22/04/2024

I understand from the first reading that those who listened to the Apostles in the Portico of Solomon  had not been "converted" .They were still Jews who, like the Apostles, were trying to understand the teachings of Jesus whom they had seen dead on Calvary but had been seen alive in the flesh after his death by those who preached the Resurrection. 

Their "Jewishness" was still more dominant than the events that they had been living through recently and they knew nothing of the 30 year incarnate presence of God in their world that had been the reality for Mary and Joseph.

Peter had been close to Jesus for three years and knew that he had refuted all the accusations of "law-breaking" levelled at him by Pharisees. Jesus completed the spirit of the Law of Moses. He taught against the concept of ritual impurity. "What comes out of a man makes him unclean". Jesus had cured and driven out devils from non-Jews.

I am trying to get rid of my idea that the vision of the "table-cloth" seems to be very convenient for the purpose of fulfilling the mission to go out and teach all nations. Peter and the other Apostles could totally emphasise with the Jews to whom they proclaimed the Good News and the first schism among the believers came out of these breaks with their Jewish traditions.

I cannot deny anything that is in the books of the New Testament. I have always wondered from where the baskets used to collect the scraps remaining from the "Feeding of the five thousand" came. 

Peter had undoubtedly learnt from Jesus all that he proclaimed and he had seen the Risen Lord so he knew that Father, Son and Holy Spirit had by the Incarnation of the Son finalised the Law and mapped out the Way, the Truth and Life that is our road to the full life of our Salvation.Of all the signs that he had witnessed it is the Resurrection that had sealed the teachings of Jesus for him and dietary rules and circumcision had no prominence in Jesus' teaching. I wonder whether, however, he could have knowingly ever eaten pork. I couldn't bring myself to taste horsemeat even after I had gone to the trouble of cooking it.

Dear Lord I am still not completely secure in my believe. You know that I do not automatically choose to refuse sin. You know how many hours of the day I waste in stupor before the screens that have come to dominate the life of mankind. May I learn to turn to you in prayer at least as much as I watch TV. Let me not be selfish in my prayers and help me not to forget the departed who are known and unknown to me in Purgatory. Keep me from delighting in the public failures of priests and prelates and may the prayers of Mary and all the saints bring mercy to all sinners.