Episode Details

Fr. Peter George Flynn reads Acts chapter six: the Hellenist widows being overlooked in the daily distribution, the apostles’ decision to appoint seven men to handle administration so they can devote themselves to prayer and the Word, and the ordination of the first deacons by the laying on of hands. He unpacks why Greek-speaking Jews were so numerous in Jerusalem — the poignant hope of dying near the Valley of Jehoshaphat — and deflates the assumption that the apostles were running a meals-on-wheels service: “waiting on tables” in ancient Greek means keeping accounts.

A spirited aside follows on the absurdity of giving priests more admin so laypeople can lead communion services, and on the fascinating history of the worker-priest experiment in France and the restoration of the permanent diaconate at Vatican II. The episode closes on a quietly astonishing detail: a great many of the Jerusalem temple priests converted to the faith — the very men who had helped crucify Jesus, now discounting their own cover story.

L'articolo Catechesis – The Greek Jews and the Temple Priest Converts – Fr Peter George Flynn OFM proviene da Radio Maria.