Word to the Wise
Wednesday, October 11, 2006 - 27th Wednesday in Ordinary Time
[Galatians 2:1-2, 7-14 and Luke 11:1-4]"And when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he clearly was wrong.......'If you, though a Jew, are living like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?'"
The Letter of St. Paul to the Galatians "tells it like it is!" It's not just the issue of whether or not Gentile converts must be circumcised and observe the law of Moses. Paul directly accuses the "first Pope" of hypocrisy! It seems that Peter was anticipating the old expression, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do!" In this case, Peter was trying to placate the people who believed that observance of the Mosaic laws was essential to Christian identity by appearing to side with them, when in point of fact he was not observing that law when among the Gentiles! Gulp! I suppose something could be made about the question of standing up to religious authority when one thinks that authority is wrong! My own thought moves toward the perennial moral problem of maintaining one's own integrity of faith in the midst of other good people who do not share that faith. This isn't a matter of giving into evil. It is a matter of maintaining a way of life in a consistent and identifiable fashion in a culture that may not support it. Do we abandon our principles for the sake of convenience or "to get along?" Politicians face this problem every day! In an older day, Catholics faced it when meat was served at a banquet on Friday!!!! Peter got caught for hypocrisy when he took the side of the "Jewish" party even though he was not living their policy himself. The consistency here was not in belief but in behavior! Perhaps the best that can be said is that Peter was "struggling" with the issue. Most of us do that at some point in our lives and we would be incensed if someone called us a "hypocrite" every time we fail in our efforts to live up to the highest ideals that we espouse. Some of us would find Paul harsh. Other's would say "Right on!" Before saying anything, we need to know how we would behave in the same circumstances. AMEN
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