Easter weekday

Everybody out!

In his biography of the Roman emperor Claudius, the ancient historian Suetonius mentioned an event that the New Testament Acts of the Apostles also noted: “Since the Jews constantly made disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus, he”—the emperor—“expelled them from Rome,” Suetonius wrote. The Romans did not distinguish between Jews and Jews who had become Christians. To them, the Jewish followers of Christ— “Chrestus”—were a sect within the Jewish community. If both sides weren’t going to get along, then they all had to go. Among those Jewish-Christian refugees were a married couple, Aquila and Priscilla, who would later become important coworkers of Saint Paul. Most hostility and hatred grows out of ignorance. Do what you can to inform yourself and others and bring people together around common understandings.

Today’s readings: Acts 18:1-8; John 16:16-20 (294)
“Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome.”