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Fr. Yoseph Jaga Dawan, SVD
Parish Priest St.
Mikael Kranji-Head
of PGDP St.Albertus
Harapan Indah
LEARN FROM
"ORIGINAL" CHURCH
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Acts 2: 41-42 )
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Church in Jerusalem began with a booming congregations. In
beginning, there were only 11 apostles, Virgin Mary, and few followers of Jesus
were meeting together when Holy Spirit filled them on the day of Pentecost.
Then, they began to speak in other tongues, the people came together, and Peter
preached to the crowd. As a result, church was born, and this was not a smal
occurrence. Approximately 3,000 people became the members.
ST. Albertus church, which is projected to be independent parish, can’t be
considered as a small congregation. There are approximately
5,000 members who
are trying very hard to build a temple for God.
As a parish which isn’t small, and in the new stage of becoming a bigger parish,
we are facing many problems. Besides having typical problems in developing the
congregations, the church building project which needs funding is a big problem
faced by the parish. In fact, this big problem is easier to be handled, if
congregation’s growth can be properly controlled. In this regard, it will be
useful if we learn from ”Original” Church, which also experiencing the hard time
in building independent parish
Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church – about
three thousand in all. They joined with the other believers and devoted
themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, sharing in the Lord’s
Supper and in prayer. (Acts 2:41-42).
The parishioners of ”Original” Church” which inevitably consist of many groups
who gathered in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. These groups were at least
from 10 different cultures and certainly they didn’t know each other well. All
of sudden, building the church with people from different cultures was certainly
not easy. However, the Lord obviously had done it. Followings are the
characteristics of ”Original” Church :
1. BAPTISM
Baptism represents or proves the person has become Jesus’ follower, and it’s
called a Christian. Therefore, if there were 3,000 people willing to be baptized
during that time, it meant 3,000 new Christians. Baptism is a ritual to accept
someone to the Church until now. It’s usually called as Sacrament of Initiation.
With baptism, people confess their sins and repent; accept Jesus as Savior,
being raised as God’s children, and become member of mistycal body of Jesus
Christ, which is Church. Baptism is also a gateway for receiving other
sacraments. Members from a living Church are people who always realize the
meaning of Sacrament of baptism in their life. They won’t waste the chances they
receive through Sacrament of Baptism. On another way, they will manifest the
salvation through the way they live their life, based on their faith as
christians.
2. PERSEVERANCE IN APOSTLES’ TEACHING
The source of Apostle’s teaching is from Old Testament and the preaching from
Jesus, which later called New Testament. All the Church’s live can’t be
separated from the apostles’ teaching. Therefore, it is called Apostolic Church,
which meant it’s from the apostles.
Peter advised the faithful followers to crave “pure spiritual milk” so that they
can grow into the fullness of their salvation ( 1 Ptr 2:2). Isn’t “pure
spiritual milk” based on God’s words which taught by apostles? Living Christians
are those who love to read and reflect the words from the Lord. They always find
strengths in their weaknesses, comfort in difficult time, their joy and sadness,
their way in hopeless situation, are from the inspiration received from the
bible. They don’t look for ways other than from God’s words.
3. FELLOWSHIP
What do you think when you hear the word of ”fellowship”? Something related to
category? Something related to religious activities? The word ”fellowship” is
translation from Greek ”koinonia”, which means sharing what others have. This is
explained in depth in verse 44.
Hence, the basis of fellowship is ”sharing” what we have. Let thing about it.
Church consist of people from different background. There are people from high,
middle, and low class. Some of them have high education, and some are not
educated at all. There are rich and poor people. There are black, red, yellow,
and white people. However, they have only one similarity, it’s Jesus Christ.
He is the foundation of our fellowship. Our faith, hope, and love for Him are
the main connection of our togetherness. The stronger our faith, hope and love
for Jesus, the stronger our fellowship as Christian, because the strength of
faith, hope and love is formed by the solidness of congregations in loving each
other. That’s the main indication. If there is a group in the clergy doesn’t
have a ”fellowship” and in fact fighting with each other, it shows they lack of
faith, hope and love for Jesus. A living Christian’s congregation is a
congregation who care, share, and give each other and offer whatever they are
able to contribute.
4. CONSECRATED BREAD
Although it’s not written clearly whether ”consecrated bread” is an activity of
”Eucharist” liturgy, however it’s inevitably an embryo of ”Eucharist Ceremony”.
The true Christian congregation preserve and always long for spiritual Eucharist
intake, because Eucharist is not only a guarantee of eternal live, it’s also an
exceptional spiritual might which provided by God to us who is struggling in
this world. Suffering, Death, Resurrection and Glory in Jesus which signified in
Eucharist ceremony always make us realize how we should live as Christian. In
verse 46, it’s written the followers ”consecrated bread” from house to house,
because they didn’t have a place for worship. Afterward, when the believers grew
bigger and obviously separated from Jewish congregation, they began to build
special place for worship. Indeed, since beginning the parishioners always try
to prepare a worshipping place to commemorate ”Eucharist”. In other word, living
Christian congregation is the congregation who make Eucharist as a centre of
their life, and because of that they will try very hard to arrange a special
place so that Eucharist ceremony can occur sacredly
5. PRAYING
Eventhough it’s mentioned at the end, praying is important as other
characteristics. Church without praying is not the real Church. Praying is an
endless communication between human and God. It’s only through prayer, we can
hear and know what the Lord wants from us. Therefore, in every step we do,
praying has to be on first place, so that whatever we do is based on God’s way.
Living Christian congregation is always make time specially for praying. It’s
only through prayer, the salvation becomes known and spread through all over the
world.
CONCLUSIONS
Building the Temple of God is a
realization, an obvious action from believers who have been baptized, united,
and sharing with each other, preserve in paying attention to God’s words and
honor Eucharist, with praying endlessly. If these come from the congregation
with the above characteristics, the effort is certainly based on God’s will,
because this effort is from and done by a congregation who love God fully, and
each other. Hopefully, in the effort of building Temple of God, St.Albertus
parishioners realize and show these characteristics in order that God’s temple
can stand firmly as House of Love.
In the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen
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