Acts 15
Today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles describes how the earliest Church finished the controversy of circumcision for the Gentile Christian communities. After much debate and consideration, the Church decided not to impose circumcision on the Gentile converts. Instead, the Church also required four precepts. They are the abstinence from food sacrificed to pagan idols, from blood, from strangled animal meat, and from fornication. These four prohibitions originate from the book of Leviticus, one of the first five books of the Old Testament, which mostly defines Israel’s ritual laws. In other words, these four precepts prohibit Jewish people from being ritually polluted and from being unable to join any religious celebration as a result.
But one thing to be noted here is that, in the Old Testament, these precepts were applied also to foreign people residing in Israel’s territories. It means these laws were not merely technical regulations for ritual purity but also spiritual and moral precepts.
The abstinence from food used in pagan worships prevented Christians from participating in pagan celebrations. The abstinence from blood reminds of the sanctity of life and of God as the sole master of life, because drinking blood was often practiced as a means of absorption of life as we see in vampire stories even in our popular culture today. To strangle animals violated proper ways to slaughter animals. For Israel people, to slaughter animals always meant sacrifice because all life is holy and God is the master. Improperly killing animals violates God’s authority over life. Fornication here means all kinds of sexual immorality as well as illegitimate marriages. Sexual immoralities were closely associated with pagan religious practices as well as pagan morality, which were viewed as opposing God the Creator’s will for humanity.
You might think the Christian Church decided a rupture from Judaism when she declared circumcision was not required for the Gentile converts. On the contrary, these four requirements show there is a clear continuity from Judaism to Christianity. By this decision, Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians could celebrate the Eucharist without irreconcilable tensions. It was a new synthesis to include new peoples under one Shepherd, Christ Jesus. However, it was not a compromise of principles but purification and clarification of the Christian spirit. This Jerusalem council left an exemplar for the Church about how to adopt in a new situation.
This pandemic makes us reflect on the essential things of life and society. It also allows us to examine our faith life and our religious practices. It is time to purify. Let us look for the essentials in our faith.
