Caesarea Maritime is an important city to keep in mind as we read these early chapters of the Acts of the Apostles. It’s important first because a “Gentile Pentecost” took place in this city. The Roman centurion Cornelius and his household were baptized here by the Apostle Peter. The mission into the gentile world began here.

Luke highlights Peter’s journey to Caesarea Maritime from Joppa, the port where Jonah began his journey to Nineveh. ( Acts 10:1-48; 11:1-18)  Later, at a crucial meeting in Jerusalem Peter will offer his experience in Caesarea Maritime as God’s sign to announce the gospel to the gentiles. (Acts 15:7-11) 

Caesarea Maritime, 33 miles north of Joppa, was built as a seaport by Herod the Great  and for many years was the Roman military center of Judea where Roman officials, like Pontius Pilate, resided. It was a major port connecting Palestine to the rest of the world.

Philip the Deacon and his four daughters settled there after the persecution of Stephen, Luke reports. They received Paul in their house on his way to Jerusalem. When Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed in 70 AD, Caesarea Maritime became the main city of Judea and also a home for the Christian church. In later years, its bishop was the region’s leading bishop, until a bishop was installed in Jerusalem after Constantine rebuilt it in the 4th century.  

Caesarea Maritime remained a thriving center of Christian learning where great figures like Origen, Gregory Nazianzen and Jerome studied and taught. Only impressive ruins now tell us of the city’s former glory. Poor infrastructure and Moslem invasions finally brought about its end about six centuries after Herod built it.

Luke describe the spread of Christianity through the mission of Paul, but he is not the only missionary. If we follow him alone, we may miss the rich life and spirituality of Eastern Christianity that occurred as the gospel spread to Syria and Egypt. That’s why we should keep Caesarea Maritime in mind. The gospel has more than one story that traces how it spread; it’s not all found in the Acts of the Apostles.

The 6th chapter of Luke’s Acts of the Apostles which we started to read on Saturday of the 2nd week of Easter begins with a social problem we shouldn’t overlook.  Some new converts to Christianity are being treated unfairly. “As the number of disciples continued to grow, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.”( Acts 6:1. Saturday, 2nd week of Easter) 

Substitute “Immigrants” for “Hellenists” in that text a more familiar situation emerges. New-comers are plainly not treated fairly, especially the poorer among them and they’re looking for something more.

The “Hebrews” are the first followers of Jesus, mostly Jews from Galilee. They’re Jewish Christians at home in the Jewish world, who fit into the religious and political Judaism of their time despite being followers of Jesus of Nazareth.

They’re part of the establishment.

In every age immigrants, once they gain a footing in their new home, learn to speak out for their needs. The Hellenists led by Stephen spoke out., Stephen’s fiery words seem to be only about  religious matters, but he’s also criticizing the closed world of Judaism that was early Jewish Christianity as well? 

Stephen’s criticism cost him his life and initiated a Jewish reaction that led to the expulsion of the Hellenists. They become immigrants again but they bring the gospel to new peoples, as Luke notes.

It’s  a misconception to believe, as some do, that Christianity spread easily without problems or sufferings early on. It’s also a misconception to believe that it spread solely due to the genius of Paul the Apostle. Paul was a great figure in the spread of Christianity, but the Acts of the Apostles read this week reminds us there were others, like the deacon Philip, who brought the gospel to Samaria. (Wednesday)

We wonder, too, about the Ethiopian official Philip baptizes. He surely brought the gospel to Africa. (Thursday) There were many others, not just apostles, not solely Paul, but immigrants like Stephen, who fulfilled  a divine plan they hardly understood.

Luke concentrates of Paul’s mission and pays scant attention to the other missionaries who brought the gospel to world around them. Nor does Luke explore social factors, like immigration, that led the spread of Christianity. He doesn’t tell the whole story. 

We are in the midst of an age of massive immigration, due to wars, climate change, religious discrimination and other issues. We tend to see these issues only in social or political terms.

This week’s readings from Luke remind us there’s more. God’s plan is evolving. Stephen marks a transition in the church. Luke will no longer concentrate on the church in Jerusalem. The church takes the path in the Gentile world.

I know it’s hard to see life differently these days. That’s why we have beautiful stain glass windows. To remind us who live in the dark we are living in a new creation.

St. Gregory of Nyssa, an early saint, says in a sermon: 

“The reign of life has begun, the tyranny of death is ended. A new birth has taken place, a new life has come, a new order of existence has appeared, our very nature has been transformed! This birth is not brought about by human generation, by human will power or by the desire of the flesh, but by God.

Let me explain it in clear language. Faith is the womb that conceives this new life, baptism the rebirth which brings it into the light of day. The Church is its nurse; her teachings are its milk, the bread from heaven is its food. 

It’s brought to maturity by the practice of virtue; it’s wedded to wisdom; it gives birth to hope. Its home is the kingdom; its rich inheritance the joys of paradise; its end, not death, but the blessed and everlasting life prepared for those who are worthy.

We’re living in the day the Lord has made – a day far different from those made when the world was first created and which are measured by the passage of time. This is the beginning of a new creation. On this day, as the prophet says, God makes a new heaven and a new earth. 

On this day is created the true human being, made in the image and likeness of God. This day the Lord has made is the beginning of a new world. This day, the prophet says, is not like other days, nor is this night like other nights. 

But still we have not spoken of the greatest gift it brings us. This day destroyed the pangs of death and brought to birth the firstborn of the dead.

I ascend to my Father and to your Father, to my God and to your God. O what wonderful good news! For our sake he became like us in order to make us his brothers and sisters, now he presents to his true Father his own humanity in order to draw all of us up after him.

What is this new heaven? It is the firmament of our faith in Christ. What is the new earth? A good heart, a heart like the earth, which drinks up the rain that falls on it and yields a rich harvest.”

Strange, haunting words to hear in the jumble of daily news reports from the world of wars and politics. So different from the words and images we swim in these days. Faith is a womb, he says, bringing life and hope. We’re living in the day the Lord has made. 

An “Alleluia” comes to mind.