The Holy Apostles Jason and Sosipater; the Holy Martyrs Dadas, Maximus and Quintilianus (286-305); Our Father among the Saints Cyril of Turau (1183)
Read
Acts 8:5-17; John 6:27-33
Christ is risen! Truly, He is risen!
While the Church of today is different in many respects to the early Church we hear about in the Acts of the Apostles, it is fascinating to read this epistle and see how the Church today continues a model of unity established in the early centuries after the Resurrection of Christ.
While Philip the deacon is the one who evangelizes Samaria first, we see how this new community is united to the Church in Jerusalem. The Church in Samaria is under the authority of and in communion with Jerusalem which is manifested in the sending of Peter and John to this new Christian community.
At every Divine Liturgy, we manifest the unity of our particular parish when we pray for our hierarchy. These prayers show how our parish is part of a greater whole: an Eparchy, a Particular Church, and the Universal Church. This unity is not something coincidental or an afterthought. No, rather it is part of the fabric of our faith and it manifests how connected we are to so many of our brothers and sisters in the Church.
We find ourselves in a time where we cannot gather as the Church; as the assembled people of God and manifest the visible unity of our parish in assembling. However, through the prayer in our homes, we are united to our brothers and sisters in Christ for we are not singular Christians: we are a unified community of communities and no pandemic can destroy the unity of the Body of Christ.