Theo300: Ecclesiology & Sacramentology
nd
S.Y. 2022-2023 2 Semester
PRELIMS
Preliminary Biblical Foundation of the Church
For Christians, the foundation of the Church can be dd
traced as early as the Old Testament time, and
vindicated in the person of Jesus Christ in the New
Testament. In this chapter, it is then imperative to
take a brief survey of the humble beginning of Israel
as a people, and their religious experiences that
ushered the fulfillment of God's promise of salvation
in the person of Jesus Christ, and a discussion on
the theological debate whether or not Jesus
intended to found a church.
1. Covenant between Yahweh and Abraham
The accounts of the Torah speak about the covenant
between God and Abraham.
Etymologically, the word covenant is derived from
the Hebrew word, berit, which refers to an
agreement, or a legal contract between kins.
When such concept is applied to Yahweh and
Abraham, it is understood to be more than a legal
contract or agreement because it is looked upon as
a basic relationship between these two covenant
partners. It is a sacred, irrevocable pact initiated by
Yahweh based on the following reciprocal
conditions, namely:
• that Yahweh shall give Abraham the land of
Canaan (Genesis 12:7, 15: 7,18, 17:8), the
promise of countless descendants (Genesis 15:
5, 17:2,4), and the assurance of Yahweh's
protection (Genesis 12: 2-3, 15:13-14, 17:7, the
liberation of the Hebrews as narrated in
the book of Exodus);¹ and
• that Abraham and his descendants shall
worship, and keep Yahweh as their only God.
(Genesis 17:8, Exodus 20: 2-6).
What motivated Yahweh to form the covenant?
Yahweh, out of his gratuitous, overflowing
BSN-3B Group no.1
Lesson 01
Date: 02/16/23
love, reached out to Abraham, and to all of Israel,
and even intended for the people a share of his
divine life in paradise from the very start of his
creation. Catholic tradition calls it grace-God's
selfoffering of Himself to man, God's gift of Himself
to man.
2. Covenant Renewed and Laws Given
But the promises were put to the test. In the Book of
Exodus, the new pharaoh turned the
Israelites into slaves and treated them with cruelty
and oppression.
Yet Yahweh heard the cry of his people, and
remained true to his word. He raised up a liberator
in the person of Moses to free his oppressed people
from slavery and led them to a land he promised to
Abraham and his descendants, a land flowing with
milk and honey-Canaan. What followed in that story
was Yahweh's unanimous victory over pharaoh and
his pantheon of gods, leading pharaoh to concede
his defeat and helplessness before the mighty and
powerful God of Moses. Thus, the defeated pharaoh
eventually issued a royal decree for the freedom of
the Hebrews, and their return to Canaan.
Exodus chapter 20 narrates the renewal of the
covenant. Such covenant was unique because the
God of Abraham directly entered into an agreement
with Israel, and elected her as his chosen people. In
return, Israel pledged its worship and loyalty to
Yahweh alone. Yahweh then gave them the Ten
Commandments or the Decalogue that would
govern and guide their way of life and the conduct of
their faith as individuals and as a people. Obviously,
Israel has grown more defined in its identity and
more organized and systematic in living out its duties
towards God as indicated by its laws and precepts.
Therefore, we can now say that Israel as God's
chosen
1
people evolved into an organized worshipping
assembly of Yahweh or Qahal Yahweh, guided by
fundamental laws, beliefs, and rituals.
3.Violation of the Covenant and its
Consequences
Despite God's goodness, the Israelites succumbed
to their own failures and unfaithfulness. There were
times that they resorted to the pagan worship of the
Canaanite gods - El, Baal, Asherah, Anat and
Astarte, in order to ensure a good harvest, or the
continuity of the gift of childbirth, or the hope of
divine protection. There were instances when
Israel's kings ordered the execution of the prophets
for openly condemning their political alliances,
personal abuses and religious compromises with
their pagan neighbors. There were also periods in
history when kings were assassinated in order to
advance personal interest and gain power. Such
was the grim scenario of violation and abomination
that Israel committed towards its own people and
towards Yahweh. But their violation and their
disobedience were paid with terrible consequences:
there was the separation of the Northern and
Southern kingdoms of Israel due to Solomon's
permission to the worship of pagan gods and the
imposition of heavy taxes and forced labor, the
series of invasions by their powerful pagan
neighbors (the Assyrians and the Babylonians), the
gradual decadence of Israel as a nation, and
ultimately, their exile to a foreign land, known as the
great Babylonian Exile.
3.Great Messianic Expectation
When everything that Israel could do was to turn
their back on Yahweh and grieve in guilt for the price
of their violation, Yahweh never gave up on them. In
Hosea 11: 8-9a, he revealed his great compassion,
and love for Israel:
How could I give you up, O Ephraim, or deliver you
up, O Israel? How could I treat you like Admah or
make you like Zeboiim? My heart is overwhelmed,
my pity is stirred. I will not give vent to my blazing
anger, I will not destroy Ephraim again, for I am God
and not man.
Who would have ever thought that such God
eradicated the punishment for violating the
BSN-3B Group no.1
condition of the covenant, and recoiled in his
compassion for love of his covenant partner, Israel,
who had fallen into sin. On the other hand, Israel,
reflecting its own history of sin and sacrilege towards
the sacred bond, started to pray and to hope for
divine intervention, for the "Deliverer" who would
restore the unity and fidelity of Israel to their God; for
the "Savior" who would redeem the fallen race from
sin; for the "Anointed/Chosen One" who would
restore the sacred covenant between Yahweh and
his people, and offer a lasting reign of peace,
prosperity and stability. Thus, the expectation of a
Savior, of a Messiah was born!
To this day, believers of Judaism await for the
coming of their Messiah. But for Christians, such
expectation was already realized and fulfilled in the
life and person of Jesus Christ; such broken
covenant was fully renewed by the passion, death
and resurrection of Jesus.
5. Relevance of the Covenant
It is imperative to ground our discussion of the
Church with the formation and experiences of Israel
as the covenant-partner of Yahweh based on the
following related points:
• that the nature of the covenant remains an
essential concept in understanding the
relationship between God and his people;
• that the idea of a religious assembly, Qahal
Yahweh, is based, first and foremost, on
God's gratuitous initiative to reach out to his
people;
• that Israel, like any community of faith, has to
freely respond on the basis of faith and
loyalty towards Yahweh aided by the
commandments, precepts and traditions
handed unto them; and
• that God renews his covenant unto us
through the life and person of Jesus Christ-
the ultimate realization and fulfillment of the
long-awaited Messiah
6. Did Jesus intend to establish a Church?
We shall now turn our attention to the New
Testament, and establish how Jesus Christ founded
the Church. But such is not an easy task because
varying ideas on whether or not Jesus
2
intended to establish a Church, an institution that will
carry his message and proclaim the salvific act He
had made for humanity invite every reader to
examine the grounds, merits and implications of
these arguments.
Below are a few of the dominant positions held
by Catholic theologians regarding the said
debate:
6.1 Hans Kung
In his book, The Church, Hans Kung laid down his
arguments pertaining to the question on the
foundation of the Church:
a. In the pre-Easter period, during his lifetime, Jesus
did not found a Church.
Jesus never required his followers, and even his
apostles to form an exclusive community, or
religious society. According to Kung, "the gospels do
not report any public announcement by Jesus of his
intention to found a Church or a new covenant or any
programmatic call to join a community of the elect."3
Instead, Jesus emphasized an "obedient
acceptance of his message of salvation and the
immediate and radical submission of the individual
to the will of God."
b. In the pre-Easter period, Jesus, by his preaching
and ministry, laid the foundations for the emergence
of a post-resurrection Church. Jesus, however, in his
message of the imminent reign of God confronted
men and women to a fundamental decision of "belief
or unbelief, obedience or disobedience" which
inevitably became "divisive" in the sense that those
who chose to believe and obey him became
"decisively distinguished from those who rejected it
[Jesus' message] as far as the coming reign of God
is concerned."
c. The Church has existed from the time of faith in
the resurrection. Kung explains: "As soon as men
gathered together in faith in the resurrection of the
crucified Jesus of Nazareth and in expectation of the
coming consummation of the reign of God and the
return of the risen Christ in glory, the Church came
into existence."
BSN-3B Group no.1
d. The origins of the Church do not lie solely in the
intention and the message of Jesus in the pre-Easter
period, but in the whole history of Jesus' life and
ministry: that is, in the entire action of God in Jesus
Christ.
From Jesus' birth to his death, from his resurrection
to the event of sending the Holy Spirit, God was so
lovingly active in and through Jesus that "those who
believed communally in the risen Jesus... could
claim to be the new eschatological people of God."
6.2 Adelbert Denaux
To think that Jesus explicitly made his intention of
founding a Church can hardly be supported by
explicit scriptural evidences. But to understand the
post-resurrection Church in relation to the pre-
Easter Jesus and his message is an essential way
of fostering fidelity to the Church's theological, social
and historical foundation.
Without a doubt, the pre-Easter Jesus was very clear
in his intention of gathering the whole people of
Israel in first century Palestine where religious
dissension and political chaos served as an
inseparable context. He preached God's universal,
imminent Lordship and urgently called everyone to
prepare, to repent as the new chosen people of God,
Jews and Gentiles, without any hint of dividing
people, or putting up a sectarian or alternative
community apart from the rest.
Placed within a particular place and context, the
disciples of Jesus accepted him and his message in
their own unique ways. We have the Twelve who
became part of his immediate circle.
Some followed him in his journey but others chose
to stay in their own towns and villages. Thus, the
time of Jesus' public ministry (when his disciples
group together as an assembly, an ekklesia) may be
said to be a prefiguration of the post-resurrection
institutional Church.
But there were oppositions against Jesus. The
authorities at that time threatened him, even
conspired for his death on the cross. Aware of the
threat, and opposition against him, Jesus
"integrates his approaching death into his
conception of God's lordship."
3
Adelbert Denaux further explains: truly came to unite dispersed humanity; he truly
came to unite the People of God."
At the same time he opens up a perspective on the
in-between-time between his death and his parousia
[Jesus' Second Coming]. Jesus word in Mk 14:25
Second, Jesus called and gathered a community of
that is transmitted in the context of the last supper
men to be his apostles (Mark 1:17, Mt 4:19). He
tradition indeed presupposes an interim period
deliberately chose and appointed the Twelve
between Jesus and the realized kingdom of God:
Apostles, 14 an action which "already reveals the
"Truly I tell you, I will never again drink of the fruit of
meaning of the prophetic-symbolic action implicit in
the vine until that day when I drink it new in the
the new initiative to re-establish the holy people. As
kingdom of God." Both these data are the conditions
the system of the 12 tribes had long since faded out,
of possibility in order that the disciples understand
the hope of Israel awaited their restoration as a sign
themselves after the resurrection experience as
of the eschatological time (as referred to at the end
"ekklesia," as the new "qahal YHWH." That the
of the Book of Ezekiel: 37:15-19; 39:23-29; 40-48). "
Church has finally come into existence as a
community of faith distinguished from Israel.
But it was with tension that the early Christian Third, the apostles, before Jesus ascended into
movement with their traditions, beliefs and heaven, was entrusted with the great mission of
celebrations centered on Jesus Christ gradually bringing the world into a community of faith and
came into being vis-à-vis the existing religious worship "all power in heaven and on earth has been
groups and institutions of first century Palestine. given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father,
Analogous to other Jewish groupings, the young
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them
Church experiences a tension between two givens:
to observe all that have commanded you. And
on the one hand, they claim to be the true Israel
behold, I am with you always, until the end of the
and to represent the entire people of God; on the
age."16 Jesus clearly indicated that he will be with
other hand, there is the unmistakable social
the apostles, who became our historical link as a
reality that they are increasingly going to form a
Church to the risen Christ, until the end of time. In
separate group within Israel.
addition to Ratzinger's arguments, a word of
Gradually this tension culminates in an actual split specialnmention is given on the primacy and role of
within the people of God, Israel: they go their Peter among the apostles as the head of the Church.
separate ways.
In Matthew 16:18- 20, we read:
Therefore, the foundation of the Church should not
And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this
essentially be viewed, and even judged in knowing
rock will build my church, and the gates
Jesus' explicit intention but in finding the essential
element of continuity from the preEaster Jesus to the of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will
post-Easter institutional Church, and the ongoing life give you the keys of the kingdom of
of the Church as pilgrims awaiting for his Second
Coming. heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound
on heaven; and whatever you loose
6.3 Pope Benedict XVI
on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, no less than the pope
emeritus of the Catholic Church, made the following It is interesting to note that it is only in the above text
points in supporting Jesus' intention of building a that Jesus explicitly mentioned the
community of faith, a church: word Church which is referred to in Greek as
First, Jesus clearly made his intention known to Ekklesia and links this Ekklesia headed by Peter with
restore a divided people, the lost people of Israel12 the Kingdom preached by Jesus.
(see Mt. 15:24). For Ratzinger, "the entire mission of
the Son-made-flesh has a communitarian finality. He
4
BSN-3B Group no.1
Finally, let us give our attention to the Holy Father's
word on the foundation of the Church:
We cannot have Jesus without the reality he created
and in which he communicates himself. Between the
Son of God-made-flesh and his Church there is a
profound, unbreakable and mysterious continuity by
which Christ is present today in his people. He is
always contemporary with us, he is always
contemporary with the Church."
7. Conclusion
It is intriguing to know how scholars and authorities
argue on their positions regarding Jesus' intention of
establishing the Church. But the discussion would
further become complicated, and perhaps,
confusing if we are to include perspectives of the
non-Catholics and non-Christians.
Depending on our bias and rational judgment, their
arguments and points may appeal to us in various
ways. Most likely, Catholics may have the greater
readiness to believe in what Pope Benedict XVI has
to say on the matter, knowing our conviction and
faith in the Lord Jesus. But we cannot rule out the
truth that there may be others who may choose to
suspend their judgment, and seek more answers to
their personal questions in order to satisfy their thirst
for the truth and to give peace to their restless
hearts.
As Catholics, we may be so convinced of the
continuity of the Church from the intention and action
of Jesus but the same Holy Spirit, who leads us to
such wisdom, calls us to be united with our brothers
and sisters amidst our differences, through our
attitude of respect and loving patience, especially to
those who oppose or challenge us in our belief and
in our faith.
Apostles and the Martyrs
Christian history is made by men and women
through their life and example of faith and love
in Jesus, even against the test of pain and death.
1. Apostles
BSN-3B Group no.1
After the resurrection of Jesus, the twelve apostles
were never the same again. They, who were hiding
in fear and uncertainty at the time of Jesus' arrest
and crucifixion, and were constantly struggling to
understand his person and mission, became
exemplars of courage and conviction to their faith in
the risen Christ.
Let us recall that in Mark 15:15-18, the apostles
were commissioned by Jesus in the following words:
Go into the world and preach the Gospel to the
whole creation. He who believes and is baptized will
be saved; but he who does not believe will be
condemned. And these signs will accompany those
who believe: in my name they will cast out demons;
they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up
serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not
hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and
they will recover.
And so the fire of the missionary spirit was lit up and
the heart of every apostle was consumed by this
irresistible calling to be sent, to preach, to heal, to
exorcise, and to baptize in the name of Jesus, their
Lord and Messiah. Their conviction was
immeasurable and their labor unsurpassable in
proclaiming the good news about Jesus, and in
bringing new converts to the faith.
In the Acts of the Apostles, Peter's speech on the
day of Pentecost still echoes with transforming fiery
Christian conviction:
Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth,
a man attested to you by God with mighty works and
wonders and signs which God did through him in
your midst, as you yourselves know-this Jesus,
delivered up according to the plan and
foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the
hands of lawless men. But God raised him up,
having loosed the pangs of death, because it was
not possible for him to be held by it. This Jesus God
raised up, and of that we are all witnesses. Being
therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and
having received from the Father the promise of the
Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which you see and
hear Let all the house of Israel therefore know that
God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus
whom you crucified (Acts 2:22-24, 32-33, 36).
Further in that account, the people who heard Peter
were moved, convinced, and converted.
5
Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart,
and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles,
"Brethren, what shall we do?" And Peter said to
them, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in
the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your
sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
For the promise is to you and to your children and to
all that are far off, every one whom the Lord our God
calls to him."...So those who received his word were
baptized, and there were added that day about three
thousand souls. And they devoted themselves to the
apostles' teachings and fellowship, to the breaking
of bread and the prayers.
Guided therefore by the apostles, the early
Christians followed "baptism" and the "breaking of
bread" as essential events of being Christians, aside
from the teachings, instructions and prayers taught
to them by the apostles. Not only that, the
restlessness to preach so captivated the hearts of
the disciples that they started on a missionary
journey even beyond the borders of Palestine, from
their home country to the far ends of the
Mediterranean world.
As a fruit of their toil, converts were not only won but
groups and communities were even built. Thus, the
apostles were credited to be responsible for the
establishment of various Churches in the ancient
Mediterranean world. Christian communities sprang
from the Jewish capital of Jerusalem to the capital of
the pagan Roman Empire.
2. Factors for the Early Expansion of
Christianity
Such massive expansion of Christianity, according
to Richard Cronin, SJ (1964), was reinforced by the
following factors:
a. Roman Empire. The Roman Empire, which
dominated Palestine at that time, made possible the
efficient preaching and spread of Christianity due to
the means of communication (Roman outposts),
transportation (messengers), infrastructure (roads),
and rule of law (order and security for missions).
b. Diaspora Jews. Thus, the apostles, who
were primarily Jews, and the early Christians on
mission may initially received hospitality and
accommodation from their fellow Jews in various
foreign places and cities.
BSN-3B Group no.1
C. Decay of Paganism. "Christianity was born when
paganism had grown tired and cynical of the
pantheon of gods and goddesses. Immorality and
vice had become part of the many religious rites
themselves.... Vice had twisted the human heart out
of shape, but the very disgust and exhaustion which
this caused created a desire for goodness and virtue
which helped prepare for Christianity."
3. Martyrs
Then there was a time that the life-giving conviction
of the early Christians that Jesus is the God-sent
Messiah faced its life- changing adversary-the test
of persecution and death. The Jewish authorities
initiated a religious persecution of the Christians who
were considered as "deifying" a condemned and
crucified criminal, Jesus. For them, the act of
worshipping a crucified person was an abhorrence
before God, equal to idolatry and blasphemy. Thus,
Stephen, the first Christian martyr, was put to trial
and later, stoned to death due to his refusal to
denounce his faith in Jesus.
Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him;
and the witnesses laid down their garments at the
feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were
stoning Stephen, he prayed, "Lord Jesus receive my
spirit." And he knelt down and cried with a loud voice,
"Lord, do not hold this sin against them," And when
he had said this, he fell asleep. And Saul was
consenting to his death (Acts 7:58-8:1).
Thus, a new era of the early Church unfolded-the
era of the Martyrs.
4. From Saul to Paul: A Story of Conversion
and Greatness
Being overly committed to his own conviction that
the Christians and their faith in Jesus as Lord and
Savior are abominations before the "God of
Abraham, Jacob and Isaac," Saul consented and
even carried out persecutions against them. Acts
9:1-2 reveals Saul's disgust for the Christians:
But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against
the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and
asked him for letters to the synagogue at Damascus,
so that if he found any belonging to the Way
6
[Christians], men or women, he might bring them
bound to Jerusalem
He then rushed and headed to Damascus with the
intention of bringing the Christians to trial for they
deserve to be punished, based on his personal
prejudice. He was chasing after the Christians but he
had no slightest idea that the risen Christ had
prepared for the greatest transformation of his life. In
Acts 9:3-9, we can only think and use our
imagination of the life- changing encounter between
the persecutor and the persecuted:
Now as he journeyed he approached Damascus,
and suddenly a light from heaven flashed out about
him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying
to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"
life. His letters have remained as great sources of
theological and pastoral teaching. The letters were
born from a necessity arising from a point of question
or dispute, like the question on the necessity of
circumcision for salvation, and the admission of
Gentiles in the Christian Church. These documents
clarify Christian practice, and contextualize theology
within the needs and circumstances of the people.
Paul's letters (also referred as the Pauline letters or
epistles) redefined the primacy of faith in Jesus over
the mere obedience of the law (e.g., on circumcision
of Gentiles), the necessity and glory of the
resurrection of Jesus and its message of hope to
Jesus' followers, and "to the pre-eminent place of
Christ in the total plan of God from creation to the
end of time."

Saul must have been very shocked about the person

who just called him by his name. We may wonder of
course if we were placed in a similar situation-should
we panic and run in fear and disbelief or simply listen 5. Roman Emperors and Persecution of the
to the voice that is gently calling us? Christians
As to Saul, he replied in Acts 9:5 ff: Even after the life of Paul, who was once known to
be a persecutor, the persecution of Christians
And he said, "Who are you, Lord?" And he said, "I
continued and increased. This time, the Roman
am Jesus, whom you are persecuting; but rise and
Empire, through Nero in 64 C.E., initiated the
enter the city, and you will be told what you are to
widespread, brutal persecution of Christians, as
do."
cited in the words of the historian Hubert Jedin
Further in that account, Saul became blind, and was (1993):
helped by a Christian named Ananias, who also
Thus, the earliest example of Christians' being
restored his sight. In Acts 9:20ff, Saul, having found
persecuted by Roman authorities remains the
his faith in Jesus, proclaimed Jesus as "the Son of
events under Nero after Rome burned in 64. Tacitus'
God" but all those who heard him at Damascus were
account (Annals 14, 44) provides a background
amazed for they had previously known him to be a
which is very valuable. To quell the persistent rumor
persecutor of the Christians. With threats of
that he himself was responsible for the conflagration
assassination and death from the Jews, Saul
which consumed much of the city on 16 July 64,
escaped to Jerusalem. And through a
reports Tacitus, the emperor diverted the blame onto
recommendation and testimony of Barnabas to the
the Christian community, "who on account of their
apostles Peter and James on the account of his
misdeeds were hated" by the people. Large
conversion in Damascus, the apostles accepted
numbers (ingens multitudo) of Christians were
Saul (now renamed Paul) as a member of the
arrested for their "crime" and executed in the ways
Jerusalem Church. Later in his life as a convert, he
reserved for arsonists: some were sewn into the
earned the title of being the "Apostle to the Gentiles"
skins of animals and thrown to the wild dogs; others
because it was, he who brought many Gentiles
were clothed in inflammable materials and used as
converts to the Christian faith.
living torches by Nero to light his garden, which he
Not only that Paul was remembered by the opened to the public for the spectacle. Tacitus
exemplary life he led, he was also known by the leaves little doubt he thought the Christians unjustly
letters or epistles he wrote to the various Churches accused of arson, however worthy of death for their
he visited and founded during his active missionary other presumed crimes. From this episode, we learn

7
BSN-3B Group no.1
that the Christians at Rome in the seventh decade of
the first century were many in number (ingens
multitudo); second that Nero persecuted the
Christians not because he felt them a threat to the
State, but was aimed rather at individual Christians,
not, as the Christian Apologists would have it, the
extirpation of the religion.
But Nero's act did not win the sympathy of his
fellowmen for "the victims were pitied, for it was felt
that they [Christians] were being sacrificed to one
man's brutality rather to the national interest." And
yet the Roman persecution persisted like a curse for
the Christian martyrs. Emperor Trajan (98-117)
wrote a letter to Pliny the Younger, his Roman
governor in Asia Minor, setting his royal decree on
how to deal with the Christians in a proper inquiry
based on the following procedure:
You have followed the proper procedure in dealing
with the Christians who were brought before you. No
absolute rule can be laid down. They are not to be
hunted out. If they are denounced and convicted,
they are to be punished, but he who denies that he
is a Christian and proves it by supplicating our gods,
although suspect in the past, may gain pardon from
penitence. Anonymous accusations are not to be
entertained with respect to any crime. These are the
worst examples of our age.
To make the situation worse for the Christians,
Septimus Severus in 202 intensified the
campaign for the persecution with greater
severity:
He forbade conversion to Christianity, and baptism
was considered a criminal act. The Christian was still
pardoned, however, if he denied the Faith...This
policy stepped up the government's active
persecution of the Christians because the police
sought out the newly baptized instead of merely
awaiting a denunciation from a private source. The
famous martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas took
place at Carthage during the time of Septimus
Severus (193-211).
In 250 C.E., Roman emperor Decius directed that
all citizens of the empire must worship the gods of
the Romans and secure a certification from the
government. According to Richard Cronin, "many
Christians, it seems, actually bought such
BSN-3B Group no.1
certificates; others performed the act of worship
required; and others who refused were martyred.
The bishops were irate against the compromisers."
And the magnitude of inhumanity to the Christians
heightened. Valerian (253- 259) "continued the
persecution in 257 by ordering the close and
confiscation of Christian Churches, and by exiling
and killing the bishops" but his son, Galienus,
stopped his father's order of persecution and
"returned confiscated Church property."
The era of Roman persecution had its final
implementation at the time of Diocletian (284- 305).
Diocletian "renewed the former edicts of persecution
by Decius and Valerian, but added the confiscation
of Christian writings as well as Church buildings."
The persecution under his reign, according to W.H.
Frend, was a product of a well-thought and well-
planned attack on the Christians:
It had been carefully planned and the consequences
had been weighed. Diocletian recognized the
danger of making Christians martyrs. No blood, he
insisted, must be shed. The aim was to recall the
Christians to their duty of recognizing the majesty of
the Roman gods. The edict he promulgated on 24
February ordered that throughout the empire
Churches were to be destroyed, and the sacred
books of the Christians handed over to be burned.
Christian in public offices were to be removed from
them. In private life Christians in the upper classes
(honestiores) were to lose their privileges. In
particular, they could not act as plaintiffs in case of
injury, adultery or theft. Christian slaves may not be
freed. But there was no requirement for universal
sacrifice. The attack was concentrated on the
organization of the Church, its life as represented by
the Scriptures and buildings, and on its influential
members."
Thus, the Christians, who were caught unprepared
by these circumstances, manifested a variety of
responses. Some fled to remote places where they
can freely practice their faith. Others simply
submitted to the authorities. But there were those
who complained, fought for their rights, and
persisted to uphold their freedom. Thus, they ended
up tortured, executed, or burned in public depending
on those who arrested them, and in what Roman
province they belonged.
8
Persecution finally met its end at the time of
Galerius in 311. And in 313, the Emperor
Constantine together with Licinus issued the
Edict of Milan which declared religious freedom
to all citizens of the empire, after so many
decades of prolonged agony and torture:
6. Conclusion
Centuries ago, to be a Christian was a decision of
life and death. It was a decision that manifests a
passion for the truth, and the unwavering courage to
stand for it at the risk of being arrested, tortured and
executed. Thus, Tertullian's words aptly capture the
legacy of the era of the martyrs: "The blood of the
martyrs is the seed of Christians."
Without discounting those who have remained
sincere in their faith, we can observe today some
nominal Catholics (Catholics by name only) who
openly preach that they are Catholics but withdraw
to their own comfort zones when asked to serve the
Church, to sacrifice their time and personal plans, to
BSN-3B Group no.1
give what is due to the poor, and to fight for the
advocacies of the marginalized and the needy.
Another disheartening aspect is the increasing gap
between the rich and the poor, which can be partly
traced to the lack of our Christian love for, and
seemingly less accountability to the poor.
Perhaps, the lives of the apostles and the martyrs
are challenging us to search our hearts, and ask
ourselves: In what ways have I made acts of
Christian generosity, dedication and heroism for my
faith and love in Jesus? Or if we have not reached
such degree of maturity in our commitment, let us
examine our intentions, motivations of being and
becoming a Christian, follower of Jesus and humbly
assess our loving example to our neighbors,
especially to the least of our brethren. a
After all, we are called Christians for a reason. From
the witness of the apostles and the early Christians
who lived and died for their faith in Jesus, we are
invited to sincerely ask ourselves: Has our religion
become a proof of our conviction, or has it plainly
evolved into a mere religion of convenience?
9