Today’s first reading speaks to a challenge which has existed within the church since its very beginning. The context for the controversy at the time of the apostles was whether certain Jewish practices, in this case circumcision, were required to those who accepting the Christian faith, a similar point raised by Paul in his letter to the Galatians. Throughout its history, Christianity has struggled with the issue of essentials and the means by which these essentials are understood and practiced. The debate concerns what is absolutely essential in the expression of Christianity and what are practices and expressions that transmit that essential faith. One famous debate flared up, known as the Chinese Rites Controversy in the 17th century. The traditional Chinese practices demonstrating respect and remembrance to dead ancestors was questioned by church officials as an example of pagan worship. However, could they be reconciled within the Catholic body of ritual practice? A recommendation from 1659 concerning the accommodations to Chinese ritual has a very modern ring to it:
Do not act with zeal, do not put forward any arguments to convince these peoples to change their rites, their customs or their usages, except if they are evidently contrary to the religion [i.e., Catholic Christianity] and morality. What would be more absurd than to bring France, Spain, Italy or any other European country to the Chinese? Do not bring to them our countries, but instead bring to them the faith, a Faith that does not reject or hurt the rites, nor the usages of any people, provided that these are not distasteful, but that instead keeps and protects them.
Experience, if not church teaching, recognizes that confused expression of doctrine only leads to disaster. Finding the best means by which faith both is a part of culture and necessarily transforms that culture is no easy task. However, the task is ours and we perhaps can receive inspiration and gather caution from success and failures in the past.