of Judea, an unimportant backwater in the imperial system. It was a place of frequent violence and home to a group of people who, unique in the Empire, were allowed to worship their one God. If asked, no one alive at the time would have thought that a motley collection of “nobodies” could lead a cultural and religious revolution that would change the Empire and sweep the world. In the first century A.D., a document known as the Acts of Caesar Augustus was published in order to honor the emperor and encourage others to imitate his virtues.2 In the same century, a physician named Luke wrote another document with a similar title. It recorded the actions of a band of brothers — witnesses to the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit — who spread his Good News throughout the world and provided a blueprint of life in the new kingdom.
A Replacement for the Betrayer
Peter and the other apostles knew that in the new kingdom they were not merely witnesses to the deeds of Jesus — they were also endowed with authority as representatives of Christ. The college of apostles had been incomplete since the death of Judas the betrayer. Someone was needed to restore the college to its fullness and take Judas’s place. The Eleven, recognizing their office as not merely organizational but also priestly,3 cast lots in accordance with the Davidic custom, where priestly duties were assigned by lot. The lot fell on Matthias, who had been one of the earliest disciples of Jesus. The college was now complete, and the apostles waited the promised sending of the Spirit.
Pentecost — Birthday of the Church
Under the Old Covenant, the feast of Pentecost celebrated the giving of the Law by God to the Jewish people through Moses (the Torah) fifty days after the first Passover. Ten days after Jesus ascended into heaven (fifty after his resurrection) a group of 120 disciples, including the apostles and the Blessed Mother, gathered in Jerusalem. We know the story from the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles: they heard a mighty wind and were shocked when tongues of fire descended on them. They began speaking in other languages. This event alludes to the Tower of Babel in the Old Testament, when human communication was garbled because of mankind’s sinfulness. But now, in the New Covenant, God restored the community of humanity in a shared language of the Gospel in the Church.4 Tradition holds that the event took place in the Upper Room where Jesus and the apostles celebrated the Last Supper; however, an alternative theory proposes that the location was actually the Temple.5 Filled with the Spirit, the apostles began preaching, which the assembled diverse crowd heard in their own native languages. This miracle captured the attention of the crowd, and Peter began the Church’s evangelization efforts by proclaiming Jesus Christ crucified, died, and resurrected. After hearing Peter’s testimony, the people asked him what they should do. He invited them to repent and be baptized. The Acts of the Apostles records that three thousand souls were added to the membership of the Church on the day of Pentecost.6
The First Martyrs
As the Christian family grew in numbers, so did the pastoral needs of the community. The apostles knew their own chief mission was preaching, so they ordained seven men “full of the Spirit and of wisdom” to serve the needs of the community as deacons.7 Stephen, one of the seven, was later arrested by the Jewish authorities for allegedly teaching against Moses — that is, the Law — and the Temple. Brought before the high priest and the Sanhedrin, Stephen presented a catechesis of Christ, illustrating that “the mystery of the Cross stands at the center of the history of salvation as recounted in the Old Testament … that Jesus, Crucified and Risen, is truly the goal of all this history.”8 Enraged by Stephen’s testimony, the assembly rushed him outside the city and stoned him, while a man named Saul watched over their garments. Saint Stephen, the first martyr of the Church, forgave his attackers before he died.
The first apostle to give the ultimate witness of love for Christ and the Church was Saint James the Greater, the son of Zebedee and brother of Saint John the Beloved. The Roman Emperor Claudius (r. A.D. 41–54) made Herod Agrippa (r. A.D. 41–44), king of the Jews; shortly thereafter, Herod began a persecution of the Church in Jerusalem in order to quash a movement that reverenced a different King. He ordered the beheading of James and the imprisonment of Peter, who was miraculously freed.9 Tradition holds that before his martyrdom in Jerusalem, James embarked on a missionary journey to the far reaches of the western Mediterranean and brought the Gospel to the shores of the Roman province of Hispania. Tradition further attests that after his death in Judea, the relics of James were miraculously translated to Spain, where they were discovered in the ninth century. Eventually, a grand cathedral arose at the spot, known as Santiago de Compostela, which has remained a popular pilgrimage destination since the Middle Ages.10
The Spread of the Gospel
Jesus Christ never intended his saving message to remain only in the Roman province of Judea. Motivated by the command of Christ and emboldened by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the apostles left Jerusalem to spread the Gospel into the world.11 Amazingly, these men traveled not only throughout the expansive Roman Empire, which had organized the known world and provided well-kept roads for travelers, but also beyond its borders. Tradition holds that John the Beloved traveled throughout Asia Minor, Andrew preached in Greece and modern-day Ukraine, Bartholomew went south to Arabia and perhaps India as well, Jude made his way to Mesopotamia and perhaps Armenia and Iran, Matthew may have traveled to Ethiopia, Philip journeyed to Asia Minor, Simon trekked to Iran, and Thomas spread the Good News in southern Iran and India.12 Although it is interesting to note how far the apostles traveled, and to imagine the hardships they endured for love of Christ, it is vital for us to focus on what they did: preach. Their preaching was not to spread an idea or philosophy, since the Christian faith is neither of those things; rather, they gave witness to the person of Jesus. The Christian faith is ultimately the belief in the person of Jesus Christ and the modification of one’s life to reflect his teachings. The apostles, Christ’s closest friends on earth, concentrated on telling as many people as possible about the God-man whom they knew and loved.
The Greatest Missionary
When we read the Scriptures, we notice repeated examples of God taking the seemingly insignificant and endowing it with great significance, or taking the weak to humble the strong, or asking the unlikely to undergo a great mission. One of the best examples of that divine strategy is the calling of Saint Paul as the Church’s greatest missionary.
Saul, a Pharisee, was a zealous defender of the Jewish faith. Born in the city of Tarsus in the southeast corner of Asia Minor, Saul was well-educated, spoke Greek and Hebrew, and held Roman citizenship. Saul, filled with zeal to crush the blaspheming (in his eyes) followers of Jesus, was given the mission by the high priest to persecute Christians in Damascus, a city in Syria with a sizable Jewish population. So, Saul embarked on a journey to Damascus where, along the way, as we read in Acts, he encountered the Lord in a dramatic and shocking way. Profoundly changed by this encounter, Saul transformed from persecutor to missionary, and over the rest of his life he suffered for the Faith with repeated imprisonments, floggings, beatings, shipwrecks, and stoning.13 Ultimately, he made three missionary journeys to strategic centers of Roman rule, preaching first to the Jewish communities and, after rejection by the Jews, focusing on the Gentiles.14
Saul’s first missionary journey took place on the island of Cyprus, where he also changed his name to Paul. In the ancient world, Jews frequently had Greek names along with their given Jewish names. Saul’s name was similar to the Greek saulos, a derogatory word for the way prostitutes walk.15 Recognizing that his Jewish name might pose difficulties in preaching to the Gentiles, Saul changed his name to Paul, perhaps in honor of the Roman governor of Cyprus, Sergius Paulus, who converted as a result of Paul’s preaching.16 Paul’s second missionary journey encompassed several locations, including Galatia, Philippi, Thessalonica, and the city of Corinth, which had been initially established by Julius Caesar as a
