The
Catholic Story: Origins
The Name Catholic means
universal. Its origin is from the Greek word katholicos, which means widespread or universal.
When Jesus Christ came
to this world to die for the Salvation of all, he did want to establish a new
covenant, a universal covenant. Those who want to be part of this covenant will
enter it through baptism. He also established an institution called church or ecclesia in Greek. We know this because
he called peter to be the head of this ecclesia when he told him “on this rock
I will build my Church, the gates of hell will never prevail against it” we
remember that Christ changed the name of Simon to peter which means Rock. What
he is here saying is that he will make Peter his Vicar on earth that is someone
that stands in physically for him after he is gone back to heaven. We must
always remember that it is Christ that is the head of the Church.
We learn from this passage
that Christ indeed has a Church, by that possessive pronoun used “my Church”.
Christ went ahead to
call other apostles who will be the pillars of his new religion. He consciously
called 12 people, representing the 12 tribes of Israel. So, the new Christ’s
Church becomes the new Israel, as Christ did not come to abolish the old law
but to fulfill it.
We know that not all
things that happen in the life of the new religion are recorded in the bible.
It is impossible to have such a record. The bible itself says that not all
things Christ did is recorded and so not all things the members of the Church
did is also recorded. This is important because there are many who ask the
question “is it in the Bible” as if the Bible is ALL IN ALL of Christianity. No
it cannot be as we will see in our conversations.
In the year 70AD, that
is some 40 years after Christ went up to haven on Ascension day, Jews in
Jerusalem revolted against the Roman forces occupying Israel. Remember that the
Church of Christ was stationed in Jerusalem. This means that the apostles were
there, preaching the Gospel and being confronted by the Sanhedrin as we see in
the Acts of Apostles.
In this Revolted,
Romans unleashed Roman fury on Israel and decimated that nation. This means
that the killed thousands of people and destroyed buildings. Infact all the
buildings in Jerusalem were destroyed including the temple! The remaining
population that did not die went into exile! This includes the apostles!
The apostles went to
various nations preaching the Gospel. St. Thomas went as far as India to
evangelize. Infact Thomas tomb is in India today. St. Paul went to Greece. St.
John Went to Ephesus in Greece with Mary mother of God since Christ entrusted
him with the care of his Mother.
St. Peter went as far
as Rome!
As this spread was
going on, a Church elder in Antioch, in Greece called the spreading Church katholicos,! Remember also that it is in
this same Antioch that followers of Christ, members of the new religion were
called Christians!
Since then, many
writers and Historians started to call the Church of Christ Catholic since
according to them, it is now a universal Church since it has spread throughout
the known world!
