Gamaliel’s Proposition

We know of secret societies covertly militating against Church teachings on faith and morals. They ought to be reminded to check twice on their policies and actuations, and endeavor to delve deeper in the search for truth and the lessons of history. All the Church doing is to communicate truth and goodness according to the mind of God. Yes, Truth is interchangeable with reality. As Philosophy attest the principle, Contra factum non valet argumentum (translated: Arguments are no better than the fact itself). That is why in the Catholic Church. miracles, history and facts are being accurately documented because we are trying our best to give the truth to our people, with sufficient witnesses to support allegations or statements.

We have heard of sinful lapses in our own ranks. But that is only to prove the point that, human as we are, without God’s grace we are all prone to commit sin. We can always reecho St. Paul ’s thankful expression of gratitude to God—“It is by the grace of God that I am what I am” (1 Cor. 15:10).

Why I mention here in the title Gamaliel’s intervention is because we know of secret societies or people who maliciously or ignorantly oppose Church teachings in the faith and morals. You know, if you study or remember history, it oftentimes repeats itself. It had been commented sometime ago: “Those who do not remember history will repeat the mistakes of history.”

“But one of them, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the Law highly respected by the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin. He ordered the men to be taken outside for a few minutes and then he spoke to the assembly. ‘Fellow Israelites, consider well what you intend to do to these men. For some time ago Theudas came forward, claiming to be somebody and about four hundred men joined him. But he was killed and all his followers were dispersed or disappeared. After him, Judas the Galilean appeared at the time of the census and persuaded many people to follow him. But he too perished and his whole following was scattered. So, in this present case, I advise you to have nothing to do with these men. Leave them alone. If their project or activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself. If, on the other hand, it is from God, you will not be able to destroy it and you may indeed find yourselves fighting against God.’ The Council let themselves be persuaded. They called in the apostles and had them whipped, and ordered them not to speak again of Jesus Savior. Then they set them free. The apostles went out from the Council rejoicing that they were considered worthy to suffer disgrace for the sake of the Name. Day after day, both in the Temple and in people’s homes, they continued to teach and to proclaim that Jesus was the Messiah” (Acts 5:34-42).