We Catholics tend to make Christianity into an “ideal” — an intellectual set of dos and don’ts, and in so doing we risk losing sight of the God who “loved the world so much that He sent His only Son…,” and of the incredible “Person” who died to show us that love.
The “Good News” of the Gospels is not what Jesus said and did. The Good News of the Gospels is that Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity is “…the way, the truth and the life.”
Jesus does not show us an “ideal” by which we ought to live; He shows us mercy and forgiveness, and compassion and love. He calls us friends and offers us peace and joy and rest. We can see in the “person” of Jesus the wonder and awe of forgiveness and compassion and love.
An “ideal” has no room within our Christian faith, as evidenced by the statements of Jesus.
“Has no one condemned you? Neither do I,” he said to a woman caught in adultery — a woman who had likely betrayed her husband and been complicit in the betrayal of the other man’s wife.
An “ideal” cannot account for “…this day you will be with me in paradise…,” when the person in question was a convicted thief who had, by definition, hurt and damaged others by his actions.
If we choose to see Christianity as an “ideal” to try to live by, then time and time again we set ourselves up for failure and regret and guilt and shame. But when we see Christianity as coming to “know’ the person of Jesus, of entering into a “relationship” with him, then we experience mercy and forgiveness and we learn not to be too hard on ourselves because, as the Prodigal Son shows us, the Father is always standing at the gate waiting and longing only to welcome us home.
Jesus said, and it is truly beautiful to hear it, “Come to me, all you who labor and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke and learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Jesus is not sharing with us an ideal, He is simply sharing Himself with us when He says, “Come to ME…”
When Jesus called His first disciples, He did not present them with a manifesto or a set of policies and goals. He said to them, “Come, and see…,” and they did, and they “left everything and followed Him.”
Last Friday morning, we had the Definitive Incorporation of Kim Arnie Enriquez Frial, OHF; the First Incorporation of Father Ryan Bores, OHF (my formator); and the renewal of my Temporary Incorporation into the Institute, as members of the Secular Oblates of the Holy Family.
Our thanks to God, to our benevolent bishop Most Reverend Nolly Buco, DD, JCD; to our Moderator the Very Reverend Dr. James Philip Monserate, OHF, PhD, and to our Canonical founder, Most Reverend Emmanuel Trance, DD for their unwavering support and guidance. Also to Most Reverend Ernesto Salgado, DD, archbishop emeritus of the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Nueva Caceres who presided over the Eucharistic Celebration and accepted our profession of promises.