In today's first reading,Galatians 2: 1-2, 7-14, Paul goes up to Jerusalem with Barnabas and Titus. He shared the Gospel that he preached to the Gentiles with Cephas, James and John, whom Paul considered pillars of the faith. Cephas, James and John recognized that Paul was entrusted with the same Gospel to preach to Gentiles, the uncircumcised, that they were preaching to the circumcised. They also recognized the grace bestowed upon Paul. The Holy Spirit was working in each of these individuals to spread the Good News of Jesus in different parts of the world and to different people of the world in which they lived.
God does the same gifting today, the same work in each of us, using us to build the Kingdom and spread the Good News of Jesus' life, death, resurrection and Pentecost! Just as Paul and his co-workers,both men and women, by the way, needed one another and so, too did Cephas, James and John need Paul. It was during this visit, that Paul challenged Peter's hypocrisy. It is through and with each other that we grow in honest living and preaching of the Gospel, no less than in the days of old when the Church was in its infancy, so to speak!
May I have the courage to name hypocrisy when I see it and to be called when I am being hypocritical.
No comments:
Post a Comment