Thanks, Cornelius!

A Reflection on the Second Reading for Sunday, January 12th, 2025:
The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

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Acts
10:34-38

Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every people anyone who fears him and practices righteousness[d] is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all. That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. ​

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

Italians can boast a lot of firsts: first transatlantic radio signal; first to realize that the Earth revolves around the sun; first forks, gelato, and espresso. In Cornelius the Centurion, they have an even bigger brag: first non-Jewish Christian. Like, ever. Yeah.

Seriously though, Cornelius may be one of the most overlooked heroes of the New Testament. Here is a member of the Italian army who believes in Jesus. Meanwhile, over here is Peter, trying to figure out what God is telling him through three visions (Peter learns in threes, it seems) about all food being acceptable to eat.

This Sunday’s Second Reading is part of a longer, impromptu homily that Peter gives at Cornelius’ house, where he’s been invited by an angel’s prompting. His whole homily has the feel of someone realizing the truth of what he’s saying, in the moment the words are coming from his mouth. Speaking here in the house of a gentile soldier who believes in Jesus, Peter realizes the meaning of his visions. He recognizes that the Kingdom of God is to include all people, not just Jews. When he says, “I truly understand that God shows no partiality,” he means that God is not going to bring only the circumcised into the Kingdom; rather, the Kingdom includes every single human. 
And this is blowing Peter’s mind.

I wondered what Peter may have thought of the Kingdom of God until this moment. I learned from the 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia that the prayers and rites of the Jewish people reflected a belief that the Kingdom of God would come only when it was acknowledged and taken up, like a yoke, by mankind and all false idols were cast out. So it would be understandable for Peter to assume that only Jewish people would “go” for this. The encyclopedia says there was a prevalent belief that “when the Kingdom of Rome has ripened enough to be destroyed, the Kingdom of God will appear.” The encyclopedia continues: “The greater, then, the oppression of the Worldly Kingdom (Rome), the more eager the Jewish people, particularly the pious ones, were for ‘the Kingdom of Heaven,’ as they called it, to come speedily.”

John the Baptist, whom Peter mentions here, said the Kingdom of Heaven was near. Peter realizes, in that moment, that the Kingdom of Heaven is now. Cornelius, the representative of an oppressive Rome had been destroyed in the sense that he had died so as to live hidden in Christ (Colossians 3:3). Cornelius had cast aside his false gods. He “believes in him” and therefore “receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Peter will, in a short while, baptize Cornelius, cementing the centurion’s role as the first Christian gentile. Both come away “converted,” Cornelius as a Christian and Peter with a radical shift in how he imagines the Kingdom and who will inhabit it. As a gentile hoping to inhabit the Kingdom with the two of them someday, I am pretty grateful to Italy for giving us this “first.” And thanks for the forks, too.

​
Kate Mosher​

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