Sunday, 5/1/16
Jesus told the Apostles that there was much more that they
would need to know, but that they were not yet ready to understand it all, but
when the need for them to know arose, the Holy Spirit would lead them to the
right conclusions.
And it happened a dozen year later that there arose a
problem for which Jesus had not prepared them. It was this: the Apostles has
always been orthodox Jews who never eaten anything that was not kosher, and they had never even entered
the hose of Gentles who did not observe kosher. However, the Holy Spirit had
come down on Gentiles who did not observe kosher, and the Apostles did not know
how to behave when those Gentile Christians invited them to dine with them.
It occurred to them that this was one of those situations in
which the Holy Spirit would give them the needed guidance. So they came
together in Jerusalem, and they related their recent experiences in which the
Holy Spirit had led them to put aside the need to observe kosher.
Afterwards they composed a letter to all the churches in
which they formally stated: “It is the decision of the Holy
Spirit and of us not to place on you any burden.”
That coming together of the Apostles, seeking the guidance of
the Holy Spirit, came about around the year 45 A.D. Since then, over twenty-one
centuries, our bishops, the successors of the Apostles, have come together in
twenty-one Ecumenical Councils. At them they have sought the guidance of the
Holy Spirit for meeting new difficulties.
At the end of the last of those, the Second Vatican Council,
the bishops, following the example of the Apostles, issued a formal statement
for all the churches. But, the sum of the decisions to which the Holy Spirit
directed them went far beyond the decree of that first council, and they have contrasted
even more with the decisions of the Council of Trent from four centuries ago.
The decrees of the Council of Trent were defensive documents
issued by a church that was rebelled against and attacked on all sides. While
it stated that we were the one true
church, Vatican II sees all other Christians as either belonging to, or closely
related to that true church. While Trent saw humans as born in sin, and
alienated from God, Vatican II stated, “The
dignity of man consists above all in this that he is called to commune with
God, and this invitation to converse with God comes to him at the first moment
of his being.”
Trent went so far in demanding our obedience to its stiff
regulations that Catholics find it difficult to follow the Holy Spirit and Pope
Francis in seeing us all as brothers.
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