ARGUMENTS

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Listening in to other people's arguments can be funny if we're not involved ourselves... 'Where did you put my wallet?...' 'I haven't touched it, dear, it's where you left it...' And the result is a sour atmosphere quite out of proportion to the incident that provoked it.

Of course, the onlooker doesn't see the build-up of frustration before the argument. Often, the breaking-point is something quite trivial. Nor do we always see its context, which can change the picture dramatically.

About fifteen years after Christ's ascension, an argument which had been simmering in the Church came to a head. It was an argument which today we find hard to take seriously: should converts to Christianity be excused from the demands of the Jewish law?

The Church's answer appears as a bit of compromise. Converts are to be dispensed from hundreds of legal requirements---except for a couple of "essentials," such as abstaining from the meat of strangled animals.

When we understand the context of the dispute, however, we realise that it wasn't so trivial after all. For it was becoming clear that joining the New Faith meant leaving the Old---the Jewish faith into which they had been born and their fathers for a thousand years before them. It's very understandable, surely, that it took some time for the full implications of that to dawn on them.

Disputes in the Church continue. Customs with a thousand years behind them are changed and some of us, as a result, are confused and upset. No doubt, in a few years time, Christians will look back on the upheavals of the late twentieth century and wonder what all the fuss was about.

But, meanwhile, our arguments must continue. As the Church constantly seeks the truth under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, tension and disputes are inevitable. They remain a necessary sign that the Church is alive and well and growing.

These pages are maintained by Geoff Riley.
If you have any queries or comments about the Chester Cursillo pages, please feel free to email cursillo@arcturus\.geoffandcarole.co.uk.