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Monday, January 16, 2006
Alipio: The formation of belief
By Fr. Jose Alipio
Acts 19:1-8
THIS passage from the book of Acts provides clear evidence that there were versions of the gospel in the early decades of the Christian movement. So much emphasis is placed on the preaching of Paul that we easily lose sight of the fact that there were other leaders with their own witness to Christ, Apollos being among them. We know that Paul had his disagreements with Apollos as well as with Peter's interpretation of the gospel. But we also know that these different versions of the person and work of Christ came together in shared vision. This formation of a theological and liturgical consensus took longer than we might imagine - centuries in fact. But in time, these diverse ways of interpreting and worshipping Christ were brought together in the great creeds of the church fathers.
What are we to make of this process of belief formation? Why did it take the church fathers so long to reach agreement on who Jesus was and what he did? Why didn't the Holy Spirit simply dictate the truth to them? For the same reason that the Holy Spirit doesn't dictate the truth to us. Those early church fathers grew in their understanding of the person and work of Christ through their experience of worship and study of scripture. They gradually came to a fuller understanding of the God revealed in Christ and present in the sacraments. They grew in their understanding in much the same way that we have grown in our grasp of the mysteries of our faith. When we were children, we thought and spoke as children. As we matured, we put our childish views aside in favor of a deeper grasp of the message and mission of Christ.
(January 16, 2006 issue)
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