Paul talks about Christians: We are children of the new covenant.
Ancient marriage contracts required that a sterile wife provide her husband with a substitute wife for childbearing, so that they could have an heir. This explains why Abraham had a son by Hagar, his wife’s maid. Later, when Sarah bore Abraham a son, that son, Isaac, replaced the maid’s son. Paul compares the old covenant to the maid’s son and the new covenant to Sarah’s son. His point is that Christians are children of the new covenant and are saved by faith in Jesus, not by antiquated Jewish practices like circumcision.
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How deep is our own faith in Jesus? How do we nourish it and keep it alive? “It is never a question with any of us of faith and not faith; the question always is, ‘In what or in whom do we put our faith?’” Anonymous
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As human beings, we desire for independence and freedom. Even as babies, we would want to take the first step on our own towards whatever direction we want to go. And with that we want to experience the freedom that we gain from our independence. Yet if independence and freedom is understood in a warped way, then it would result in warped actions. Because with independence and freedom comes greater responsibility and accountability. There will be no one to fight your battles for you and you can't push the blame on anyone else for something you did wrong.
Yes, the price of independence and freedom is constant vigilance and alertness in case we go astray and end up doing something crazy. The 1st reading said that when Christ freed us, He meant us to remain free. The reading also urged us to stand firm and not to submit again to the yoke of slavery. To remain free would mean for us to remain in Christ and to belong to Him and committed to Him.
Without Christ, we can do nothing and we would also end up as nothing. We have seen enough of signs to tell us that people who want to go their way without God won't be able to find peace and joy that easily. Yes, the price of independence and freedom is to stand by Jesus and depend on Him totally. That is hardly a price at all.
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Carlo Acutis was born in London on 3 May 1991 to a wealthy Italian family.[4][5][6] His baptism took place on May 18 1991 in the church of Our Lady of Dolours, Chelsea.[7] His parents, Andrea Acutis and Antonia Salzano, who were not especially religious, had worked in London and Germany, and finally settled in Milan in September 1991, not long after their first son's birth.[3][4][8] In 1995, when Acutis was four years old, his maternal grandfather died and was said to have appeared to him in a dream asking to be prayed for. When the child evinced a precocious interest in religious practice, his questions were answered by the family's Polish babysitter.[9][10] Three years later he requested to receive his First Communion at the age of seven. After consulting a prelate and providing instruction, the family arranged this at the convent of Sant'Ambrogio ad Nemus. After that he made the effort, either before or after Mass, to reflect before the tabernacle. Acutis became a frequent communicant and would make a weekly confession. He is said to have had several models as guides for his life, especially Francis of Assisi,[3] as well as Francisco and Jacinta Marto, Dominic Savio, Tarcisius, and Bernadette Soubirous.
He was educated in Milan at the Jesuit Instituto Leone XIII high school. On the social side, Acutis would worry about friends of his whose parents were divorcing and would invite them to his home to support them. He defended disabled peers at school when bullies mocked them. Outside school, he did voluntary work with the homeless and destitute. He also liked films, comic editing and playing PlayStation video games. Although he greatly enjoyed travel, the town of Assisi remained a particular favorite.
Those around him considered him a "computer geek" on account of his passion and skill with computers and the internet.[4][3] Acutis applied himself to creating a website dedicated to cataloguing each reported Eucharistic miracle in the world. He completed this in 2005, having started compiling the catalogue at the age of eleven. He admired Giacomo Alberione's initiatives to use the media to evangelize and proclaim the Gospel and aimed to do likewise with the website he had created.
When he developed leukemia, he offered his suffering both for Pope Benedict XVI and for the Catholic Church, saying: "I offer to the Lord the sufferings that I will have to undergo for the Pope and for the Church."[11] He had asked his parents to take him on pilgrimages to the sites of all the known Eucharistic miracles in the world, but his declining health prevented this from happening. The doctors treating his final illness had asked him if he was in great pain to which he responded that "there are people who suffer much more than me".[4] He died on October 10 2006 at 6:45 AM from the M3 subtype of fulminating acute promyelocytic leukemia. He was buried in Assisi in accordance with his wishes.
He was beatified on 10 October 2020.
ALAS FOR YOU PHARISEES!
Introduction
Christ has liberated those who believe in him from the Jewish law, but that does not mean that they can do just anything. Freedom is not licentiousness, for that would make them slaves again, of what Paul calls “the works of the flesh.” They are now free and urged to do the good works of the Spirit.
It is surprising that Jesus could cure all ills – the blind, the deaf, lepers, yes, and also sinners aware of their failures. But he could not cure Pharisees and scribes from their “open-eyed” blindness. Jesus does perhaps not attack them so much for their literal observance of the last detail of the law but for getting so absorbed by the details of the law that they did not see the roots of all laws, justice and love. This is also the key teaching of Paul in his letter to the Galatians: not laws but the Spirit.
Opening Prayer
Lord our God,
your Son Jesus was the fulfillment
of the Law and the Prophets.
He knew and taught and lived
that the fulfillment of the Law and the promises
lies in the service of people and of you
in justice and love.
Let these too be the guides of our lives,
that with him we seek people
and above all the living person
of you, our God for ever and ever.
Commentary
For Paul, the law has a purpose as an antidote to sin where there is immorality, licentiousness, jealousy, orgies, dissension, jealousy, and the like. Where such obtains, the law can regulate such conduct, but none of it has anything to do with the reign of God. But the conduct of those who live in the Spirit is of a different order: love, joy, kindness, gentleness, and self-control. Here the law has no place. Against such things there is no law.
If we belong to Christ, the flesh has been crucified with its passions and desires. To walk in the Spirit is to walk with God toward a destiny with God forever. This is the great message of hope that the preacher is called to articulate. It is small wonder that the Lucan Jesus in the Gospel was concerned about the absence in his time of a message of hope. Both the Pharisees and the scholars of the law were much too concerned with secondary matters and signs of status. It is easy to understand his frustration. This is a far cry from the message that he came to bring.
When we examine our conscience, we spend an inordinate amount of time on issues that belong to the era of the law. How much time do we devote to the good that we are called to espouse? How far are we willing to go in extending ourselves? In being truly people of the Spirit? If most of our time is spent in evaluating ourselves in the light of the commandments, we act as people of the former covenant instead of the freed people of the new dispensation.
Points to Ponder
The function of die law
The lawless life in the Spirit
The Christian examination of conscience
Intercessions
For missionaries and all who proclaim the faith, that their own lifestyle may be a strong argument to follow Christ, we pray:
For all prophets in the Church, that their personal encounter with Christ may give them the power to speak for what is right and good, we pray:
For us, that we may care little about outward display but for the things that matter: honesty, justice and love, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
Lord our God,
we offer you ourselves through these gifts
and ask you to send us
the Holy Spirit of you and your Son.
Let him change these offerings into Jesus
and let him guide our minds and hearts
to bear fruits of life: love, joy, peace and patience
and all that brings happiness to God’s people.
May we thus live the life
of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Prayer after Communion
Lord our God,
your Son has spoken hard words today
not just to scribes and Pharisees of the past
but to us, your people today.
Let these words wake us up
from our self-complacency,
our peace with ourselves.
Keep us from deceiving ourselves
or wasting our time and effort
on things that do not matter;
make us absolutely sincere
with ourselves and with people
and honest to you, our God,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Blessing
We believe in Jesus Christ. We recognize him as our Lord and Savior. This commits us, then, to practice justice and love of God and neighbor. May almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
