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From: Acts 15:22-31

The Council’s Decision

[22] Then it seemed good to the Apostles and the elders, with the whole Church,
to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Bar-
nabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the
brethren, [23] with the following letter: “The brethren, both the Apostles and the
elders, to the brethren who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia,
greeting. [24] Since we have heard that some persons from us have troubled
you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions,
[25] it has seemed good to us in assembly to choose men and send them to
you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, [26] men who have risked their lives
for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. [27] We have therefore sent Judas and
Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. [28] For
it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater bur-
den than these necessary things: [29] that you abstain from what has been sa-
crificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from unchastity.
If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”

The Reception of the Council’s Decree

[30] So when they were sent off, they went down to Antioch; and having gathered
the congregation together, they delivered the letter. [31] And when they read it,
they rejoiced at the exhortation.

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Commentary:

22-29. The decree containing the decisions of the Council of Jerusalem incorpo-
rating St. James’ suggestions makes it clear that the participants at the Council
are conscious of being guided in their conclusions by the Holy Spirit and that in
the last analysis it is God who has decided the matter.

“We should take,” Melchor Cano writes in the 16th century, “the same road as
the Apostle Paul considered to be the one best suited to solving all matters to
do with the doctrine of the faith. [...] The Gentiles might have sought satisfaction
from the Council because it seemed to take from the freedom granted them by
Jesus Christ, and because it imposed on the disciples certain ceremonies as
necessary, when in fact they were not, since faith is the key to salvation. Nor
did the Jews object by invoking Sacred Scripture against the Council’s decision
on the grounds that Scripture seems to support their view that circumcision is
necessary for salvation. So, by respecting the Council they gave us the criterion
which should be observed at all times; that is, to place full faith in the authority
of the synods confirmed by Peter and his legitimate successors. They say ‘it
has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us’; thus, the Council’s decision is
the decision of the Holy Spirit Himself” (”De Locis”, V, 4).

It is the Apostles and the elders, with the whole Church, who designate the peo-
ple who are to publish the Council’s decree, but it is the Hierarchy which formu-
lates and promulgates it. The text contains two parts—one dogmatic and moral
(verse 28) and the other disciplinary (verse 29). The dogmatic part speaks of im-
posing no burden other than what is essential and therefore declares that pagan
converts are free from the obligation of circumcision and of the Mosaic Law but
are subject to the Gospel’s perennial moral teaching on matters to do with chas-
tity. This part is permanent: because it has to do with a necessary part of God’s
salvific will it cannot change.

The disciplinary part of the decree lays down rules of prudence which can
change, which are temporary. It asks Christians of Gentile background to ab-
stain — out of charity towards Jewish Christians—from what has been sacrificed
to idols, from blood and from meat of animals killed by strangulation.

The effect of the decree means that the disciplinary rules contained in it, al-
though they derive from the Mosaic Law, no longer oblige by virtue of that Law
but rather by virtue of the authority of the Church, which has decided to apply
them for the time being. What matters is not what Moses says but what Christ
says through the Church. The Council “seems to maintain the Law in force,”
writes St. John Chrysostom, “because it selects various prescriptions from it,
but in fact suppresses it, because it does not accept ALL its prescriptions. It
had often spoken about these points, it sought to respect the Law and yet es-
tablish these regulations as coming not from Moses but from the Apostles”
(”Hom. on Acts,” 33).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

From: John 15:12-17

The Law of Love

[12] “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
[13] Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
[14] You are My friends if you do what I command you. [15] No longer do I call
you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have
called you friends, for all that I have heard from My Father I have made known to
you. [16] You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you
should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that whatever you
ask the Father in My name, He may give it to you. [17] This I command you,
to love one another.”

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Commentary:

12-15. Jesus insists on the “new commandment”, which He Himself keeps by
giving His life for us. See note on John 13:34-35.

Christ’s friendship with the Christian, which our Lord expresses in a very special
way in this passage, is something very evident in St. Escriva’s preaching: “The
life of the Christian who decides to behave in accordance with the greatness of
his vocation is so to speak a prolonged echo of those words of our Lord, ‘No lon-
ger do I call you My servants; a servant is one who does not understand what
his master is about, whereas I have made known to you all that My Father has
told Me; and so I have called you My friends’ (John 15:15). When we decide to
be docile and follow the will of God, hitherto unimagined horizons open up before
us.... ‘There is nothing better than to recognize that Love has made us slaves of
God. From the moment we recognize this we cease being slaves and become
friends, sons’ (St. J. Escriva, “Friends of God”, 35).

“Sons of God, friends of God.... Jesus is truly God and truly Man, He is our Bro-
ther and our Friend. If we make the effort to get to know Him well ‘we will share
in the joy of being God’s friends’ [”ibid.”, 300]. If we do all we can to keep Him
company, from Bethlehem to Calvary, sharing His joys and sufferings, we will
become worthy of entering into loving conversation with Him. As the Liturgy of
the Hours sings, “calicem Domini biberunt, et amici Dei facti sunt” (they drank
the chalice of the Lord and so became friends of God).

“Being His children and His friends are two inseparable realities for those who
love God. We go to Him as children, carrying on a trusting dialogue that should
fill the whole of our lives; and we go to Him as friends.... In the same way our
divine sonship urges us to translate the overflow of our interior life into apostolic
activity, just as our friendship with God leads us to place ourselves at ‘the ser-
vice of all men. We are called to use the gifts God has given us as instruments
to help others discover Christ’ [”ibid.”, 258]” (Monsignor A. del Portillo in his pre-
face to St. J. Escriva’s, “Friends of God”).

16. There are three ideas contained in these words of our Lord. One, that the
calling which the Apostles received and which every Christian also receives does
not originate in the individual’s good desires but in Christ’s free choice. It was not
the Apostles who chose the Lord as Master, in the way someone would go about
choosing a rabbi; it was Christ who chose them. The second idea is that the A-
postles’ mission and the mission of every Christian is to follow Christ, to seek ho-
liness and to contribute to the spread of the Gospel. The third teaching refers to
the effectiveness of prayer done in the name of Christ; which is why the Church
usually ends the prayers of the liturgy with the invocation “Through Jesus Christ
our Lord...”.

The three ideas are all interconnected: prayer is necessary if the Christian life is
to prove fruitful, for it is God who gives the growth (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:7); and the
obligation to seek holiness and to be apostolic derives from the fact that it is
Christ Himself who has given us this mission. “Bear in mind, son, that you are
not just a soul who has joined other souls in order to do a good thing.

“That is a lot, but it’s still little. You are the Apostle who is carrying out an impe-
rative command from Christ” (St. J. Escriva, “The Way”, 942).

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.