Is there anyone who has not, at some time, asked “How could that happen?
A professor once asked…
“How many Christians do you think there were in the year 100?”
He then asked…
“How many Christians do you think there were just before the end of the persecutions and the beginning the Church’s recognition by the state around the year 310?”
The facts…
Around the year 100 there were some 25,000 Christians. Some 200 years and many persecutions later they numbered some 20,000,000.
How many of you got anywhere near the facts?
The professor then asked the question that has haunted author Alan Hirsch to this day: “How did they do this? How did they grow from being a small movement to the most significant religious force in the Roman Empire in two centuries?”
Consider a more modern experience in China
Some 50 years ago there were some 2 million Christians. (Behind this fact is a little-known story of the impact of Pere Lebbe, CM. He is revered by many as the modern version of the great missionary Francis Xavier.)
Subsequently, a “Cultural Revolution” explicitly aimed to obliterate Christianity (and all religion) from China.
It led to one of the cruelest persecutions of Christians on historical record. Yet today there are some 45 miliion Christians.
Keep in mind that, not unlike the early church, these people had very few Bibles. At times they shared only one page to a house church and then swapped that page with another household.
All this growth should not have happened!
Today we must ask… How could all this have happened?
Before you respond, here are some important things to keep in mind. (The following is taken from The Forgotten Ways, a book by Alan Hirsch dedicated to exploring dimensions of church renewal.)
• They were an illegal religion throughout this period.At best, they were tolerated; at the very worst they were very severely persecuted.
• They didn’t have any church buildings as we know them. While archaeologists have discovered chapels dating from this period, they were definitely exceptions to the rule, and they tended to be “house” churches.
• They didn’t even have the scriptures as we know them.They were putting the canon together during this period.
• They didn’t have an institution or the professional form of leadership normally associated with it. At times of relative calm, prototypical elements of institution did appear, but by what we consider institutional, these were at best pre-institutional.
• They didn’t have seeker-sensitive services, youth groups, worship bands, seminaries, commentaries, etc.
• They actually made it hard to join the church. By the late second century, aspiring converts had to undergo a significant initiation period to prove they were worthy.
It is worthwhile reflecting on this in light of the many restrictions we face at the height of the Covid Quarantines.
How do you explain this… and implications for today
Hirsch offers a hint about why he titled this book The Forgotten Ways. He believes that “all God’s people carry within themselves the same potencies that energized the early Christian movement and that are currently manifest in the underground Chinese church”.
Secret ingredients?
- What are these “forgotten” potencies?
- What is missing in our understanding and living as church today?
- How do you think Pope Francis is trying to encourage us to rediscover the dyanmism of the Gospel?
Interesting mind-walk. Thank you.
From my “modern” perspective, there seems to be a disconnect in two of those concepts:
“significant initiation period” and “they didn’t have an institution.” We now have an overabundance of one (institution) and seemingly smaller involvement in the other (initiation). We use that overabundance of institution to force the initiation process, almost to a fault. Since Vatican II, we spend more time on the process of initiation, but I’m not sure it is always involving the right people in that process.
As a “potency,” I see love captivating two people in ways that they don’t always understand. How love grows (or dies) is whether it occurred freely and how the pair encouraged its development. With a parent-child, there are biological bonds that encourage emotional bonds; with marital relationships, there is a whole complicated bundle of things that make it work (or not); with co-workers, it’s often shared ideals or experience; with friends, it’s enjoying the same things together.
Jerry Seinfeld does a comic bit about sports fans – their teams sometimes leave the original city and most teams are regularly changing players and coaching staff, so why do people continue to root for them? Jerry’s answers: the uniforms. When it comes down to it, people are rooting for “clothes.”
While Seinfeld wrote that for comedic effect, there are some kernels of wisdom in it. So often, our initial identifying with someone is on a superficial level. Only after we begin recognizing ourselves in the Other, the bond starts to build and often becomes contagious (“I want more”). The more we recognize how it makes us feel, the more attractive it becomes.
As you and Pope Francis regularly point out, love (or faith) only grows when people recognize and appreciate the connections they have with one another – how each of us is a part of the Other’s life. While relationships begin on a physical or biological level, they take on an emotional and spiritual similarity as they progress.
That’s my take on how we grow the Church. “See how they love one another.”
Thanks, Larry Huber, for writing:
“As you and Pope Francis regularly point out, love (or faith) only grows when people recognize and appreciate the connections they have with one another – how each of us is a part of the Other’s life.”
Having recently spent time in the Acadiana and Southwest regions of Louisiana, which has endured the downturn in the oil and gas industry (vital to the economy), the impact of COVID, and TWO devastating hurricanes, I’ve witnessed – and am – witnessing – just how important it is to be “part of the Other’s life.”
It is the only way these incredible people are and will survive.
If y’all like, I can share some recent research I’ve done and made into a PPT on how the Diocese of Lake Charles, LA is handling its rebuilding – the challenge is overwhelming! It’s a concrete way to show why Pope Francis’ words are right on target.
Please let me know and I will be happy to share.
Thanks, Connie Anderson, Baton Rouge, La
I’ve been asking myself a similar question in view of the upcoming Easter seasons’ liturgical readings.
And, yes, it turns out the disciples are convincing and amazing eyewitnesses of Jesus’ majesty (2 Pt 1, 16). For soon some three thousand believe them. Then, more than five thousand. And even Gentiles, like Cornelius, come to believe, too.
How do they do it?
The simple answer is: all is due to God’s grace and Spirit. He chooses, yes, those without learning to baffle the learned (Acts 4, 13; 1 Cor 1, 27). He makes their witness striking.
The challenging and not so simple answer is that the disciples, in turn, give God no reason to reject them. They are not two-faced, as is the one who boasts before God that he is just while he scorns the neighbor (Lk 18, 11-12). Rather, they show true care for the good of others.
They show, too, that they are weak and need God. To lock themselves in a house for fear is a way, though unconscious, of saying they are weak. And since they pray, they make clear that they need God to help them.
And as they go along with God’s help, he gives these lowly witnesses grace and shows them the way (Jas 4, 6; 1 Pt 5, 5; Ps 25, 9; 138, 6; Prov 3, 34). Hence, the disciples also see God’s will and beat their prejudices. Thus, they find out, too, the meaning of what meets the eye; they seek what is above.
God, besides, makes them meek and bold preachers who will obey God than men. Theirs, too, are self-discipline and zeal. For they are happy to suffer for Jesus.
The five characteristic virtues are, no doubt, quite crucial.