28 February 2014
Friday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Our Holy Father, Pope Francis, recently exhorted the cardinals of the Church, at the consistory about one week ago, “Jesus did not come to teach a philosophy, an ideology, but rather a ‘way,’ a journey to be undertaken with him, and we learn the way as we go, by walking.” He went on to say, “The Church needs us also to be peacemakers, building peace by our actions, hopes, and prayers.”
These words, it seems to me, could be just as valuable to the rest of us as they may be to the cardinals.
The gospel today focuses on the Pharisees’ trying to trip up Jesus, this time on the topics of divorce, remarriage, and adultery. The Pharisees were comfortable with traditions, rules, and law –– the very things Jesus did not come to abolish but to fulfill. And His demonstration of that fulfillment was not by the establishment of a new code of law but through the living of his life, even to the moment of total self-gift on the Cross.
In walking alongside the One who is the way, the truth, and life, we more easily recognize Christ’s fulfillment of the Mosaic Law as the new covenant in his blood, sharing the Eucharist –– his very self –– with those who would follow him to the Cross and with those who would run away from, deny knowing, and even betray him, his closest, chosen band, whom He sent out on mission.
Let us not be bogged down by or worried about what Jesus might say about this topic or that issue. Rather, let us look to the God-man to see where and how he is journeying, and humbly walk beside him along His way.