Foundations

As the Gospel spread through the Roman world, two men above all carried it to the empire's heart, and gave their lives there. Peter, the fisherman Simon whom Jesus renamed 'Rock' (Petros), was chosen by Christ as the leader of the apostles: 'You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church' (Matthew 16:18). Though impulsive, and though he denied Jesus three times in fear, he repented, was forgiven, and became the unshakable shepherd of the first Christians. He is counted the first pope. Paul, whom we met two weeks ago, was the tireless missionary to the Gentiles, the brilliant former persecutor whose letters fill the New Testament. The two could hardly have been more different, the unlettered fisherman and the learned rabbi, yet together they are called the 'pillars' of the Church. Tradition holds that both were martyred in Rome under the persecution of Emperor Nero (around AD 64-67): Peter crucified (upside down, by his own request, not counting himself worthy to die as his Lord did) and Paul, as a Roman citizen, beheaded. Their blood at the empire's center is why Rome became the chief see of the Church. They model peace, the week's virtue, not the peace of an empire enforced by armies, but the deep peace of those who have given everything to Christ. Their shared feast is June 29.

Out of the chaos that followed Caesar's murder rose his adopted heir, Octavian. After defeating his rivals (including Mark Antony and Cleopatra of Egypt at the sea-battle of Actium in 31 BC), he became sole ruler, but he was careful never to call himself 'king' or 'dictator', words Romans hated. Instead he took the title Augustus ('the revered one') and ruled as princeps, 'first citizen,' keeping the forms of the Republic while holding real power. Historians call him Rome's first emperor (reigned 27 BC-AD 14). Augustus brought stability after a century of civil war and launched the Pax Romana, the 'Roman Peace', roughly two centuries of relative order across the whole Mediterranean world. Within this vast, connected empire, an astonishing thing was possible: a person could travel safely on excellent roads from Spain to Syria, trade in a common coinage, appeal to a common law, and be understood in Greek (the common tongue of the East) or Latin. It was into this prepared world, during the reign of Augustus, that Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, a town of the Roman province of Judaea. St. Paul called this moment 'the fullness of time' (Galatians 4:4). The same roads, peace, and shared language that served Rome would soon carry the Gospel to every corner of the empire. God, the Church teaches, chose this exact moment with care.

Last week we studied the Cross; this week, its triumph. YOUCAT (Q104-Q108) teaches that on the third day Jesus truly rose from the dead, not as a ghost or a mere memory, but bodily and gloriously, the same Jesus, yet transformed. The Resurrection is the foundation of the whole Christian faith; as St. Paul wrote, 'If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain' (1 Corinthians 15:14). It is God's seal on everything Jesus said and did, and the promise that death is not the end for those united to him. The empty tomb and the appearances to the apostles, who then went out and died for this truth, are the heart of their witness. After forty days, Jesus ascended into heaven (YOUCAT Q109-Q110), not abandoning us, but taking our human nature into the glory of God and sending the Holy Spirit to be with the Church always. And the Creed looks forward: 'He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead' (YOUCAT Q111-Q112). History is not an endless circle, as some ancients believed, but a story moving toward Christ's return and the fulfillment of all things. The Roman emperors claimed to rule the world; the risen and ascended Christ is the true King of a Kingdom that has no end. (See CCC 638-655, 668-682.)

Add today's vocabulary (Pax Romana, fullness of time, Resurrection) to your glossary. Write one sentence: 'How did the Pax Romana help prepare the world for the Gospel?'