Faith is Loving

October 15, 2024 – Tuesday 28^th Week in Ordinary Time

Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101524.cfm)

In every group or organization there is always this desire that in order to express their identity, there should also be uniformity in language, ways of doing or even appearance. And so we create initiations when there are new members and introduce to them those ways and things so that they become like us, identifiable and one with the group or organization.

This is also true in many cultures, as we belong to a particular culture it is almost expected that we follow what is proper to that particular culture. Anyone who does not follow or adhere to the cultural beliefs, ways, costumes and customs are considered an outsider or foreigner. And so people who want to be identified to a seemingly more superior and cool culture, we try copy and mimic their ways so that we can say, “we belong.”

Though there is nothing wrong with this, however, such desire to make everybody else to look like us or to impose on others our ways of doing before they will be welcomed can also be problematic.

This is what St. Paul in his Letter to the Galatians told us about. At that time, there were some Christian Jews who demanded that those Gentiles who accepted the Gospel of Christ must also follow the religious and cultural practices of the Jewish people. This demand became a tension in those times of the first Christians. For them, one is being justified by the law of Moses.

Nevertheless, Paul, a Jew and a Pharisee himself, reminded the Christian Jews that one is justified not by law but by faith. Thus, Paul said, “For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.”

There is no need for that kind of uniformity before the non-Jews will be accepted and welcomed. It is Christ Jesus and faith in him that we are justified and welcomed. Moreover, this faith is expressed in love not in indifference or in our superiority and righteousness over others. Therefore, our Christian faith is not kind of affiliation like in organizations or associations that we create. Our Christian faith is rather a relationship expressed in and through love!

This is what Jesus also emphasized in today’s Gospel as he encountered a Pharisee who was rigid and meticulous over man-made religious practices. Jesus directing at the heart of the matter, rebuked the Pharisee with all frankness, “Although you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, inside you are filled with plunder and evil!”

The rigidity and meticulous observance of the law was only a cover-up, a façade of a plunderous and evil heart. But Jesus sees that heart and his words pierces through the heart.

Hence, what Jesus asks of us is not uniformity but consistency in our words and actions, not mere observance of the law but charity and integrity, not in merely being obliged but by being in love. We ask the Lord today that indeed, our faith will work through love. Hinaut pa.