The E-catechism: April 2001
	A new step	Open Bible You are Peter...

		A new step Three years ago a team started to make a "different catechism ". The goal was to think about questions concerning our life and opening to a spiritual meaning. The initial purpose was to bring Jesus in our present situations. Did it not happen to those, men and women, who followed Him? We met every month, checking our work with each other's appreciation. Thanks to this exchange and cross-examination we have improved and enriched our text. Gradually we found a right pace and we can say that all of us are marked by this experience. Many told us that they benefited greatly of the text and they used it. We did hope to be more interactive but this rarely happened. Today we want to make a new step in proposing to make an update reading of the texts of the Bible. We have noticed with joy that small groups update and renew with skill the evangelical texts! Bring also your way of reading the Gospel, enriched of your experiences and of your faith. Jacques Gaillot

		Open Bible    You are Peter… The official reading chosen to conclude the week of the Unity of the Churches is the too famous text:   "….thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will built my church… and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" Mt 16, 18-19  Our little reading group of the Gospel definitely did not appreciate this attempt to auto-justify the power of the institution. Among the hubbub one could hear some hard comments" Apologetic, embarrassing, partisan, sectarian" and I won't mentioned the worst ones… Then our natural good will takes over and we try to analyze the text, to give an answer to this question: what the hell can we do with this text in our present daily life? Certainly not easy but we explored some paths…finally it was rewarding. Some body chooses to follow the Gospel. One could have rather cite another text, two chapters away in Mathew again (Mt 18, 18), an almost identical one and in that case each one of us is clearly called to bind and to loose maters from now and then. "Verily I say on you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven". It changes the perspective, from a power reserved to one person or a few the text extends it to every body. Another chooses to follow the protestant path: I went to see a pastor to ask his interpretation of the text that bothers me so much. For him there is no problem, the balance between Peter and rock is just a joke and he translates: "on the rock of this faith and on the rock of this confidence in Jesus, all community, all assembly is built" The cultural translation was not forgotten: the symbols of those times are not those of today, it is too difficult in our time to translate this text in our cultures so often allergic to what is written. Are we not asking too much of the Christians of our time to make a so lengthy cultural exploration? Many aspects were discovered even if the time was short. I keep for myself that in all the domains of our life, family, profession, associations etc… we have to "translate "our views, our knowledge, our convictions into words, simple and respectful of the persons to whom we speak. This has to be done also in our way of living and in a more and more elaborated way. I see the text as a permanent invitation to enlighten incarnation and as a source of dynamism. We have not finished to unravel its meaning".