MAY22024

When Paul and Barnabbas returned from the First Missionary Journey they reported the success they had preaching to non-Jews, to the Gentiles. This caused a scandal since they had not required the Gentiles to become Jews before receiving them into the Church. The first great crisis in the Church: is following Jesus simply an alternative way of being a Jew or is it something more expansive than that? Those first Christians met to decide the issue at what is known as the Jerusalem Council. What characterized that Council was listening to the experiences of Peter, Paul and Barnabbas. They listened while Paul and Barnabas described the signs and wonders God had worked among the Gentiles through them. Instead of trying to fit what it meant to be Church in a pre-determined box, they looked for the signs of God’s Spirit as they had different encounters. God is always bigger than our ideas or notions. They let that experience guide their decision on how to be Church. Pope Francis is doing something similar in the call for us to be a synodal Church. Listening to each other and seeing the presence of the Spirit will lead us into God’s future for us.