by Susan Brinkmann
CS&T Correspondent
Things haven’t changed much for Christians in the last 2,000 years.
There are many countries around the world today where Christians are
martyred for their faith, while, in areas such as the “progressive”
West, they suffer in a culture that publicly scorns, mocks and dismisses
devout Christians as “fanatics.”
Early Christians contended with the same hostile forces. Consider this
description of what their lives were like in the first century: “Not
only did they suffer from the threat of persecution and constant personal
insult, but there was the additional difficulty of the extremely high
moral standard of the Church.”
That insight comes from the author Carl J. Sommer, in his new book,
titled, “We Look for a Kingdom: The Everyday Lives of Early Christians.”
Much as we do today, early Christians struggled against enemies both
within and without.
“The individual Christians feared falling back into sinful ways,”
Sommer writes. “This fear was not something that was imposed on
the Christians by a prudish and abusive hierarchy, as some have supposed.
It was primarily self-imposed. The early Christians were, for the most
part, men and women who had been sickened by the excesses of their former
way of life. Their firmest desire was never to return to that way of
life.”
Sound familiar? Anyone who came back to God after a life of sin can
relate to that interior struggle, especially surrounded by a world still
filled with temptations of every kind. Sometimes, the struggle is so
difficult it seems almost impossible that the Church survived for 2,000
years, let alone flourished and became one of the largest religions
on the face of the earth.
Sommer’s book gives a breathtaking look into the world of the
first Christians, and shows how they managed to keep their faith in
an environment of constant hostility that is surprisingly similar to
our world today — showing how much we can learn from our ancestors,
especially from the vibrant prayer life that sustained them.
“The prayer life of the early Christians can be summed up with
one word: communion,” Sommer writes. “They believed that
through prayer they could achieve communion with God and with the Body
of Christ, both on this earth and in heaven. Daily prayer, Eucharist,
and special prayers for the deceased were the components that molded
the lives of the Christians and gave them the strength to live their
hard and dangerous lives.”
The daily life of the early Christian was permeated with prayer. Every
day began and ended with a prayer form that was borrowed from Jewish
practice — the Liturgy of the Hours. Also known as the Divine
Office, it consists of the recitation of psalms and Scripture readings,
and is still in use today.
Early Christians also took time to pray at the third, sixth, and ninth
hours of the day — which means 9 a.m., noon, and 3 p.m. We don’t
know the exact form of their prayer, but we find a clue in the Didache,
the first non-biblical source of Christian prayer, which instructs:
“Neither pray as the hypocrites, but as the Lord commanded in
His Gospel, thus pray: Our Father, who art in heaven … .”
“The Lord’s Prayer was considered the ‘form’
or template of all Christian prayer, because it was given by the Lord
himself,” writes Sommer.
By the 3rd century, the writings of Tertullian, Cyprian, and Origen
tell us that, in addition to those prayer habits, Christians were also
advised to rise in the middle of the night to pray, and to pray before
eating, taking a bath, etc. Those who were employed, or in places where
they could not safely worship in the open, were advised to pray to God
in their heart.
The Didache also recommended that Christians fast on Wednesdays and
Fridays. “On these days. Christians observed what were known as
‘stations,’” Sommer writes. “This term seems
to have had a military origin, and the connotation is that on these
days Christians are on watch like a soldier keeping his station or post.
The fasts ended at the ninth hour with a prayer service.”
Morning and evening prayer was often communal, and small groups of Christians
would gather in one another’s homes, some of which had special
rooms reserved for prayer. They always faced to the East when praying,
and we know from early records that crucifixes were often hung on the
east wall of the house.
The custom of wearing a visible sign of the faith, such as a crucifix,
was also something familiar to the early Christians. Some wore amulets
or “seal rings,” which were made of gems in the shape of
a cross with Christ’s initials carved into the stones.
“The rings served as both a mark of Christian identity and as
a reminder and an aid in daily prayer,” Sommer writes.
That vibrant and continuous habit of prayer during the day certainly
sustained the early Christians, but nothing strengthened them like the
Eucharist.
“The grace the early Christians needed to combat evil and receive
the gift of salvation was given to them primarily through the Eucharist,”
writes Sommer. “It was the Eucharist that helped them to triumph
over persecution, ridicule, and the dangerous temptation of a culture
gone insane.”
Because Christians could not build churches, they modified private homes
to accommodate their weekly service, which took place on Sundays, the
day the Lord rested after creating the world and the day Jesus Christ
rose from the dead. Those house churches often had large meeting rooms
and smaller rooms for baptisms.
Great respect was given to the poor, the elderly and widows during the
services. They were always given preferential seating, even to the point
where a bishop was expected to give up his seat if a poor person had
nowhere to sit.
They also had a beautiful custom in Rome, where there were many house
churches: “The papal Mass would be held early in the morning,”
Sommer writes. “Fragments of the Eucharist from this Mass, called
fermentum [the word means, literally, ‘leaven’] would be
taken to all the tituli, so everyone could share in the same Eucharist."
Early Christians also relied on the communion of saints, and we have
innumerable inscriptions in the catacombs to attest to that belief.
“The belief that the saints in heaven could and would intercede
on the behalf of the living was a powerful motivator for the early Christians,”
writes Sommer.
Belief in life after death was central to their spiritual life, and
they took care with their dead, particularly the martyrs, whose relics
were cherished.
The similarities between Christians of the past and the present are
both a comfort and a guide for those of us who must endure in places
where our faith is not respected. Perhaps the most powerful lesson to
be learned from our past is also the simplest: If they could make it,
so can we.
To purchase a copy of Carl Sommer’s book, visit Ignatius Press
at www.ignatius.com, or call 1-800-651-1531.
Contact Susan Brinkmann at fiat723@aol.com or (215) 965-4615.