Word to the Wise
Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - Wednesday in the 27th Week in Ordinary Time
[Gal 2:1-2, 7-14 and Luke 11:1-4]"If you, though a Jew, are living like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how an you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?" [Galatians]
Paul's Letter to the Galatians is a passionate document. He is defending his message and his authority to preach it. He is concerned about preachers who appeared in the Galatian community after he left there and who were claiming that observance of the Law of Moses, in particular circumcision of males, was necessary for salvation. This issue was resolved, more or less, by a meeting in Jerusalem in which leaders such as Peter, James and John recognized the legitimacy of what Paul was preaching and supported him. It was a pivotal moment in the early history of Christianity. It would no longer be a "sect" of Judaism but a faith reaching out to the whole world. The process took a long time to resolve itself, as Paul's Letter to the Galatians and other letters reveal.
There are lessons here that are surprisingly modern. Many of us can identify with the experience of being present at the creation of something very important to us and nursing it along to success only to see some of our "converts" take over and begin to do things with it that we don't like. One can take any number of moments in Catholic church history where one group claimed to represent the "true" church and rejected those who were "changing" it. Both the "pro-change" and "anti-change" groups have a tendency to claim possession of the Holy Spirit and the Truth! Neither the Holy Spirit nor the truth about Christ are possessions, and all of us must remember the dictum that those who ignore the lessons of history are condemned to repeat them.
The success of Paul's missionary journeys (and those of other early Christian preachers) speaks for itself, but his vision alone did not command all that is to be said. The gospels and the other New Testament literature show that the Holy Spirit works in many different ways. We need to remember that in understanding what the word "Church" means! AMEN
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