called Risen. It’s about a Roman soldier who is given the job of finding the body of Jesus. Our Lord’s enemies, you see, didn’t believe He had risen from the dead. They thought His body was hidden somewhere and, if they could only find it, they could discredit this new Christian Church.

They must have searched high and low, but they never did find the body because Jesus had risen and returned to Heaven. That’s why the Resurrection of Jesus is the most important event in all human history.

Bishop Wojtyla

In the 2,000 years since the Resurrection and the Coming of the Holy Spirit, millions of people have risked their lives and their reputations to be known as “companions of Jesus.”

One of my favorites is St. Ignatius of Antioch, who died around AD 107 and who was the first person to use the words “Catholic Church.” Tradition has it that Ignatius was the little child who was placed in the arms of Jesus (cf. Matt. 18:2-5). He was the bishop of Antioch when he was arrested and force-marched to Rome for execution.

While on the way, this man in his 80s wrote seven letters to the faithful. In his letter to the Smyrnaeans, Ignatius wrote that “wheresoever the bishop shall appear, there let the people be, even as where Jesus may be, there is the Catholic Church.”

Another favorite saint is Padre Pio, who died in Italy in 1968. He was famous for his battles with the Devil, for his ability to read the minds of penitents in Confession, and for bearing the stigmata, the marks of Jesus, on his hands and feet for 50 years.

He played a key role in the life of a Polish physician named Wanda Poltawska, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 1962. She told her bishop, whose name was Karol Wojtyla, to pray for her. He was on his way to the Second Vatican Council in Rome, and he promised to keep her in his prayers.

When Dr. Poltawska went back to her doctor a short time later, she was startled to hear that the cancer had vanished. Being a doctor herself, she knew that the original diagnosis was correct, but the cancer was gone. When her bishop returned from Rome, she told him the good news and thanked him for his prayers. Bishop Wojtyla said that the credit belonged not to him but to a priest in Italy named Padre Pio, whose prayers the bishop had sought.

Dr. Poltawska had never heard of Padre Pio, but when she went to Rome a few years later to attend a medical conference, she took a side trip to the monastery where Padre Pio lived and asked to see him. A priest told her that Fr. Pio would be celebrating Mass at 6:00 a.m. the following day and, if she came an hour early, he would get her a seat in the church. So she arrived early the next morning and attended the Mass, which took a couple of hours because of the devotion of Padre Pio.

After the Mass was over, Padre Pio was making his way out of the church when he stopped and looked toward the place where Dr. Poltawska was standing. The crowd parted so he could look directly at her, and he said, “Are you well now?”

Unknown Saints

There’s a story about two brothers who were arrested for stealing sheep. Their punishment was to have the letters “ST” tattooed on their foreheads, and everywhere they went they were to tell anyone who asked that the letters stood for “Sheep Thief.” One of the brothers found this so humiliating that he committed suicide a few years later.

The other brother, however, reasoned that he deserved to have those letters on his forehead, and he resolved to make up for his crime by living a good and virtuous life.

Many years later, a stranger in town saw the surviving brother walking down the street and asked one of the locals what the “ST” stood for. “I’m not sure,” the man said. “It happened a long time ago, but I think the letters mean ‘saint’.”

I saw a poem in the Magnificat magazine the other day that talks not about famous saints familiar to all of us, but rather about unknown saints. The poem goes like this:

“We sing for all the unsung saints,/ that countless, nameless throng,/ who kept the faith and passed it on/ with hope steadfast and strong/ through all the daily griefs and joys/ no chronicles record/ forgetful of their lack of fame,/ but mindful of their Lord.

“So we take heart from unknown saints/ bereft of earthly fame,/ those faithful ones who have received/ a more enduring name: /for they reveal true blessing comes/ when we our pride efface/ and offer back our lives to be/ the vessels of God’s grace.”