Yep, you read the title right. Around the feast of St. Stephen, this always struck a chord with me, that the Apostles still had a lot of figuring out to do, even though they spoke with Our Lord directly while He was on earth, and also received the Holy Spirit who gave them wisdom and knowledge. You think they might have caught on right away on how Christ wanted His Church to run!
For instance, God had to prepare Peter to welcome the Roman centurion Cornelius and his whole family into the Church. Our Lord had already told the Apostles and disciples to go preach to all nations. The Gospel was not for the Jews alone. Still, God had to remind him yet again what His Church is all about, and to do this, He presented to him in a dream a group of animals that were considered unclean in the Jewish faith and was a sin to eat, and told Peter to kill and eat them. St. Peter was horrified, saying to the Lord he had never eaten anything unclean, but the Lord reminded St. Peter “That which God hath cleansed, do not thou call common,” this happened three times, and Peter then saw all the animals drawn up to Heaven. Peter wondered what this meant until the Spirit told him to meet the men had had just sent him, and Peter was brought to Cornelius and his family. Peter then realized the vision of the unclean animals represented the once 'unclean' Gentile nations that were now cleansed by the Passion and Blood of Christ and were now to be part of the Church, Christ came for all mankind who accepted His Word, not just for the Jews!
So Peter still needed a little prompting to be shown what to do, the 'old Jew' was still too much ingrained in him, even after receiving the Holy Spirit.
Now, I could be wrong how I read this, someone who is more knowledgeable in theology can perhaps point out I may have made a mistake here, but I can't help but see another 'boo boo' when the fault of favouritism started to arise in the early Church.
In the beginning, anyone who joined the Church had to sell what they owned and deliver it to the Apostles as everyone lived a complete community life together similar to a monastery today. Nobody privately owned anything and the whole proceeds of everyone's donation upon entering the Church was distributed to all the believers according to their needs, so no one was left wanting according to Acts 4 (32, 34). No doubt this was how they interpreted Christ's words of giving up everything to follow Him, and of course, as He once asked them, they were not found to be in want.
But then, the Greek Jews noticed things were not getting distributed fairly: their widows were not getting their fair share to live on. Now, this is not just widows who lost their husbands, but also women who wished to live a single life for Christ. The term consecrated virgins had not been introduced yet as far as I know, or 'nun' for that matter! So single women living in chastity were considered as a 'widow', a woman with no husband, even if they had never been married. They were considered 'widows' for Christ. You can see this when St Paul says it is better to accept the older widows than the younger ones as the older ones are more constant in keeping to a life of chastity, while the younger ones are tempted to break their vow of chastity and marry. (1 Tim. 5: 9-12)
I don't mean to digress, the point is, the Christian Greek Jews were not getting the same treatment in the Church as the Christian Jews born in Israel. Their widows and consecrated women were getting neglected in the daily administration, so how long did this go on before someone had to say, 'Hey, we're getting hungry here and could use some help?' Oopsie.
Now, the Apostles came up with an idea – they couldn't manage everything themselves. The Church was growing, the Gospel needed to be spread, it was their duty to do that, and, the daily mundane stuff like clothes and food needed administering on top of it. So, with the agreement of the members of the Church, they decided that the disciples should look for and appoint seven holy and wise men to become deacons to see to the daily administration of the Church's goods.
Great idea! God obviously had no problem with that, for the fruits that blossomed later after this decision shows it was acceptable to do this - the Word continued to spread and the discipleship grew after they came to this decision we are told in the Acts. So yes, the necessity of forming an administration procedure was bound to make itself felt as the numbers of believers grew.
But, this is where the kicker comes in. When the Apostles were first approached with the problem that the Greek widows were getting neglected in the daily administration and something needed to be done, they responded:
“It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables.” (Acts 6:2)
Oh. Ouch.
Waiting on tables was considered a low, demeaning task in those days, given to servants and often to the slaves.
The
Douay-Rheims Bible says this occurred in the year 33 AD, so the
Church was not even a full year old when they apostle considered themselves too high and mighty to wait on a table. Therefore,
this happened not long after Our Lord Himself had given the example
of washing the feet of the Apostles at the Last Supper. They had already forgotten the example He set them!
The act of washing the feet was one of the most hateful and lowliest tasks a household servant could do, even worse than waiting on a table, and was usually delegated to the most insignificant and lowest slave. Touching the feet and preparing to clean them still has cultural implications in the East, no doubt due to the muck, animal refuse and dirt of the city streets of the old days before sewage systems, not to mention the dust of the desert, and dirty feet do tend to get really pungent! Remember God told Moses to remove his shoes from his feet as he stood on Holy ground? Today it is even considered a grave insult in Iraq to hit someone with a shoe, due to the connotations of 'dirty feet'.
So, on the flip side, this also become a symbol of the deepest humility, when St. John the Baptist said to even touch the sandals of the Messiah was too great an honour so great was his humility. Therefore, we can understand when St. Peter nearly had a conniption
fit when he saw the Son of God down on His knees at the Last Supper willing to wash his
feet like the meanest, lowest slave! How could the Son of God do this?
Yes, this was symbolic of Christ's completely emptying of Himself to save us. He Himself also said He came to serve, not be served, and gave us the example, saying they were to do this for one another, and yet now the Apostles refuse to 'wait on tables', which was a step higher than washing someone's feet?
Again, oh, ouch!
God however gently showed them again in one of the very deacons chosen that it was possible to do both, one was just as important as the other.
St. Stephen was shown to be not only a holy and wise youth who could do the administrative tasks of distributing the goods justly, but was also noted for his excellent preaching of the Gospel, and, was given the grace of signs and wonders among the people. His preaching was so wise and sound he angered the Jews of the Libertine synagogue, the Cyrenian synagogue, the Alexandrian Jews, also those of Cilicia and Asia. They were, “unable to resist the wisdom and the spirit that spoke,” through Steven. (Act Acts 6:10)
Wow, he was not even an Apostle, and yet his preaching reached all those Jews. That is some reach! Despite all his spiritual success in preaching the Word which had made the Apostles so 'high and mighty' with pride to where they refused the grace of humility to wait on tables, St. Stephen did not balk when asked to administer the daily goods to the women. He no doubt he happily and humbly did his task as ordered.
Of course, since the Jews could not argue against him or acknowledge the wisdom given him, instead of joining Christianity, they sought to kill Steven, so they paid false witnesses to speak evil of him and rile up the people, hence he was dragged before the elders and put on trial.
But, he then put them all to shame with his excellent preaching, turning the tables and speaking against his judges and placing them on trial before God, which literally fills up a whole chapter in the book of Acts, ending with a magnificent vision of Christ seated on the right hand of the Father.
So, the youth who humbly waited on tables was granted wisdom and eloquence, and, the grace to be the first to shed his blood for the Faith, which in turn would lead to the conversion of St. Paul the great Apostle of the Gentiles. St. Paul obviously picked up on this, for he noted in his epistles how Christ humbled Himself to the point of being a slave, like a table or foot-slave to save us, and how this was mirrored in the election of St. Stephen as a 'humble table servant', and his graced eloquence and death that led to his own conversion. Through St. Stephen it was as as if the Lord was telling the Apostles the daily humble, insignificant and even degrading tasks done for Me out of love are no hindrance to spiritual greatness! As Christ told Peter he could have no part of Him if he did not allow Him to serve him this way, and, that we are to do this to one another, forgiveness of one another and humble service, so it stands to reason we cannot have any part with Christ if we refuse the humble daily tasks set before us.
“If then I being your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that as I have done to you, so you do also. Amen, amen I say to you: The servant is not greater than his lord; neither is the apostle greater than he that sent him. If you know these things, you shall be blessed if you do them.” (John 13: 14-17)
This is the secret of many of the saints: doing their daily duties of their state in life well, like the 'little way' of the St. Theresa of the Child Jesus: if the daily tasks God sets before us to do are done for pure love of Him, no matter humble, even waiting on tables and picking up a pin, it is just as pleasing to Him as if we had converted nations.
Therefore, don't forget to make a morning offering each day before starting your work, your whole work will become a prayer and a pleasing offering to God and will help save many souls. Nothing is insignificant before God when done out of love for Him and the desire to fulfill His will in our state in life, no matter what it may be.
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Wow.. I didn’t realize the washing of the feet was considered degrading.. now I know how truly humble Jesus is.. this was very insightful, thanks for sharing!
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