The texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary remind us
of the tendency we have to reduce the description of the path we take in life
to “tell me what you want me to do.” Paul is adamant in his letter to the
region of Galatia that accepting the demand of the Jewish Christian missionaries
that new converts accept circumcision as the sign of entry into the community
of Jews who, as Friar Jude Winkler comments, have recognized Jesus as the Messiah
promised by God for His people, is to reject the Spirit which leads us to
Christ through faith working in love. We might suggest to Paul that “we could
have both”. Paul warns that to take on the yoke of part of the Law is to take
it all. Certainly we have evidence that we slip, like the Pharisees in the text
from the Gospel of Luke, into being very observant of traditions and
religiosity which satisfies our checklist of being Christian. The inner mediation,
like the thanksgiving of the psalmist, reveals our relationship with the loving
God. He provides guidelines and boundaries within which we live the freedom of
faith that trusts in God to invite us toward holiness and away from selfishness.
This dynamic relationship operates so
that our capacity for love increases and we grow with each challenge instead of
taking comfort in a static satisfaction that I have followed all the rules.
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