From Fr. Gary: May 25

A MESSAGE FROM OUR PASTOR

My dear friends,

“Not to place any burden.” I wonder how many people think of Christianity as a way of life that places no burden. In my experience as a Catholic Christian and a priest, I would say that most people think that a Christian way of life is entirely a burden. People tend to describe the Catholic way of living Christianity as an entanglement of rules and regulations, duties and obligations. Why the disconnect between that which we hear the Church leaders speak in the first reading and the perception of so many members of the Church today?

The problem is assuredly the result of confusing, inadequate and improper catechesis, not too dissimilar to that which is described in the passage from the Acts of the Apostles. Sometimes the best of intentions can foster an undo amount of harm.

The suggestion about the Gentiles having to undergo circumcision in order to be saved was rooted in a belief that becoming a descendant of Abraham could only happen through circumcision. This would then require all the new Gentile converts to live under the burden of the Mosaic laws.

While it is easy to understand why some in the early Church might think this way, Jesus did not come into the world as a continuation of the “old order.” Jesus came into the world as its fulfillment. In fact, in Jesus, the “old order” has passed away.

In Him we have become a new creation, such that the life we live is united with his own. There is truly nothing burdensome about living as a member of the Church. Jesus says as much to his disciples. “Whoever loves me will keep my words.” What then, are these words we must keep for the Father and Son to dwell within us?

They are first and foremost, not a set of ordinances, rules and regulations. In fact, the “rules” and ordinances of Christianity flow from the words of Jesus. They are meant to enable us to stay secure within the power of the words, somewhat like sheep within the sheep gate. The five precepts (rules) of living out our Christian life within the Church all flow from the words that Jesus spoke throughout his public ministry and from the example of his life. Jesus kept holy the Sabbath and the important holy days of Judaism, in fact he did much of his teaching in the synagogue!

Jesus fed the multitudes as a promise of the Eucharistic meal he would institute the night before he died, and he encouraged his Apostles to do the same.

Jesus also told them that they were to be instruments of forgiveness (seventy times seven times!), and he entrusted the Church not to the pure, sinless, innocent St. John, but to the denying Peter. How important to have as the leader of the Church a man who would always know what it is like to be forgiven. Jesus also made sure that his followers gave what they could to one another according to their means. The great example in St. Luke’s gospel is the women that accompanied Jesus and the Twelve materially caring for them.

~Fr Gary