The Ascension, coming up on Thursday,
marks the end of the time when God communicates as a human body
recognisable to the senses.
It starts a new phase for Jesus’ disciples,
a phase that continues to this day and until the end of time.
As Eastertide draws to a close,
our liturgy directs our attention to ‘life after the Ascension’.
The first reading is an example of this new situation for the disciples.
It is about resolving a dispute.
People from Jerusalem arrive in Antioch,
and teach that Gentile Christians should observe the Law of Moses.
A delegation, including Paul, goes to Jerusalem to contest this view.
Then the reading skips forward to the decision, which is momentous.
Paul and Barnabas are vindicated;
those insisting on the full Mosaic Law for the Gentiles are repudiated.
Consequently, the gospel spreads across the Roman empire,
and through time, and we are beneficiaries.
We rejoice today in the effects of this work of the Holy Spirit.
The main decision, rejecting circumcision for Gentiles,
settled something in perpetuity, for ever.
However, the ruling also contains elements that were less universal.
The food rules are of this kind.
They help Gentile and Jewish Christians to have fellowship,
to share meals, to be in communion.
The requirement to abstain from blood is part of that,
it is a response to local circumstances,
not a universal prohibition on eating blood-based sausage:
you are allowed to eat black pudding.
The ruling is an injunction on Gentile Christians to behave charitably,
by showing respect for the religious sensibilities of the Jewish Christians.
Our local conditions are different, but we can still learn from the approach.
So, in response to this reading,
along with rejoicing at the spread of the gospel to us,
we may each ask ourselves:
does my religious observance respect and support that of others,
does it build communion?
Turning to the gospel,
the Holy Spirit, the giver of life, is sent by the Father
in the name of the Son; sent, in Jesus’ words today, to
teach you all things
and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
‘bring to your remembrance’ sounds a bit odd.
It is stronger than, and a bit different from ‘remember’.
Remembrance involves personal response.
The work of the Holy Spirit is not to make memories more effective,
neither for the first disciples, nor for us.
Rather, the Holy Spirit shapes us,
transforming our innermost selves to align us with Jesus,
so that all-we-are-and-do is a personal response
to the gift of knowing Jesus.
This is true for each of us: it is the Christian calling.
But the profound truth is that
the Holy Spirit gives life,
bringing remembrance of who Jesus is,
to the whole body of Christians, to the Church.
It is through praying together,
talking and listening together,
working together,
that the Holy Spirit guides us, teaches us, shapes us.
We have a vogue word for this: synodality,
but, really, it is ‘just’ being an authentic Christian community.
Come Holy Spirit, Come.