+ It is the human way
to proceed slowly and cautiously before any big changes take place! This
was also true of the “human element” of the newly inaugurated Divine Mystical
Body of Christ, the Church. Though infused with the Holy Spirit, the still
weakened and somewhat darkened intellectual part of the minds of many of the
early Christians, even Apostles and presbyters (priests) were a bit slow in
“piecing it all together” – especially about the transition from the Old
Testament to the New. The question in point today is the total acceptance of Gentiles as true and genuine coheirs with the
Jews to the merits of Jesus’ death and resurrection! So many in the early
months and years were less than enthusiastic about simply letting the Gentiles
in “scot-free”!
It is Peter today who speaks
to the gathering of Church members and he tells them that quite obviously, the same Holy Spirit that rushed
upon them at Pentecost, has also fell upon these Gentiles in their midst:
it is because of the visible fruits thereof that came the proof: they proclaimed Jesus as Lord, called on God
as their Father – and yearned to be part of the table fellowship with the rest
of the Christian community.
An additional question was
whether or not they had to be converted first to Judaism, before being
converted again to Christianity. Peter, James and many others of the Apostles
agreed that this was not necessary:
what was necessary was that they
“turned to” “converted” to the Lord Christ and King, ONCE, AND FOR ALL TIME!
The gospel passage tells us
that all who belong to the one Christian community – whether coming in from
Judaism, Gentilism or straight away from the world: have one thing in common: they have a strong, deep and overriding
desire to “keep the commandments of Jesus, which are all about LOVE” – and
Jesus and his Father will both come and
reside and remain in such persons – being the source of great joy both now
and forever! Amen!
It is self-evident, then, who
is a Christ-centered person, and who isn’t. And it up to us to deal
compassionately, yet persistently and vigorously against those who, wittingly
or not, are part of the world-centered, ant-Christ clan.
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