Wednesday of the
Fifth Week of Easter
(Acts 15:1-6; John
15:1-8)
A second-century layman
named Marcion taught that Christians did not need the Old Testament. For him the God of the Old Testament was fierce
and distinct from the loving Father of Jesus Christ. If Marcion had been in charge when Paul was
converting gentiles, Paul might not have needed to go to Jerusalem in today’s
first reading.
But Paul would
certainly have rejected Marcion’s theology.
He would have acknowledged the continuity between the Old Testament and
the New. He certainly saw Christ as the
fulfillment of the promise God made to the Jews since Abraham. This truth, however, did not resolve the most
pressing issue in the first century Church: did a male Gentile have to be
circumcised before he could be incorporated into Christ. If he had to be circumcised, the thrust of
preaching Christ to the Gentiles, would have been almost surely thwarted. But Paul was not looking for an easy way to
convert Gentiles. He always insisted on practicing
“the truth of the gospel.”
The text says that the apostles and “the presbyters of the Jerusalem community met together” to resolve the matter. It could not be decided by the fiat of one person but necessitated the injunction of the Holy Spirit. Knotty issues of our time need the same kind of deliberation and prayer. Should the Church deny Holy Communion to politicians who defy its explicit teaching on abortion? Should the Church accept married men for ordination to the priesthood where there is an acute shortage of priests? How might the Church allow women into positions of governance? These are the kind of concerns that requires intensive solicitation of the Holy Spirit.
