Where I live, the Solemnity Lord's Ascension is observed the Sunday following the fortieth day after Easter. Stated more clearly, instead of celebrating "Ascension Thursday," we celebrate Ascension Sunday on what is otherwise the Seventh Sunday of Easter. So, we do not observe the Seventh Sunday of Easter.
As a result, for the readings for the Sixth Sunday of Easter the second reading and Gospel for the Seventh Sunday of Easter may be used. This leaves the first reading from Acts 15 as the reading that cannot be replaced.
It is an important reading because it tells of the somewhat anachronistically-named "Council of Jerusalem." While what this reading conveys is something about a council not of the early the Church but the primitive Church, it is not, juridically speaking, a council in the fullblown sense of later Councils, like Nicea and Vatican II. This gathering was certainly synodal in nature.
Being a council (as opposed to a "Council"?), this meeting in Jerusalem, like Nicea and most subsequent Councils, canons or juridical decisions were promulgated. The immediate cause for this gathering was to adjudicate the claim that in order to be saved, Gentile converts to Christianity had to be circumcised. The matter was brought to Jerusalem by Paul and Barnabas.
Presiding over this proceeding was James the close relative of Jesus. He is known as James the Just. During their missionary activity among the Gentiles, among whom they were establishing the Church, so-called "Judaizers" were teaching, contra Paul and Barnabas, both the necessity of circumsision and even full-blown adherence to the Law.
After deliberating, named representatives were sent with Paul and Barnabas from Jerusalem to Antioch to deliver their judgment on this and other divisive matters pertaining to Christian praxis. Before taking up specific issues, a principle is given: not to place on anyone any burden beyond what is necessary. What did they deem necessary?
First, not to eat meat sacrificed to idols. Second, not to eat blood. Third, not to eat the meat of any animal that was strangled. Fourth, not to enter into unlawful marriages.
Now, each of the four canons or rulings are derived from Jewish law. It bears noting that the prohbition against eating the meat of strangled animals is omitted from some ancient manuscripts and sources.
The Greek word translated by the phrase "unlawful marriage" in our lectionary and in the NAB(RE) (the revision of the Revised Edition of the New American Bible consists only of a new translation of the Old Testament) is πορνεία. Transliterated, porneia- the origin of the English pornography. It is a Greek word used to refer to several specific sexual matters or all of them together, making translation very dependent on context.
In this context, I believe the best translation, as found in other versions, like the New International Version, might be "sexual immorality." The reason for this is that covers all the specific things to which the word refers: adultery, fornication, homosexuality, sex with close relatives, even sex with a divorced person, etc.
Whether one likes it or not, one of the things that made Christians stand out from the beginning in the ancient world of the Roman Emprie were strict sexual ethics. While Paul later attenuated the stricture against eating meat sacrificed to idols (i.e., don't do it if you're going to scandalize a fellow believer), he never wavered on matters pertaining to porneia.
Despite being quite easy to demonstrate, such an assertion these days strikes many as controversial. But then, we live in a time and culture that has all but reduced human personhood to sexuality. Calesco ergo sum?
Wisely, the council determined that circumcision, seemingly the most contentious issue, is not required of Christian converts. One can imagine the impact such a requirement might have on evangelization! Elsewhere, Paul takes this issue up with his characteristic directness. He emphasizes that one becomes a Christian through baptism and that baptism is open to men and women, slave and free, and to Jew and Gentile alike (see Galatians 3:27-29).
For Christians, water is thicker than blood- this, too, is a fundamental principle! This principle should be focused on all the more during Easter.
Speaking to Members of Pontifical Mission Societies, Pope Leo highlighted something that dovetails nicely with a reading concerning the intense missionary activities of Paul and Barnabas. After noting that "The promotion of apostolic zeal among the People of God remains an essential aspect of the Church’s renewal as envisioned by the Second Vatican Council, and is all the more urgent in our own day," the Holy Father went on to note "the importance of fostering a spirit of missionary discipleship in all the baptized and a sense of the urgency of bringing Christ to all people."
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Program note: as I mentioned last October when I resumed blogging in earnest here, this will be my primary participation in social media. I will maintain my other accounts almost exclusively for the purpose of posting what I write here. Comments, while moderated, are open. I don't mind comments on my posts on other platforms, which I may or not get to. It is past time for me to make this change. I project one more post during May: Friday's traditio.
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