Friends, consider this question today: What does it mean to be a Christian?
Would you be Christian today if you had grown up in a different country, or in a family of different religion?
For most of my life, I assumed that because I was born to an Indian Hindu family, I could never be Christian. The two identities seemed incompatible to me.
The extraordinary gift of Christianity, though, is that it is not a nationality, or a culture, or an ethnicity. It never has been. As today’s readings reveal to us, from the very beginning it has been a radically generous faith, reaching out to all nations and embracing all peoples, much as light spreads forth over all the world.
The First Christians
In this vein, the Book of Acts crackles with the excitement of the early days of the faith. Today’s reading tells us of the spread of the gospel in Antioch, where though initially it was shared only with the Jews, ultimately the believers “spoke also to the Greeks.” What unfolded was a flourishing of the faith among both Jews and Greeks, so that a new name was needed for the growing body of believers, these followers of Jesus of Nazareth. Thus it was here in Antioch that, “for the first time, the disciples came to be called Christians.”
Most religions in the ancient world were defined by their geographic location. Christianity stood apart as a religion defined by Person—the Person of Jesus Christ, the Messiah promised to and foretold by the Jews. To be Christian was to set aside cultural and national identity, for sake of embracing the name of Christ into oneself.
Encountering Truth
But why? Why would Greeks and Romans of the first century choose to follow Christ? Or why would anyone at all, from ancient times to modern, leave behind one’s old identity and take up this new, seemingly alien citizenship of belonging to Christ?
Quite simply, because every human heart seeks Truth. We desire not simply pieces of truth in the world around us, but the very fullness of Truth; and many of those in the ancient world discovered at last the Truth they had been seeking, in Christ—in that startling story of His life, death, and resurrection.
My conversion to the faith has presented something of a riddle to my Hindu relatives. They have expressed bewilderment, observing to me, “You changed your religion,” much as if I changed my nationality or my name. So it would seem to most of the world. Conversion of heart, though, is never a self-driven decision, but the response to a call outside oneself. It is the fruit of a deep, soul-shaking encounter with Truth, in the Person of Jesus Christ.
Belonging to Christ
Today’s Gospel reading highlights the deeply relational nature of our Christian faith. When questioned by the Pharisees, Jesus tells them they do not believe because “they are not of my flock.” He then reveals, “My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” In this simple statement, Jesus claims his followers as his own, for they hear his voice; he knows each one of them, and they recognize themselves as being known and loved by him.
Our Christian faith is first and foremost the response to that call of Christ. It is the shared, life-giving gaze of love between Christ and each soul, within the body of the Church. On the cross, Jesus stretches forth His arms to embrace all nations, all peoples, yet only some of us accept the gift of His love. To be Christian, ultimately, is to step into the light of that gift. Each day we profess anew, “Yes, Lord, I belong to You.”
