The Holy Father pointed out that the ecclesial community can learn from Gamaliel’s discernment. “It doesn’t consist in pre-fabricated solutions, but it is, rather, an art: it’s the exercise of the spiritual intelligence with which we learn to see reality with a contemplative look and not make hasty judgments, discovering in our lives the signs of God’s presence.»
In the General Audience today, September 18, 2019, Pope Francis took up again the series of catecheses on the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, concretely, the passage in which the Apostles are taken before the Sanhedrin.
The Art of Discernment
Although they had been prohibited from doing so, the Apostles “continued giving witness of the Risen Jesus with great courage, full of the Holy Spirit,” said Francis and, when the Sanhedrin was going to decide to kill them, the Pharisee Gamaliel “took the floor and taught them how to exercise the art of discernment in face of a situation that broke the usual schemes.”
Gamaliel asks that the disciples be set free, saying that if their activity is “something of men,” it will end, but if it is of God, “it’s better not to fight them because otherwise they would be exposed to fighting against Him,” said the Holy Father.
So, for the Pontiff, “Gamaliel’s words give a criterion that has an evangelical flavour, as they invite to be able to recognize the tree by its fruits.”
