Reflection
Romans 8:12-17
Psalm 68
Luke 13:10-17
If we sat down with St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, we would find in his writings a pretty good all-encompassing look at what it means to be a Christian. While it would certainly not have been possible, the Pharisees and scribes would have done well to hear the words of St. Paul before they decided to take on Jesus. They just did not get it.
The curing of the woman who had been crippled for eighteen years was an act of love. The Pharisees and scribes are corrected throughout the gospels when they put being obedient to the ritual practices of the Mosaic Law ahead of why they should follow the Mosaic Law. They stopped seeing life in terms of the two great commandments, i.e. love God with all you have and love others as you want to be loved, and they started being their own law.
We run into that today don’t we. Jesus established His Church to carry forth His mission of pursuing the Truth and living it. Our Church is led by the Holy Spirit, we must be subject to the faith and moral teachings of the Church. Why? Well, yes, in part, because in some cases not following the teachings will likely buy us a one way ticket to hell. However, more importantly, the teachings and guidelines of our Church are intended to bring us happiness. In our stubbornness, many people will not follow a teaching because they just don’t like it, when in fact, they often have not bothered to seek the reason as to why the Church teaches what it does.
Learning our faith is a key to living our faith. There are some great writers out there who have written great stuff that is manageable in easy to understand, like Dr. Peter Kreeft. Today, commit to learning more about our faith!
And go smile at God today too!