Love or Latin?
Introduction
The Jerusalem Council
The
first reading from the Acts of the Apostles is more relevant than it appears. A dispute in the early church
occasioned a meeting in Jerusalem. Some Pharisee converts to Christianity were
telling Gentile (non-Jewish) converts that, “Unless you are circumcised as the
Law of Moses requires, you cannot be saved” (Acts 15:1-2). That stirred
up a heated debate. So Paul, Barnabas and others went to Jerusalem to confer
with the apostles and elders there about this burning issue. Even in Jerusalem
some of the Pharisees were insisting that Gentile converts must be circumcised,
and must obey the Law of Moses. That so-called “Law” (singular) was really a
huge accumulation of 613 major laws, and very many more minor laws.
In
Jerusalem, they called a meeting. Peter got up and related how God had shown
his approval of Gentiles by giving them
the Holy Spirit, and how many of them had turned to belief in Christ. Peter
said, ”It is that belief, not the observance of the Law of Moses,
which saves them, just as it saves us.” Then he made a very bold admission
saying, “Why place on the backs of Gentile converts a burden which neither our
ancestors nor we ourselves were able to carry?” (Acts 15:10)
The
apostle James got up and said, “It is my opinion that we should not trouble the
Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead, let’s simply write them a letter,
giving them a few necessary rules to follow, and let’s let it go at that”(Acts
15:19-20).
The
council wrote this letter: “We, the apostles and elders send greetings to all
the brothers of Gentile birth who live in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia. The Holy
spirit and we have agreed not to put any other burden on you except these few
necessary rules: eat no food that has been offered to idols; eat no blood; eat
no animal that has been strangled; and keep yourself from unlawful
marriages. You will do well if you keep
yourselves from doing these things. Farewell.” The messengers returned to
Antioch, gathered the assembly of believers and delivered the letter to them.
Acts says, “When the letter was read to the people, they were filled with joy
by its message of encouragement” (Acts 15:1-35).
What’s
so relevant about all that? Well, it’s been said that that council in Jerusalem
was the first of the church’s Ecumenical Councils. Not too many Catholics
experience an Ecumenical Council in their lives. We older ones experienced
Vatican II. Convened in 1962, it lasted four years. Before Vatican II there was
Vatican I. Convened in 1869, it lasted one year. But between Vatican I and the Council of Trent before it, there
was an empty interval of 306 years.
Trent was convened in 1543 and it
concluded in 1563. Trent had the
enormous task of dealing with the Protestant Reformation, which was threatening
the life of the Catholic Church, and that’s why it lasted for 18!
The old burdens (plural)
When Vatican II
concluded in 1966, it also wrote us a letter; in fact, it wrote us 13 letters,
13 new documents with which to guide the life of the church through a painful
period of reconstruction that lay
ahead. Like the council of Jerusalem,
it also announced to us the decision of the Holy Spirit and its own “to lay no further burden upon you except
that, which is strictly necessary.”
Many of us
remember the many burdens of the old church before Vatican II. We remember how one piece of meat eaten on a
Friday, how one sin hidden in Confession, how one “bad thought” (sexual, of
course) entertained with delight, how one gulp of water swallowed before
Communion, how one Mass missed of a Sunday morning (the litany is endless) --
we remember how those many burdens weighed heavily upon many of us on our
journey to salvation. Then came Vatican
II which announced to us in so many
words that the Council “and the Holy Spirit
have decided to lay no further burdens” upon us except the gospel
burden of justice and charity.”
The new burden (singular)
Many of us
“were filled with joy by the message of
encouragement” that came from Vatican II. We were delighted that the
burden of 613 laws was lifted from our backs, and was replaced now with the one
gospel burden of justice and charity.
But others were filled with sadness and some even with anger that the
burden of the 613 laws, which kept them busy as Roman Catholics, was lifted
from their backs. Some cried out, “My gosh, now we look like Protestants!”
Looking back, now, perhaps those of us who were delighted with the one new law
of justice and charity placed upon us by the Council didn’t realize that that
law gives no rest! And perhaps
those who were angry with the one new law (replacing the 613 laws that kept
them busy at being Roman Catholics) had a deep suspicion that their rest was
over!
There are some
who are still sad and even angry to this very day. Listen to what one group
wrote in the New York Times for Sunday, April 8, 2001:
“We commemorate the tenth anniversary of
the death of the 20th century’s greatest Catholic churchman
(referring to French Archbishop Marcel
Lefebvre).
We admire his unshakable heroic faith.
We applaud his defense of Catholicism
against the errors of Vatican II and the new mass (in English and not in
Latin).
All Catholics are indebted to him
for founding and sustaining the Society of St. Pius X.
THANK YOU YOUR GRACE.”
Beware!
“Unless you are
circumcised according to Mosaic practice, you cannot be saved” (Acts 15:1).
Statements like that bear a hidden danger, and they implicitly call for a
“caveat”: Beware! Beware whenever
someone (“religious” people especially) tells you “you can’t saved from this or
that unless you do this or that.”
We Catholics
especially can appreciate this warning. Now that the dust, kicked up by Vatican
II has settled, many of us have come to discover that we can eat meat on Friday
and still be saved; that we can miss mass on Sunday and still be saved; that we
can be divorced and even remarried and still be saved; that we can be
non-Catholic Christians (Lutherans) or even non-Christians (Buddhists and
Moslems) and still be saved. And many of us (but apparently non all) have come
to discover that we can do the mass up in “non-Latin” (English, Spanish,
Italian) and still be saved.
Beware of
anyone who says to you, “You can not attain salvation unless you do this or that. Beware of anyone who wishes
to impose a new burden or to re-impose an old burden on you. In
Galatians, Paul warns Jewish converts saying, "Christ has come to set us
free from circumcision and the Law. So
beware that you don't ever submit to that burden again" (Gal 5:1).
Parables of salvation
Jesus crafted
two famous parables about salvation; parables about what does not save us and
what does. The first one: Once upon a
time there was a very rich man who dressed in purple, and who ate splendidly
everyday. But down at the gate lay a poor beggar named Lazarus whose sores the
dogs were licking as he begged for the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s
table. With time both Lazarus and
Dives, the rich man, died. The poor man
was carried by angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man was buried in
Hades, where he was in great torment, and where his parched throat called up to
Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger
in some water to cool off his tongue (Lk 16:19-31).
If someone tells you cannot be saved unless
you do the mass up in Latin, don’t believe him. If someone tells you can’t be
saved unless you show justice and charity to the poor man out there lying by
your gate, believe him.
The second
parable: Once upon a time a man, going
from Jerusalem to Jericho, falls in with robbers who relieve him of his money,
beat him to a pulp and leave him half-dead. Along comes a Jewish priest who
sees the poor man, crosses the street, and passes him by. Along comes a Levite
who does the same. Finally along comes a Samaritan (considered “yukie” by
Jews), sees the dying man, pours the
oil of compassion into his wounds, hoists him on to his beast of burden and
hurries him off to the nearest inn, where he digs deep into his pocket and pulls out a costly
sum of money to provide for the man’s recovery. With time all three die.
Angels carry the “yukie” Samaritan to the bosom of Abraham. The Jewish priest
and Levite are buried in Hades, where they are in great torment, and where
their parched throats called up to the Samaritan to dip the tip of his finger in some water to cool off their
tongues (Lk 10: 25-37).
Conclusion
(Latin or Love?)
If someone tells
you that God’s favorite language is Latin, don’t believe him. If someone
tells you cannot be saved unless you do the mass up in Latin, don’t believe
him. If someone says you can’t be saved unless you stop on the highway of life
and pour the oil of compassion upon another’s wounds, believe him.
In Galatians,
St. Paul writes, “Bear one another’s
burdens on the highway of life, and you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal
6:2).
I wonder why in
the area of religion and salvation we
tend to alight upon minutiae and picky stuff?
Is it because the Law of Love,
the Law of Christ, is much more costly,
makes us dig much more deeply into our
pockets than does the “Law of Latin?”