St Luke's book on the early Church, the Acts of the Apostles, lets us see how the early Christians, especially the second generation, struggled with their new faith. They had not been direct disciples of Jesus but had come to the Faith through the preaching of the Apostles. Among them were "some men" who came down from Judea and upset some of the new converts in Antioch. Essentially, the problem was fear of change and fear of what is new and liberating. In that, those men of Judea were not very different from us and people of our own age.

It may seem paradoxical to speak of fear of what is liberating: surely we all love freedom, do we not? No: not exactly and not so simply expressed. For the Jews, the Old Testament was "good news" - It gave them identity, culture, religion, civilization and, most of all, security in their relationship with God. So the freedom of the children of God which Jesus preached was startling and unnerving.

Jesus assured us that the truth, his truth, would make us free. To enjoy the freedom of the truth we must accept it creatively, to illuminate new situations for us.