On this St. Augustine's day, I ponder one of his great thoughts, i.e. maybe it is better not to fight about what we are not certain of... or something to that effect.
There are times when people of Faith have to do more work than at other times. The Reformation for example, or the time of Christ and the early Church. However Holy Mother Church as known from long experience that Truth, and the deep, unsearchable Wisdom and Judgment of God Almighty, can seem so obscure to many people that you actually may have to torture and perhaps even destroy their mortal bodies before they see the error of their ways, and quite naturally save their Immortal Souls.
I think we are in one of those times now. For many years the Church has found the culture changing in ways that is hard for people of rigid beliefs to react to, in meaningful ways. I think it was somewhat like that in the days of the Apostles and we are just as challenged to deal in ways that both honor God and are a blessing to our neighbors on this planet. Here, in the Tulsa area, it appears to me that the Church sees only Heresy, not some new aspect of Truth in the lives of younger, freer people. Just consider their general reaction to the Emergent Churches.
Think of it, eating forbidden food!! In our culture it has no meaning, yet for the people of the first century, it was as horrific as welcoming the local gay man's chorus to sing your Easter Cantata would be at almost any local church here. When we read the Gospels, Acts and the letters of St. Paul, we must put ourselves in the precarious position these people found themselves in. Before their very eyes the impossible happened! Nothing in their experience of the history of their Faith, their understanding of the Law or Prophets prepared them for the actions occurring before them.
It is so hard to imagine, the Spirit falling on GENTILES! Peter and all faithful Jews had been taught all their lives, and deep within the very core of their being was the settled fact that gentiles where outside the Chosen, strangers to the Law, unworthy to enter the Sacred Temple. How then could this be so? Obviously the Spirit was working in a way unfamiliar to the Apostles. They had the Grace to accept the obvious and incorporate them into the Church, a step that I personally benefit from to this day.
How does this inform my journey (and perhaps others)? I once could not abide female Priests or Ministers. I felt Paul and through him, God Himself had, once for all, settled the matter and women were not allowed to serve in that capacity. However, the Spirit has been kind enough to remove the scales from my eyes, and I see more clearly now. I was wrong. Some of the most dedicated, successful and Spirit-filled ministry of my last few years has been done my women. Clearly the Spirit has fallen, our understanding of the Scriptures was in error, the Church benefits in wondrous ways from the Apostolic Truth of female Priests, Ministers, and Deacons.
I am fortunate that I participate in a community that allows exploration, some freedom to the Spirit, or i would have been trapped in dry certainty, never receiving the pnumea that God so desperately wanted to give to me.
Perhaps St. Augustine has it right.
Melius est dubitare de occultis quam litigare de incertis.
(It is better to make doubt of those things which are secret, than to strive about those things that are uncertain.)
And a tidbit for those who want to know more about women's roles in the early Church:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/first/women.html
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