Posted on May 23, 2025 View all Gospel Reflection
Promises, promises…
This Sunday we stand just a little before the Ascension of the Lord to Heaven and the Descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Jesus said to his disciples “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.” (John 14:26) This promise is vitally important for the life of the Church and for our very salvation.
The Holy Spirit is the person of the Holy Trinity that moves, inspires and gives life to the varied missionary and evangelical activities of the Church and its members. That is why we call the upcoming Solemnity of Pentecost as the birthday of the church. In the readings for today we see why it is so important to allow the Holy Spirit to work in the Church. In the early days of the Church, the disciples and the different communities were trying to figure out more of the details of how to be faithful to the teachings of Christ and what was needed for salvation.
Illustrating this point we see the two points of view of those who had come down from Judea and others. Acts says that “there was no little dissention and debate”. That is probably an understatement. The issue at hand was how completely persons who wanted to become Christians needed to fulfill the Mosaic practices and traditions. The key one for today was that of circumcision. This was a direct commandment from God to Moses. “This is the covenant between me and you and your descendants after you that you must keep: every male among you shall be circumcised.” (Genesis 17:9)
Something that might be lost on us is how the discussion in Jerusalem played out. The disciples who argued that the Christians should first fulfill the Mosaic practices and then they could be admitted to Christianity had a good amount of tradition behind them. First, of course, was that Jesus himself was a circumcised Jew. Second, it was to the Jewish people that God had chosen to be His people and from them would come the Messiah to restore the throne of David. And while there is a basis from Isaiah to welcome Gentiles, citing Isaiah who said that the sacrifices in the temple of the sons of the foreigner who join themselves to the Lord, to be his servants will be accepted on God’s altar. (cf Is. 56:6-7) There is also the prescript form Exodus (Ex. 12:48) that prohibited uncircumcised foreigners from participating in the Passover meal.
St. James made these arguments before the leaders in Jerusalem. But then St. Peter spoke and said that God made his choice among you that through my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe. He further said that God made no distinction between us and them. (cf. Acts 15:7-9) In our reading today we now see something dramatic. James after having heard from St. Peter, accepted his teachings with authority and after summarizing what St. Peter had said, he accepted that teaching and declared “It is my judgment, therefore, that we ought to stop troubling the Gentiles who turn to God.” (Acts 15:19) In this first Council of Jerusalem, we see the primacy of Peter and the fidelity of the other leaders to the magisterium of the church. As we enter the new pontificate of Pope Leo XIV, we are invited by the reading of these sacred scriptures to let the Lord teach us and guide us through His Church, and that not my will but His be done.
