Word to the Wise
Thursday, May 6, 2010 - Thursday in the Fifth Week of Easter
[Acts 15:7-21 and John 15:12-17]My brothers, you are well aware that from early days God made his choice among you that through my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the Gospel and bellieve. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness by granting them the Holy Spirit just as he did us.......
As I have mentioned before, the Acts of the Apostles contains a number of "moments" that were extremely important for the future of the young Christian community. The coming of the Holy Spirit, the conversion of Paul, his decision to start preaching to non-Jewish peoples, and now, in today's first scripture, we have the "Council of Jerusalem" where Paul is trying to prevent all his work (indeed his theology!) from coming undone! The essential issue is the role of the Law of Moses in the life of the community. We have to remember that Paul was once a Pharisee, and a rather zealous one. If anyone knew what the Law of Moses meant to a Jew, he would! His conversion brought him to understand that salvation was not from the Law of Moses, but from the death and resurrection of Jesus. When his preaching about this in Jewish communities nearly got him killed, he turned to preaching to non-Jews! This is when things began to get tense! The "Gentiles" would not have had any experience with Jewish observances except marginally. Why would the Holy Spirit require these observances as a matter of faith? The text indicates that the matter was hotly debated before a kind of "face saving" compromise was reached that gradually disappeared. The issue, however, hasn't gone away! We Catholics still debate the role and necessity of certain observances. We still debate the role of the Holy Spirit in the everyday life of the Church because there are well-intentioned folks who do destructive things while claiming to be under the guidance of the Holy Spirit! At the Council of Jerusalem, there were those who thought St. Paul was in that latter category! The whole thing is a bit like the organs, muscles and skeleton all arguing over what is necessary for the body! The discernment of the Church, remembering the ministry of Jesus, has brought forth the sacraments which are the fundamental "observances" of the community. These are certainly not the ONLY way in which the presence of Christ is recognized in the Church through the action of the Holy Spirit. However, they ARE the guarantee of that presence. Our rich heritage of devotional prayer, fasting and almsgiving, not to mention the complete necessity of the rich tradition of social justice which the sacraments are meant to inspire, are all ways and means of the Holy Spirit acting in our midst. Keeping the entire body in view can help us from over emphasizing one aspect to the damage of another! AMEN
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