{"id":21333,"date":"2025-05-23T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/?p=21333"},"modified":"2025-05-23T12:07:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T19:07:10","slug":"early-church-membership-membresia-de-la-iglesia-primitiva","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/2025\/05\/23\/early-church-membership-membresia-de-la-iglesia-primitiva\/","title":{"rendered":"Early Church Membership \/ Membres\u00eda de la Iglesia Primitiva"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Fr. Ed Liptak, SDB<\/em> – <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All was not perfect in the Apostolic Church. On this Sixth Sunday of Easter, Acts<\/em> relates the decision of the Council of Jerusalem settling a bitter debate. Converts in the Holy City heard of the Apostle Paul\u2019s success in bringing Gentiles to the faith. The Jews argued that to be saved Gentiles must not only be baptized but also circumcised. They sent envoys to Antioch who were causing dismay. Peter had returned from preaching along the coast and was present. James, “brother of Jesus,<\/em>” was Bishop of Jerusalem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The debate was not pleasant until Peter stepped in, and silence fell upon all. He reminded them that he, too, had baptized a whole household of pagans in Caesarea at God\u2019s clear intervention. Hence, the awesome words of the decree from James, “It seems to the Holy Spirit and to us,<\/em>” and he proceeded to list just a few commonplace rules. Thus, Paul and Barnabas\u2019 work for the Nations opened a great new harvest and allowed Her to be truly universal, Catholic, open to all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our Church extends to the dwelling place of God. St. John saw “The holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God.” On its gated walls were names of the twelve sons of Israel, but without doubt John\u2019s vision was of the Church, for the foundation of the massive wall had twelve courses bearing the names of the Apostles, and “[The City] gleamed with the splendor of God. It needed no temple,<\/em>” for “Its temple is the Lord God almighty and the Lamb.<\/em>” Loss of citizenship in the City of God occurs only if one chooses to die in the state of mortal sin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, in John\u2019s Gospel, Jesus presents Himself as the way to heaven. “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.” Thus, our love for Jesus and willingness to follow Him begins here on earth, but it ends in the glory of heaven. Later, at the Supper, Jesus again spoke of Himself: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one\u2019s life for one\u2019s friends.” Can\u2019t our lives respect this priceless love of Jesus for us?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“As the Father loves me, so I also love you.
Remain in my love” (Jn 15:9).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Membres\u00eda de la Iglesia Primitiva<\/strong><\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Por P. Ed Liptak, SDB<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No todo era perfecto en la Iglesia Apost\u00f3lica. En este sexto domingo de Pascua, Hechos<\/em> relata la decisi\u00f3n del Concilio de Jerusal\u00e9n que zanj\u00f3 un agrio debate. Los conversos de la Ciudad Santa se enteraron del \u00e9xito del ap\u00f3stol Pablo en llevar a los gentiles a la fe. Los jud\u00edos argumentaban que para ser salvos, los gentiles no solo deb\u00edan ser bautizados, sino tambi\u00e9n circuncidados. Enviaron emisarios a Antioqu\u00eda que estaban causando consternaci\u00f3n. Pedro hab\u00eda regresado de predicar a lo largo de la costa y estaba presente. Santiago, “hermano de Jes\u00fas”,<\/em> fue obispo de Jerusal\u00e9n.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

El debate no fue agradable hasta que Pedro intervino, y el silencio se apoder\u00f3 de todos. Les record\u00f3 que \u00e9l tambi\u00e9n hab\u00eda bautizado a toda una familia de paganos en Cesarea con la clara intervenci\u00f3n de Dios. De ah\u00ed las asombrosas palabras del decreto de Santiago: “Al Esp\u00edritu Santo y a nosotros nos parece”,<\/em> y procedi\u00f3 a enumerar solo algunas reglas comunes. As\u00ed, la obra de Pablo y Bernab\u00e9 en favor de las naciones abri\u00f3 una gran cosecha nueva y le permiti\u00f3 ser verdaderamente universal, cat\u00f3lica, abierta a todos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nuestra Iglesia se extiende hasta la morada de Dios, San Juan vio: “La ciudad santa de Jerusal\u00e9n descendiendo del cielo, de Dios”. <\/em>En sus muros cerrados estaban los nombres de los doce hijos de Israel, pero sin duda la visi\u00f3n de Juan era de la Iglesia, porque los cimientos de la enorme muralla ten\u00edan doce hileras con los nombres de los ap\u00f3stoles, y “[La ciudad] resplandec\u00eda con el esplendor de Dios. No necesitaba templo, porque <\/em>“su templo es el Se\u00f1or Dios todopoderoso y el Cordero”.<\/em> La p\u00e9rdida de la ciudadan\u00eda en la Ciudad de Dios ocurre solo si uno elige morir en el estado de pecado mortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luego, en el Evangelio de Juan, Jes\u00fas se presenta a s\u00ed mismo como el camino al cielo. “El que me ama guardar\u00e1 mi palabra, y mi Padre lo amar\u00e1, y vendremos a \u00e9l y habitaremos con \u00e9l”. <\/em>Por lo tanto, nuestro amor por Jes\u00fas y nuestra voluntad de seguirlo comienza aqu\u00ed en la tierra, pero termina en la gloria del cielo. M\u00e1s tarde, en la Cena, Jes\u00fas volvi\u00f3 a hablar de s\u00ed mismo: “Nadie tiene amor m\u00e1s grande que este, dar la vida por sus amigos”. <\/em> \u00bfNo pueden nuestras vidas respetar este amor inestimable de Jes\u00fas por nosotros?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Fr. Ed Liptak, SDB – All was not perfect in the Apostolic Church. On this Sixth Sunday of Easter, Acts relates the decision of the Council of Jerusalem settling a bitter debate. Converts in the Holy City heard of the Apostle Paul\u2019s success in bringing Gentiles to the faith. The Jews argued that to be saved Gentiles must not only be baptized but also … Continuar leyendo Early Church Membership \/ Membres\u00eda de la Iglesia Primitiva<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":10336596,"featured_media":12751,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[777629889,2343517,20310044],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fr-ed-liptak","category-gospel-reflection","category-province-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/salesianbulletin.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/intouch-scripture-graphic-600.jpg?fit=600%2C510&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p59ePG-5y5","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10336596"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21333"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21460,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21333\/revisions\/21460"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}