"Do not impose more burdens than are necessary" (Acts 15:28-29). A few days ago, while rereading the Acts of the Apostles, I came across these words of the first Council of the Church and, although they have been read many times, they made a particular impression on me.
They are said in the context of the controversy between the first Judaizing Christians and the first Christians who came from the gentiles. It was a serious conflict that the Church, in its first steps, had to face and teaches us how the Holy Spirit led the apostles to make a decision that proved decisive in clarifying the nature of salvation in Christ and the subsequent advance of the Gospel throughout the world.
The words of the Council of Jerusalem follow in the wake of those pronounced by Jesus to the Pharisees: "You impose burdens that are heavy and difficult to bear..." (Mt 23:4). In the context of the meats sacrificed to idols, St. Paul will teach his faithful in Corinth to act with freedom, taking care only that this freedom does not become an occasion for the fall of the unformed (Cor 8:9). That is to say, that only brotherly love be the supreme norm of Christian freedom.
There flutters throughout the pages of the New Testament that spirit of freedom: not to impose unnecessary burdens! to which we are sometimes so prone.
The Prelate of Opus Dei, in a letter of January 9, 2018, on Christian freedom, insists on the profound relationship between love of God and freedom. The whole Christian life is a free response to the question that Jesus addresses to us personally: "Do you love me?" (Jn 21:17).
The Christian life," says the Prelate, "is a free response, full of initiative and availability, to the Lord's question" (n. 5).
We can never lose that deep spirit of freedom and personal responsibility that is genuinely Christian. Sometimes, we do not know why, we tend to bind ourselves or others to rules or obligations that are not necessary and that can obscure joy and agility for the race that awaits us (cf. Heb 12:1). In Christian formation," the Prelate continues, "it is also important to avoid an excessive eagerness for security or protection that shrinks the soul and diminishes us (n. 12). Finally, the whole letter is worth reading and I invite you to read it or reread it again because it will always be of great benefit. So it seems to me.
