Text messages fail us!

Acts 15:1-2.22-29

Some men came down from Judaea and taught the brothers, ‘Unless you have yourselves circumcised in the tradition of Moses you cannot be saved.’ This led to disagreement, and after Paul and Barnabas had had a long argument with these men it was arranged that Paul and Barnabas and others of the church should go up to Jerusalem and discuss the problem with the apostles and elders. Then the apostles and elders decided to choose delegates to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas; the whole church concurred with this. They chose Judas known as Barsabbas and Silas, both leading men in the brotherhood, and gave them this letter to take with them:

‘The apostles and elders, your brothers, send greetings to the brothers of pagan birth in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia. We hear that some of our members have disturbed you with their demands and have unsettled your minds. They acted without any authority from us; and so we have decided unanimously to elect delegates and to send them to you with Barnabas and Paul, men we highly respect who have dedicated their lives to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accordingly we are sending you Judas and Silas, who will confirm by word of mouth what we have written in this letter. It has been decided by the Holy Spirit and by ourselves not to saddle you with any burden beyond these essentials: you are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols; from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from fornication. Avoid these, and you will do what is right. Farewell.’

Food for thought!

The influx of those who aren't Jews into the early Church produced a problem which had to be solved. The mental background of the Jew was founded on the fact that he (the Jew) belonged to God, and God belonged to the Jews. In order to belong to God, a person had to belong to the Jews. This is why the reading says that some people in the church were preaching, ‘Unless you have yourselves circumcised in the tradition of Moses you cannot be saved.’

It may sound as nothing for us, but this issue threatened to destroy the Church. In order to address it, the apostles and other Christians met in what is known as the First Ecumenical Council (similar to Vatican II). As you know, this was the first but not the last of such Councils (meetings). The most recent one in 1965, the Second Vatican Council. Even today, there are issues that have divided Catholics. For instance, should women ever be ordained priests? Should priests ever marry? Should the divorced be allowed to marry again or to receive communion? Etc.

Back to the Council of Jerusalem. At this meeting the Church took a bold decision: "It has been decided by the Holy Spirit and by ourselves not to saddle you with any burden beyond these essentials: you are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols; from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from fornication. Avoid these, and you will do what is right. Farewell.’"

Once the Church had come to its decision, it acted with both efficiency and courtesy. The terms of the decision were embodied in a letter. But the letter was sent by no common messenger; it was entrusted to Judas and to Silas who went to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. Had Paul and Barnabas come back alone their enemies might have doubted that they brought back a correct message; Judas and Silas were official emissaries and guarantors of the reality of the decision.

The Church was wise in sending a person as well as a letter. For we learn more from the living and abiding voice than from any amount of reading. A letter could have sounded coldly official; but the words of Judas and Silas added a friendly warmth that the bare reception of a letter could never have achieved.

Much trouble might be avoided many times if only a personal visit is paid instead of sending emails and text messages. There are many people, many families, many lives and relationships destroyed by inadvertent text messages (sms). We all know this experience, of sending text messages only to regret immediately after because we sent them to the wrong person or wrote the wrong things or wrote under bad mood, or have been misunderstood and misrepresented by the text message. Yes, many relationships have gone sour because of written and found text messages.

We do well to learn from the early Church that written words are not enough; sometimes it is better to accompany our written words; written words sometimes don't tell our tale; yes, sometimes text messages fail us, and we fail because of them. Sometimes words fail us.

Even God knows this, after sending us text messages (scriptures), finally he sent us his very Son: «In the past, God spoke to our people through the prophets. He spoke at many times. He spoke in different ways. But in these last days, he [personally has come and] has spoken to us through his Son.» (Heb. 1:1-2)