Many of the Jews were not open to hearing the Gospel of Jesus proclaimed to him. In the early Church, it was first assumed that the Gospel message was reserved entirely for the Jewish people, that salvation was only open to them. But then Paul felt the call to preach the Gospel to the Gentile, a huge shift in their evangelization efforts. Many of the Gentiles received this message positively, arousing fear and jealousy amongst the Jews.
As the early Church developed and great, Jesus’ humanity and divinity were the subject of a great deal of discussion and controversy. The Arian heresy arose as a part of this controversy, named after Arius, a teacher and presbyter who lived in Alexandria, Egypt in the 4th century. Arius argued that Jesus was a created being with divine attributes rather than a being who was eternally divine. Arius and his beliefs were labeled as heresy at the Council of Nicea in the year 325 AD. Jesus’ eternal divine nature was professed in the Nicene Creed. I bring up the Arian heresy because the saint we celebrate today, St Athanasius, was instrumental in defeating this heresy. Athanasius was a strong voice in this debate in his role as Bishop of Alexandria, an important leadership position in the Early Church. This controversy was so heated in the Early Church that Athanasius was exiled five times for his defense of the doctrine of Christ’s divinity. His writings on the Arian heresy are considered important theological works in the history of the Church, earning Athanasius the title of Doctor of the Church. Among his celebrated writings is the Life of St Anthony of the Desert, a biography of the famous Desert Father. This biography of Anthony and his teachings are said to have had a big influence on the development of monasticism in the Western Church. We celebrate St Athanasius today and unite our prayer to his prayers today.
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