“[Jesus] said
to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’” Man, would I love to hear
that from Jesus! Clearly, the scribe who questions Jesus in today’s Gospel
reading gets it; let’s try to learn from his example and see how he got so
close to the kingdom of God.
The Jews in
Jesus’ day were all about the letter of the law, and I can see why, given how
complicated their law was; I’m certain I would have broken it on accident a few
times per day. They had strict laws for purification, diet, and observing the Sabbath,
among other things. If you had a rock
for every time I ate a meal with
unclean hands, you could stone me!
One of the
purposes for Jesus’ mission (besides dying for our sins, obviously) was to give
us freedom from the law. This is not freedom in the way we usually think about
it—the ability to do whatever we want, whenever we want. That’s called license.
True freedom means being free of any sinful desire or attachment. If we no
longer desire to break the law, we are free of it; it is no longer a burden on
us. Let’s see a practical example of this.
Consider a
young man who thinks the Mass is boring. He doesn’t understand why we have to go every Sunday. The law is a burden to him. But imagine if someone
explained to him that the Mass is heaven come to earth and that we are
connected, through our participation in the Eucharist, to every Catholic
throughout history, regardless of time! This young man begins to think about
Mass differently. He starts coming to Mass every Sunday, and maybe even during
the week occasionally. He has achieved freedom from the law!
Bio:
Michael LaPointe is a FOCUS missionary at Georgia Sothern.
Originally from Montgomery, AL, he graduated from Auburn University in 2011.
