In the first reading today we meet the character of Lydia, "a dealer in purple cloth." Since biblical times purple has had a unique meaning, put simply Lydia was rich. Why some have for two thousand years attempted to make it appear that only the poor followed Jesus is beyond me. In fact, men and women, Jew and gentile of every class were drawn by the Spirit into the early church.
The second myth this reading dispels is the notion at somehow infant baptism was a late invention of the Catholic Church. I simply point to the text itself. "After she and her household had been baptized...." The household would have everyone in the household. No where does the scriptures say, her household except infants, or those of her household old enough to profess faith.
The household, the family, has always been seen by Christians as the building block of society, and the Christian family the building blocks of the Church.
