"The text for today's reading from the Acts of the Apostles gives the addresses of Peter, Paul, Barnabas and James at the Council of Jerusalem The Council laid down guiding principles for the admission of Gentiles to the Church.

The Council was called to settle disputes which followed on the baptisms of the Ethiopian eunuch, Cornelius and other Gentiles not known by name to us. The arguments advanced in favour of not insisting on a total prior acceptance of Jewish religious laws by potential candidates for baptism made my heart leap with a quiet kind of joyful relief. They assured me that some people whom I love and admire may, as a modern theologian put it, know God in their hearts without yet knowing him in their heads.

I am now confident that God can deal in his own way with people of good will who are longing for the truth of life. At the same time the notes leave entirely open the possibility and desirability of every man, woman and child advancing to an even deeper and more intimate knowledge of God.

This loving knowledge can be made attractively available to them through the efforts of believing Christians. This intimate knowledge is movingly described for us in the joyful words of today's Gospel.