THE MIRACULOUS SPREAD
OF THE GOSPEL MESSAGE
A reading from “Against the Pagans” by St John Chrysostom3
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It was…marvelous that these few ignorant, poor, undistinguished,
unlettered, worthless men of foreign tongue were entrusted with setting straight
the whole world. They were commissioned to lead the world to live a far more
difficult life and they did not accomplish this mission at a time of peace but
while countless wars were being stirred up against them from every side. And
this was the case in every nation and every city.
Did I say every nation and every city? In every home a war was fanned to
flame against them. For when their teaching entered a home, many a time it
split a son from his father, a bride from her mother-in-law, a brother from his
brother, a servant from his master, a subject from his ruler, a man from his wife,
a woman from her husband, and a father from his children. For everybody did
not all at once accept the faith. Their teaching was harassed by hatred every day
that passed; it stirred up one war after the other and brought death to more
people than you could count; it had people avoiding one another as if they were
common enemies and foes.
For everybody drove the apostles out. Emperors avoided them, as did
lesser rulers, common people, free and slave; whole peoples, entire cities
shunned them. Not only did they drive out the apostles but, what is worse, they
drove out those who were but newly fixed in their faith, those whom the apostles
had instructed. It was one and the same war which was waged against the
apostles and their disciples, because people saw that their teaching was opposed
to the edicts of their emperors and their ancestral ways and customs.
Even though the apostles told so harsh a story, they still won people over
to believe. This is how they built up the Church. How did they do it and by what
means? They did it through the power of Him who had commanded them to do
it. He made ready the way; he made all the hard things easy. If it were not the
power of God which accomplished this, the Church would not have had a
preface, much less a beginning.
How could all this be done? It was God who said: “Let there be heaven,”
and showed forth his work; it was God who said: “Let the earth be founded,”
and he produced its substance; it was God who said: “Let the sun shine,” and he
showed forth the star; it was God who caused all things to be. And it was the
same God who planted the Church. And that word: “I will build my Church” is
what produced all this. For this is the power of the words of God. They create
works which are wondrous beyond our expectation. God said: “Let the earth
produce the grassy plant,” and suddenly everything was a garden, everything
became a meadow; the earth heard God’s command and plumed itself with
plants beyond number. In the same way God later said: “I will build my
Church,” and this was done with the greatest of ease.
3 St. John Chrysostom, Apologist. Catholic University of America Press, 1983, pp. 242-243.7