Among the reasons Christianity is not hereditary is that it is an error to reduce Christian faith to morality or to "values". It's true that God has no grandchildren. This is why, during the crisis experienced by the early Church as a result of the influx of Gentile members, Paul and Barnabas, the chief evangelizers of the Gentiles, insisted so vehemently that these Christians had no need to keep the Jewish law.
In his First Letter to the Corinthians, Saint Paul pushed back against the decree of the somewhat anachronistically named "Council of Jerusalem" that stipulated Gentile Christians could not eat meat sacrificed to idols.1 In the eighth chapter of First Corinthians, written some time after he and Barnabas took their case to Jerusalem, Paul wrote that the only reason not to eat such meat is if it would undermine the faith of a new or perhaps a Jewish Christian. Otherwise, due to the fact that there is only one God living and true, the apostle saw nothing wrong with it.2
Why was eating sacrificed meat such a big deal? One reason is that, unlike our culture today, meat did not make up a large part of the diet of ancient Mediterranean people, especially the poor. Major pagan festivals were huge celebrations. After the animals were ritually sacrificed, the meat was made available to people who did not often eat meat.
What this means is that for Christians it is faith that matters, not rules that are handed down. Christianity is not now nor has it ever been a religion that mainly consists of keeping rules. In his Letter to the Romans, Paul insists that "whatever... commandment[s] there may be, are summed up in this saying, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law."3 Love is the fruit of faith.
This leads us to the conversion of Lydia. Along with her household, this wealthy merchant woman was converted by Saint Paul's preaching about Christ. According this passage from Acts, she was converted on-the-spot. It's unclear whether she along with members of her household were immediately baptized in the river, on the banks of which they encountered Paul and his companions.
Conversion is the result of faith. As such, it is the work of the Holy Spirit. It bears repeating that the Holy Spirit is the mode of Christ's resurrection presence among, in, and through us until he comes again. Christ did not ascend to distance himself from us. He ascended to draw nearer to us than he could ever be if he had remained. "Near" doesn't accurately capture how the Spirit relates us to the risen Christ. It is by the power of the Spirit that Christ comes to be in and among us.
It is by the power of the Spirit that the bread and wine become for us Christ's body and blood. By our reception of Christ's mystical body we, the Church, become Christ's true body. In what is often called his High Priestly Prayer, which is the Gospel of John's version of the prayer in the garden at the beginning of his passion, Jesus says how those who believe in him become one in and through him. Praying to the Father in the power of the Spirit, Jesus asks, with reference to his disciples, "that they may be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they may also be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me."4
How does Christ come to be in us? By the power of the Holy Spirit. This becomes a profound reality in the Eucharist.
This is where what Jesus says in today's Gospel becomes vitally important. It brings us back to sacrifice. In the Eucharist Christ gives himself to us wholly. In the Eucharist there is an exchane of gifts. This exchange, at least at Sunday Mass and Masses on solemnities, is symbolized by the gifts of bread and wine, along with the collection, being presented at the altar. These gifts are symbolic of our very selves.
When it comes martyrs, like Paul, they become an offering to God, but not a sacrifice made to God by their enemies. In most cases, their they offered themselves God over and over long before their martyrdom. To be converted is to offer yourself to God through Christ body, blood, soul, and humanity. The Holy Spirit is the medium through whom you do this.
1 Acts 15:23-29.↩
2 1 Corinthians 8:7-13.↩
3 Romans 13:9b-10.↩
4 John 17:21.↩
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