Memory of the Saints and the Prophets

Memorial of the blessed martyrs of Algeria. Among them we remember Father Christian de Chergé, the prior of the trappiest monastery of Notre Dame de l'Atlas, in Tibhirine in Algeria; he was kidnapped and killed with six of his confreres by terrorists in 1996.

Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people acquired by God
to proclaim his marvellous works.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Acts 15,1-6

Then 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 decided that Paul and Barnabas and others of the church should go up to Jerusalem and discuss the question with the apostles and elders. The members of the church saw them off, and as they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria they told how the gentiles had been converted, and this news was received with the greatest satisfaction by all the brothers. When they arrived in Jerusalem they were welcomed by the church and by the apostles and elders, and gave an account of all that God had done through them. But certain members of the Pharisees' party who had become believers objected, insisting that gentiles should be circumcised and instructed to keep the Law of Moses. The apostles and elders met to look into the matter,

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Chapter 15 of the Acts of the Apostles is one of the key moments of the book and narrates the solution of the question that concerned the Christian community about the relationship between Judaism and Christianity. Do pagans who convert to the Gospel have to submit or not to the Jewish Law? Paul and Barnabas, who had created communities that were made up primarily of Gentiles, did not think that they had to require those who had converted to Christianity to be circumcised. This practice clearly put in discussion the relationship between the communities who started from the preaching to the Gentiles and those who came from Judaism. It was particularly difficult moment for the starting Christian community. There was the risk of provoking a ripping division within the rising Christianity. It became necessary to call an assembly of all the people in charge of the communities to be held in Jerusalem. It was the "first" Council in the history of the Church. It is an example not of a judicial formula rather of a common way of living the faith, in an assembly of brothers and sisters that gathers to reflect and debate over common issues. This first assembly remains an example for the life of Christian communities in every time. The perspective that Pope Francis wants to imprint the entire Church is in this direction: synodality, before being an event, is a way of living the Church, of living in communion. Communion in love defeat the protagonist attitudes of individuals that, if left to themselves, separate and divide. In this way, difficulties, that inevitably arise along the road, are loosened and the only one Body of Christ, can be built in unity.