As we have seen for the past two days in the first reading, the Church had to come to grips with the question of whether Christians were required to follow the law of Moses. Accepting the right doctrine was traumatic for many people. Many of the Jewish converts felt that the Church was taking away the traditions of their ancestors and depriving them of practices with which they had grown up. It was difficult for them to see what was essential to faith and what was peripheral and unnecssary. The distinction was important because the Church cannot impose unnecessary ideas as a matter of faith.

The body of the apostles who decided the matter has often been referred to as the Council of Jerusalem, and the Second Vatican Council bears a similarity to it. Since the Vatican Council a number of Catholics think that the Church has taken away the foundation of their faith and deprived them of practices which they enjoyed from their childhood.

We ought to understand clearly that the Council was guided by the Holy Spirit as surely as were those leaders of the Church gathered for the Council of Jerusalem. Following the clear directives of any ecumenical council of the Church will never lead us astray from sound doctrine or practice.