Acts 15:6-11. As the apostles and elders are considering the circumcision question, Peter rises and speaks. He says they know that God chose him to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles, and they know that God has given the Gentiles the Holy Spirit, just as He did to the apostles. God made no distinction between the Jews and the Gentiles when sending the Spirit, He cleansed all their hearts by faith alone. So why, then, would they now consider "putting a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?" We believe all will be saved by the grace of Jesus, Peter says.

I wonder why Peter says the yoke of circumcision was one neither their fathers nor they have been able to bear? I know that when the Jews were wandering the desert they fell away from circumcision. I guess this happened somewhat frequently among the Jews, even up to this time.That should not be surprising to me - we are the same way with many things we know we should do. I am sure all the apostles and elders were circumcised, but what Peter is acknowledging here is that for your everyday Jew, circumcision was not a given. In these early days of the Church, however, the Holy Spirit is being poured out abundantly, and He is not asking whether or not people have been circumcised first. So if God, who knows all, is not imposing this requirement before bestowing His grace upon the Gentiles, why should the apostles do so? Although circumcision was clearly important to God in the past, it is also just as clear that things have changed.

This is a lesson in not being legalistic, as we Catholics can easily be. God gives us rules that He wants us to follow, and there is always a good reason (and love!) behind those rules. But there may come a time when His purpose for a particular rule has been accomplished, and He shows us clearly that a given rule is no longer required. (We must be careful, though, that it is God showing us that the rule is not required, and not our own unwillingness to follow the rule.) If He does so, then if we enforce the rule anyway (especially if we are hypocritical about it - enforcing it on others, but not those within our own ranks) then we are actually acting counter to God's purposes. We must always strive to listen and discern!