In today’s first reading from Acts we hear the Jewish Pharisee Gamaliel give wise and sage advice. He advises restraint in their dealings with the early Jewish Christian Community. He refers to two other Jewish “revolutionary” leaders, Theudas and Judas the Galilean. They had a movement and some followers but their movement eventually died off because it was not from God. Gamaliel gives this wise and pastoral advice: leave this new movement in the hands of God:
“So now I tell you, have nothing to do with these men, and let them go. For if this endeavor or this activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself. But if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them; you may even find yourselves fighting against God.”
Gamaliel is open to something new and recognizes that God at times works in strange ways. So, he counsels his fellow Jews to let God decide. Anyway, he says this is the wisest course since they cannot “fight against God” and win so they need to let God decide.
Rabbi Gamaliel sage advice applies to us today as a church. We need to be open to the promptings of the Spirit because God at times still works in strange and surprising ways. As the church prepares to elect a new pope, we need to be open once again to the promptings of the Spirit. Jesus teaches that we should leave judgement in the hands of God, and he tells us to “stop judging”.
“Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven.” (Luke 6:37)
As we continue to remember Pope Francis and give thanks for his humble ministry, we recall one of his more startling and even controversial statements: “If a person is gay and seeks God and has goodwill, who am I to judge him?” Where did Pope Francis get such an idea people have asked? The Pope is just echoing the words and the teachings of Jesus. As Rabbi Gamaliel teaches in today’s first reading, if this teaching is from God, it will survive and we are not able to fight against God. We can only pray: “God’s will be done.”
Image: “Rabbi Jay holds the Torah” by josh.ev9 is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.