Thursday,
5/22/14
Our first
reading is an account from the first council of the church.
In John,
Chapter 16, we read where Jesus said, “I have much more to tell you, but you
cannot bear it now, but when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will lead you to
all truth. “ Jesus was there saying that entirely new problems would arise for
the Apostles, and there was no way he could give them directions in advance. He
said that at the proper time, if they came together, the Holy Spirit would
direct them to the right solutions to their problems.
The Church, in
response to that advanced warning from Jesus, over the years and over the
centuries, came together when major new problems arose. The apostles and their
successors ask the Holy Spirit to guide them to the right solutions.
The gathering
in today’s first reading was the first council of the church. (Jumping ahead to
the end of it, the Apostles published the conclusions they reached by saying,
“It seems good to the Holy Spirit and to us to place no further burden on the
Gentiles converts.)
Today’s
account of the first Council of Jerusalem begins by saying there was much
debate. Then Peter swayed the whole number of those attending . He led them to deciding that people could become
Christians without first becoming converts to Judaism. Finally, the most revered
man there, the Apostles James, a cousin of Jesus, swayed the whole number to
saying that they should not put the burden of observing kosher on Gentile converts
to Christianity.
The Council
of Trent, held from 1545 to 1563 was the Eighteen full Church Council.
Attending were only bishops from four European countries where Catholicism was
the only legal religion. With little or no debate those bishops approved the
decrees written by two Jesuit priests.
Vatican II
was the Church’s twentieth full council. Meeting from 1962 to1965, bishops from
a hundred countries took part. Over four years they had opportunity to voice
the views the Holy Spirit had suggested to them.
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