Another second fear that Pablo did not have is that he was not afraid of “the Novelty of the Spirit”. And this is very important and very interesting. We see in the scriptures that Paul was intrepid because he allowed himself to be carried away by the Holy Spirit and went to lands where there was no Hebrew tradition and began to dialogue with cultures that were not of Jewish tradition and opened the ability to follow Jesus without go through the bondage of the Jewish merely, something that the first community that was led by Santiago did not do.
Santiago continued to maintain a little the same Jewish, Hebrew and other scheme and the one who was a Christian continued to comply with Judaism. However, Pablo is able to say no, you have to open up, you don’t need to be circumcised, you don’t need this other, you can eat everything … he begins to open the spectrum, the panoramic view and then of course, those from Jerusalem are shaken , tremble and send Pedro to see what happens there.
And Pedro himself is infected with that intrepid spirit of Pablo and that is when that precious dream comes, that vision of the tapestry that comes down with the food; “Pedro, kill and eat” -a voice from heaven- “no, how am I going to eat?” -Pedro-, “Do not call impure what I have made pure” -a voice from heaven-. And there is a conversion again in Peter. One should not be afraid of the novelty of the Spirit, but, although one should not be afraid of the novelty of the Spirit, neither should one be reckless and unfaithful to “fidelity”, to the essence of our Church. That is to say, because I am open to novelty, it does not mean that I disrespect, the fidelity of the Church. There are principles and a shared faith that must obviously be respected.
And finally, the third fear that Paul did not have is that he was not afraid of the consequences of being faithful to the proclamation of the Gospel. And this is also important in our days because many times the consequences of being faithful to the Gospel is that there are people who begin to feel uncomfortable with you, it is that you are going to make yourself many times more enemies than friends because you are going to be an uncomfortable piece if you want. be faithful to the gospel. Because nowadays certain values or certain thoughts are not carried. These three fears – dialogue with the different, newness to the Spirit and consequences of being faithful – that Paul does not have, are what makes him an intrepid evangelizing man.
Juan Molina, Missionary of the Sacred Heart
X Biblical Days
Miracle Sound Radio
