Third Sunday after Pascha. Sunday of the Myrrh-Bearing Women. The Holy Prophet Jeremiah (625-585 BC); Coronation of Pochaiv Icon of the Mother of God (1773); Passing into Eternal Life (1951) of Blessed Klymentii (Clement) Sheptytsky, Archimandrite of the Studites and Confessor
Acts 6:1-7; Mark 15:43-16:8
Read Acts 6:1-7
Christ is risen! Truly, He is risen!
The first threat to the unity of the Church was not theological, it was relational and filled with volatile emotion. Few things will get people’s back up more than their widowed mothers being slighted and, to add fuel to the fire, there were cultural differences on top of that.
The “Hellenists” were Greek-speaking Jews who were Christians; the “Hebrews” were Aramaic-speaking Jews who were Christians. The Hellenists were “murmuring” because their widows were overlooked in the Church’s distribution of food to the needy. “Murmuring” is a loaded word in the Bible. It is what the Israelites did to Moses in the wilderness. St. Luke uses the term to highlight the seriousness of the matter: this was a job for the Apostles to handle. Their calling was clear – prayer and the ministry of the word – so they instituted the deaconate. Note that they employed the discernment of the lay faithful in the process.
The criteria for the diaconate included being “full” of the Holy Spirit. This is not the same term as being “filled”, as with a charism, it means that the person’s character had become permeated by the Holy Spirit – such a person is truly spiritual.
Note that all the names of those chosen are Greek and that the result was a profound spreading of the gospel among the Hebrews. This result had been at severe risk in this matter. The lessons for us are: 1. to be increasingly full of the Holy Spirit, 2. to serve the apostolic ministry of prayer and the Word of God, and 3. to handle our relationships with each other with wisdom and grace.