For freedom Christ has set us free! (Gal. 5:1) There is a beautiful complementarity between the two readings that help us to understand this freedom. Where are you stuck in your life? How do you need to be freed?
St. Paul writes of “the ministry of death carved in stone”. That may sound pretty obscure. He is talking of the 10 commandments, the Mosaic Law.
Having freed the People of Israel from slavery in Egypt, God renewed His Covenant with them. He gave the Law. If they had kept it, if they had been faithful, they would have found tree freedom. But they were not, so the Law effectively served to condemn them. They knew what was right and wrong but they were enslaved by sin.
Moses ascended a mountain, encountered the Living God, and transmitted the Law. Jesus is the Living God, who, on another Mount, in this Sermon on the Mount from which we hear today, is giving the New Law.
It is the Way of the Beatitudes, the Law of Love to be written in our hearts. It does not negate nor reject the Mosaic Law. Rather it fulfills it. It goes to the heart of it. Now we can really understand how to live and the way to freedom, from the inside, out! From our hearts. Not only that, Christ’s Sacrifice of Himself that will ratify this New Covenant, will unleash grace upon grace and we will be able to live this way of freedom because God remains with us forever.
Where are you stuck in your life? How do you need to be freed, to live, to become all the Lord wants you to be? Maybe your marriage and your family relationships aren’t what they could be. Maybe there are parts of your personality and ways you treat others that need to change but you don’t seem to know how. Maybe some addiction. Maybe you struggle with anxiety or with self-hatred. Whatever it may be, the Lord calls you to His way to freedom.
The way to freedom is just that: a way, a journey, upon which Christ desires to lead you by the hand: through listening to the Word of God, through prayer – particularly the Rosary, through the Sacraments, through the Church, the Christian Community, through taking seriously way of life leading to holiness, ESPECIALLY THROUGH FAITHFULLY LIVING AS CHRISTIAN FAMILES. Through living the faith in the home. A journey is taken step by step keeping your eyes on the destination: holiness, freedom, true life in Christ. Holy Mother, walk with us!
