{"id":1447,"date":"2012-03-16T08:00:32","date_gmt":"2012-03-16T00:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=1447"},"modified":"2022-04-07T20:58:06","modified_gmt":"2022-04-07T12:58:06","slug":"52-before-evangelisation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=1447","title":{"rendered":"52. Before Evangelisation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reflections on a Pauline Pilgrimage to Turkey [16]<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThey devoted themselves to the apostles\u2019 teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved<\/span><\/strong>.\u201d [Acts 2:42-4<\/span>7]<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0\"\"<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

[1] Fractio Panis <\/em>[Breaking of Bread] in the Catacombs of Rome.. [2]\u00a0Distribution of the Goods of the Community and the Death of Ananias, 1425.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Waiting at the airport of Istanbul for our return flight, we had much time to reflect on this trip. Recalling St Paul\u2019s own life of conversion and his work of evangelization, we realized that the late Pope John Paul II had nailed it when he said that the goal of evangelization is ongoing conversion. We cannot convert anyone, not even ourselves. Only the Holy Spirit can change people\u2019s hearts and minds. What we constantly need is an ongoing openness to the working of the Holy Spirit in each of our lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

Removed by some two thousand years from the first Spirit-filled Christian community in Jerusalem, has the Church today so seriously departed from what living under the fire of the Holy Spirit is all about, that it is hardly recognizable in core and substance from its ancient origin? It is of course a caricature to suggest, as it is often done, that the Christian faith morphed into a different creature each time it reached a new territory. As it spread, so the caricature says, the fervent faith in Christ that burst forth on the Day of Pentecost in Jerusalem transformed into a philosophy in Athens, an institution in Rome, and a business up and down North America. Such a caricature highlights only degradation. Still, a caricature is just what it is \u2013 a flawed and exaggerated depiction which nevertheless embodies serious elements of truth for those who honestly care about the truth. And since quite a few of our fellow pilgrims repeatedly lamented the state of Christian evangelization in Turkey, we were compelled, as it were, to recall how<\/em> t<\/span>he first Christian community lived after the first Pentecost and what they did by way of evangelisation.<\/p>\n

\u00a0From the report of St Luke in Acts 2:42-47, twelve elements characterize the first, freshly pentecosted, faith community:<\/span><\/p>\n